Sonya Stokes

Sonya Stokes is an emergency physician and term member at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she serves on the Independent Task Force on Preparing for the Next Pandemic. During the first wave of COVID-19 in New York City, Dr. Stokes co-authored the mass casualty protocol for evaluating and managing COVID-19 patients in the emergency department. She is a former fellow in the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, and she currently serves on the scientific advisory board for the Integrated Bioscience and Built Environment Consortium.

Dr. 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 specializes in health systems strengthening in limited-resource settings with a focus on increasing access to trauma and acute care services in conflict-impacted regions including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan. She lives in New York City. 

 

the family of Dr. Lorna Breen
Governance

When Someone Great Is Gone

by Sonya Stokes

Remembering Dr. Lorna Breen

A nurse, seen in profile with a long row of American flags behind her, watches an ambulance driving away outside of Elmhurst Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic, in Queens, New York, on April 20, 2020.
Governance

No Fall Zone

by Sonya Stokes, Craig Spencer

This winter, there is zero room for error in emergency medicine

A medical worker passes by street art featuring a frontline worker in a mask outside a clinic in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during the COVID-19 pandemic, on October 27, 2020.
Governance

Not Your Canaries in the Coal Mine

by Sonya Stokes, Kavita Patel

New CDC guidelines fail to protect frontline workers from COVID-19

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