This introductory epidemiology book provides an easy approach to understanding infectious disease outbreaks. This book is perfect for anyone with an ambition to learn about health-related concepts and take on an intellectual challenge, including those with little to no background in public health. The book aims to spread awareness about epidemiology so that people can understand the impact of their actions and act responsibly in the future, as well as make the general population more prepared for the next public health crisis. It provides a friendly introduction to topics such as infectious diseases, epidemiological study designs, and a step-by-step breakdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. Editorial Reviews: "Stephanie, great job on this book. I enjoyed reading it and I see you did lots of research into it and you were right to the point. It reads very nicely and clearly. You are set to become a successful epidemiologist!!" - Dr. Roy Chemaly, MD, Director of Infection Control, MD Anderson Cancer Center; Professor of Epidemiology, University of Texas School of Public Health "Brilliant, easy-to-read, and an amazing resource for every ambitious epidemiology student. Epidemiology Unmasked provides a gentle introduction to the hallmark of public health—epidemiology. I read the book from beginning to end, and every moment was full of enjoyment and packed with information. The book serves a variety of purposes: a fun read for anyone, a textbook for gifted students, a scholarly guide for science competitions, among several others." - Dr. Zhaoming He, Professor of Bioengineering, Texas Tech University

How can we keep up with the deluge of information about COVID-19 and tell which parts are most important and trustworthy?We read: 'Scientists recommend', 'Experts warn', 'A new model predicts'. How do scientific experts come up with their recommendations? What do their predictions really mean for us, for our friends, and our families?How can we make rational decisions? And how can we have sensible conversations about the pandemic when we disagree?These are the questions that this book is trying to address.It is written in the form of dialogues. Alice, a student of epidemiology, explains the science to three of her fellow students who have a lot of questions for her. The students have the same concerns that we all share to varying degrees: What the pandemic is doing to our health, our economy, and our cherished freedoms. In their conversations, they discover how the science relates to these questions.The book focuses on epidemiology, the science of how infections spread and how the spread can be mitigated. The science of how many infections can be prevented by certain kinds of actions. This is what we need to understand if we want to act wisely, as individuals and as a society.The author's goal is to help the reader think about the COVID-19 pandemic like an epidemiologist. About the various preventive measures, what they are trying to accomplish, what the obstacles are. About what is likely to be most effective in the long run at moderate economic and personal cost. About the likely consequences of personal decisions. About how to best protect oneself and others while allowing all of us to lead lives that are as close as possible to normal.While some chapters present slightly more advanced material than others, no scientific background is needed to follow the conversations. The technical concepts are explained in small steps and the occasional calculations in the book require only high-school mathematics.Related Link(s)

Recipient of the 2019 NAGC Curriculum Award It is a germy world out there, and students are naturally curious about this hidden world. Microscopic Monsters and the Scientists Who Slay Them, a 30-lesson interdisciplinary science unit: Is designed to teach high-ability fourth and fifth graders how to think like real-world epidemiologists. Was designed using the research-based Integrated Curriculum Model. Features challenging problem-based learning tasks and engaging resources. Includes detailed teacher instructions and suggestions for differentiation. Is winner of the National Association for Gifted Children's curriculum award. In unit, students apply principles of epidemiology and microbiology to respond to a fictional epidemic and its effect on their town, all while building an understanding of the perseverance required to detect, track, and stop epidemics through the experiences of real-life epidemiologists and exploring career paths available in the diverse fields of medicine and microbiology. Suggestions and guidance are included on how teachers can adjust the rigor of learning tasks based on students' interests and needs. Grades 4-5

Shows how the most creative minds in science used tools that can help us improve our creative abilities. Geniuses are not omnipotent. They are just very skilled at employing the creativity toolbox highlighted in this book, including finding the right question, observation, analogy, changing point of view, dissection, reorganization, the power of groups, and frame shifting.

Masks have been a ubiquitous and oft-politicized aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Years of painstakingly organized pre-pandemic planning documents led public health experts to initially discourage the use of masks, or even insinuate that they could lead to increased rates of spread. Yet seemingly in a matter of days in spring 2020, leading infectious disease scientists and organizations reversed their previous positions and recommended masking as the key tool to slow the spread of COVID and dramatically reduce infections. Unmasked tells the story of how effective or ineffective masks and mask mandate policies were in impacting the trajectory of the pandemic throughout the world. Author Ian Miller covers the earliest days of the pandemic, from experts such as Dr. Anthony Fauci contradicting their previous statements and recommending masks as the most important policy intervention against the spread of COVID, to the months afterward as many locations around the globe mandated masks in nearly all public settings. With easy-to-understand charts and visual aids, along with detailed, clear explanations of the dramatic shift in policy and expectations, Unmasked makes the data-driven case that masks might not have achieved the goals that Fauci and other public health experts created.

Hypocrisy Unmasked explores the motives, meanings, and mechanisms of hypocrisy, challenging two principal psychoanalytic assumptions: First, that hypocrisy expresses deviant, uncontrollable impulses or follows exclusively from superego weakness; and second, that it can be understood solely in terms of intrapsychic factors without reference to the influences of the field. Ronald C. Naso argues that each of these assumptions devolve into criticisms rather than explanations and demonstrates that hypocrisy represents a compromise among intrapsychic, interpersonal, situational, and cultural/linguistic forces in an individual life. Hypocrisy Unmasked accords a healthy respect to the hypocrite's existentiality, including variables like opportunity and chance, and focuses on situations where the hypocrite's desires differ from those of others and on the moral principles that count in decision-making rather than how they are subsequently rationalized. Ultimately, hypocrisy exposes the ineradicable moral ambiguity of the human condition and the irreconcilability of desires and obligations.

First edition published in 2002. Second edition published in 2008.