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Isaac Fung

 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5496-2529
20062026

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About

Biography and Research Interests
Dr. Isaac Chun-Hai Fung is an infectious disease epidemiologist with experience in mathematical modeling, data analysis, and digital health. He investigates the transmission of communicable diseases with a focus on respiratory infections and environmentally transmitted infections. He applied a variety of methods, from classical statistical methods to machine learning and mathematical modeling, to address public health problems and to provide solutions to policy-makers. He is especially interested in assisting public health agencies in their responses to public health emergencies.
 
Epidemiology of respiratory infections. Since 2020, Dr. Fung established his expertise in COVID-19 epidemiology, focusing on the estimation of SARS-CoV-2 transmission potential and the effects of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). In April 2020, his team published 2 papers: (1) COVID-19 epidemic doubling time in China, and (2) COVID-19 reproduction number in Iran. Dr. Fung extended the epidemic doubling time analysis to China's prefecture level. Since then, Dr. Fung and his students completed a series of US/Canada state/province-level analysis of COVID-19 time-varying reproduction number (Rt) and the effect of NPIs.
  • Dr. Fung graduated two DrPH epidemiology students with an emphasis on respiratory infections: Sylvia Ofori (2022) and Xinyi Hua (2024).
    • Dr. Ofori's dissertation was on "Pharmaceutical and Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions Against Respiratory Tract Infectious Diseases".
    • Dr. Hua's dissertation was on "COVID-19 Disease Burden and Transmission Dynamics: Epidemiological, Statistical, and Mathematical Approaches."
Digital health. From 2013 to 2019, Dr. Fung's prior research focus was social media data analysis for public health surveillance and health communication and the applications of digital technologies for public health interventions.  Examples of his digital health projects included: Surveillance of unplanned school closures through social media platforms, and analysis of social media posts pertinent to public health emergencies, such as Ebola, MERS and Zika. 
  • Dr. Fung graduated one DrPH epidemiology student with an emphasis on social media data analysis: Kamalich Muniz-Rodriguez (2020).
    • Dr. Muniz-Rodriguez's dissertation was on "Social Media Data Analysis, a Tool for Public Health Emergency Management During Natural Disasters."
Academic training. Prior to his Georgia Southern's faculty appointment, Dr. Fung was a Prevention Effectiveness Fellow at the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2011-13) and a postdoc at the University of Georgia Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics (2009-11). He earned his PhD from the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, and his MSc in Control of Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He graduated from Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge (Natural Sciences - Biological Science).
 
Discipline: Epidemiology

Teaching interests

Epidemiology of Infectious diseases; mathematical modeling of infectious disease transmission dynamics

Related links & documents

Education/Academic qualification

Ph.D. in Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London

2005 → 2009

M.S. in Control of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

2004 → 2005

B.A. in Natural Sciences (Biological), University of Cambridge

2000 → 2003

Disciplines

  • Infectious Disease
  • Epidemiology

Research Interests

  • Infectious disease epidemiology
  • Outbreak responses
  • Emergency preparedness
  • Digital health
  • Health communication
  • COVID-19
  • Influenza

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  1. SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
    SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
  2. SDG 5 - Gender Equality
    SDG 5 Gender Equality
  3. SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation
    SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation
  4. SDG 14 - Life Below Water
    SDG 14 Life Below Water
  5. SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
    SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

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