Ruth McDermott-Levy, PhD

3 Philly Records Could Fall as the Heat Wave is Forecast to Pick Up Steam

The Philadelphia Inquirer  online

2024-06-20

Data show that Philadelphia has become more sultry, and the increased moisture in the air — what we commonly call “humidity” — has been inhibiting nighttime cooling by preventing daytime heat from radiating into space. This can have serious health consequences, said McDermott-Levy, “especially in low income communities, ... where they don’t have the tree canopy or air-conditioning.” She added, “The heat stays in the home, and so our bodies don’t have the time to do their natural cooling that occurs at nighttime. It exhausts the body. That nighttime cooling is when the body heals itself. That’s a huge problem.”

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Biden's Plan to Remove Lead Water Lines May Benefit These States the Most

ABC News  online

2023-12-06

According to the CDC, children under the age of six are at greatest risk for health problems due to lead exposure, which can affect growth and development. "For children, we see developmental delays and behavior problems related to lead exposure, because it is a very potent neurotoxin," Dr. Ruth McDermott-Levy, professor & co-director of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment, at Villanova University, told ABC News. "And so, if we don't catch it quickly enough ... we're talking about lifelong problems for the child and, that can affect the ability to perform well in school, to get a decent paying job."

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The Coming Hot Spell May Be Philly’s Longest September Heat Wave Since 1931

The Philadelphia Inquirer  online

2023-09-03

Showing its trust in science, the Philadelphia School District already has announced that more than 70 schools that don’t have air-conditioning will be closing early this week. The district is acting “wisely,” in the opinion of Ruth McDermott-Levy, codirector of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment at Villanova University. Heat, she said, “reduces learning. It also makes children and their teachers irritable, so this could lead to classroom disruptions and exasperated teachers. Not a great start to a school year.”

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CDC Guidelines for Fully Vaccinated People: What It Means for Masks, Travel, Gatherings

Newsweek  online

2021-03-08

"This virus demonstrates that we are a global community and it also demonstrates that we can't move forward unless we all move forward together," Ruth McDermott-Levy, director of Villanova University's Center for Global and Public Health, told Newsweek. "There's precedent for it [and] it's not an unreasonable thing to request that people either be vaccinated and perhaps also test negative." The CDC advises even those who are fully vaccinated to delay domestic and international travel and follow all CDC requirements and recommendations if they do travel.

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SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies May Protect From Infection, but for How Long?

Reuters Health  online

2021-03-03

Reuters Health) - SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were associated with protection from infection in a laboratory database study, but the duration of protection is unknown, researchers say. "Being antibody-positive is associated with a lower risk of new infection than being antibody-negative," Dr. Douglas Lowy of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda told Reuters Health by email. "People who have been infected once are less likely to be infected a second time. However, protection is not complete, so there will be some people who experience another infection." "Going forward, it will be important to determine the duration of protection, especially if waning of protection is associated with becoming antibody-negative," he said. "A potentially confounding issue is whether the virus strains in the US will change over time, and if they do, whether the protection against new infection by strains that are closely related to the first infection will also extend to variants that are less closely related."

FEMA Chief Says Coronavirus Funds Put Agency In 'Really Great Place' for Hurricane Season

Newsweek  online

2020-05-28

"We're doing a lot of things that are not necessarily in any playbook that has existed," Gaynor told Axios, highlighting the need to evacuate and shelter while social distancing and protecting those who are most vulnerable to COVID-19. Because colleges have closed, unoccupied dorm rooms could be a way to provide a safe emergency shelter while social distancing, Ruth McDermott-Levy, director of Villanova University's Center for Global and Public Health, told Newsweek in April.

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Stimulus Checks Cost $290 Billion. A Fraction of That Could Have Changed Response to Coronavirus Outbreak, Experts Say

Newsweek  online

2020-04-08

"Had we invested from local all the way up to state and federal level, we wouldn't be here now," Ruth McDermott-Levy, the director for the Center for Global and Public Health at Villanova University, told Newsweek. "I strongly believe we would not be in this situation now. This is kind of the worst nightmare scenario that we've been talking about for many years."

