In the News: Shannon Monnat

COVID-19 mortality risk is not distributed equally across the U.S. Among rural counties, the average daily increase in COVID-19 mortality rates has been significantly higher in counties with the largest percentages of Black and Hispanic residents.

"Disability, obesity, and poor mental health all affect our long-term economic sustainability and social well-being. The underlying causes of many of these issues are deeply connected," says Shannon Monnat, Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion. "Social scientists are in a prime position to identify underlying social, economic, and policy-related mechanisms, and strategies to mitigate them."

Residents of Ohio's most rural counties are at high risk of hospitalization and death due to COVID-19.

COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania have been concentrated in eastern urban counties this far. However, the 14-day incident rate has recently begun increasing in several rural counties that have high prevalence of several chronic health conditions that increase risk of severe complications and death from COVID-19.

As New York’s regions move through their various phases of reopening businesses and recreations activities, policymakers and residents should be mindful of the underlying health vulnerabilities and the higher COVID-19 mortality risk in several of NY’s rural counties. Is your county at high risk?

"This is just another example of the negative health impacts of structural racism," says Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion. "Across all institutions, blacks are disadvantaged."

"Without widespread testing and without knowing the infection rate, we can’t responsibly predict when things could open back up," says Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion.

"If people aren’t being tested, you’re risking not only spread, but greater severity of the illness," says Shannon Monnat, Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion.

"A crisis like COVID-19 is bound to exacerbate existing racial-ethnic and socio-economic disparities. Not only within the healthcare system, and in terms of health outcomes, but also within the criminal justice system," says Shannon Monnat, Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion.

"At the front end, not testing these groups [poor and racial-ethnic minority populations] at the same level is increasing the risk of fatality rates," says Shannon Monnat, Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion.

Shannon Monnat, the Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion, has received a grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation for her project, which is designed to improve education for health care providers concerning Plans of Safe Care (POSC) for mothers with addiction and for babies who suffered opioid exposure prior to their birth. 

"While life expectancy has continued to improve in large highly educated urban hubs, life expectancy declines have been much more pronounced in former industrial cities, much of Appalachia, and in many small towns and cities across America’s heartland," says Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion.

A group comprised of four researchers — representing the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and the Maxwell X Lab — will receive approximately $500,000 over three years in support of their research on different opioid court treatment interventions across New York State.