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COVID-19

Sep 30
Headshot of John Walsh with name and faculty titles

Professor John Walsh: The Challenges and Opportunities of Teaching Online

By COVID-19, Lifespan Health, Podcast, Technology

Professor John Walsh, vice dean of education at the USC Leonard Davis School joins Professor George Shannon, holder of the Kevin Xu Chair in Gerontology for a conversation on how teachers and students can make the most of online instruction and discuss how our life experiences can help us meet this challenging moment in time, both in the classroom and outside of it.

Quotes from this episode:

John Walsh

On isolation

Many students are feeling isolated right now and it’s obviously forced isolation and they just want to connect. The premed class I’m teaching right now,  I have 50 students. And, and so here we are, two weeks into the semester and class ends at the hour 50-minute mark, and I’m having, 10 to 15 students stay afterward just to hang out and, talk about anything. And they just want to feel connected and, that’s a good thing because we got to help them through this.

On always learning

I always tell my students that I’ve never stopped being a student and that I always want to keep learning. And, so I will deliver a lecture, we’ll get centered on a topic and philosophically, I know from my reading and from looking at websites or watching videos about how what we’re discussing applies to furthering society or helping you in the workplace. But I love hearing the actual application from students where they’re down, boots on the ground, and they’ve experienced this. And they may even say,” those guideline or those principles are all good,  however, in my experience… ” And, and then you put that in your back pocket… and then you use that in future lectures. I’m constantly learning and I tell the students,, I don’t know everything and I really want to learn from you.

On online classrooms:

Well, I think this is a game-changer. It was forced down our throats with a pandemic, but this is a game-changer. We, as a program have always been a leader at USC in terms of online education and we can’t stop being a leader.  We just got to keep up on it.  These platforms do offer a level of interactivity that we weren’t utilizing before.

On collaborative exams

I was just so amazed and so excited watching the active learning that went on during these collaborative exams. I know now that when we are back in session, // I’m going to be sitting there in the auditorium, I’m going to break people up into groups of six or seven, and they’re going to do the collaborative exam right there in the auditorium because it’s, I think it’s a really cool way to learn.

George Shannon

On his transition from elevator repairman to successful actor to USC professor

I was 55 years old. I didn’t have an undergraduate degree. So I spent two years in undergrad getting my undergraduate degree because I had hundreds of units where they were scattered all over in different things that I had touched upon. And then I went into the master’s program and did that in two years and was accepted into the PhD program. And so yeah, so that’s a long-winded way of saying there are, there are lots of things that you can do that come to an unexpectedly. I always say, if someone opens a door for you, don’t slam it in their face, go walk in and see what’s going on, because it might be an opportunity that can change your life in a very positive way as it did for me.  I had four kids and a couple of wives and lots of bills and, and  I survived all of that because I  didn’t turn my back on something that I had never thought of before.

If something presents a change or a mode that you’re not expecting, it may be something that can lead you to something that’s even more exciting that gives your life more meaning. People ask me if I’m thinking about retiring and I’m astonished. Of course, I’m, first of all, astonished that I’m 80 years old, but secondly, I’m further astonished that anyone would think that I would ever consider retiring as long as I  have my faculties about me and I’m able to perform. Because life is an endless performance as long as it lasts.

On online classes

in some ways, from my perspective, I like Zoom because I have on the screen the 40 or 50 students, so I may have in class and I can pick them out and ask them specific questions instead of being in the auditorium where they’re all trying to hide in the back of the room. And so I, I find there are some really some positives from this experience.

Jun 01
Headshot of Pinchas Cohen with name and titles

Dean Pinchas Cohen: COVID-19 Risk Factors and Research Directions for Older Adults

By COVID-19, Lifespan Health, Podcast, Research

Pinchas Cohen, USC Leonard Davis School dean and a professor of gerontology, medicine and biological sciences, joins Chief Communications Officer Orli Belman in a conversation about COVID-19 risk factors and research directions, with a focus on how research focused on delaying aging processes hold promise for improving outcomes for older adults.

Quotes from this episode

On the relationship between age and mortality rates

“Older adults are so much more dramatically affected by this terrible pandemic. While of course middle-aged people and young people are affected by this and their rate of infection can be very high, the mortality of younger people is very, very small, but rises dramatically as people age.”

On vaccine response rates and older adults

“We all know that vaccines are the number one goal for the biomedical industry right now, but some of you may or may not be familiar with the fact that vaccines are extremely efficient in young people, but among older adults, the response to vaccination is sometime very ineffective. For example, flu vaccine has a non-responsiveness rate that approaches 50% in older adults, which are of course the group that needs it the most.”

On the need to develop cytokine storm blockers

“When people look at what actually causes people to perish from COVID 19, it’s not so much the viral pneumonia that they suffer from, but rather something known as a cytokine storm that the body responds to the virus was this secretion of inflammatory cytokines like, something called interleukin six and TNF alpha and interferon, which the body then responds to with really shutting down of the lung and eventually death. So the development of blockers of this cytokine storm, are going to be critical. And that’s an area that geroscience has been leading for many years.”

On the importance of  gerontology and geroscience research

“Post-COVID-19, I think that gerontology education will only become more important. Furthermore, research on the policy and social impact of the pandemic will be prioritized. Our leaders, our thinkers will continue to be at the forefront of that. Research into geroscience, particularly immunosenescence and inflammaging will be a major goal for the National Institutes of Health. Prevention of chronic disease, which has been really the biggest risk factor for older adults will return as a national priority.”

On how coronaviruses differ from influenza viruses

“Coronaviruses are quite different from influenza viruses. They’re biologically unique, very separate. Also, influenza viruses affect primarily the airways, while coronaviruses can attack various parts of the body, but they’re deadly when they end up attacking the lungs, which influenza does not. Influenza predisposes the lungs to bacterial infections, which could be lethal. But they’re quite distinct. That’s why there are limited lessons that we can learn from influenza when it comes to COVID 19. But we do have enough previous knowledge to allow us to deal with this crisis and for future crises.”

On the roles of age, genetic and underlying conditions

“Young people get infected just as easily as old people. The difference is that many young people have a completely asymptomatic course that they’re able to have the virus go through their system, develop antibodies, and never have any sign or symptom. The genetic determinants of who is going to get illness as opposed to who’s going to remain asymptomatic is something that we totally don’t understand. Obviously having poor health is important..but there’s also going to be genetic reasons why some people develop or don’t develop severe disease and then whether or not you’re going to survive, you know, be really sick and, and get better, whether you’re going to have a very, very bad outcome.”

On what matters most

“At a time of great global uncertainty, what matters most is clear now than ever before. Health matters, older adults matter, science and especially geroscience matter. I think that this is going to be a challenging year ahead of us, but together we will prevail.”

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