COVID-19: Valentine's Day Dinner Could Expose You to Next Super Spreader
Inside Edition (Feb. 11) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the risk of spreading infection connected to Valentine's Day. "The virus doesn't care that it's Valentine's Day," Rimoin said. "If you really want to show love to other people in your life, you should probably stay apart for this Valentine's Day."

COVID-19: Health Officials Fear U.K. Variant Could Cause Spring Surge in California
KCBS-TV (Feb. 11) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, , about the risks of the so-called "U.K." variant, or B.1.1.7, thought to be even more - perhaps 50% - contagious. "We're not going to stop this variant from taking hold, it's too late for that," Rimoin said. "It's definitely more contagious; it spreads more easily, and there's a question of people are shedding more virus ... the only thing we can do right now, given the limited supply of vaccine, is handwashing, social distance, and wear that mask." It also ran on KCAL-TV and MSN.

COVID-19: California the 4th state to report cases of the more infectious South African variant
The Insider (Feb. 10) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the appearance of B.1.351, the so-called "South African" variant, in California. "When you have more contagious variants circulating and people now feeling free to do things that they weren't able to do for a while, we do risk having another surge happen in the near future," Rimoin said. "So we need to be watching it carefully." It also ran on Yahoo News and MSN.

COVID-19: Can You Test Positive After Getting the Vaccine?
Reader's Digest (Feb. 9) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about possibly testing positive even after being vaccinated. "Pfizer and Moderna data suggest that the vaccines are both approximately 95 percent effective at preventing people from getting symptomatic COVID-19, and are particularly effective at preventing severe disease," Rimoin said. "It will take several weeks for your body to build optimal immunity after vaccination."

COVID-19: Southern California is in �the eye of the storm' "
Spectrum One (Feb. 5) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the state of the pandemic in southern California. "We're in what many people have called the eye of the storm right now," Rimoin said. "We've just gone through a massive surge that made us the center of the pandemic."

COVID-19: 5 Places you Shouldn't go Even if They're Open
Eat This, Not That (Feb. 7) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the risks of the pandemic. "Just because you can do something, doesn't mean that you should," Rimoin said. "The virus is circulating so widely, anything that you do that puts you in contact with others outside your own household carries more risk now than it did previously. Anywhere that people are more likely to let their guard down and remove their masks and not social distance are particularly high-risk." It also ran on MSN.

COVID-19: Conspiracy Theory Doctor Surrenders Medical License
CalMatters (Feb. 5) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, , about the risks to public health during the pandemic because of misinformation. "Social media amplifies misinformation in a way we've never seen before," Rimoin said. "These theories not based in science now have a conduit to get out to the world so easily. When you have confusion, people make bad decisions and we have to divert precious resources towards stamping out misinformation. It doesn't just hurt the believer. It hurts everybody."

COVID-19: America's two Largest States Have Taken Opposite Approaches
The Economist (Feb. 4) referenced Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, in a story about how California and Texas have managed their state-level pandemic responses.

COVID-19: Five Things to Get Right Before the Next Pandemic
Bloomberg (Feb. 3) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the next epidemiological crisis. "Infectious diseases are like wildfires. You need to stomp them out when they are containable," Rimoin said. "In both cases, time is of the essence."

COVID-19: Get More Vaccines in Arms Right Now
The BBC (Feb. 3) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the importance of the vaccination campaigns in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. "If you get more vaccines in arms right now, you're going to prevent this virus from having more opportunity to spread," Rimoin said. "If it doesn't have as much opportunity to spread, it will not be able to replicate."

COVID-19: The Science on Masks to Contain Infectious Disease is Clear: They Work
The Des Moines Register (Feb. 3) quoted Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, in an editorial about the importance of using masks to reduce spread of the pandemic that cited the findings of a study she co-authored in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The power to protect ourselves remains in our hands, as individuals," Rimoin said.

COVID-19: New Coronavirus Variants, Precautions, and Vaccines
KTLA-TV (Feb. 2) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the new variants circulating in California and the vaccine campaign. "The best vaccine to get is the vaccine you can get in your arm," Rimoin said. "Whatever becomes available first, you should get."

COVID-19: Moderna vs. Pfizer-What Docs Need You to Know
The Healthy (Feb. 2) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. "The sooner that you are starting to build immunity the better it is for you, for your family, for your community, and for the world," Rimoin said. "You should take whatever vaccine you can get first." It also ran on MSN.

COVID-19: Is Seeing That Renoir Essential? In the Pandemic, Cities Differ
The New York Times (Feb. 2) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the risks of infection inherent in having museums be open to the public. "Many people don't have a choice," Rimoin said. "It's incumbent upon those of us who do have choices to do everything we can to stop the spread of this virus."

COVID-19: More Contagious Variants Threaten Progress in United States
Global Television (Feb. 1, Canada) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about how the United States is working to stay ahead of the novel coronavirus before it outsmarts treatments and vaccines. "If we were aiming for somewhere around 70% or 75% in the past, now we're for 80%, 85% percent, maybe 90% of the population to be vaccinated," Rimoin said.

COVID-19: Rita Wilson Says she no Longer has COVID Antibodies
People (Feb. 1) referenced Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, in a piece about actor-producer Rita Wilson's service as a volunteer plasma donor. "A photo of getting tested for antibodies in preparation of donating plasma. Thank you Dr. Anne Rimoin @annierimoin at UCLA for the study you're working on to help patients heal from COVID-19," Wilson wrote. It also ran on Yahoo and MSN.

COVID-19: "Super Bowl Parties are Potential Superspreader Events"
WKQI-FM (Feb. 1) quoted Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the potential of Super Bowl parties as potential "superspreader" events. "Sports events arts events are just inherently difficult, because people are excited; they're screaming, they're yelling, they're drinking, they're eating," Rimoin said. "So this is the absolute perfect storm for the virus to spread."

COVID-19: "This Virus is Mutating, and it's Mutating Fairly Quickly"
NBC's Meet the Press (Jan. 31) quoted Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about a more contagious variant of COVID-19 that has already been detected across the United States. "This virus is mutating, and it's mutating fairly quickly," Rimoin said.

COVID-19: A 'Perfect Storm' of Pandemic Fatigue, Crowded Housing, and a new Variant
Business Insider (Jan. 29) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the state of the pandemic in southern California. "Nothing happens in a vacuum and there were probably a number of different factors that are at play here, including a more contagious variant," Rimoin said. "Los Angeles is a complex city ... we have a large geography, a dense population, but more importantly, overcrowding plays a major role here." It also ran on MSN, Yahoo, Daily Magazine, and Fitness Health.

COVID-19: Can You Test Positive After Getting the Vaccine?
The Healthy (Jan. 29) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about whether someone can test positive for COVID-19 after getting the vaccine. "Pfizer and Moderna data suggest that the vaccines are both approximately 95 percent effective at preventing people from getting symptomatic COVID-19, and are particularly effective at preventing severe disease," Rimoin said.

