Pandemic Center

Craig Spencer, M.D., MPH

Associate Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy and Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health
craig_spencer@brown.edu
Research Profile
Twitter

Biography

Dr. Spencer is an emergency medicine physician and an Associate Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy and Practice at Brown University School of Public Health. As a physician he focuses on frontline preparedness, both in the U.S. and globally, especially on the impact of COVID-19 on health systems. This includes the real world impact of pandemic preparedness – or lack of preparedness – for clinicians and patients, particularly from a humanitarian perspective.

An advocate for equitable access to medical countermeasures, diagnostics, and treatment, he also explores the historical foundations for the COVID response, based on the response to previous pandemics. He brings to the Pandemic Center a unique understanding of the current operational level of pandemic preparedness and response, the scope of which includes providers, patients, and frontline readiness, locally, nationally, and globally.

Recent News

Foreign Relations Committee

ICYMI: Ranking Member Shaheen Discusses Ebola Outbreak with Ebola Survivor Dr. Craig Spencer

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, highlighted the disastrous impact that the Trump Administration’s dismantling of USAID programs has had on the fight against Ebola.
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Providence Journal

As Africa faces Ebola, a RI doctor recalls surviving the disease

Not long after Dr. Craig Spencer called a hotline from his New York City apartment to report that he had Ebola symptoms, an ambulance arrived outside his building full of health workers wearing full biohazard suits.

Spencer, 33 at the time, lived on the fifth floor and was recently back from treating Ebola patients in the West African nation of Guinea. For some reason, he wasn’t able to buzz in the responders, but his situation was considered so urgent that the team immediately removed the building's front door and came upstairs.
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AP

Health sleuths are watching for disease threats during the World Cup

Jennifer Nuzzo and Craig Spencer are both quoted in this article:

WASHINGTON (AP) — While millions of soccer fans cheer or groan over World Cup matches spanning North America, health officials will be on high alert for germs.

A heat wave may be the most obvious health threat. But infectious diseases can spread in a crowd, and experts are set to scrutinize wastewater, hospital visits, even social media for any signs that an outbreak might be brewing.

Measles, one of the most contagious diseases, is among the top concerns, sparking a warning this week from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO. With a nearly six-week stretch of packed stadiums, bars and tourist sites in 16 cities, officials are on the lookout for a long list of infections, from the stomach bug norovirus to mosquito-borne dengue fever.
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NPR: All Things Considered

Why there's a debate over the new quarantine center for Americans at risk of Ebola

In Kenya today, protests erupted for a second time in as many weeks. Residents are upset about a quarantine facility that the U.S. is setting up in the town of Nanyuki in the central part of the country about 120 miles from the capital, Nairobi.

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NBC News

An Ebola Outbreak? What’s Going On?

An outbreak of Ebola disease is sweeping through Central Africa and it has the World Health Organization very concerned it could spread to other parts of the world. Watch here to learn more and find out What’s Going On.

Powered by Nightly News Kids.

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Providence Journal

As World Cup nears, Brown experts say Ebola shouldn't be a concern

Thousands of tourists are set to descend upon Southern New England for the World Cup amid an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan, a reality that has some Americans concerned.

But in a briefing from the Brown Pandemic Center, led by Craig Spencer, a Brown professor who treated Ebola patients in Africa in 2014, top scientists asserted the deadly virus should not be a major concern for the United States.

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