STEM Program

Living with COVID-19: Public Health Policy in China and the USA

Faculty Advisor: Former Associate Professor, Yale University School of Medicine

Program Start Time: TBD (meetings will take place for around one hour per week)

Research Program Introduction

Public health policy regarding COVID-19 impacted the lives of every citizen, and government decisions made in China and the USA had far-reaching consequences. This program takes a fresh look at the COVID-19 policies pursued by the two superpowers. Students will evaluate public health policy and consider how it evolved in the later stages of the pandemic when learning to live with the virus eventually became the only sustainable option. How well this played out depended on the degree of resilience in public health systems and the general population's immunity levels.

Topics covered include the basic infrastructure of public health within each country, assessing how well public health institutions coped during the pandemic, and the ability of government agencies to collect and share data. Students will consider the long-term consequences of lockdown policies that curtailed individual freedoms, affecting mental health, especially among children and young people. They will also consider the risk of untreated and/or undiagnosed medical conditions adversely affecting people’s lives because of difficulties in obtaining routine health care.

Students will acquire transferable research skills, such as how to do a literature review, while expanding their public health knowledge. Students will learn from each other, from the faculty adviser, and from researching their individual projects.

Final Deliverables

In the final session, students will summarize their findings and give a PowerPoint presentation to the group. Individual assessment at the end of the course will be based on the presentation plus a written paper, approximately 3000 words.

Possible Topics For Final Project

  • Assess the availability and reliability of COVID data in China and the USA

  • Assess the effectiveness of public health institutions, pre and post-pandemic

  • Consider the impact of COVID policies on children’s mental health and education

  • Write a case study on the impact of COVID policy and practice on the population of one major city

  • Assess the extent to which COVID policies brought about an epidemic of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes

  • Explore ways that sustainability can be built into public health policy

  • Consider the extent to which public health institutions learned lessons from the pandemic

  • Other professor-approved research topics in this subject area that you are interested in

Program Details

  • Cohort size: 3 to 5 students

  • Duration: 12 weeks

  • Workload: Around 4 to 5 hours per week (including class and homework time)

  • Target students: 9 to 12th graders interested in medicine, health sciences, public health, and/or policy.