COVID-19: "This Virus is Mutating, and it's Mutating Fairly Quickly"
NBC's Meet the Press (Jan. 31) quoted Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about a more contagious variant of COVID-19 that has already been detected across the United States. "This virus is mutating, and it's mutating fairly quickly," Rimoin said.

COVID-19: Newly Detected Variant may be Driving California Surge
Fox News (Jan. 31) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about a new variant detected in California and the need for enhanced genomic sequencing of new variants by the U.S. government. "We've been seeing in California a rapid increase of this variant that seems to have arisen right here," Rimoin said. "What we know about it right now is that is does seem to be spreading right now ... we have to get in front of this virus, we c not constantly be chasing behind."

COVID-19: Trials Raise Fears the Coronavirus is Learning to Resist Vaccines
The Los Angeles Times (Jan. 29) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the virus evolving to resist vaccines and the need for wide-ranging and well-organized genomic sequencing of new variants by the U.S. government. "We're shining a flashlight around in the dark, hoping we spot dangerous variants," Rimoin said. "What we really need to do is flip on the lights."

COVID-19: A 'Perfect Storm' of Pandemic Fatigue, Crowded Housing, and a new Variant
Business Insider (Jan. 29) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the state of the pandemic in southern California. "Nothing happens in a vacuum and there were probably a number of different factors that are at play here, including a more contagious variant," Rimoin said. "Los Angeles is a complex city ... we have a large geography, a dense population, but more importantly, overcrowding plays a major role here." It also ran on MSN, Yahoo, Daily Magazine, and Fitness Health.

COVID-19: Why Biden's Limited Mask Mandate may not do Enough to Lift the U.S. Economy
CBS News (Jan. 21) referenced research by Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology, and Christina Ramirez, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of biostatistics, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which found near-universal adoption of nonmedical masks in public, combined with complementary public health measures, could reduce spread to essentially zero.

COVID-19: The Importance of "celebrity" Endorsers of the Vaccine Campaign
KNX-AM (Jan. 20) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the importance of "celebrity" endorsers of the vaccine campaign. "People need to relate to somebody who is getting vaccinated or who's delivering information, and if the information is being delivered in a way that not relatable; it's not helpful," Rimoin said. I think that been one of the big issues across the board with public health communication: we have a very hard time presenting information that isn't lecturing people." It also ran on KCBS-FM (San Francisco).

COVID-19: U.S. Expected to Have 500,000 Deaths by February
CBS News (Jan. 18) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about suspicions there are more variants active in the population. "You're going to see something if you start to look, and we just haven't been looking," Rimoin said.

COVID-19: U.S. Surpasses 24 Million Cases, 400,000 Deaths
CNN (Jan. 18) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about research to track variants of the coronavirus. "We know that it's here, we're starting to see more emphasis on viral genomic sequencing, which is a good thing," Rimoin said. "Otherwise we're flying blind."

COVID-19: Masks Provide an Excellent Physical Barrier Against the Coronavirus
KNBC-TV (Jan. 18; begins at 1:10) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about her Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study that found near-universal adoption of nonmedical masks in public, combined with complementary public health measures, could reduce spread to essentially zero. "It doesn't matter what variant is circulating, masks provide an excellent physical barrier against the coronavirus," Rimoin said. "The key that we found in our review was that you really need to have high compliance with mask wearing." Similar items ran on KABC-TV, NBC, KNTV-TV (NBC affiliate, San Francisco), KNSD-TV (NBC affiliate, San Diego), KGTV-TV (ABC affiliate, San Diego), KVEA-TV (Telemundo affiliate, Los Angeles), KCRW-FM, WNBC-TV (NBC affiliate, New York), WRC-TV (NBC affiliate, Washington, DC), WMAQ-TV (NBC Affiliate, Chicago), WCAU-TV (NBC affiliate, Philadelphia), WTVJ-TV (NBC affiliate, Miami), NECN, MyNewsLA, Deadline, the Los Feliz Ledger, the Antelope Valley Times, Yuba Net, Science News, Health News Digest, News Medical, Sound Health, Unfold Times, and City News Service.

COVID-19: How Can Los Angeles Control The Surge?
WBUR-FM (Jan. 18) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the state of the pandemic in Los Angeles County. "We are the most populous county in the nation, and not by a small margin; we are twice as large as any other county in the nation," Rimoin said. "We have so many essential workers and great (health) disparities ... we have a very different epidemiological landscape here." Dr. Elaine Batchlor, chief executive officer of Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles and a Fielding School alumnus (MPH, '90) and member of the school's Board of Advisors, was also interviewed. "There are a number of reasons why our community has been hit so hard. Number one, this is where the essential workers live," Batchlor said. "They're the people that stock the stores, drive the busses and clean up after the rest of us, and they're getting COVID in very high numbers." It also ran on NPR's Morning Edition, including on KPBX-FM (NPR affiliate, Washington), WTEB-FM (NPR affiliate, North Carolina) and WUIS-FM (NPR affiliate, Illinois).

COVID-19: In Hard-hit Los Angeles, Latinos Bear the Brunt of Surge
NBC News (Jan. 17 interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the pandemic's effect on Latino Californians, who comprise 40% of the state's population but 55% of all confirmed cases and 46.5% of all deaths. "You have the combination of poverty and density, and that leads to rapid spread of the virus," Rimoin said. "It's hard to stop the momentum once it's started." It also ran on MSN.

COVID-19: At-Home Tests Will be Available Soon; Can You Rely on Them?
KNBC-TV (Jan. 16) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the reliability of at-home COVID tests expected to be on the market this year. "We also have to remember that that test is only valid for that moment that you took that sample ... because you could be exposed afterwards or you could be in an incubation process," Rimoin said. "Testing is no substitute for all of the things we always talk about in terms of public health and prevention, which is wearing a mask, social distancing, hand hygiene, congregating with people outside your own household."

COVID-19: One in Three People in Los Angeles County May Be Infected
KTLA-TV (Jan. 15) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about findings that 1-in-3 Los Angeles County residents may be infected. "This is just based on modeling, so these are estimates," Rimoin said. "It's really important to understand that these are just estimates."

UCLA Fielding School of Public Health efforts spotlighted in ASPPH Friday Letter
The ASPPH Friday Letter (Jan. 15) reported BLANK items related to UCLA Fielding School of Public Health faculty and staff experts, FSPH efforts related to the pandemic, or other news. These included a Washington Post interview of Dr. Jonathan Fielding, a CNN interview of Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, and a New York Times interview of Anne Rimoin. The Letter also published listings for the Jan. 16 virtual town hall, "COVID-19 Vaccination: It Matters in Saving Black Lives ," organized by Vickie Mays and Jan. 28 webinar hosted by the UCLA Center for Global & Immigrant Health on "The COVID-19 response in Peru," with a presentation by Kelika Konda. The Letter also listed a report by Dr. Jonathan Fielding published in the American Journal of Public Health, as well as a second piece, also in the AJPH, by Dr. Steven Teutsch, and a $956,000 grant awarded to a team that includes Dr. David Eisenman and Kirsten Schwarz.

