Feeling anxious during coronavirus? Here are ways to cope | Boston Herald

Sandro Galea, dean of Boston University’s School of Public Health, said it’s important to recognize that anxiety is “a normal reaction” in times of mass trauma.
“One thing that exacerbates mental illness after these events is social stressors,” Galea said. “We know that unemployment, challenges with children, challenges with grandparents — these things all substantially change people’s resiliency in terms of their ability to cope with these events.”
Being aware of anxiety and why it’s occurring “creates a real opportunity for people to normalize their symptoms,” Galea said.

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Could the immigration courts get more chaotic? Coronavirus adds to stress | Dallas Morning News

Crowded detention facilities are ideal incubators for disease, threatening the health not just of the detained, but of surrounding communities,” Sandro Galea, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, said Thursday in a news conference by telephone. “To safeguard public health, nonviolent detainees should be released and allowed to self-isolate.”

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Advocates say immigrants need information, testing during coronavirus crisis | South Coast Today

“More broadly, an emergency task force convened by the Massachusetts Public Health Association is calling on state leaders to take action on the particular challenges for immigrants right now and help them stay safe and healthy without fear of being exposed over their legal status.
The Emergency Task Force on Coronavirus and Equity is advocating for, among three other priorities, immigrants regardless of status to have safe access to testing and treatment for COVID-19. Cheryl Bartlett, chief executive officer of the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center, is the co-chair of that task force along with Sandro Galea, dean and professor at the Boston University School of Public Health.”

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Video Chat Can Ease the Psychological Stress of Social Distancing | Medium

“When the SARS pandemic hit in 2003, it infected 8,098 people worldwide and 774 people died. Many people around the world, including North America, were asked to stay home or were put under mandatory quarantine to stop the spread. Even among those quarantined for only a short time, a “high prevalence of psychological distress” was reported, including symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to one study conducted in Toronto.[2]”

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Experts Call on Trump Administration for Immigration Solutions that Protect American Public from COVID-19 | National Immigration Forum

“Crowded detention facilities are ideal incubators for disease, threatening the health not just of the detained, but of surrounding communities. To safeguard public health, nonviolent detainees should be released and allowed to self-isolate.
“Many of those who become sick will likely be treated by doctors who are themselves immigrants. This speaks to the importance of a having system that allows immigrants to enter positions like the health workforce through a network of opportunity that starts with their entry into the U.S. and remains in place as their lives here unfold.”

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14 Public Health Experts Advocate for Releasing People from Jails & Prisons | Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice

Incarcerated people are also especially vulnerable to COVID-19 due to immutable conditions of confinement, well-documented unhygienic environments, and inadequate medical care in carceral facilities. Confinement itself creates risk of rapidly spreading contagions, but overcrowding compounds those general risks. Harsh, unhygienic environments further heighten risks, and correctional facilities in Massachusetts have a long history of failing to resolve documented environmental health violations. Finally, inadequate medical care in correctional facilities threatens lives.

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Crisis Helpline Sees Surge in Messages From Young People Anxious Over Coronavirus | Newsweek

Sandro Galea, a physician and epidemiologist who serves as dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at Boston University School of Public Health, told Newsweek on Wednesday he anticipated there would be a rise in mental health concerns connected to the coronavirus outbreak.
"I did some work around [the impacts of] quarantine after SARS, for example, and the studies are pretty clear that you can expect a large scale of mental health consequences," Galea, whose research has focused on the social causes of mental health issues, said.

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As coronavirus spreads, thousands of foreign doctors could be blocked from U.S. entry, group warns | STAT News

Dr. Sandro Galea, dean of Boston University’s School of Public Health, suggested a work-around needs to be found.
“With the Covid-19 pandemic unfolding, this is not the moment to risk creating a physician shortage,” Galea said via email. “We should take steps in the US to facilitate the training and retention of medical professionals at all times, but especially now.”

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A temperate governor, an unbridled virus: Health crisis tests Baker’s technocratic approach | Boston Globe

The enduring question is whether Baker will pull the most dramatic lever yet: ordering the nearly 7 million people in Massachusetts to shelter in place. California’s 40 million residents, the 19 million in New York, and 12 million more in Illinois are all under stay-at-home orders.
”I think it’s a hard, hard situation. And I think the governor’s caution does serve us well,” said Sandro Galea, dean of Boston University’s School of Public Health. “Are there are other things that could be done? Absolutely. But tomorrow is more of a test than today.”

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US research labs closing down for everything but coronavirus | Times Higher Education

Top NIH officials, when asked about the matter, gave no response to the question of whether they support such analyses.
That could prove tragic, said Sandro Galea, the dean of public health at Boston University. “This is a real threat – I’m not minimising that,” Dr Galea said of the coronavirus pandemic. “But our conversation has been a tsunami of deep cultural dive into a particular set of approaches without a nuanced discussion about the uncertainty of the science and the consequences of our actions.”

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Did You Have Coronavirus Without Knowing It? | Elemental

“In fact, symptoms for most people are quite mild,” says Dr. Sandro Galea, MD, a physician and dean of Boston University School of Public Health. He says that up to 80% of people who contract the virus have only weak symptoms — such as a low-grade fever or cough — and that they may have mistakenly attributed these to the common cold or some other minor ailment. “It’s definitely possible to have it and not realize it,” he says.

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Pressley’s tele-townhall stresses ‘physical distancing’ in lieu of ‘social distancing’ | Dorchester Reporter

Galea said that the epidemic is “sweeping” the world, adding, “We are moving as a society towards limiting our physical interactions in order to mitigate the viral spread so that we do not overwhelm our health system, which is not designed to take a large influx of new cases.”
He also wanted to highlight a possible tweak in language to encourage more connectivity in a difficult time:
“I would argue that what we are doing right now is physical distancing, not social distancing,” said Galea, “We are creating physical distance between us to limit the spread of the virus. But we should be doing that in the same breath as we are maintaining our social connections and sense of community and common sense of purpose.

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How Do We Face Coronavirus? Common Decency is Our Only Hope | The Guardian

Behavioural science can tell us only so much, just as data science has its limitations. There are those, though, who have studied people’s reactions to disaster. Sandro Galea, the dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, has written about the five stages of reaction, which I will summarise here as: 1) self-preservation: fear and anxiety; 2) group preservation, where changes in social behaviour begin; 3) blame-setting: the psychological consequences fall into place as we realise we have to change our normal activities; 4) justice-seeking: we want to see what and who caused the disaster; 5) renormalising – basically, we have adapted to the crisis and its consequences.

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This is the personal website of Sandro Galea. All photos are taken by Sandro Galea.