Profs and Pints Online presents: “Understanding Epidemiology,” with Cara Frankenfeld, associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at George Mason University.

The COVID 19 pandemic has thrust epidemiology into the spotlight and turned some epidemiologists into our society's new rock stars, their faces popping up on TV with regularity. But how much do you really know about epidemiology and the work of epidemiologists, who were serving the public health long before our current pandemic and will continue to do so after we have put it behind us?

Come join Cara Frankenfeld, an expert in the field, for an interactive, online talk that will give you an understanding of what epidemiology is and what epidemiologists do. She'll discuss how epidemiologists are disease detectives that conduct research to understand how new and existing diseases distribute through the population, and who gets disease and why.

She'll familiarize you with key principles of the field and with some the methods and techniques they use, such as designing studies, calculating disease risk, and identifying factors associated with disease.  She'll discuss the challenges and unknowns they face, including challenges of collecting and interpreting data. She'll discuss what educational backgrounds they have, for those of you interested in someday having such a career. And she's also talk about how the field has changed since the days when John Snow pulled the pump handle to control cholera in London.

You also will learn how epidemiologists have had key roles throughout history, as well as in recent times, that influence your day-to-day activities, by helping to bring about food fortification, the regulation of vehicle emissions, and the removal of unsafe medications from the market.

The talk won't instantly turn you into an epidemiologist, but it will at least leave you better to understand the workings of and warnings from the field and how we are responding to our current health crisis. If you end up more likely to cover your sneezes or wash your hands, all the better. (This talk remains available in recorded form.)

Profs & Pints Online: Understanding Epidemiology