Jennifer Beam Dowd, University of Oxford
Abstract: While epidemiology is certainly having a moment, demography has been key to understanding COVID-19 data since the early days of the pandemic. This talk will take stock of demographic insights into COVID a year on ranging from the intersection of population age structure and mortality to estimates of excess mortality and optimal vaccination priority strategies. Dr. Dowd will also discuss the role of academics in science communication during this time and her experiences with the COVID-19 science communication effort Dear Pandemic.
Biography: Dr. Jenn Dowd is currently Associate Professor of Demography and Population Health and Deputy Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, and Associate Member, Nuffield College. Dr. Dowd is a quantitative health and social scientist with interdisciplinary training in demography, epidemiology, economics, and infectious disease. Her research focuses on how social and biological processes interact over the life course and specifically how social factors “get under the skin” to impact health. She has examined the social determinants of infections and immune function and links between infections and chronic disease.
Dr. Beam Dowd’s presentation may be accessed here.
