CUNY Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health

Study tests video messaging as strategy to boost COVID vaccination rates - CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy A new study by Assistant Professor Rachael Piltch-Loeb, Affiliated Investigator Angela Parcesepe, Distinguished Professor Denis Nash, and colleagues from the CUNY Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health (ISPH) examined whether theory-enhanced video messaging could...

Check out this new study by #CUNYSPH study by Asst. Prof. Rachael Piltch-Loeb, Affiliated Investigator Angela Parcesepe, Distinguished Prof. Denis Nash & colleagues at CUNY Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health
cunysph.me/4oPKXI7

🎉 Huge congratulations to the @etedashboardny.bsky.social ETE Dashboard team on 10 years of impact!
👏 Shoutout to the incredible team members who have made this work possible: Benjamin Katz, Anay Patel, Rebecca Zimba, Kathy Mills, Amanda Berry, and @denis-nash.bsky.social

📢 Save the date! Next month, @ajjacobs.bsky.social “human guinea pig” & 4x @nytimes.com bestselling author will lead the talk: Battling Truth Decay: Communicating nuance in a world hooked on fast factoids
🗓️Wed, Oct 22 | 5–6:30PM
📍@cunysph.bsky.social 55 W 125th St
🎟️Register: cunysph.me/Jacobs

🎉 Great news from @cunysph.bsky.social! CUNY ISPH’s Dr. Elizabeth Kelvin has been appointed Interim Associate Dean for Research at @cunysph.bsky.social. We are delighted that the Office of Sponsored Projects & Research will be guided by such dedicated and talented leadership. Congrats, Dr. Kelvin! 👏

🤝 Meet a CUNY ISPH Dashboard team member!

Anay Patel works on three dashboards:
@etedashboardny.bsky.social , @hcvdashboardny.bsky.social, and the @stidashboardny.bsky.social.

Visit the CUNY ISPH website to read more about Anay’s work.
cunyisph.org/team/anay-pa...

🐔As H5N1 spreads across the U.S., new research led by Rachael Piltch-Loeb reveals that rural residents are:
⚠️More aware of bird flu
🥛Less likely to change their diet, even if CDC recommends it
💉Just as willing to vaccinate as their urban peers

🔗 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40684319/

🇺🇬 In Uganda, 📱mobile phones are expanding access to health care, but frequent number changes are impacting HIV follow-ups and vaccine outreach.
📢 New research from @kreniske.bsky.social & colleagues.
🔗 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40646114/

🤝 Meet a CUNY ISPH Investigator! @sarabadjis.bsky.social is interested in how health, wellbeing, and access to services vary by cumulative environmental and social exposures.
Visit the CUNY ISPH website to read more about Sophia’s work. lnkd.in/eA49A63w

📘 Health literacy isn’t just about understanding instructions, it’s also about communicating, thinking critically, and making informed choices. Read @cunyisph.bsky.social's @drfleary.bsky.social ‪& Monique Millington study
🔗 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40558381/%E2...

New research from @cunysph.bsky.social epidemiology doctoral student Claudia Jimenez-Castro & @cunyisph.bsky.social's Elizabeth Kelvin shows states with stronger LGBTQ+ equality laws had higher mpox vaccination coverage.
🏳️‍🌈 Inclusive policies boost care access.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40582381/

“We’re Going to Be Here.” A new study on NYC’s revised Ryan White Part A HIV Care Coord Pgrm centers provider voices on what works and what doesn't. Flexibility helps. Burnout hurts. Investment in care teams is essential. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40501225/ #HIVCare #PublicHealth #HealthEquity

Evidence from two rounds of Population HIV Impact Assessments of progress towards HIV epidemic control in adolescents aged 15–19 years in Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, and Zimbabwe: a cross-sectional stu... There are more than 1 million adolescents aged 15–19 years living with HIV globally. Using two rounds of the Population HIV Impact Assessments (PHIAs)…

1st post here 😅🚨 Intervention & continued medication delivery improvements remain critical for #adolescents & #HIV in Africa!!

