COVID-19 cases on the rise in the U.S., Japan and the Dominican Republic. Are we on the cusp of another phase of the pandemic?

With tourism, concerts and other forms of recreation experiencing blockbuster summers, it seems almost hard to believe that we were wearing masks, quarantining and dealing with other COVID-19 restrictions as recently as a year ago.

But according to Jennifer Horney, professor and founding director of the University of Delaware's epidemiology program, the virus is far from gone, with waves hitting Japan and the Dominican Republic and a rise in cases in the southern part of the United States.

In addition to providing expert analysis for national media on the pandemic, Horney focuses on the impacts of natural disasters on public health, as well as linkages between disaster planning and the actions communities and individuals take to prepare, respond and recover.

A core faculty member with UD's Disaster Research Center, Horney has trained rapid response teams around the world to respond to outbreaks of novel and reemerging diseases, such as Influenza A H1N1. 

She recently published "The COVID-19 Response: The Vital Role of the Public Health Professional,"  which emphasizes the critical roles that the public health workforce played on the frontlines of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.