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Ongoing Infodemic: How People in Eight Countries Access and Rate News and Information About Coronavirus a Year into the Pandemic
From the Executive Summary: "In this report, we use survey data collected in April 2021 to document and understand how people in eight countries (Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Spain, the UK, and the US) accessed news and information about COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] more than a year into the global pandemic. We examine how they rate the trustworthiness of the different sources and platforms they rely on, how much misinformation they say they encounter, and how they see vaccines. For six of the countries (where we have comparable data from April 2020), we track changes over the last year."
University of Oxford. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
Kleis Nielsen, Rasmus; Schulz, Anne (Communication specialist); Fletcher, Richard, 1984-
2021-05
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Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Health Insurance Claims for High-Burden Diseases in the Philippines
From the Introduction: "As COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] continues to spread, governments are focused on tracking and managing COVID-19 cases and deaths. However, these numbers fail to capture the broader health impacts of the pandemic. In many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where health information and vital registry systems are relatively weak, the spillover health effects of the pandemic are seldom measured (Roberton, et al., 2020; Mikkelsen, Phillips, AbouZahr, & Setel, 2015). The Philippines has been severely affected by the pandemic. As of April 4, 2021, the country recorded 800,000 confirmed COVID 19 cases and 13,000 deaths (Department of Health, 2021). However, behind these numbers is the growing burden of non-COVID illnesses. [...] A better understanding of the direct and indirect health consequences of the pandemic would allow decision-makers to implement a more holistic and calibrated public health response. For this reason, we assess the extent and duration of changes in the use of essential health services in the Philippines. We analyzed the health insurance claims data from the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation or PhilHealth. We obtained monthly insurance claims of twelve (12) high burden diseases and the five (5) most common procedures from January 2018 to September 2020. These twelve (12) diseases account for about 50% of the total disease burden of the country (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2021)."
Center for Global Development
Gilbert Ulep, Valerie; Paterno, Anton; Uy, Jhanna . . .
2021-05
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Reopening Under Uncertainty: Stress-Testing California's COVID-19 Exit Strategy
From the Webpage: "The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic required significant public health interventions from local governments. Early in the pandemic, RAND researchers developed a decision support tool to provide policymakers with insight into the trade-offs they might face when choosing among nonpharmaceutical intervention levels. Using an updated version of the model, the researchers performed a stress-test of a variety of alternative reopening plans, using California as an example. This Perspective presents the general lessons learned from these experiments and discusses four characteristics of the best reopening strategies."
RAND Corporation
Nascimento de Lima, Pedro; Vardavas, Raffaele; Baker, Lawrence . . .
2021-05
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COVID-19: Make it the Last Pandemic
From the Introduction: "The world is still in the midst of a pandemic that has spread wider and faster than any in human history. The social and economic crisis precipitated by COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] is affecting families, communities and nations across the globe. [...] The Panel has examined the state of pandemic preparedness prior to COVID-19, the circumstances of the identification of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 [severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2]) and the disease it causes, coronavirus disease (COVID-19), and responses globally, regionally and nationally, particularly in the pandemic's early months. It has also analysed the wide-ranging impact of the pandemic and the ongoing social and economic crisis that it has precipitated. This report presents the Panel's findings on what happened, the lessons to be learned from that, and our recommendations for strategic action now to end this pandemic and to ensure that any future infectious disease outbreak does not become a catastrophic pandemic."
Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
2021-05
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Social Costs of the COVID-19 Pandemic
From the Introduction: "The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response commissioned a background paper to guide discussions and inform recommendations on the wider impacts of the Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic. [...] The paper is in three main sections: 1) Context and background data; 2) Analysis of the consequences of the pandemic on selected social dimensions; and 3) Building back through integrated and resilient systems. The analysis highlights regional differences and specific country or regional examples to illustrate the issues in the social dimensions discussed in this paper. The social dimensions of Covid-19 impacts that this background paper covers are: income losses and poverty levels; the labour market; education and gender dimensions. For many people across age groups, backgrounds and geographies the pandemic has compounded other dimensions of vulnerability, making the challenges of navigating the pandemic more acute. These overlapping vulnerabilities are highlighted throughout the paper."
Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response; Overseas Development Institute (London, England)
Pereznieto, Paola; Oehler, Ilse
2021-05
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From Science to Policy: Provision of Technical and Strategic Guidance Based on Evidence by WHO
From the Document: "This paper includes an overview and analysis of the role of WHO [World Health Organization] in evidence curation and conveying during the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic and an assessment of the adequacy and timeliness of mechanisms used. It is based on a comprehensive document and literature review, experts' consultations and a roundtable discussion on 'From Science to Policy' held by The Independent Panel on January 14, 2021. In addition, in-depth analysis on temporary recommendations, with a focus on travel-related measures and on community face masks have been included."
Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
2021-05?
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Impact on Essential Health Services
From the Introduction: "The COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic has led to disruptions in essential health services in countries around the world with discontinuation occurring on both the demand and supply side. Factors include cancelation of elective and preventive procedures, personnel and supply shortages, and reductions in care-seeking driven by fear of contagion and pandemic-related movement restrictions. This paper reviews the impact of COVID-19 on essential health services and health systems, including on human resources for health, and recommends strategies for improving continuity of care during health emergencies."
Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
2021-05
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Building on the Past
From the Summary: "All of the previous panels and commissions included in this analysis have identified similar gaps and challenges in the outbreak / pandemic preparedness, alert and response system, both on the international and national level. Their recommendations can be categorized in four key areas: WHO [World Health Organization], International Health Regulations (IHR), Global Health Security and Global Health Governance. The reports of most of the panels concluded that 'WHO needs to strengthen its role as the leading and coordinating organization' in the field of health, focusing both on its normative work, but also by building up unified, effective operational capacity for health emergencies. [...] Improving government transparency and accountability, empowering citizens and strengthening civil society as well as addressing and taking into account the gender dimensions within outbreak preparedness and response efforts, are 'additional key recommendations' made by various of the panels included in this short analysis. [...] COVID19 [coronavirus disease 2019] should be the final reason for the global community to strengthen the global and national pandemic preparedness and response systems, to increase resources for their implementation and for establishing well-functioning monitoring, evaluating and accountability mechanisms."
Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
2021-05
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Centering Communities in Pandemic Preparedness and Response
From the Introduction: "Communities are defined by a common set of social relationships that formulate a shared identity amongst members of a community. There is no specific checklist for what defines a community, and communities may or may not be identified by shared geographic space such as a village or an urban neighborhood, in contrast to an ethnic group that may not have a specific geographic boundary. [...] The term community engagement is often used to describe the 'process of developing relationships that enable people of a community and organizations to work together to address health-related issues and promote well-being to achieve positive health impact and outcomes'. There is ample evidence that community engagement is vital for containing disease outbreaks as the recent Ebola outbreak showcased. Inadequate community engagement in designing, planning, and implementing interventions can lead to fear, mistrust, and lack of compliance to public health measures by communities. This paper reviews existing evidence on community engagement in the context of disease outbreaks, examples of community engagement during the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic, successes and challenges of these efforts, and the lessons learned to strengthen community resilience during future outbreaks."
Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
2021-05
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Social and Economic Impact of COVID-19
From the Introduction: "'This paper presents a succinct summary of the existing economic literature on the economic and fiscal impact of the pandemic, and a preliminary estimate of the associated economic cost.' It documents the incidence of initial conditions (with a particular focus on the role of the labour market channel) on the transmission of the shock and the speed and extent of the expected recovery, summarizes how countries attempted to attenuate the economic consequences and the international financial institutions assisted countries, reports preliminary accounts of medium-term COVID [coronavirus disease]-related losses, and concludes with some forward-looking considerations based on the lessons learned in 2020."
Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
Levy Yeyati, Eduardo; Filippini, Federico
2021-05
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Scaling-Up Vaccine Production Capacity: Legal Challenges and Recommendations
From the Introduction: "This briefing paper aims to contribute to the evidence-based assessment of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness & Response, in particular in its work to ensure equitable access to vaccines and increased manufacturing capacity. 'The world has a normal capacity of production of 3.5 billion doses of vaccines and we now seek to manufacture 10 billion doses,' 'said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala' [hyperlink], the new World Trade Organization Director General, on her first day in office. This represents an unprecedented and urgent need for scale-up, which is especially true given that most recommended vaccines require two doses, and that it is not clear how long immunity lasts. It may well be that the ramp up in vaccine production is not a one-off, but rather a new annual need. The threat posed by a pandemic outbreak has long been appreciated; pandemic preparedness plans have been discussed and, to some extent, put into practice. One concrete step was the foundation of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) in 2017. CEPI has provided a 'running start' in responding to the Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic, in particular with its rapid funding support for Covid-19 vaccine development. Another development specific for Covid-19 has been the creation of COVAX, an initiative that supports the development and manufacture, procurement and equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. Further, the research and development of Covid-19 vaccines has been largely de-risked by 'vast amounts of public financing from governments' [hyperlink]. But it is already clear that these initiatives, however valuable, will not be enough to ensure global vaccine production scale up."
Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
Hoen, Ellen F. M. 't; Garrison, Christopher; Boulet, Pascale . . .
2021-05
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Access to Essential Supplies
From the Document: "During the initial stages of the pandemic, the world experienced a serious shortage of essential supplies. The situation was referred to by WHO [World Health Organization] Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as 'one of the most urgent threats to our collective ability to save lives'. This global supply shortage was caused by factors such as lack of access provisions; poor stockpiling; overdependence on a few supplier countries; hoarding, panic buying and protectionism; travel cargo capacity restrictions; and a lack of immediate funding for procurement by LMICs [low- and middle-income countries]. The dynamics and key drivers of supply shortages varied by type of essential supply. The WHO and other institutions established the UN COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] Supply Chain System (CSCS) in response to the shortage. Survey results showed it provided ~50% of PPE [personal protective equipment], diagnostics, and biomedical supplies procured by LMICs. Even so it left an enormous gap in supply, as the system was only operationalized in May 2020 - months into the pandemic. Other major channels such as the World Bank did not sufficiently address the huge gap due to operational delays. This led to some positive changes as well- e.g., building of regional procurement capacity (e.g., in Africa) and manufacturing capacity for PPE in India. [...] This paper reviews how essential supplies such as personal protective equipment (PPE), test kits, and oxygen equipment were produced, allocated and delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic. It proposes ways in which the supply system can be managed differently to ensure equitable and effective access to these essential supplies."
Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
2021-05
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Financing Pandemic Preparedness and Response
From the Introduction: "While COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] has raised many new questions about global health functions and how they are delivered, it has removed any doubt surrounding our readiness for a public health emergency with pandemic potential. The international community systematically underinvested in preparedness for decades and delayed financing for response when the outbreak hit, investments and actions that could have saved millions of lives and trillions of dollars in economic output. A new approach is needed. In this paper we briefly discuss the reasons for underinvestment in pandemic preparedness and response and review the performance of recent attempts to finance readiness capabilities and early actions that could contain outbreaks with pandemic potential. We argue that the international system lacks the financing architecture required to coordinate and accelerate investment in the global public goods required to contain outbreaks, and we derive a set of principles towards which reforms to the financing architecture should be oriented. Finally, we present a proposal for an international financing facility for pandemic preparedness and response, which embodies these principles."
Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
Radin, Elizabeth; Eleftheriades, Chris
2021-05?
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How an Outbreak Became a Pandemic: The Defining Moments of the COVID-19 Pandemic
From the Document: "This report is a companion to the main report, 'COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019]: Make it the Last Pandemic,' of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. It is an evidence-based narrative, providing in-depth analysis of 13 defining moments of the evolution and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic."
Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
2021-05?
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International Health Law in Perspective
From the Summary: "Any reset of the international system will require reform to existing international governance for pandemic preparedness and response. This includes adopting new international legal instruments and/or reforming existing international instruments. Reform using legal instruments is an opportunity to address gaps identified in the international response and clarify responsibilities between States and international organizations, establish and reinforce legal obligations and norms, and institute new governance structures (such as a global health security taskforce and mechanisms for financing, research and development, technology transfer, and capacity building). This background paper sets out the range of options available. However, a Framework Convention - Protocol approach has the potential to capitalize on political will and facilitate the necessary governance reforms. This can be done in coherence with the broader international legal system, including under, or separate to, the auspices of the World Health Organization and with, or without, reforms to existing global health law, such as the International Health Regulations (2005)."
Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
Phelan, Alexandra L.; Pillai, Priya
2021-05
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World Health Organization: An Institutional Review
From the Summary: "WHO [World Health Organization] 'is at the center of the international system' for prevention, preparedness, and response to a global health emergency. The work of WHO during the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic has been at a substantively different scale and level compared to the initial time of the EVD [Ebola Virus Disease] outbreak in West Africa 2014. WHO's capacity and competence as it responds to one of the largest health crises in modern time is laudable. But there is always room for improvement and there are aspects of WHO's performance that render reflection and change. In analyzing WHO's performance, the Independent Panel considered what its leadership role entails, what kind of a coordinating mandate WHO should have, how operational the organization should be and what authority it holds to ensure transparency of information and decision-making. The analysis has been based in a series of interviews with experts within and outside WHO, roundtable discussion and literature reviews."
Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
2021-05
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COVID-19: The Authoritative Chronology, December 2019-March 2020
This document provides a chronology of the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic, which includes key events along side national and international responses.
Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
2021-05
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MDBs to the Rescue? The Evidence on COVID-19 Response
From the Document: "The world is now more than a year into the second global crisis of the century. Both the current [COVID-19 (coronavirus 2019)] pandemic and the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) more than 10 years ago tested the capacity of international financial institutions to respond with speed and scale. This time, the IMF [International Monetary Fund] has stepped up, first with emergency finance facilities, and later this year with a massive injection of global liquidity through a Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocation of $650 billion. But what about the multilateral development banks (MDBs)? One of their central roles is to expand the fiscal space of middle- and low-income countries (MICs and LICs) for development spending, exactly what is needed now, and to catalyze finance from the private sector, especially when private finance pulls back. Have they done so? As the 2020 data on MDB finance become available, what can we conclude about how MDBs are performing when the developing world needs them most?"
Center for Global Development
Lee, Nancy; Aboneaaj, Rakan
2021-05
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'Years Don't Wait for Them': Increased Inequalities in Children's Right to Education Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic
From the Summary: "Children, who tend to escape the more severe symptoms of Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019], nevertheless had to sacrifice the education to which they are entitled, and accept restrictions that often harmed their friendships and mental health, as part of public efforts to help protect the health and save lives of their families, friends, teachers, and those in their communities. [...] As the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines brings hope of an eventual end to pandemic-related school closures, the aspiration that things merely 'return to how they were before' is insufficient. As a primary school teacher in an under-resourced neighborhood of Santiago, Chile, said: 'The social issue is the real pandemic: inequality.' This massive disruption to children's education has highlighted the need for governments to devote serious attention and resources to ameliorate, mitigate, and correct the longstanding inequalities in education systems that have been highlighted and exacerbated during the pandemic. Governments should reverse policies that generate those inequalities, which include persistent under-investment in public education."
Human Rights Watch (Organization)
Sheppard, Bede; Han, Hye Jung; Martínez, Elin
2021-05
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Guía operacional para la pandemia de COVID-19: Respuesta y recuperación ante incidentes por todos los peligros
"La pandemia de COVID-19 exigió una respuesta sin precedentes de todo el gobierno. Aunque el país ha hecho un progreso importante, la pandemia no ha terminado. FEMA les recomienda a los funcionarios de manejo de emergencias que apliquen las lecciones aprendidas de la pandemia y de otros desastres para anticipar nuevas dificultades operativas mientras protegen la salud y seguridad de todos los sobrevivientes de desastres y de la fuerza laboral en desastres. Al garantizar una comprensión compartida de las expectativas entre FEMA y colaboradores SLTT, los funcionarios de manejo de emergencias de todos los niveles estarán mejor preparados para cumplir de manera satisfactoria sus misiones en 2021."
United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency
2021-05
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Pandemic, Social Unrest, and Crime in U.S. Cities (March 2021 Update)
From the Introduction: "This report updates our previous studies of crime changes during the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic, extending the data through the first quarter (January-March) of 2021. The results are generally consistent with those of our earlier work and our conclusions have not changed: as the pandemic subsides, long lasting reductions in violence and crime will require cities to adopt evidence-based crime-control strategies and long-needed reforms to policing. [...] For this report, we assessed weekly changes over time in the following ten crimes: homicide, aggravated assault, gun assault, domestic violence, robbery, residential burglary, nonresidential burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and drug offenses, with a special emphasis on homicides. The crime data was obtained from online portals of city police departments that provided weekly data for the period between January 2017 and March 2021. Offense counts were converted to weekly crime rates per 100,000 city residents for analysis. The crime data are subject to revision; not all of the cities reported data for each of the crimes or for each week, and offense classifications varied somewhat across the cities."
Council on Criminal Justice
Rosenfeld, Richard; Lopez, Ernesto
2021-05
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COVID-19 and the Changing Landscape of Substance Use Disorder Treatment
From the Introduction: "Since the start of the pandemic initial research has examined whether the policies implemented in response to COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] were associated with any substantive changes in alcohol and drug use. While it is too early to draw firm conclusions, early statistics show a problematic rise. [...] As federal, state, and local authorities focused their time, attention, and resources on acute pandemic response, less capacity was available to address the ongoing opioid crisis facing the nation. This report examines how access, capacity, and delivery of substance abuse treatment have been affected by the pandemic, with a focus on opioid use disorders and overdoses."
