Pandemic Center

While the School of Public Health was not officially founded until 2013, public health has remained a pertinent topic since the University’s founding. On Monday, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Faculty Fellow in University History William Goedel PhD’20 hosted a talk on the longer evolution of public health at the University, starting primarily in the 1800s.

The Office of the Provost, in conjunction with the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study, sponsors year-long fellowships for Brown University faculty members to conduct research on Brown University's historical legacy.

This fellowship in University History represents Brown's ongoing commitment to uncovering and understanding its institutional history through scholarly research and community engagement. One fellowship is awarded per year.

In support of work on their project, the fellow receives one-course release during the fellowship year, research funds of $2,500, and the support of one Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) to assist with research activities. Fellows become integral members of the JNBC scholarly community, participating in seminars and other intellectual activities.

Last month, Brown University Health announced a mask mandate requiring all staff, patients and visitors to wear either Level 2 or N95 surgical masks amid “very high” levels of respiratory illness.

Mask mandates were initially implemented across Brown Health’s medical facilities, which include Rhode Island Hospital, Hasbro Children’s Hospital and Miriam Hospital, among others. In the ensuing days, at least four other hospitals across the state followed suit.

A Brown Health statement attributed the mandate to “rising community respiratory virus rates, an increase in hospital admissions due to respiratory viral infections, wastewater COVID levels and incidence of employee respiratory viral illnesses.”

Since October, the state has seen approximately 900 flu hospitalizations, with 191 of those occurring in the first week of February alone.

Earlier this month, the Rhode Island Department of Health reported that there have been seven flu-related deaths since September 2024, as of Feb. 1.

According to RIDOH’s website, COVID-19 and RSV activity have both declined in the past three weeks. But flu activity has steadily increased and now makes up 5.1% of emergency room visits in R.I.

For the first time since the 2017-2018 season, this flu season is considered “high severity” for all age groups across the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Brown Health and Care New England also implemented universal mask mandates during last year’s flu season.

Leonard Mermel, a professor of medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School and the medical director of Brown Health’s Department of Epidemiology and Infection Control, stressed the importance of disease prevention measures like masking and vaccination among young people.

Mermel was “intimately involved” with Brown Health’s decision to implement the mask mandate, he said, adding that masking has been “unequivocally proven to reduce transmission.”

He emphasized that immunocompromised groups, such as elderly or people undergoing cancer treatment, are particularly vulnerable to infectious diseases.

“It’s not just about us, it’s also about the health of the people around (us). That’s the whole basis of public health,” Mermel said.

Masks are no longer as readily available as they were during the COVID-19 pandemic, wrote William Goedel PhD ’20, an assistant professor of epidemiology, wrote in an email to The Herald.

Goedel described the discourse around health mandates as “polarized,” noting that many people remain skeptical that “masks can be helpful.” This polarization can complicate the implementation of public health policy, he added.

Mermel has not observed any notable pushback against Brown Health’s mask mandate, he said.

“Mask mandates are one tool for enforcing mask wearing, but it is also important that we rebuild trust in public health so that people view mask wearing more positively,” Goedel said.