COVID-19: The Post-Holiday Surge
KPCC-FM (Jan. 4; begins at 01:45) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health , about why the pandemic continues to spread in southern California. "We're now seeing record numbers of cases; one case of COVID-19 recorded every six minutes," Rimoin said. "This increase appears to be directly related to the travel and gatherings that we saw at Thanksgiving; (this) virus takes advantage of all of our natural instincts to gather and it spreads very effectively when we get together with family." A related story ran on LAist.

COVID-19: New Variant Found in Colorado, California, and Florida
MSNBC (Jan. 2) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health , about a new variant of COVID found in Colorado, California, and Florida. "We've seen it spread very, very rapidly," Rimoin said. "A variant that has increased capacity to spread can wreak havoc, especially in a place like the United States where we have uncontrolled spread already."

COVID-19: California Frontline Workers Are Hesitant On Vaccines, Complicating State's Recovery
WBUR-FM (Jan. 1, NPR Boston affiliate) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health , about vaccine hesitancy among healthcare workers. "Healthcare workers are very importantly, linchpins of the vaccination effort and so understanding their concerns is critical," Rimoin said. "What we've understood from health workers is that this is an after-effect of the politicization of the vaccine (development) process that was perceived, a feeling that there's just not enough information that is accessible to them." It also ran on KNPR-FM (NPR affiliate, Nevada) and WTEB-FM (NPR affiliate, North Carolina).

COVID-19: "The Crisis in California"
KTLA-TV (Dec. 23) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health , about the surge in confirmed cases in California. "We are seeing just explosive spread of COVID-19 right here in southern California," Rimoin said. "We have a wildfire of cases here in California, just spreading out of control."

COVID-19: What Los Angeles did Right and Wrong in This Year's Fight Against the Pandemic
KCRW-FM (Dec. 23) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health , about the lessons learned from Los Angeles County's response to the pandemic in 2020, including the early stay-at-home orders in the spring. "This was really important in slowing the spread. I think we would be a lot worse off today if we hadn't taken those measures that we took early on," Rimoin said. "We're in the midst of a massive spike (today) in California, but that's because we took off the brakes too soon."

COVID-19: How do we Inject Confidence Into Vaccine Hesitant Americans?
MedPage Today (Dec. 23) referenced Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health , in an interview about vaccine hesitancy among healthcare workers with Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital and Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. "Even people who ordinarily are big enthusiasts, or are supporters of vaccines, are concerned," Hotez said. "My friend and colleague Anne Rimoin, who's a professor of epidemiology at UCLA, a couple of weeks ago came out with a study on medRxiv showing that there's even significant amount of concern among healthcare providers, especially nurses. So there's going to be a lot of damage control, and it's going to be critical because we're not going to reach that 75% threshold unless we can do this."

COVID-19: Is a New Variant Causing Los Angeles' Explosion in Cases?
Los Angeles Magazine (Dec. 22) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health , about the possibility coronavirus mutations may be present in southern California. "Most mutations are not significant or cause for concern," Rimoin said. "But it's important to monitor and to understand them." Also quoted was Dr. Timothy Brewer, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology. "As the virus spreads through different populations, its level of transmissibility will go up and down," Brewer said. "For a long time California had been in the bottom quarter in COVID rates. Now it's in the top ten. It would be unusual to have mutations affecting California conferring greater transmission risk and not have it spread anywhere else.".

COVID-19: "If You Take Your Foot Off the Pedal Just for a Second you Start to Gain Momentum"
Live on IG with Kumail Nanjiani (Dec. 21) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the pandemic's spread in the fourth quarter of 2020. "This is what we worried about, in terms of the spread and what was going to happen after Thanksgiving," Rimoin said. "This is just one of these examples that if you take your foot off the pedal just for a second you start to gain momentum."

COVID-19: How to Celebrate Christmas Safely During a Pandemic
CNN (Dec. 18, starts at 01:47) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health , about how to safely travel, shop, and gather for Christmas during the coronavirus pandemic. "Open as many windows as you can, provide as much circulation as you possibly can," Rimoin said. "Don't have loud music. Do everything you can to turn music way down so that people do not have to speak loudly."

COVID-19: U.S. Administers First Shots of Vaccine
KPCC-FM (Dec. 14) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the new vaccines approved for use this month. "We need to take time today to celebrate what an enormous achievement this is, in public health history," Rimoin said. "We've been able to go from having a virus, a totally new pathogen identified, to nine months later actually having a vaccine that is in the arms of the people who need it, right now."

COVID-19: "Healthcare workers are critical"
KCBS-TV (Dec. 14) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the importance of the healthcare workforce in the vaccine campaign. "Healthcare workers are critical," Rimoin said. "They are not only the first people to get this vaccine, but they will be administering this vaccine and giving advice to the public about getting the vaccine." The story also ran on KCAL-TV.

COVID-19: "The Pressure the Trump Administration is Placing on the FDA"
NBC (Dec. 11) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the pressure the Trump Administration has placed on the FDA.

UCLA Fielding School of Public Health efforts spotlighted in ASPPH Friday Letter
The ASPPH Friday Letter (Dec. 11) reported eight items related to UCLA Fielding School of Public Health faculty and staff experts, FSPH efforts related to the pandemic, or other news. These included a New York Times interview of Anne Rimoin.

COVID-19: "We are at Great Risk of Exponential Spread"
The BBC (Dec. 8) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the potential for even greater spread of the pandemic this winter. "We are at great risk of exponential spread, not just in the United States but globally," Rimoin said. "We just cannot underestimate the importance of the logistics are involved here."

COVID-19: Over Half of Americans Plan to get Coronavirus Vaccine as Soon as it's Available, Survey Finds
KABC-TV (Dec. 8) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about public acceptance of the coronavirus vaccines. "It's reasonable to question things," Rimoin said. "What's really important for people to understand is that vaccines go through very rigorous testing protocols. Vaccines are very safe."

COVID-19: Experts say the NFL's Strategy is Putting the Season in Peril
The Los Angeles Times (Dec. 7) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about whether the NFL should chose to sequester teams in a central location this season. "We're in the most dangerous period in modern public-health history," Rimoin said. "I feel it would be smarter to do a real bubble and truly quarantine the way that the NBA and NHL did." The story also ran in the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Bakersfield Californian, and Rimoin was referenced in a story on Yahoo Finance.

COVID-19: No Bubble Means no Assurances NFL and College Football Schedules Aren't Disrupted
The Los Angeles Times (Dec. 6) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the fact that football, unlike basketball or hockey, chose not to sequester teams in a central location. "You don't have a true bubble - they're not even trying," Rimoin said. "The safety of the sport is totally dependent on community transmission."

COVID-19: Los Angeles Approaching 'Devastating Tipping Point' as California Imposes new Lockdowns
Sky News (Dec. 5, United Kingdom) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the state of the pandemic in California. "History, when they talk about the pandemic, they're going to write about this moment when we lost so many lives when we didn't need to," Rimoin said. It also ran on MSN.

