Mounting an effective response to COVID-19 isn't just a job for doctors treating patients on the front lines, or for scientists working to develop a vaccine. Because the steps required to manage the spread of this highly contagious disease touch on so many aspects of our lives, an understanding of COVID-19 is important for professionals across a diverse range of fields. Policymakers have to balance public health protections with potential concerns about impacts on the economy and civil liberties; logistics and operations managers have had to maintain essential supply chains while implementing new safety protocols; and educators have had to transition to online learning while also determining whether, when, and how to return to in-person schooling.

Outside of doctors themselves, epidemiologists have been perhaps the most important health professionals helping to navigate our response to the pandemic. These public health experts, including high profile officials such as Dr. Anthony Fauci of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, study the way diseases ‎spread and help develop solutions to mitigate their impacts. Because health statistics are central to epidemiology, these professionals often rely on Python programming and other data science tools to uncover patterns and assist with data analysis. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, epidemiologists typically have a masters degree in public health and earn a median annual salary of $70,990.

Absolutely. The pandemic has made online education more important in all areas, and Coursera now offers a variety of courses on COVID-19 to help learners from all backgrounds better understand this disease. These include courses on topics such as COVID-19 clinical studies, contact tracing, mental health, and more offered by top-ranked universities such as Johns Hopkins University, the University of Houston, the University of Florida, and Imperial College London.

If you’re interested in data science, Coursera also offers Guided Projects with hands-on tutorials to demonstrate how data analysis is used in epidemiology. And, if you aspire to a career in epidemiology or public health yourself, you can even pursue a full-fledged Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from Imperial College London, a leading institution in global efforts to understand this pandemic.