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Boston Globe
5 hours ago
- Health
- Boston Globe
How Brown University's Pandemic Tracker is filling a gap in federal health data
Nuzzo told the Globe how the Pandemic Tracker, which has nearly 10,000 subscribers, has become a go-to resource for Get Rhode Island News Alerts Sign up to get breaking news and interesting stories from Rhode Island in your inbox each weekday. Enter Email Sign Up Q. The has garnered public attention. Why do you think people look to the newsletter for information? Advertisement Nuzzo: People are worried about potential threats and what it means for them. They're looking for trusted information and unfortunately these days I think people are questioning whether the information coming out of our health agencies is correct. ... One of the reasons why we are also tracking this information is because there had been … a lot of change in terms of what data federal health agencies were sharing. We decided to start going directly to state health departments for information. Advertisement Pandemic Center Director Jennifer Nuzzo at a meeting for a new edition of the Tracking Report. Foreground: Research Assistant Alice Im. Kenneth Zirkel How has data changed since COVID-19? Where I do see a difference is that the How is the information you present different than the CDC website? I don't want to give the sense something nefarious is happening. It's not nefarious. Where we have concerning discrepancies is in interpretation of data. There's a period of time where the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., when getting questions about these Initially, the CDC was only showing a very cursory summary of measles cases. It wasn't showing the breakdown, whether they're hospitalized, or you know, the vaccination status. ... There's now better data on CDC's website, but initially there wasn't. Part of why we're doing this exercise is if something changes we're ready to fill in the gaps. Why is it so surprising that this measles outbreak is happening? United States eliminated measles in 2000. There is no good reason why any country with the technical and financial resources of the United States should have measles, period. It's not to say that other countries haven't struggled with measles outbreaks — they have — including, other high-income countries like us, but measles elimination status is determined by how quickly you respond and contain the outbreaks. Advertisement The latest Pandemic Tracker highlights measles, mpox, avian influenza, cholera, seasonal influenza, COVID-19, and pertussis. What is the importance of tracking these diseases? It's based on what's going on in the world. For instance, a few months ago, we were very actively tracking Are you seeing an influx of people who are craving good, scientific information? I think there's always going to be a role for independent expert voices. People want to hear from people in their community. I do think, now, that people are very worried about the integrity of our health agencies, about funding cuts that make it harder to do the important work and research that keeps people healthy. ... The American people, despite the headlines, trust scientists, they value scientific research, and they want more of it. On the Pandemic Tracker website, you have a program called . Talk about the global pandemic early warning system intended to 'rapidly detect future outbreaks of infectious diseases with epidemic or pandemic potential?' It's part of the Global Health Exemplars Program. We're studying really interesting approaches to surveillance in four low- and middle-income countries. What we're learning is applicable to all countries, but these are countries who are doing things with surveillance that are starting to allow them not to just understand when an outbreak happens and figure that out early, but perhaps to give them a better sense of what are the conditions that make outbreaks more likely to occur. And then, perhaps, take action to prevent them from occurring in the first place. Advertisement Can you talk a little bit about use of wastewater testing? I think one important innovation that came out of the pandemic … is wastewater surveillance and the increased understanding of it as a potential tool for monitoring infections in a community. We are now using wastewater to monitor other things: influenza, mpox, and it's now just starting to be used for measles. We have been seeing signals of measles infections in states that hadn't yet reported measles cases. This is important because we think that measles cases are being under-detected in the US and wastewater data is giving us even more indication of that. On the site there is a 'testing playbook' for biological emergencies. Can you share more about preparedness and response to these emergencies? If we have to think of what's the single biggest thing that went wrong in the US response to COVID, it was that we didn't quickly establish and scale up the availability of testing. It was a well-acknowledged challenge and yet in 2022 when the mpox outbreaks started happening in the United States, yet again, we were hearing clinicians saying, 'I can't get my patient tested.' There were tests available, but it just wasn't where the patients were. We decided to write the testing playbook to better clarify the different approaches to testing to give busy decision-makers a better set of questions to be asking in response to a biological emergency. Advertisement Here are a few ways to follow Brown University SPH's Pandemic Tracker: Pandemic Center Pandemic Center Tracking Report Newsletter This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The Boston Globe's weekly Ocean State Innovators column features a Q&A with Rhode Island innovators who are starting new businesses and nonprofits, conducting groundbreaking research, and reshaping the state's economy. Send tips and suggestions to reporter Alexa Gagosz at . Carlos Muñoz can be reached at
