December 15, 2020

As the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health community nears the end of 2020 — a year that marks our 80th anniversary — people around the globe are still fighting the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and mourning more than 1,620,000 COVID-19 deaths.

As the world focused on this public health challenge, other urgent challenges remained. Our students, faculty and staff analyzed climate change trends, tested interventions to improve health equity and worked to reduce deaths from noncommunicable disease like diabetes.

Between January 1 and December 15 of 2020, we published 235 news stories about pioneering research and School activities. For our readers, the novel coronavirus was always top of mind — a focus reflected in the fact that 10 of our top 20 news stories for the year covered coronavirus research.

Dr. Timothy Sheahan, a virologist specializing in coronaviruses, works in the Baric Lab.

Dr. Timothy Sheahan, a virologist specializing in coronaviruses, works in the Baric Lab.

Eight articles featured developments specific to SARS-CoV-2. The most-read story of the year highlighted remdesivir, a drug co-developed in the lab of Dr. Ralph Baric that offered hope for advanced cases of COVID-19 (#1) — as did a story published in January, before the coronavirus became pandemic, which reported promising results using remdesivir in mice (#17). The third most popular article discussed advances with EIDD-2801, another treatment that showed promise in reducing lung damage in COVID-19 patients (#3).

Some stories clarified how coronavirus travels through the nasal cavity and respiratory tract (#4) and why obesity is a major risk factor for COVID-19 complications (#14). Others shared helpful modeling tools for mortality outcomes (#16) and a new type of COVID-19 antibody test (#19). Still another article outlined how Gillings community members responded to the pandemic with research and expert consultations as well as by arranging childcare coverage for health care workers, providing food to children during school closures and offering timely courses in field epidemiology (#12).

This is one entrance to the Michael Hooker Research Center at the UNC Gillings School.

Doing away with the GRE requirement supports the School’s mission of recruiting a highly diverse student population.

The second most-read story of 2020 announced School leadership’s decision to drop the GRE requirement for applicants to eight of our graduate degrees, including the Master of Public Health (#2).

We mourned the loss of five treasured community members, including Dr. Steven Meshnick, an influential scientist and generous mentor (#6); Dr. Philip Singer, a renowned water expert (#13); Dr. Travis Johnson, founder of the Asheville Master of Public Health program (#18); Dr. Michael Aitken, former department chair of environmental sciences and engineering; and student Madison DeVries, a junior whose friends called her ‘a ray of sunshine’ (#7).

Other popular research from before 2020 focused on important public health challenges and innovations — including work on an experimental antiviral treatment to combat all coronaviruses, which laid a strong foundation for expedited research into other drugs once the pandemic hit.

Those articles described:

  • Early results with GS-5734, an antiviral treatment that prevents SARS coronavirus disease in mice (#5);
  • The finding that only 12% of American adults are metabolically healthy (#8);
  • A $6 million grant supporting the development of GS-5734 for human use (#9);
  • Barber shops and beauty salons as effective health education venues (#10);
  • How reducing carbon monoxide emissions improves air quality and combats climate change (#11)
  • Why decreasing greenhouse gas emissions could save the lives of more than 2 million people each year (#15); and
  • Graphic photos on cigarette packs that increase smokers’ quit attempts (#20).

These were the 20 most-read articles in 2020:

1. Remdesivir, developed through a UNC-Chapel Hill partnership, proves effective against COVID-19 in NIAID human clinical trials (April 29, 2020)

2. Gillings School drops GRE requirement for 8 graduate degrees (July 16, 2020)

3. A new antiviral drug heading into clinical trials offers hope for COVID-19 treatment — in part because it can be taken as a pill (April 6, 2020)

4. Researchers map how coronavirus infection travels through cells of nasal cavity and respiratory tract (June 2, 2020)

5. New drug holds potential to defeat coronaviruses (June 28, 2017)

6. Meshnick, influential scientist, generous mentor and keen-witted satirist, dies at 68 (August 6, 2020)

7. ‘A ray of sunshine’: UNC student Madison DeVries passes away at 20 (April 16, 2020)

8. Only 12 percent of American adults are metabolically healthy, study finds (November 28, 2018)

9. Gillings School researchers receive $6M+ grant to fight infectious diseases (August 31, 2017)

10. Literature review finds barber shops, beauty salons to be effective venues for promoting health education (July 7, 2014)

11. Reducing carbon monoxide emissions: a win-win for air quality and climate change (August 1, 2013)

12. Coronavirus affects everyone: The Gillings School responds (March 16, 2020)

13. ‘Research never ends’: Dr. Philip Singer, renowned water expert, has died (February 18, 2020)

14. Obesity is a major risk factor for COVID-19 complications (August 26, 2020)

15. Reducing greenhouse gases benefits air quality, saves lives (September 23, 2013)

16. Study estimates COVID-19 mortality rates in South Korea, shares modeling tool (April 21, 2020)

17. Gillings research on broad-spectrum antiviral could aid public health response to coronavirus outbreaks (January 10, 2020)

18. Dr. Travis Johnson, Asheville Master of Public Health program founder, dies at 43 (February 18, 2020)

19. UNC-Chapel Hill researchers create new type of COVID-19 antibody test (June 15, 2020)

20. Pictures on cigarette packs, warning of smoking dangers, increased quit attempts among smokers (June 6, 2016)


Contact the Gillings School of Global Public Health communications team at sphcomm@unc.edu.

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