Public Health, Medical Preparedness, and Response to EIDs
Led by Dr. Nahid Bhadelia
The focus of the CEID Public Health and Medical Response Core is to link researchers and practitioners from clinical fields, basic and translational sciences, public health and policy sectors to evaluate and understand how diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics for priority pathogens can be developed and distributed faster and more equitably within the US and globally. This core studies the architecture and efficacy of the national and international public health responses against emerging infections between and during outbreaks. Additionally, it conducts healthcare and health services utilization research in the setting of emerging infectious diseases. Lastly, the core examines how infection control and clinical standards of care, research capacity, protection of healthcare workforce as well as medical practice can be improved in the setting of evolving data surrounding novel diseases.
Predicting and Preventing Epidemic to Pandemic Transitions (NSF)
The Predicting and Preventing Epidemic to Pandemic Transitions study, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), seeks to develop a rich model that predicts both disease emergence and potential for significant spread, and formulate pandemic prevention strategies. This project aims to evaluate factors that impact disease emergence and spread by incorporating input from multidisciplinary fields that span biology, ecology, epidemiology, medicine, computer & information science & engineering, and social sciences. The detailed knowledge base gathered from this work aims to generate novel predictive models, provide insight to strengthen current models, and formulate rapid pandemic mitigation strategies.
CEID Project Faculty & Collaborators
- Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, MD, MALD, CEID Founding Director (co-PI)
- John Connor, PhD, Associate Professor Microbiology, BU School of Medicine
- Michael Dietze, PhD, Professor, Ecological Forecasting Lab at BU
- Traci Hong, PhD, Associate Professor, Media Science, BU College of Communication
- Nina Mazar, PhD, Professor of Marketing, BU Questrom School of Business
- Andrew Stokes, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Global Health, BU School of Public Health
- Gianluca Stringhini, PhD, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, BU College of Engineering
- Laura White, PhD, Associate Professor of Biostatistics,
BU School of Public Health
Additional Co-PIs include Drs. Yannis Paschalidis, Eric Kolaczyk, and Diane Joseph-McCarthy of Boston University, as well as Dr. Jon Epstein of EcoHealth Alliance.
Special Pathogens Healthcare and Research Ethics (SPHeRE) Working Group
Overview
This working group supports CEID’s mission of addressing essential ethical dilemmas that arise from infectious diseases containment scenarios, as they present competing clinical and research obligations. This multidisciplinary team includes faculty from the BU Center for Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights and our partners at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Global Health Security Center (with the largest biocontainment and quarantine facility in the country), University of Texas Southwestern, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Our team provides expertise in operating biocontainment care centers in resource-rich and resource-limited settings, participating in outbreak response, and evaluating legal and ethical aspects of public health policy. The team is working on a white paper that applies existing clinical, public health, and research frameworks to explore the ethical dimensions of biocontainment care. The white paper will also identify real-life ethical scenarios in biocontainment care to understand common challenges and solutions of biocontainment care and outbreak response.
Faculty & Collaborators
- Nahid Bhadelia, MD, MALD, Director, CEID
- Michael R. Ulrich, JD, MPH, Assistant Professor, BU Center for Health Law, Ethics and Human Rights, BU School of Public Health, BU School of Law
- Lauren Sauer, PhD, Associate Professor, UNMC College of Public Health; Director of the Special Pathogens Research Network with the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC), CEID Adjunct Faculty
- Preeti Mehrotra, MD, MPH; Hospital Epidemiologist and Senior Medical Director Infection Control, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Instructor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School. Adult and Pediatric Infectious Diseases
- Abigail E. Lowe, MA, Assistant Professor, Global Center for Health Security, College of Allied Health Professions, University of Nebraska Medical Center
- Christina Yen, MD, Associate Director of Antimicrobial Stewardship, Clements University Hospital; Assistant Professor, UT Southwestern
- Angel Desai, MD, MPH, Associate Hospital Epidemiologist, Assistant Professor, University of California, Davis
Previous Studies
The Infection Prevention-Based After-Action Review of COVID-19: The Boston-area Black and Latinx community Perspective (AABL Study)
Overview
How can we evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable communities’ resources and treatment access and availability so that long-tail recovery informs preparedness strategies for the next pandemic? We are interested in strengthening resilience for pandemic preparedness with a community-based approach. CEID has awarded Dr. Cassandra Pierre and Dr. Nina Mazar (CEID Faculty) a seed grant to conduct an After-Action Review of COVID-19 in Black and Latinx communities of Boston.
The Infection Prevention-Based After-Action Review (AAR) of COVID-19: The Boston-area Black and Latinx community Perspective (AABL Study) intends to carry out an after-action to build resilience among communities of color – notably most disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 – for future emerging infectious disease threats.
This grant explores communication strategies (messaging and language) to determine the identities of trusted messengers (organizations and individuals) that had the greatest impact in effectively transmitting infection prevention-related knowledge from pandemic onset, to today, and for the future. This research will ask trusted messengers who agree to provide their insight, via surveys conducted via zoom. These surveys will help us understand how community leaders understand their constituents learned of: COVID-19 transmission and risk; adherence to protective measures and behavior; public messaging; vaccines and therapeutics.
This seed grant seeks to understand:
- Who conveyed the information that community members relied on throughout the course of the pandemic? Were these trusted messengers effective in conveying this?
- How community leaders and trusted messengers effectively conveyed information: what worked? What didn’t work, and why?
- Implementation within Boston-area Black and Latinx communities (including modeling of ideas and messages)
- What did failures in effective outreach and implementation cost to members of the communities that these trusted leaders serve?

Project Faculty & Collaborators
- Cassandra Pierre, MPH, MD, Assistant Professor, BU School of Medicine
- Nina Mazar, PhD, Professor of Marketing, BU Questrom School of Business
Student Researchers
- DeYante Prince, MPH Candidate, Boston University School of Public Health
- Arianna Rahimian, MPH Candidate, Boston University School of Public Health