Boston Globe
5 days ago
- Boston Globe
‘We'll help you': Body camera video raises questions about Providence police cooperation with ICE
But in the video released Tuesday night, Providence officers appear to be helping ICE after taking the report of the car crash, including by asking a landlord if she can hand over her keys so ICE doesn't have to break down any doors in her home. A Providence police sergeant is also seen on the video looking at photos of the suspect with ICE, helping them determine if he saw the person through a window. Get Rhode Island News Alerts Sign up to get breaking news and interesting stories from Rhode Island in your inbox each weekday. Enter Email Sign Up 'What is this, if it's not cooperation?' said City Council President Rachel Miller, who, along with other councilors, has asked for an external review. 'Even the perception in the community that Providence police is working with ICE is damaging to overall community safety.' Advertisement When the suspect comes out of the house later, Lieutenant William Brown tells an ICE agent: 'I want your people grabbing him,' adding: 'We'll help you.' The Providence External Review Authority, a civilian panel that oversees the police, plans to review the incident, executive director Ferenc Karoly said. He said he wants to review all of the videos, which have not yet been released. Advertisement 'The PPD supervisor telling ICE, 'we'll help you' isn't a great initial indicator that they did not help ICE with their operation,' Karoly said. A large swath of the 30-minute video is silent while officers are talking to ICE agents, and only one video has been released so far, from a camera worn by Sergeant Peter Salmons. Additional videos from other officers' are being reviewed and will be released, spokesperson Josh Estrella said. Steven Brown, the executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island, noted 'This is precisely the time that the public needs to hear what's being said, if in fact the police are not assisting ICE,' he said. Brown said police should not have stuck around after investigating the car crash. 'By hanging around, Providence police became inextricably involved in the arrest,' Brown said. Perez told the Globe Wednesday he is reviewing whether Salmons violated the body-worn camera policy by muting his camera, but he said he has already determined that officers did not violate the policy that bars cooperation with ICE. 'We understand how certain actions in the video may be interpreted, but it's important to clarify the role of our officers,' Perez said in a statement. 'At no point did they assist in the enforcement efforts of federal laws.' ICE was seeking to detain Ivan Mendoza Meza, who spokesperson James Covington said is in the country illegally and was previously deported to Mexico back in 2019. Advertisement Mendoza Meza is awaiting trial on felony drug charges in Providence from 2023, where he is accused of being a 'key member' of a fentanyl trafficking organization that was being run out of a basement of a Plainfield Street restaurant. ICE says he's a member of the MS-13 gang in Honduras. City ordinance and Providence police policy prohibits officers from helping with civil immigration enforcement, regardless of the reason ICE wants to deport someone, unless there is a criminal warrant issued for a person in Providence police custody. No criminal warrant was issued in this case, Perez said, only an administrative detainer. In the video released Tuesday night, officers on scene initially are taking down the report of a car crash. Sergeant Salmons walks up to an ICE agent and asks, 'what do you guys need from us?' The agent says the man they are looking for is in the basement of a home. He fled from a Toyota pickup truck after the collision with ICE. The video is then muted for 11 minutes, during which time officers are standing around and talking to ICE agents. Later, when audio resumes, officers tape off a section of the neighborhood and are telling neighbors, some of whom are swearing and calling them 'pigs,' to stand behind the tape. Officers say in the video that ICE is waiting to get a warrant so they can go into the Alverson Street house where the suspect is hiding. Around 11:20 a.m., Salmons is seen knocking on the door of the house and speaking to the landlord to ask if anyone needs help evacuating. She says she and her children are trying to go to church. Advertisement 'My concern is separate from everybody else,' Salmons tells her. 