University of Cincinnati to offer “Science of COVID-19 Pandemic” classes

CINCINNATI (FOX19) -The University of Cincinnati will be offering classes on the science behind the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Science of the COVID-19 Pandemic class includes 13 lectures from faculty members in the College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

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Health officials say that students and the public will learn about the disease’s virology, impact on organ systems, detection and treatment, epidemiology, vaccination, and psychosocial impact on society.

“There has been a tremendous interest among students to learn from our experts who are on the frontlines of clinical care and research,” Anil Menon, PhD, associate dean of undergraduate education in the UC College of Medicine said. “This course addresses this need by bringing together experts into a single point of contact. The fact that it is student-led is highly innovative, as our students moderate the discussions so that other students can effectively learn and interact with our experts.”

The class was created by a group of medical students and students in the medical sciences undergraduate program.

Course directors include medical students Scottie Emmert and Nora Lakes, Rahul Patel, and Minh Nguyen, a recent graduate of the medical sciences program and emergency department technician at UC Health. Nguyen is also a lieutenant for Gratis Emergency Medical Services and is also a part of the UC medical school class of 2021.

Emmert states that planning for the course came about in the summertime when the “university offered grants to encourage faculty-student collaboration to develop a course on COVID-19 that engages students and uses faculty expertise.”

“The idea was to try and decrease the stress associated with COVID-19 from the student perspective,” said Emmert. “Students have had to move off campus, change how they learn and interact as a result of the pandemic. We thought the entire university and frankly the Cincinnati community didn’t have a good idea of what COVID was all about.”

Undergraduates can take the class for two credit hours. All of the lectures will be available to the public online.

Classes start Monday from 5:25 p.m. to 6:25 p.m. Lecture recordings will be available right after the live streams.

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