COVID-19: Los Angeles County Tops Case Record for Fourth Time This Week
The Los Angeles Daily News (Dec. 5) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about Los Angeles County shattering its own record for new cases for the third straight day - and the fourth time in a week. "We're going to have a lot of very unnecessary deaths and disability and pain and sorrow for many families that could be avoided," Rimoin said. �News of a vaccine is a signal to people that this is not going to be forever because there is hope, and people should have hope and faith that we will get out of it." The story also ran in the Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Whittier Daily News, Torrance (CA) Daily Breeze, and the Ontario-Pomona (CA) Daily Bulletin.

UCLA Fielding School of Public Health efforts spotlighted in ASPPH Friday Letter
The ASPPH Friday Letter (Dec. 4) reported eight items related to UCLA Fielding School of Public Health faculty and staff experts, FSPH efforts related to the pandemic, or other news. These included interviews of Dr. Robert Kim-Farley and Anne Rimoin in the Los Angeles Times.

COVID-19: Spit in a Tube and Mail it in - a New Frontier in Testing
The New York Times (Dec. 3) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about new at-home saliva test kits. "The big issue is, how do you get more people to get tested," Rimoin said. "Everyone has seen lines looping around stadiums and urgent cares ... it isn't going to end the pandemic, but it is certainly a major step toward making testing more accessible and widespread." The story also ran in the Boston Globe and the Baltimore Sun.

COVID-19: "The Remarkable Anne Rimoin"
The Remarkable People (Dec. 2) podcast, hosted by the technology expert Guy Kawasaki, interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about epidemiology and the pandemic. "What epidemiology is to trying to understand the trends in populations and trying to understand risk outcomes for various outcomes," Rimoin said. "We're doing studies trying to understand things like vaccine hesitancy, who wants to get a COVID vaccine and who doesn't, and why they might be hesitant."

COVID-19: "It's More Dangerous Right Now Than it has Been in the Past"
KNBC-TV (Dec. 1) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about the growth of infections across Los Angeles and California. "In fact it's more dangerous right now than it has been in the past," Rimoin said. "There's more virus circulating in the community now than ever before."

COVID-19: cases Explode in Los Angeles County
KNX-AM (Dec. 1) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about reports the numbers of new infections in the County grew to 7,600, the highest one-week total yet during the pandemic. "In terms of getting to a point where I would say 'oh my gosh I hope we don't get there,' we are already there," Rimoin said. "Like a snowball going downhill getting larger and gaining momentum, it becomes very difficult to stop."

COVID-19: What do we know about superspreader events in the pandemic?
The Associated Press (Oct. 7) quoted Anne Rimoin , UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health , about "superspreader" events, where a gathering - like the Sept. 26 Rose Garden event linked to the current outbreak among White House staff - is linked to a large number of cases. "Contact tracing is the way you get to the bottom of a superspreader event ... that's how you break chains of transmission," Rimoin said. "It's an opportunity to learn about superspreader events that could save thousands of lives, if not millions of lives, in the long run." It ran in more than 140 other outlets, including Yahoo News and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

COVID-19: "Biden says cancel next debate if Trump remains sick"
The Los Angeles Times (Oct. 6) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health , about reports the Trump Administration has rebuffed offers of the CDC's assistance in contact tracing after the White House outbreak. "The CDC is the gold standard of contact tracing (and) the fact this agency has been sidelined again is very concerning," Rimoin said. "This is possibly the most high profile super spreader event in history, and what we are seeing here is a complete and total disregard for CDC guidelines."

COVID-19: UCLA epidemiologist explains President's diagnosis
Spectrum One (Oct. 5) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health , about President Donald Trump's diagnosis and how to understand who is vulnerable to infection. "According to CDC guidelines, people who are COVID-19 positive need to quarantine at least for 10 days, if they have mild disease," Rimoin said. "At this point he should not be around other people, because he's contagious and puts other people at risk."

COVID-19: Ways to socialize safely amid pandemic spike
KTLA-TV (July 5) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about how to socialize safely during the pandemic. "As long as we can socially distance, and wear a mask, and we can all do our best to reduce the spread of the virus, we will see a decrease, but it means that everybody has to do it," Rimoin said. "There are things that everybody can do, but we all have to play our part."

COVID-19: The biggest factors in the pandemic's spread in the United States
MSNBC (July 4) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about why the pandemic continues to spread in the United States. "The science on transmission is pretty clear: if you give the virus an opportunity to spread, when people are not social distancing and they're not wearing masks, it's going to take that opportunity and do what it does," Rimoin said. "We are not without hope, we have solutions ... if 95 percent of the population wore a mask, we'd be able to save up to 24,000 lives in the coming months."

COVID-19: California's lessons for Massachusetts
The Boston Globe (July 4) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about California's lessons for Massachusetts with regards to pandemic response. "It's easy to get overconfident when you look at how we did flattening the curve in early days here. So I think it's possible," Rimoin said. "I think the lesson for California - or from California - is that it doesn't matter where you are in the curve, or in flattening the curve ... if you do not continue to be consistent." The story also ran on MSN.

COVID-19: "Public health professor encourages everyone to wear masks"
MSNBC (July 3) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about group gatherings and why all Americans should wear masks. "The advice is pretty straightforward: everybody should be wearing a mask," Rimoin said. "It will prevent the spread of disease ... wear a mask. It's pretty simple." The interview also ran on Yahoo News.

COVID-19: "How California went from success story to virus hot spot"
The Associated Press (June 2) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about how California has fought the pandemic, including a too rapid reopening leading into Memorial Day weekend and then Father's Day. "We're in a very precarious situation," Rimoin said. "All of these things together gave ample opportunity for this virus to spread, and I think that this just really demonstrates how quickly we can lose all of the gains that we made." The story ran widely, including by KCBS-TV (Sacramento), Talking Points Memo, and the Andover Leader.

COVID-19: "Seven reasons to care about racism and COVID-19 and seven things to do to stop it"
The American Journal of Public Health's (June 2) Chinese language podcast (Mandarin) included a report about an editorial about racism and the pandemic, and strategies to address the problem, co-written by Gilbert Gee, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health (FSPH) professor of community health sciences; Anne Rimoin, FSPH professor of epidemiology; and Marguerite J. Ro, with Public Health-Seattle & King County, Seattle, WA. "Although prejudice and fear may be common reactions to outbreaks such as COVID-19, they should not be seen as justifiable or even natural ones," the authors wrote. "Now is the time for solidarity, not slurs."

COVID-19: Tulare County hospitals near capacity, brace for second surge of patients
The Visalia (CA) Times-Delta (June 2) quoted Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about how California has fought the pandemic. "The mask order of course should have been in place earlier but you also have to be willing to enforce the mask order," Rimoin said.

