A local group has been fighting inaccurate information on Facebook pages. Called the Alaska Public Health Information Response Team, it enlists UAA strategic communications students to spot the bad information, and local health professionals to intervene with posts on Facebook that introduce accurate information.
Corrie Whitmore, assistant professor of health sciences with DPHS, was elected as president of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) Board of Directors.
Dr. Travis Hedwig collaborates with At Home in the North, an effort focused on advancing a contextually and culturally relevant understanding of the northern housing continuum. Travis is a cultural and medical anthropologist and is a faculty member in the Division of Population Health Sciences at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He is interested in applied health research, particularly issues of mental and behavioral health, housing and homelessness, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and other disabilities, and community health.
As misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic seemingly spills into almost every nook and cranny of the internet, some public health professionals in Alaska are countering false claims and myths in an embattled space: Facebook comment threads.
In December and January, UAA’s Alaska Airlines Center (AAC) became a focal point for two critical COVID-19 mitigation efforts. In the same time frame, several UAA faculty, staff and students contributed to a report on the effects of Anchorage’s COVID-19 emergency orders. The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) announced on Dec. 9 that the AAC had been established as the state-run infusion center for two new monoclonal antibody therapies that can reduce the severity of COVID-19 infections.