Hyped for this new @lancetgh.bsky.social‬ paper led by my ‪@cunysph.bsky.social‬ colleague Dr. Teasdale!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

@denis-nash.bsky.social was on the @thebrianlehrershow.bsky.social and talked about NIH grant cancellations, FDA’s new COVID vax authorization, the MAHA report on kids' health, and why CUNY matters more than ever. 🎓🗽

@denis-nash.bsky.social, Executive Director @cunyisph.bsky.social has been selected for the Fulbright-Tocqueville Distinguished Chair Award for 2025–26 to work with colleagues in France on the population health impacts of climate change and other large-scale exposures. cunyisph.org/denis-nash-i...

Barriers to initial COVID-19 booster among US adults who completed a primary vaccine series in the CHASING COVID cohort, September 2021-October 2022 - PubMed It is crucial to understand factors associated with COVID-19 booster uptake in the United States given the updated COVID-19 vaccine recommendations. Using data from a national prospective cohort (n = ...

🦠 New study: Structural barriers still impact COVID-19 booster uptake.
📉 Lower uptake seen among those with:
👩‍⚕️Healthcare access barriers
🥗 Food insecurity
🏠 Housing instability
🔗 Read the full study pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39013788/

#COVID19 #HealthEquity #Vaccines #PublicHealth

2/2
🔺 Up to 92K new infections

💀 Up to 51K more deaths

⚠️ Gains could reverse—fast

Global health progress is fragile and vulnerable to funding shocks.

👉 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40313263/

#HIV #GlobalHealth #Rwanda #PEPFAR

1/2 Rwanda has made huge strides in HIV control with PEPFAR support. With PEPFAR funding stalled, now what?

Our modeling study from the Central Africa IeDEA collaboration and led by April D. Kimmel shows if the public health response is diminished, over the next 10 years, Rwanda could see:

CUNY's Research on Vaccine Misinformation Halted by Trump Administration Sixty other CUNY projects have also received stop-work orders from the National Institute of Health, according to a letter from the chancellor.

@healthbeat.org & @thecity.nyc report on the termination of one of our projects.

🔗https://www.healthbeat.org/newyork/2025/04/18/nih-grant-termination-covid-cuny-public-health/
🔗 www.thecity.nyc/2025/04/24/c...

#PublicHealth #NIH #TerminatedScience

We are excited to announce the launch of STI Dashboard NY! This interactive dashboard features data visualizations of key trends of three major #STIs in NYS, which include #chlamydia, #gonorrhea, and #syphilis.

Read more here: bit.ly/stidash

@nysdoh.bsky.social @nychealthy.bsky.social

9/9

🔗 @science.org article: www.science.org/content/arti...

🔗 Our grant description in NIH reporter: reporter.nih.gov/search/Fo-44...

#PublicHealth #Science #Vaccines #NIH #HealthEquity

8/9 Fortunately, we completed the trial and data collection before the project was terminated, and we have multiple papers under review or near submission. We will be appealing the decision, as there is still more work to be done here.

7/9 Many vaccines are developed through NIH-supported research funded by taxpayers. Our research was about maximizing their public health impact—the very reason they were developed in the first place.

6/9 This is a stunning shift—especially as vaccine-preventable diseases like flu, COVID-19, and measles are surging, H5N1 zoonotic spillover is increasingly common, and mis/disinformation continues to erode public trust in science and healthcare.

5/9 NIH is obligated to carefully steward grant awards to ensure taxpayer dollars are used in ways that benefit the American people and improve their quality of life. Your project does not satisfy these criteria...' 🫠

4/9 It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize research activities that focuses gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated and/or explore ways to improve vaccine interest and commitment.

3/9 Several hours later we received an official communication from NIH terminating the project. The stated reason? '...This award no longer effectuates agency priorities.

2/9 The project was a randomized trial testing a brief digital intervention to increase vaccination uptake among people who had been vaccinated in the past.

We first heard the news from reporter at @science.org who was covering the story.

NIH to ax grants on vaccine hesitancy Agency also looking at mRNA vaccines, reflecting vaccine skepticism of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

1/9 NIH has officially decided that research on improving vaccine uptake is no longer a priority...

On Tuesday, our NIH-funded project with Angela Parcesepe, was terminated. 🧵👇

@cunyisph.bsky.social Stands Up for Science 🧪🔬🗽🌐

#StandUpForScience
#Standupforscience2025
#March7Science

Sara Willems from Ghent University spent a day with ISPH. We had a packed day of meetings showcasing some of the work that ISPH is doing, learning about the University of Ghent, and exploring opportunities for collaborations. 🤝

#Collaborations #PublicHealth