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Aa America Grapples with Coronavirus Outbreak, Officials Must Prepare for Hurricanes, Tornadoes

Newsweek  online

2020-04-07

Ruth McDermott-Levy, the director of the Center for Global and Public Health at Villanova University, told Newsweek that natural disasters complicating social distancing measures is a "real concern." Ahead of disaster striking, there needs to be special consideration to keep people separate in shelters. Since schools and colleges are closed, unoccupied dorm rooms could be a way to provide people with a safe place to go in an emergency while maintaining social distancing, McDermott-Levy said.

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'Only a Matter of Time.' At This Washington State Immigrant Detention Center, Attorneys Believe a Coronavirus Outbreak Is Inevitable

TIME  online

2020-03-13

Ruth McDermott-Levy, associate professor and director of the Center for Global and Public Health at Villanova University, says detained individuals are among the groups she and her colleagues at the school’s College of Nursing are most concerned about. “We would describe them as a very vulnerable population,” McDermott-Levy tells TIME. “For one, they’re all living in close proximity to one another… the other thing is we’re talking about an immigrant population. You don’t leave your country when things are good. We’ve got people who more than likely have poor nutrition and may have other health problems, and if our nutrition is poor our immune system is not as strong.”

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Villanova Nursing Expert Warns of Climate Change Effects on Older Adults

KYW NewsRadio, Philadelphia  radio

2019-11-04

Ruth McDermott-Levy, director of the Center for Global Health at Villanova's College of Nursing, is the lead author on an article published in the November issue of the Journal of Gerontological Nursing. McDermott-Levy explained more than half of older adults live in areas that experience severe weather caused by climate change like heat waves, wildfires and hurricanes. These areas include Pennsylvania, California, and Florida, and McDermott-Levy says these weather patterns are placing older Americans at increased risk of heat-related illnesses and death. "We're actually getting ready to do an epidemiological study where we're going to quantify the deaths, climate deaths," said McDermott-Levy. "But one of the problems is nobody is listening."

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CDC Word Ban: Public Health is Jeopardized When Individuality is Ignored

Philadelphia Inquirer  online

2017-12-27

When we allow words describing our fellow citizens to be stricken from the lexicon, we strike from the record their American experience; we strike from the record the factors that influence their health; we strike from the record our ability to learn the unique needs of specific groups of Americans; we strike from the record our ability to study groups of people – yes, groups of vulnerable Americans.

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Get to Know a Climate Champion: Ruth McDermott-Levy

Climate For Health  

2017-05-25

This month's champion is Ruth McDermott-Levy, an associate professor and director of the Center for Global & Public Health at Villanova University’s College of Nursing near Philadelphia, PA. She holds a Ph. D. in nursing education from Villanova and an M.P.H. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Ruth teaches and conducts research with a focus on global and environmental health, helping to educate students in linking how they live and work to air emissions and the changing climate. She is also the Education Workgroup co-chairperson of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments and a founding member of Protect PA.

Philly's Smog Sickens Thousands of City's Asthmatic Kids, Report Says

Metro Philadelphia  online

2016-09-01

“Many days in Philadelphia ozone smog is so severe it is a visible haze over the city's skyline,” said Villanova University professor Dr. Ruth McDermott-Levy. “This potent air pollutant is responsible for increased asthma hospitalizations, increased school absences of students and teachers and lost production for workers.”

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Wolf Budget Includes $100K for Marcellus Shale Health Registry

NPR's State Impact Pennsylvania  online

2015-03-03

Public health advocates are encouraged by Wolf’s plan, but say $100,000 is not nearly enough money. Dr. Ruth McDermott-Levy teaches public health at Villanova University. “It’s seed money to get a health registry started,” she says. “But to consider the long term health impacts, then more money is going to need to be committed.”