COVID-19: A clear case of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
CNN (June 22) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the failures of the U.S. national response to the pandemic. "We've been chasing behind this virus from the beginning," Rimoin said. "We're doing against what we always warn against: chasing behind these things. This is a clear case of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

COVID-19: UCLA Fielding School professor named "trailblazer"
PBS Southern California (June 22, KOCE-TV and KCET-TV, begins at 00:16) has honored Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, as a "trailblazer" because of her work researching infectious diseases, including the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. "I think that this is a public health imperative, being able to understand viruses that are emerging, understanding where they are coming from, how people are getting them," Rimoin said.

COVID-19: Can isolation "bubbles" for players and staff allow the NBA to restart?
The Los Angeles Times (June 22) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the risks of proposals by the NBA to isolate players and staff in so-called "bubbles" as a path to restarting the basketball season. "I think the community risk is going to be important. The community transmission rate certainly impacts the risk of getting infected within these bubbles," Rimoin said. "It's like anywhere ... the best thing we can all do is wear masks, social distance, use hand hygiene, avoid crowds and all do our best." The story also ran on Yahoo Sports, and Rimoin was quoted in a related item in Gulf News.

COVID-19: What a second wave of coronavirus may be like
The Huffington Post (June 22) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the likelihood of a possible second wave of the novel coronavirus. "We're in totally uncharted waters here ... I think we would all love to know what's going to happen [but] we've never been in this situation before," Rimoin said. "When schools reopen and people are going back to the office ? a lot of people are saying we'll go back to the office after Labor Day ? you could see a big spike in cases again because you're going to have people coming together." The story also ran on MSN, and a version ran in PanArmenian.

COVID-19: It's easy to say "get tested;" it's harder to do
California Healthline (June 22) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on how to get tested in a way that will yield useful information, including the reality that a negative result may not be conclusive. "A negative test a week after being exposed certainly reduces the likelihood that somebody is infected, but it certainly does not eliminate that possibility completely," Rimoin said. "Any opportunity for spread in uninfected populations, this virus will take it." The story also ran in the Santa Cruz (CA) Sentinel, Woodland (CA) Daily Democrat, Coronado (CA) Times, Walla Walla (WA) Union Bulletin, Hagerstown (MD) Herald-Bulletin, Janesville (WI) Gazette, Lancaster (PA) News-Press, and Flagerlive (FL), as well as Physician's Weekly and News Medical.

COVID-19: Public communications and vaccine safety
MSNBC (April 16, starts at 00:45) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on how the public will be persuaded of the safety of a future vaccine. "Vaccines go through a very long process of vetting for safety and efficacy, and right now these trials are all starting," Rimoin said. "We've worked very, very hard in other epidemics, like in Ebola, to be able to roll out vaccines quickly and to be able to work with all the various communities and show them we have all this data ... everybody will be spending a lot of time showing people the data and making sure people are comfortable with it."

COVID-19: In California, social distancing makes the difference
Le Figaro (April 16, Paris) quoted Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on how California has dealt with the pandemic. "Once the virus begins to spread, it spreads exponentially, so acting quickly to keep people from crowds is the best thing to do," Rimoin said. "If we just reopen everything, the virus will still be there and we will find ourselves at the starting point." Rimoin was also quoted by Vice TV and Diario26 (Argentina).

COVID-19: Social distancing in California "made a difference" to coronavirus
AFP (April 15; French language news service, video and text) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on how California has dealt with the pandemic. "If we look at the data, it is clear that rapid measurements make the difference to flatten the curve," Rimoin said. "California has really been at the forefront of regulations to keep people at home, to promote social distancing, to cancel concerts and large gatherings, and even to encourage people to cover their faces. All of this put together, it makes quite a difference." The story was published in French by La Presse (Quebec); Le Point (Paris), Le Express (France), and Boursorama (France); in English by MSN (begins at 00:16), Yahoo News, the International Business Times, Al-Jazeera, News24 (South Africa), and The Red & Black (University of Georgia student newspaper); and in Spanish (translated by AFP) by El Nuevo Dia (Puerto Rico), TVN (Panama), and La Prensa (Honduras).

COVID-19: UCLA study shows use of cloth masks will reduce spread significantly
CNN (April 15) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the possibility that widespread use of cloth masks will significantly reduce the spread of the pandemic. "It's really important to stress this issue of asymptomatic infection and how this plays out in terms of the spread of the virus," Rimoin said. "We've just published a paper, in pre-print right now, that shows very clearly that the use of cloth masks worn by everyone in the population will reduce the spread of the virus significantly and can bring this reproductive number we've been discussing down very, very low. Perhaps below one. This is very important."

COVID-19: Pandemic preparedness has been very, very poorly funded
MSNBC (April 15) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the state of pandemic response. "We are not where we need to be with testing, we're not where we need to be with PPE, we're not where we need to be with the equipment that we need, we're not where we need to be able to identify people who are sick, to be able trace their contacts, and (to) do what we need to do to reduce the spread of this virus," Rimoin said. "Pandemic preparedness has been very, very poorly funded, underfunded, for a very long time, and now we are paying the price."

COVID-19: We need to understand how many people have been infected
The Dr. Oz (April 14, starts at 02:00) program interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the need to ramp up COVID-19 testing, as well as testing and tracking health care workers and first responders. "This is the most important thing we can be doing right now; we need to understand how many people have been infected so far," Rimoin said. "Who has active infections? And who may have already had this infection and whether or not having previous infections actually means people have immunity," Rimoin said. "We're going to be regularly screening health care workers, and when I say health care workers, I mean everybody who works in a hospital, to be able to understand are people infected without their knowledge of being infected." Rimoin's interview continued (Part 2 and Part 3), and ran on multiple stations, including WWJ-TV (CBS affiliate, Detroit).

COVID-19: U.S. needs to 'reimagine' how we live
MSNBC (April 14) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the historical impact of the pandemic on American society. "We're going to need a complete reimaging of how we work, how we live, how we interact," Rimoin said. "And before we reorganize how we live as a society, we can't re-open, because we'll be back to the problems that made this an issue in the first place."

COVID-19: When will we have robust testing for everyone who needs a test?
CBS (April 14) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on how crucial it is to ramp up testing, including how that impacts the health care workers who are the subject of an epidemiological study she is leading at UCLA. "We need to know, first of all, who has active infection ... we also need to know who may have already had this infection, and whether or not having previous infections actually means people have immunity," Rimoin said. "We're going to be regularly screening health care workers, and when I say health care workers, I mean everybody who works in a hospital, to be able to understand are people infected without their knowledge of being infected."

COVID-19: Antibody testing finds has immunity
KSNV-TV (April 14, NBC affiliate, Las Vegas) quoted Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the issue of antibody testing, drawing from an NBC report. "I think healthcare workers (should) know they have antibodies," Rimoin said. "They will be able to go into work more confident that they are not getting themselves sick or passing this virus to others around them." The story also ran on KTVL-TV in Oregon.

