Marking two years of a global pandemic: SFU experts available

Friday (March 11) marks two years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic. While the global death toll today exceeds six million people, vaccination rates continue to increase, cases are declining and many countries are loosening restrictions. 

SFU experts are available to talk about how we are faring, where we go from here and how we can prepare for future pandemics:

AVAILABLE SFU EXPERTS

LARA AKNIN, associate professor, psychology
laknin@sfu.ca
Expertise: Happiness, well-being, generosity, kindness, social relationships, including her research on COVID & mental health, donating to charity together, and social media use during the pandemic

HOLLY ANDERSEN, associate professor, philosophy
handerse@sfu.ca
Expertise: The passing of time during the pandemic and how it affected our experience of time

TANYA BROESCH, associate professor, psychology
tanya_broesch@sfu.ca
Expertise: Impacts on children/families as restrictions ease, child development and culture, social learning, early communication, parenting practices and socialization across cultures

KIFFER CARD, assistant professor, health sciences
kcard@sfu.ca
Expertise: Emotional distress and coping, re-establishing social and interpersonal connections, belonging, loneliness, social support, community connectedness, integrated primary care and service delivery

CAROLINE COLIJN, Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematics for Evolution, Infection and Public Health 
ccolijn@sfu.ca
Expertise: Importance of COVID-19 vaccine efficacy in older age groups, role of data modelling in predicting disease spread, effectiveness of physical distancing, COVID-19 variants, vaccines and vaccinations

BERNARD CRESPI, professor, evolution, genetics and human health & Canada Research Chair, Evolutionary Genetics and Psychology
604.469.1603 or 604.805.4922 | crespi@sfu.ca
Expertise: Evolutionary biology, virus mutations in animals, the need to monitor animals for future pandemics

ALICE FLEERACKERS, doctoral student, interdisciplinary studies, researcher and lab manager at ScholCommLab
afleerac@sfu.ca
Expertise: Public communication of COVID-19 research; preprints, peer review, science journalism

JAMIE SCOTT, professor emerita, health sciences
jkscott@sfu.ca
Expertise: Development of vaccines & vaccinations, future booster shots and what ‘living with the virus’ means

JULIA SMITH, assistant professor, health sciences & faculty member, Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity
jhs6@sfu.ca
Expertise: The impact of the pandemic on women, including the ‘she-cession’ and how a return to normal may impact women and their families

PAUL TUPPER, professor, mathematics & director, Cognitive Science Program
604.314.8671 | pft3@sfu.ca
Expertise: COVID-19 transmission modelling and measures, how we can move forward from the pandemic 

ANDREW WISTER, professor, gerontology & director, Gerontology Research Centre
andrew_wister@sfu.ca
Expertise: Population aging/population health; environmental adaptation among older adults, patterns of family and social support, health systems analyses (recently published a study on the mental health of informal caregivers during the first year of the pandemic).

CONTACT 

MELISSA SHAW, SFU  Communications & Marketing 
236.880.3297 | melissa_shaw@sfu.ca 

Simon Fraser University
Communications & Marketing |  SFU Media Experts Directory
778.782.3210

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