About 70 Hospital Staffers Cared for Ebola Patient

Associated Press  online

2014-10-14

“This is not something we can afford to experiment with. We need to get this right,” said Ruth McDermott-Levy, who directs the Center for Global and Public Health in Villanova University’s College of Nursing. Until now, the CDC has been actively monitoring 48 people who might have had contact with Duncan after he fell ill with an infection but before he was put in isolation. The number included 10 people known to have contact and 38 who may have had contact, including people he was staying with and health care professionals who attended to him during an emergency room visit from which he was sent home. None is sick.

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Groups Call for Investigation into Health Department’s Handling of Drilling

NPR's State Impact Pennsylvania  

2014-08-19

Ruth McDermott Levy is an associate professor at Villanova University’s College of Nursing, and a member of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. She says the state already publicly reports other health incidents, such as cancer diagnoses. “We can clean that information up so that we can’t track it back to an individual,” she said. “In public health it’s called reporting in aggregate.” Levy said more transparency will help restore trust between state regulators and health providers.

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Widespread COVID Vaccinations in U.S. May Not Mean an End to Travel Restrictions

Newsweek  

2021-02-08

Vaccinating large swaths of the American population is the best defense against COVID-19 mutations, but the United States reaching herd immunity might not be enough to allow people to travel around the world free of restrictions. Bringing a true end to the pandemic will take a global vaccination effort because the virus spreading anywhere gives room for mutations to take place. Vaccines have largely been believed to be effective against variants so far, but the possibility that one could escape the vaccine and take hold in the U.S. raises the possibility of needing to keep travel restrictions in place until the world is vaccinated. "It's not an unreasonable thing to request that people either be vaccinated and perhaps also test negative," Ruth McDermott-Levy, director of Villanova University's Center for Global and Public Health, told Newsweek. "I can see that until we get this under control."

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Model Finds Midwest and Southern States at Risk for COVID-19 Surges as They Reopen

Healthline  online

It could begin anywhere. As restrictions are eased nationwide, any stray cough or sneeze could potentially start a new wave of COVID-19. New modeling by PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia shows early signs that new clusters of COVID-19 may soon flare across the Southern and Midwestern United States. Researchers built their model using data from a variety of publicly available sources to observe how factors like social or physical distancing, population density, daily temperatures, and humidity affect the number and spread of COVID-19 cases over time across a county.

Screening and Health Access for Immigrants in Philadelphia: Impact Evaluation Project

American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN)/Center for Disease Control (CDC): Public Health Project 

2016

Ethical Principles for Global Health Nursing Practice: A Delphi Study

Association of Community Health Nurse Educators 

2015

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Effect of an Education Intervention on Nursing Students' Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Caring for Transgender and Nonbinary People

Carmichael, Tanya N., Copel, Linda Carman, McDermott-Levy, Ruth

2024

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Intervention studies to reduce the impact of climate change on health in rural communities in the United States: a systematic review

Daniel J Smith, Elizabeth Mizelle, Sharon L Leslie, Grace X Li, Sheila Stone, Peyton Stauffer, Anna Smith, Gianna Lewis, E Lola Rodden, Ruth McDermott-Levy

2023

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Health Concerns of Northeastern Pennsylvania Residents Living in an Unconventional Oil and Gas Development County

Ruth McDermott-Levy, Victoria Garcia

2016

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Developing Curriculum Recommendations for Environmental Health in Nursing

Jeanne Leffers et al.

2015

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Challenges and successes in making health care more accessible to rural communities in Waslala, Nicaragua using low-cost telecommunications

Pritpal Singh, Ruth McDermott-Levy, Elizabeth Keech, Bette Mariani, James Klingler, Maria Virginia Moncada

2014

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Promoting cultural understanding through pediatric clinical dyads: An education research project

RuthMcDermott-Levy, Mary Ann Cantrall, Kathryn Reynolds

2014

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Fracking, the Environment, and Health

Ruth McDermott-Levy, Nina Katkins, Barbara Sattler

2013

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