TAMPA — It’s no secret that COVID-19 has changed the way health care professionals go about their daily lives. 

Many have found themselves taking on new roles they never would have imagined. 

Before the pandemic, the average person probably couldn’t tell you what an epidemiologist does. Now, the scientists who study the spread of diseases are are constantly finding themselves in the limelight.

Jason Salemi is an associate professor at the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health. He's also been an epidemiologist for nearly two decades.

“Just getting ready for Fall semester,” he said, speaking with Spectrum Bay News 9. “You’re really behind the scenes. Nobody really pays attention to you unless a calamity happens."

Salemi's main focus is maternal and child health, but since the start of the pandemic, his work has expanded — a lot.

“Even though it seems like we’ve been doing COVID-19 about 99% of the time, we’re doing a balance of different things. So, I obviously have a ton of monitors. People make fun of me for all the monitors I have,” he said.

While others in his profession may be weighing into the pandemic's political debates, Salemi says he prefers to let the data do all the talking.

“It’s been interesting, especially from the media perspective. I think I had done maybe two or three media interviews on my research ever, mostly for newspapers local news organizations. Since COVID-19 started, I’ve done more than 330 different media stories,” he said.

Salemi collaborates with the CDC, the Florida Department of Health, and now you’ll find him sharing statistics all the time for Hillsborough County.

“Since I’m a teacher at heart, I like to make people or help people to understand numbers and data and dense information that is hard to wade through,” Salemi said.

He admits, though, it can be difficult.

Salemi says, in his personal life, she shares many of the same concerns as everyone else. He has elderly parents and is a father of a three-year-old.

“The ten different calls I’ve gotten where people are pretty angry, they’ve heard me just present to the board of county commissioners, and they’re not happy about what I’ve had to say. When I’ve had a discussion with them, we come to maybe not an agreement, but a mutual respect for each other’s opinions,” Salemi said.

Sometimes that’s all he can hope for as he does his best to inform the public.

“More than the research, more than just about anything that I do right now, more than the data which I love data is interacting with students and training tomorrow’s leaders. It’s amazing. I think we’re going to be in very good hands,” Salemi said.