In this project, Dr. Meryle Weinstein and an interdisciplinary research team will use the NYC Student Population Health Registry (SPHR), a database covering over one million public school students, to analyze the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children. The core goal is to investigate how disruptions created during the pandemic—including changes in health and education—have influenced long-term disparities in outcomes like obesity, mental health issues, and academic decline. The team will specifically examine vaccination rates in mitigating or worsening these sustained health and educational inequities.

This research project, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is a collaboration with NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine (GSOM), the University of Delaware, Syracuse University and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.