Sonya Stokes

Sonya Stokes is an assistant professor at Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine in the division of emergency medicine and global health, a fellow at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in the division of biosecurity, and a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations. She specializes in health systems strengthening in low- and middle-income countries, and her research focuses on increasing access to trauma and acute care in resource-limited settings. During the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in New York City, Stokes was part of the frontline response treating patients in the emergency department. In addition to her clinical work, she served on the Mount Sinai Health System Best Practices Committee for evaluating and managing COVID-19 patients in the emergency department, and she contributed to the COVID-19 mass casualty triage protocol. Stokes received her medical degree from the University of California, Davis School of Medicine, and she completed her fellowship training in international emergency medicine at Columbia University Medical Center where she also earned a master of public health in the program on forced migration and humanitarian assistance. She is a current member of the Council on Foreign Relations Independent Task Force on Preparing for the Next Pandemic, and she continues practicing emergency medicine in New York City. 

Healthcare workers walk through Mount Sinai Hospital as the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in New York, U.S., April 5, 2020.
Urbanization

One Year From the Front Lines of COVID-19 in New York City

by Sonya Stokes

Frontline providers found a solution to communication breakdown during the pandemic: talking to each other

Addressing pandemic preparedness after COVID-19 will require going deeper than the surface. Here a worker sanitizes surfaces inside the Inox Leisure movie theatre in Mumbai, India, October 13, 2020. The photo is striking, showing a worker spraying disinfectant wearing a blue suit descending down a theater staircase where all the seats and carpet are bright red. REUTERS/Niharika Kulkarni
Trade

Back to Basics After COVID-19

by Sonya Stokes

Investing in Primary Care Now Will Prepare the U.S. for the Next Pandemic

Health-care workers, nurses, and doctors, protesting under the movement called "Take Care of Care" during the coronavirus crisis, at the MontLegia CHC Hospital in Liege, Belgium, on May 15, 2020. The photo shows a large number of health workers standing together and holding up a heart symbol above their heads. REUTERS/Yves Herman
Governance

Collateral Damage of the U.S. Withdrawal from the WHO: Frontline Responders

by Sonya Stokes

Retreating from WHO in the middle of a pandemic dishonors and endangers health-care workers at home and around the globe

Traders sit near a deserted crossing point between Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus on March 23, 2020. The photo shows a number of women sitting in front of a storefront painted blue and adorned by a large cartoon figure of a cow giving a thumb's up. REUTERS/Olivia Acland
Poverty

Epidemics and Infodemics in the Post-Truth Era, from Ebola to COVID-19

by Sonya Stokes

Social media can be a powerful weapon in the post-truth era. Or it can be a catalyst for the next global health disaster