COVID-19: UCLA study of health care workers and first responders focuses on antibodies
NBC (April 13) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the COVID-19 Rapid Response Initiative she is leading to test for and track potential exposures among health care workers and first responders in Los Angeles, including whether they have developed antibodies to protect against the disease. "How can we expect our health workforce to be protecting us if we're not doing everything that we can to protect them?" Rimoin said. "I think that health care workers that know they have antibodies will be able to go into their work more confident that they are not getting themselves sick or passing this virus to others around them." The study was also reported in a separate piece by KNBC-TV, NBC's Los Angeles affiliate, which also ran April 13.

COVID-19: UCLA study focuses on health care workers
KNBC-TV (Los Angeles affiliate, April 13) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the COVID-19 Rapid Response Initiative she is leading to test and track COVID-19 exposures among health care workers in Los Angeles. "This is how we can get started and be able to understand how to keep our health system functioning and be able to allay the fears of health works who are putting their lives on the line every day and by association their families lives on the line every day," Rimoin said. The report also quoted Dr. Ashley Gray, a pediatric hematologist at UCLA-RR Medical Center's Mattel Children's Hospital, who is participating in the study. "Peace of mind is something a lot of us would like to have right now and many of us struggle with on a daily basis," Gray said. "Everybody in the lab has been working incredibly hard, but to come to this day is very fulfilling, so we're very excited about it."

COVID-19: UCLA study of health care workers and first responders focuses on antibodies
NBC (April 13) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the COVID-19 Rapid Response Initiative she is leading to test for and track potential exposures among health care workers and first responders in Los Angeles, including whether they have developed antibodies to protect against the disease. "How can we expect our health workforce to be protecting us if we're not doing everything that we can to protect them?" Rimoin said. "I think that health care workers that know they have antibodies will be able to go into their work more confident that they are not getting themselves sick or passing this virus to others around them." The study was also reported in a separate piece by KNBC-TV, NBC's Los Angeles affiliate, that also ran April 13.

COVID-19: A natural origin of the pandemic
KTLA-TV (April 13, Los Angeles television) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the origins of the pandemic. "This is a virus that looks like it came through the natural roots of infection, so what we'd expect," Rimoin said. "There's no evidence that this came from an intentional or accidental release out of a laboratory; all the (work) that's been done suggests that this is something that comes from a natural spillover farm animals to humans. Which is something that happens frequently, so that is not an unusual event."

COVID-19: If we open up, we will see a rebound in the number of cases
KNBC-TV (April 12, Los Angeles affiliate, starts at 04:30) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the flagship "News Conference" program, along with University of California President Janet Napolitano and California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, on the state of the pandemic. "We need to know how many people have been infected, we need to know how many have recovered, and we need to know who may have some sort of immunity to this and who doesn't," Rimoin said. "All of those things need to be in place for us to even consider opening up our economy."

COVID-19: We still are missing widespread testing
NBC (April 12) quoted Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, during the flagship Meet the Press program. "We still are missing the widespread testing that's needed for us to understand exactly where we are on this curve," Rimoin said. "We still don't have good testing in place. We still do not -- are missing the widespread testing that's needed for us to understand exactly where we are on this curve."

COVID-19: UCLA Fielding School of Public Health efforts spotlighted in ASPPH Friday Letter
The ASPPH Friday Letter (April 10) reported five items related to UCLA Fielding School of Public Health experts and the pandemic. Under the category of "Preparedness and Response," these included "Creating a Framework for Conducting Randomized Clinical Trials during Disease Outbreaks," a New England Journal of Medicine Sounding Board article co-authored by Dean Ron Brookmeyer, professor of biostatistics; a commentary, "Good Communication Will Help Beat COVID-19," written by Dr. Jonathan Fielding, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health distinguished professor-in-residence of health policy and management. Under "Members in the News," the Letter spotlighted an appearance on CNN by Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health; and Fielding School Associate Dean for Research Finds New Role: COVID-19 Media Expert, describing the media relations and civic engagement work of Dr. Zuo-Feng Zhang, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health epidemiologist and associate dean for research, during the pandemic. Under "Academic Resources and Tools," the Letter linked to "FSPH Experts Present to Los Angeles City Health Commission on COVID-19," spotlighting Rimoin and Gilbert Gee, professor of community health sciences, for their presentation to the city's public health commissioners.

COVID-19: Physical distancing may be here to stay
KTTV-TV (April 10, Fox affiliate, Los Angeles) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on whether physical distancing measures should stay in place until the fall. "What we need to do now is double down and make sure that we really can reap all of the benefits of the sacrifices we've made so far," Rimoin said. "The fall sounds like and seems plausible, but we'll know more in the coming weeks. This is a novel coronavirus and that means it's a new virus. It's new to humanity. We haven't seen it before and we're still learning a lot about it, and I think over the next weeks and months, we'll know a lot more about it." The piece was broadcast by other Fox affiliates, including KSAZ (Phoenix).

COVID-19: Too early to relax physical distancing
CNN (April 9) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on when physical distancing measures could be relaxed. "We've made so many gains by having a really good national effort at social distancing and doing everything we can to flatten the curve; if we start to open up we're going to see these (infection) numbers rebound," Rimoin said. "We don't have a population immunity to this virus; we don't have vaccines, we don't have therapeutics - we don't have wide scale testing in place at this point."

COVID-19: Physical distancing remains necessary
A Detroit News column (April 8) referenced Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the importance of physical distancing policies.

COVID-19: The most stylish work from home sets
A column (April 8) published by Mediaite referenced Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health.

COVID-19: "New normal" requires vaccines, therapeutics, and widespread testing
CNN (April 7) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on what it will take for the U.S. to get to a new normal. "It is going to take some time to get back to normal, and what normal is for us is going to change," Rimoin said. "We are nowhere near prepared, we haven't been, we've been suffering from this ... our new normal will only begin to occur when we have vaccines and therapeutics and widespread testing."

COVID-19: Fluid dynamics research hints at spread by spoken word
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) (April 7) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on research on how fluids travel from our respiratory tracts when we sneeze, speak, or breathe. "Eliminating speech droplets could be a significant part of reducing community spread," said Rimoin, who added that medical-quality masks should be reserved for medical personnel. "What we're talking about is that a simple cloth mask or face covering can stop droplets from spreading."

COVID-19: Lessons must be learned from this response
MSNBC (April 6) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the lessons learned from the pandemic. "People we take the idea we need to prevent pandemics before they start much more seriously," Rimoin said. "We're all coming to terms with the fact we have not been prepared for a major catastrophic event that affects everybody in this nation."

COVID-19: Everything we see today is based on exposure two weeks earlier
KTLA-TV (April 6, Los Angeles television) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the lag between infection and symptoms. "This is going to be a tough week; we're going to see a lot of deaths and were going to see a lot of people get sick," Rimoin said. "Everything we see now is based on exposure, two to three weeks previously."

COVID-19: Social distancing is a blunt instrument
CNN (April 4) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the need to continue and improve social distancing practices. "Social distancing is like a blunt instrument; all we're trying to do is use the very most basic method to try and stop the spread," Rimoin said. "If everybody isn't doing their part, we're not going to see the same kind of downturn we'd like to see."

