David Fraser, MD, an epidemiologist and member of Newtown Quaker Meeting will speak via Zoom on Covid-19: The Epidemiological Basis of Health Policy to Newtown Friends Meeting adult class 9:45 a.m.on First Day (Sunday), September 20, 2020.
Fraser will focus on aspects of the science that are often under-appreciated: Bayes theorem, signal theory (based on WWII weapons research), immunity, and effectiveness of masks. The discussion period is also expected to cover such matters as: reopening schools, vaccine trials, antigen testing, and aspects of the national response to the virus.
David Fraser is an independent consultant with particular interest in epidemiology, international health and education and material culture. Trained in internal medicine and infectious diseases, he led the Federal field investigation of the 1976 Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Philadelphia and oversaw the CDC team that discovered the role of tampons in toxic shock syndrome.
David was as President of Swarthmore College from 1982-91 and headed health, education and housing activities in South Asia and East Africa for the Aga Khan’s Secretariat from 1991-1995, before serving as Executive Director of the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) from 1996-2000.
He also authored A Guide to Weft Twining and Related Structures with Interacting Wefts, the standard work on what may be the oldest textile structure, and co-authored (with Barbara Fraser) Mantles of Merit: Chin Textiles from Myanmar, India and Bangladesh.
He is a Research Associate at The Textile Museum in Washington, DC, a Consulting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, as well as Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition he is a studio artist, specializing in ply-split braiding, whose work has been exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show and the Smithsonian Craft Show. A book describing his work, Ply-split Braided Baskets: Exploring Sculpture in Plain Oblique Twining, was published in 2014
David Fraser grew up in the area and graduated from George School. He lives in Lexington, MA with his wife, Barbara, an attorney. Active in numerous community organizations, David has been Chair of the Board of Pennswood Village in Newtownand Barbara has been Chair of the Board of Mercer Street Friends Center in Trenton, NJ.
Newtown Friends Meeting, co-founded by “Peaceable Kingdom” painter and Quaker minister, Edward Hicks, in 1815, is currently open only for virtual sessions. Regular First Day Education classes (Sunday School) for all ages begin at 9:45 a.m.and Meeting for Worship begins at 11 a.m. – all on Zoom.