The Invisible Shield

This 4-part PBS series tells the story of public health and epidemiology through the lens of the pandemic.

THE INVISIBLE SHIELD at TPT

The Invisible Shield, a four-part documentary series, reveals a little-known truth: that public health saved your life today and you probably don’t even know it. But while public health makes modern life possible, the work itself is often underfunded, undervalued, and misunderstood.

1. THE OLD PLAYBOOK at TPT

History repeats itself. It’s not the first time the world has had to deal with a pandemic, and the push highlights how the public health sector had to go back to work.

2. FOLLOW THE DATA at TPT

Data has been an essential public health tool since at least the seventeenth century. Helping the world understand and mitigate the spread of disease, data has helped us make sense of the threats to our collective health.

3. INOCULATION & INEQUITY at TPT

Public health officials face disinformation, skepticism of science, and distrust in government as they begin vaccinating the public against COVID. Historical injustices and inequities lead to apprehension, forcing public health to refine its approach.

4. THE NEW PLAYBOOK at TPT

With all the challenges the public health sector faces, and life expectancy declining, how will a committed next generation of public health workers going overcome these obstacles?

Secrets in Your Data

There is content that you're supposed to teach when you are a classroom teacher. Usually the product of academic content standards, textbook adoptions, and other processes that take years to develop.

Sometimes new topics arise that students should probably know something about. Maybe pandemics or emerging and widely-adopted technology. I would classify personal data privacy and security as such a topic. Involved technology (phones and websites) seem universally adopted among students. Data brokerage is a $200-million dollar/year industry. Data theft/identity theft/ransomware are growth industries. 

We can wait until approved curriculum is developed and adopted, of course. Or we can at least provide a baseline awareness of the issues. This 15 May 2024 episode of NOVA provides an opportunity.

SECRETS IN YOUR DATA at TPT

Whether you’re on social media or surfing the web, you’re probably sharing more personal data than you realize. That can pose a risk to your privacy – even your safety. But at the same time, big datasets could lead to huge advances in fields like medicine. Host Alok Patel leads a quest to understand what happens to all the data we’re shedding and explores the latest efforts to maximize benefits – without compromising personal privacy.