COVID-19: Face masks protect everyone
KTLA (April 3, Los Angeles television) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, on the latest recommendations regarding face masks for the general public. "The reason that this new recommendations has come to bear is that what we understand now about this new virus is that it is likely to be passed by speech droplets," Rimoin said. "This is not a medical mask, but a face covering ... the purpose of it is to protect everybody else around you, and we know asymptomatic infections do occur."

COVID-19: UCLA epidemiologist joins telephone town hall
The Larchmont Buzz (April 2) quoted Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, who spoke as part of a community town hall sponsored by Los Angeles City Councilmember David Ryu. Rimoin stressed the need for Angelenos to practice physical distancing and good hygiene to avoid further spread. "We are always behind the curve. We have to get in front of it."

COVID-19: What you need to know about face masks
GQ (April 1) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about whether widespread adoption of masks can actually help limit the spread of the virus. "Because the virus can be spread by speech droplets, it makes sense for everyone-if they must go out-to cover their mouths to avoid spreading the virus even if they are feeling well," Rimoin said. The story also ran on Yahoo.

COVID-19: California releases model predicting peak In mid-May
KCBS (April 1, Los Angeles affiliate) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology, on the possible future course of the pandemic in California. "Models help us understanding what our future can be ... it's not our destiny," Rimoin said. "We're going to have to make very hard decisions about who gets a ventilator and who does not, who gets care and who doesn't," Rimoin said. "This is what's happened here in Italy and that could very well happen here if we do not take it seriously."

COVID-19: Answering your coronavirus questions: death toll, treatments, and testing scams
NPR (March 31; starts at 19:50) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and director of the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, about multiple topics on the "National Conversation" program, including the current state of understanding of the pandemic. "The problem has been that we don't have the equipment. We don't have the ventilators. We don't have the testing. And we don't have national strategy, which has made this all very, very difficult," Rimoin said. "The first issue is we don't even know where we are in this epidemic. And the lack of testing (has) made it very, very difficult for all of us to understand where we are." Rimoin was also quoted by multiple NPR affiliates, including WAMU in Washington, DC and WBUR in Boston.

COVID-19: "Right now we have no idea where we sit on this curve"
MSNBC (March 31; starts at 5:30) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology, about the latest developments in the pandemic fight in the U.S., including federal government estimates that even a "best case" scenario in the United States could lead to as many as 240,000 dead. "Right now, we have no idea where we sit on this curve, because of the failure to get testing out, widespread, to the vast majority of the country. Testing is still difficult, for people who are sick, to get," Rimoin said. "We've been thinking about how many people are out there, how many may be sick, but we just don't know, and even when we get testing up and running its only going to tell us what's happened about 10-14 days before."

COVID-19: Should the public wear protective gear?
CNN (March 31) interviewed Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of epidemiology, about the pandemic, including understanding whether the general public should wear personal protective equipment (PPE) in their daily lives. "It makes sense that if people can cover their mouths, they might be able to stop community spread," Rimoin said. "This is a very different issue than PPE for health care workers and I think these things are getting confused and conflated. So, we must have enough PPE - N95s and surgical masks - for our health care workers ... that's not what this discussion is about, for the public, everyone can do their part, they can wear bandannas, they can wear a face covering, and that may make a difference."

COVID-19: We have the power to change the course of this pandemic
CNN (March 30) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin about the pandemic, including federal government estimates the nation could face as many as 200,000 deaths from COVID-19. "We have power to change the course of this ... this is not the first pandemic or epidemic that we've fought," Rimoin said. "We should be taking lessons from Ebola. We know if people do the right things, if people social distance, if we prepare the hospitals well, we can reduce spread and we can reduce mortality. This are all things we have under our control."

COVID-19: Secrets to combating stress rising from the situation
MSNBC (March 30) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin about how individuals can deal with the stress of the situation. "This is a very stressful moment for everyone, and we often have the attitude that "I can handle this,' ... but stress can make you more susceptible to disease," Rimoin said. "We have some control, and everybody understanding they have some control, and doing these things we're being told to do ... people feel better when they know that they, themselves, individually can do something." The piece also ran on Yahoo News (March 31).

COVID-19: Everyone has some power to help reduce the spread
KTLA (March 30) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin on federal government directives regarding state and local physical distancing orders. "The thing we have to remember is everyone has some power here to push down this curve," Rimoin said. "We're looking at some very dire scenarios, but If we can all do our part ... we can reduce the spread."

COVID-19: "We are not powerless"
CNN (March 30) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin about the pandemic, including the U.S. government's March 29 estimate as many as 200,000 Americans could die in the pandemic. "We need to take this as what a scenario could be if we are not taking into account good social distancing, good practices of hand hygiene, and all the things we can do to flatten the curve," Rimoin said. "We do have the possibility to make a difference in the outcome. We are not powerless."

COVID-19: "We can't be worrying about politics, we have to worry about a virus"
MSNBC (March 27) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin about the pandemic, including the U.S. government's efforts to fight the pandemic. "We are very far from having a national strategy, from having a unified approach ... everybody is going to be judged by history how they rose to the occasion to be able to fight this war against the virus," Rimoin said. "We need to come together right now. We can't be worrying about partisanship, we can't be worrying about politics, we have to worry about a virus ... to be able to stop it, we need PPE, we need ventilators, we need a national strategy. We have none of these things right now." The segment also appeared on-line at Yahoo News.

COVID-19: "Plan to open up the country by Easter is dangerous"
Yahoo News (on-line, March 25) quoted UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin about the pandemic, including regarding Trump Administration proposals to relax physical distancing restrictions by Easter Sunday. "This is a very dangerous strategy, and we're going to be losing any ground that we have gained, at a critical moment, by keeping people in place," Rimoin said. "Any country that has had any measure of success in being able to slow the spread of this virus has taken very strong measures (of) social distancing and restricting movement of people ... in the United States, we have no idea how many cases we have right now because the testing has failed so and has been so far behind. We are most likely at the worst part of the curve, so this is a very dangerous idea." The piece originally ran on MSNBC.

COVID-19: Epidemiological data is incomplete absent adequate testing
KTLA (Los Angeles television, March 25) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin about the pandemic, including questions about the epidemiology and COVID-19 testing. "The data that we have today is really reflective of what was happening 10-14 days earlier, because we know the incubation period is somewhere around 10-14 days, so after two weeks, we'll probably have a better idea of how well all these measure have been working, " Rimoin said. "Hopefully, we'll see few cases, but we just don't know how many cases are out there, because we have not had adequate testing. There's been a failure of testing in this country ... there is no wide scale testing anywhere in this country. ... we have completely failed in our ability to ramp up testing to understand how many cases there are, here in California or anywhere in the United States."