'I just want to make sure there's no people in this apartment building or this house that might get hurt if it turns violent.' He then asks her if she can hand over her keys, so that ICE does not have to break down any doors to get the suspect. She agrees. When he returns to where the ICE agents are standing in the backyard, Salmons relays that he saw a Hispanic man in a third floor window. ICE then shows him photos of Mendoza Meza, and they discuss whether he might be the person Salmons saw in the window. The ICE agents previously thought he was in the basement. Ultimately, ICE did not have to raid the home; Mendoza Meza came outside, and was met with both Providence officers and ICE agents on the stoop. He was put in handcuffs by ICE agents, and Providence officers walked next to the agents as he was led into the ICE vehicle. In an interview Wednesday, Perez denied that the Providence police actions constituted cooperation. 'The goal was never to assist,' Perez said. 'It was to minimize harm, avoid escalations and protect bystanders and neighbors.' He noted that in other cities, including Worcester, Mass., Perez said if Mendoza Meza had not come out voluntarily, ICE was preparing to call a SWAT tactical team to go get him inside the house. The landlord also appeared unwilling to talk to ICE, but spoke to the Providence officers. Advertisement 'The context of our officers' presence was critical for de-escalation, not enforcement,' Perez said. 'They sought to maintain calm and reduce tensions.' 'That does not equate to assistance in their operations,' he said. 'This idea of us retreating from a call is unrealistic.' Perez said the lieutenant's offer to 'help' ICE when Mendoza Meza left the house was in reference to crowd control, not helping take him into custody. This was the first time officers have been in this position during an immigration enforcement event since he's been chief, Perez said. Officers had to make split-second decisions, and he said it had a 'positive outcome.' In addition to the police policy prohibiting cooperation with ICE, the rules are enshrined in an ordinance called the Providence Community-Police Relations Act. Miller said the video appears to violate the ordinance, 'and it undermines trust and safety of our community.' She said if residents think Providence police cooperates with ICE, they'll be hesitant to call police when a crime is committed. 'I'm an immigrant myself, I understand the worries,' Perez said. 'We're not immigration officers, and we'll continue to follow our policy. Steph Machado can be reached at
Boston Globe
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Providence asks judge to block police sergeant who beat handcuffed man from returning to active duty
The Get Rhode Island News Alerts Sign up to get breaking news and interesting stories from Rhode Island in your inbox each weekday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Quite simply, Sergeant Hanley's shocking betrayal of the public trust revealed that he is not worthy of the title or fit for the position of 'law enforcement officer,'' the Advertisement April 2020 body camera video, Sgt. Joseph Hanley is seen kicking and verbally berating Rishod Gore, a man whom he was arresting on Tell Street in Providence. Hanley's case was one of several that prompted state lawmakers to Advertisement The changes, which took effect Jan. 1, included a new makeup of the panel, no longer allowing the accused officer to choose any of the panelists. But Hanley's case was heard under the old system. The panel that reinstated Hanley included retired Providence Sergeant Robert Boehm, Hanley's pick; Providence Commander Timothy O'Hara, the city's pick; and Cranston Major Todd Patalano, the neutral pick. Patalano, who was the chair, and Boehm voted to reinstate Hanley to the police force after a 45-day suspension, while O'Hara wanted to fire him. 'We think the LEOBOR panel got it wrong, we don't think Sergeant Hanley should be returned to the job, and we're going to vigorously pursue our appeal,' Smiley told the Globe on Wednesday. The four-page appeal does not get into the specifics of the city's arguments. But Ragosta has said he plans to argue that certain evidence should not have been included in the administrative LEOBOR hearing, including testimony from Hanley that he had been offered a 45-day suspension from then-Commander Tom Verdi in 2020, before the city formally sought to fire him. Hanley's lawyer said the political environment surrounding the murder of George Floyd by police in Minnesota, which happened days after Hanley was arrested for assault, prompted city leaders to seek Hanley's termination. Verdi declined to comment on whether he had offered a suspension. He did not testify before the LEOBOR panel. 'We believe that there were a couple pieces of testimony or evidence taken into consideration in the LEOBOR hearing that should have been inadmissible or irrelevant, and we think that might have tainted the outcome of the panel,' Smiley said. Advertisement Asked if he was willing to negotiate an exit deal with Hanley, Smiley said there were not any negotiations currently underway. He noted that judges often instruct parties to try and come to an agreement. 