COVID-19: Understanding the pandemic and personal precautions
KTLA (Los Angeles television, March 25) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin about the pandemic, including questions about sanitizing deliveries and personal hygiene. "If you want to be really safe, wipe down your packages, both the inside packing and outside packaging," Rimoin said. "The best thing to do is wash your hands whenever you can, use hand sanitizer whenever you can, and if you can't? ... you get home, the first thing you should do is wash your hands."

COVID-19: Relaxing physical distancing restrictions "just doesn't make any sense"
CNN (March 24) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin about the pandemic, including regarding proposals to relax physical distancing restrictions. "It is not very well grounded in science, or what we have seen from any other country. We have to be learning from the global experience," Rimoin said. "We are not different biologically than any other and people in any other place in the world ... it just doesn't make any sense, that within two weeks that we would be able to start opening things up."

COVID-19: Relaxing physical distancing restrictions "a very dangerous strategy"
MSNBC (March 24) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin about the pandemic, including regarding Trump Administration proposals to relax physical distancing restrictions by Easter Sunday. "This is a very dangerous strategy, and we're going to be losing any ground that we have gained, at a critical moment, by keeping people in place," Rimoin said. "Any country that has had any measure of success in being able to slow the spread of this virus has taken very strong measures (of) social distancing and restricting movement of people ... in the United States, we have no idea how many cases we have right now because the testing has failed so and has been so far behind. We are most likely at the worst part of the curve, so this is a very dangerous idea. "

COVID-19: "Pay for it now, or pay for it later"
CNN (March 23) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin about the pandemic, including directions on physical distancing. "Any relaxing of containment measures is going to result in a spike of cases ... we are not out of the woods. We are not even in the woods yet." Rimoin said. "Social distancing is our only hope."

COVID-19: Understanding public health crisis management
KTLA (Los Angeles television, March 23) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin about the pandemic, including questions about the differences in public health crisis management practices across the United States. "There's no one size fits all solution. Every state is going to be different, every city is going to be different," Rimoin said. "All of the infrastructure is different; the access to care, the density of population ... it actually makes sense to have varying regulations for different places."

COVID-19: Without PPE our health care workers are at great risk
CNN (March 21) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin about the pandemic, especially the impact on the health care workforce. "We're not necessarily getting more sick than other groups, but they are getting sick and they are at risk. And that's because there aren't enough personal protective equipment, what we keep talking about, this PPE," Rimoin said. "That is the issue here. And without PPE in place for health care workers, and with the health care system on the verge of complete overload ... It's really a huge problem. Without PPE our health care workers are at great risk."

COVID-19: The virus is here. It's everywhere
KTLA (Los Angeles television, March 21) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin about the pandemic on the Frank Buckley Interviews program. "What we see today is just what happened two weeks ago, not what is happening two weeks from now," Rimoin said. "The virus is here. It's everywhere in the country and the problem has been is we just haven't had the tests to be able to identify people accurately, and the tests need to be widespread, (and) rapid, and available to everyone who needs one."

COVID-19: The importance of staying at home and physical distancing
MSNBC (March 20) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin on how the importance of social (or physical) distancing to prevent spread of the pandemic. "What we really need to be doing right now is pulling together by staying apart," Rimoin said. "We need to flatten the curve, we need to slow down the pace of infection so our hospitals don't get overwhelmed and we can protect the vulnerable populations, the elderly and people with underlying conditions. ... this is the measure that will make a difference, and all you have to do is look at the global data that this is what actually works. This is what worked in China, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and it's what is starting to bring down the curve in Europe as well."

COVID-19: Safe at Home order is a smart idea
KTLA (Los Angeles television, March 20) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin on decisions by state and local officials to keep Californians at home, and not congregate in large groups. "We need to keep the spread of disease down, because we don't want our hospitals to be overloaded," Rimoin said. "The best way to do that is keep everybody as far apart as we can. We know this virus spreads person to person and this is something that will really help us."

COVID-19: Expert cites Peace Corps service
Peace Corps Worldwide (March 20) referenced UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin on advocacy for the Peace Corps in response to the pandemic.

COVID-19: Testing, vaccine trials, social distancing, and new infections
KTLA (Los Angeles television, March 19) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin on how best to protect the most vulnerable: the elderly and those with preexisting conditions. "It really has to do with how well our population pulls together by staying apart," Rimoin said. "If we have more tests, we'll see more cases ... we know the cases are here, we just haven't had the tests available to identify them."

COVID-19: How can someone pass along coronavirus when asymptomatic?
CNN (March 19) quoted UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin on how the virus is passed from one person to another, even without symptoms. "When you speak, sometimes you'll spit a little bit," Rimoin said. "You'll rub your nose. You'll touch your mouth. You'll rub your eyes. And then you'll touch other surfaces, and then you will be spreading virus if you are infected and shedding asymptomatically."

COVID-19: Every minute counts in the fight
CNN (March 18) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin on what can still be done in the pandemic fight. "We're in a critical point," Rimoin said. "Every minute counts. That's the key thing that I think people have to understand. Every single minute counts. Let's do the best we can. Any social distancing that happens now will pay off two weeks from now."

COVID-19: What to expect, and what can be done to prepare?
KTLA (Los Angeles television, March 18) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin on the roots of the pandemic, and what needs to happen next in the United States. "What you see today is not, really where we are ... what we see today is what happened two weeks ago, and not what is happening two weeks from now," Rimoin said. "Hindsight is always 20-20, but we were very late in the game with testing, and the reason for that is partially because funding to have these things in the pipeline has not been there ... you either pay now or you pay later, and the account's coming due."

COVID-19: Testing expanding slightly at Los Angeles County hospitals
The Los Angeles Daily News (March 18) quoted UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and epidemiologist Anne Rimoin on the status of the testing program in the U.S. "The fact that we've had failures getting testing up and running has really slowed us down," Rimoin said. "The fact that we are not testing on a wide scale means that we have no idea how many cases are circulating around this country right now." The story also ran in the Pasadena Star-News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Tribune, Torrance, and Whittier Daily News. The News Break aggregator also picked up the story.

COVID-19: Health care specialists need personal protective equipment
CNN (March 17) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health epidemiology professor Anne Rimoin about the Trump Administration's reported decisions to allow states more authority over coronavirus testing and access to federal resources. "The biggest thing is the personal protective equipment, what we call PPE," Rimoin said. "We know hospitals are running out. We have to protect our health care workers. They are our most precious resource with this issue. They're on the front lines and exposed without what they need to protect themselves."

COVID-19: Groundbreaking clinical developments in the fight
MSNBC (March 16) interviewed UCLA Fielding School of Public Health epidemiology professor Anne Rimoin on how to contain the pandemic. Rimoin, appeared alongside Ralph Baric, professor at UNC's Department of Microbiology and Immunology, whose team has been working on potential coronavirus cures for the past six years. "This lab has been funded to do this work, and it is so important to have NIH and other funding to be able to do this kind of science, so that's when there is an emergency, this can ramp up quickly and keep moving forward," Rimoin said. "Funding has not been robust for science in general in the last several years, and we're seeing the results of this."

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