'That's always an option, if the judge were to make us to do it.' Other cities have paid embattled officers to leave their police departments. The city of Pawtucket Dolan, who had admitted to shooting the teen but said it was in self-defense, was Dolan had the same lawyer as Hanley, Michael Colucci. Colucci praised the LEOBOR panel that A judge convicted Hanley of assault in 2021, but a City leaders say they are under no obligation to provide back pay to Hanley, which would total about $465,000 over the five years he's been suspended. Colucci has said he disagrees with that assessment, but he has not yet filed a court challenge seeking the back pay. Advertisement State Representative Related : 'I'm grateful to Mayor Smiley for appealing a decision which was the failed last gasp of the LEOBOR process, where the one person on the panel who had to deal with the consequences of the ruling was outnumbered by two people who don't have to serve with the violent officer they put back on the street,' Hull said in a statement. 'Let's try to get this right.' Steph Machado can be reached at
Boston Globe
10-07-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
‘That's a risk for me': Health system woes force a R.I. hospital to cancel routine women's care for hundreds of patients
Advertisement These cancellations are part of a wider problem within Rhode Island's health care system, where a primary care shortage is Get Rhode Island News Alerts Sign up to get breaking news and interesting stories from Rhode Island in your inbox each weekday. Enter Email Sign Up Spurgas is one of at least 300 women with annual OB-GYN appointments scheduled at the Newport Women's Health Services at Newport Hospital is owned and operated by the largest health care system in the state — Advertisement The exterior of Newport hospital where hundreds of women have had their OB/GYN appointments cancelled. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff Brown Health spokeswoman Jessica Wharton told the Globe that Newport Women's Health Services was down to just two practitioners, and a new gynecologist wasn't expected to begin working until October. 'We made the difficult decision to temporarily reschedule annual OB-GYN wellness visits originally scheduled for July through September to ensure that we can continue to provide timely and essential care to those with urgent, complex, or high-risk medical needs, including pregnant patients and those with active or serious gynecological concerns,' Wharton said in a statement. Related : Spurgas said she was told that she would be placed on a waitlist in October. But she may seek out care sooner, by finding a new provider in Massachusetts. 'I was in shock. They wouldn't explain at all what was going on,' said Spurgas. 'They just kept saying that it was because of Rhode Island's health care crisis. It was very vague.' Earlier this year, Brown Health's executives were considering closing down a dental center, halting major facility projects at Rhode Island Hospital, and discontinuing labor and delivery services at Newport Hospital in order to save money, according to an email sent by top Brown Health leaders to its managers in May that was obtained by the Globe. Related : The budget problems are not unique to Rhode Island's hospitals, and could become more critical in the coming months. Healthcare providers throughout New England will be affected by impending cuts to Medicaid through the ' Advertisement Many women who do not have an OB-GYN, or cannot afford one, seek reproductive care at Planned Parenthood clinics. But Related : 'Defunding is an attempt by lawmakers to make Planned Parenthood stop caring for patients and stop caring about reproductive freedom,' said Gretchen Raffa, chief policy and advocacy office of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, during a virtual press conference on Monday. 'Make no mistake, this is a covert attack.' At Newport Women's Health Services, visits for new and existing prenatal patients, as well as those with high-risk pregnancies or other medical concerns, are unaffected. Experts say those whose routine checkups were postponed should not be worried about the delayed appointments, but should make sure to reschedule them. Advertisement 'Anyone who has an appointment for a Pap or HPV test that is cancelled should just be clear on what the follow-up plan might be, in terms of why it was taken off the books and if they should reschedule, either with their current provider or someone else,' said Fred Wyand, a senior advisor for the American Sexual Health Association/National Cervical Cancer Coalition. Cervical cancer tends to develop over a number of years, and not all women need to be screened annually, he said. 'If you have a Pap scheduled for Tuesday and for whatever reason you can't receive it, you won't develop cancer on Wednesday, but you don't want to fall out of the system.' 'That's what can happen, we lose the consistency and the regular screenings, and that's really when it can become risky,' he added. Alexa Gagosz can be reached at
Boston Globe
23-06-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Can favorite teen tunes help dementia patients? A Brown University study finds they can.
Advertisement The university's ongoing study, ' how music can be used as a non-pharmacological intervention for people with Get Rhode Island News Alerts Sign up to get breaking news and interesting stories from Rhode Island in your inbox each weekday. Enter Email Sign Up McCreedy, who has a bachelor's degree in music therapy and psychology, was a music therapist and is a music lover who plays the flute, piano, and guitar. Her experience with dementia is both 'professional and personal.' She had a grandmother who had Alzheimer's disease and used to play the organ at an Irish Catholic church in Chicago. In later stages of dementia, McCreedy's grandmother could always connect with old Irish songs. '' Advertisement McCreedy shared the results of the initial phase of the study, which began and ended in 2019. Q. Tell us about the Music and Memory study. McCreedy: The principal investigator for the Music and Memory study is Vincent Moore. We randomly assigned nursing homes to either receive the early preferred music intervention or the usual care, which could include group music. Individual patients might listen to music, but the real question was, can this early preferred music (ages 16 to 26) — the songs you listened to in high school with your friends, songs you got married to — be used at early signs of agitation, with the goal of reducing the burden of agitated behaviors in people living with dementia? And, can it help reduce the use of antipsychotics and other medications sometimes used to manage agitation, which can have dangerous side effects? The idea was, if we could intervene early with a safe and efficacious treatment, could we both decrease the behaviors and need for subsequent medication management? What were some of the key findings? The study showed that... early preferred music reduced the frequency of verbally agitated behaviors in people living in nursing homes who have dementia. That's the main finding. ... Then the question is, do you decrease the medications that sometimes are used to manage the behavior? We did look at antipsychotics and we found that it does look like it reduces it, but ... we can't say definitively. We did not find that the intervention reduced physically agitated behaviors. Advertisement Which sites participated in the study? It was 976 residents from 54 nursing homes, 27 treatment centers, and 27 control. They were in the Midwest, in the central D.C. metro area, and in the South. We had a pretty racially diverse sample. About 25 percent of our sample was African American. What do you do if you don't know a resident's musical preference? We have a paper that shows it took 2 1/2 hours on average – or two or three sittings – to find residents' musical preference. Often, you're in a situation where someone is a good candidate for intervention, but we don't have any idea what their musical preference is. We started with Billboard lists in different genres and different decades, and we've modified them to be a little more regionally specific, site specific, so we can get a bit more tailored to the top 10. An activity staff sat and played the music for the resident and looked for positive responses — tapping, vocalizations of any sort, just an awakening or increase in attention. Do you see your research being used in emotion recognition apps, artificial intelligence, or mental health tools? Yes, although I think that there's big barriers to scale here and so we're trying to target the different pieces that affect getting this to everybody, especially older adults living with dementia, wherever they are living. But there could be broader uses of preferred music for reducing isolation and loneliness in healthy adults. ... We have a pilot to look at smartwatches and map the human-observed agitation, which is what we do a lot of in our lab. There's a lot we could do if we know when a person is starting to get agitated. We're thinking about technology in the form of consumer wearables to detect agitation and making playlists based on affect and response. Advertisement Tell us about the effort that was needed to gather the data for this study? This research would not be possible — 100 percent — without our nursing home partners and the staff that are already working so very hard. This is one of those environments that the people are doing the best work in, not getting enough pay for what they do. I would recommend everybody go and volunteer at a nursing home and see how hard these folks are working and how much they care. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. The Boston Globe's weekly Ocean State Innovators column features a Q&A with Rhode Island innovators who are starting new businesses and nonprofits, conducting groundbreaking research, and reshaping the state's economy. Send tips and suggestions to . Carlos Muñoz can be reached at