Council on Criminal Justice
Farley, Erin; Engel, Leonard W. (Len); Jemison, Erin
2021-05
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School Ventilation: A Vital Tool to Reduce COVID-19 Spread
From the Executive Summary: "Many kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) schools in the United States do not have good ventilation. This is a longstanding problem with demonstrably negative effects on student learning. We can and should act to fix this to ensure good indoor air quality for all students, educators, and school staff. During the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic, it is even more important that ventilation problems in K-12 schools be addressed now. Along with other mitigation measures, improvements in ventilation in K-12 schools can decrease the risk of SARS-CoV-2 [severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2] spread."
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Center for Health Security
Olsiewski, Paula J.; Gronvall, Gigi Kwik; Bahnfleth, William . . .
2021-05
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COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: Demographic Factors, Geographic Patterns, and Changes Over Time
From the Introduction: "Despite the scientific data on vaccine safety and efficacy and the known risks of severe illness and death associated with COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019], vaccine hesitancy remains a significant barrier to bringing the pandemic to an end. Addressing vaccine hesitancy around COVID-19 vaccines requires communication approaches that are tailored to different groups in a way that will address their concerns. Data analysis can inform the development of such strategies. To support state and local communication and outreach efforts, this analysis explores vaccine hesitancy among different geographic areas and sociodemographic groups, models which factors are associated with vaccine hesitancy, and examines changing trends over time."
United States. Department of Health and Human Services. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
Beleche, Trinidad; Ruhter, Joel; Kolbe, Allison . . .
2021-05
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Ensuring Access to COVID-19 Vaccines for Older Adults and People with Disabilities Who Are Homebound: Recommendations and Considerations for Federal, State, and Local Agencies and Their Partners
From the Executive Summary: "Based on stakeholder interviews, a grey literature review, a peer-reviewed literature review, and virtual convenings with public health and aging sector leaders, Trust for America's Health (TFAH) proposes the following recommendations for enhancing access to COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] vaccines for older adults who are homebound and people with a disability who are homebound: #1 Prioritize the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine to people who are homebound -- especially older adults and those with disabilities -- and their caregivers, providing sufficient vaccines and the necessary resources to administer them to protect all homebound persons in the shortest time possible. #2 Develop a standardized operational definition of 'people who are homebound' that can be used to prioritize and provide COVID-19 vaccination for this population and their paid and unpaid caregivers. #3 Guarantee equitable vaccine access to homebound persons and ensure that none are under-served or overlooked due to race, ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status, urban or rural location, or other factors."
Trust for America's Health
2021-05
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Impact of Chronic Underfunding on America's Public Health System: Trends, Risks, and Recommendations, 2021
From the Executive Summary: "Since the founding of 'Trust for America's Health' (TFAH) 20 years ago, TFAH has consistently called in this report series and in other places for federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal leaders to provide adequate funding for the nation's public health system, both to promote health in good times and to prevent catastrophes in bad times. The COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic on top of other, less extraordinary health emergencies over the past year--including wildfires in the West, Hurricane Laura, and the winter storm in Texas that brought about widespread power outages--provide conclusive evidence of the importance of public health resources. Under-resourced, understaffed, and overburdened health agencies responded to a major pandemic with inadequate systems, and the country's longstanding failure to invest in disease prevention, address the root causes of poor health, and promote health equity made the nation less resilient. [...] This annual report examines federal, state, and local public health funding and recommends the investments and policy actions necessary to effectively address modern health security threats."
Trust for America's Health
McKillop, Matt; Lieberman, Dara Alpert
2021-05
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COVID-19 Vulnerability by Immigration Status: Status-Specific Risk Factors and Demographic Profiles
Introduction: "Foreign-born noncitizens in the United States have different COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] vulnerabilities and outreach requirements than the U.S.-born population. Noncitizens are especially vulnerable due to comparatively limited healthcare and financial assistance options, lower health insurance enrollment rates, greater fear of seeking care and enrolling in public benefit programs, higher employment in high-risk occupations, limited English proficiency, and higher levels of poverty than U.S. citizens. However, the noncitizen population tends to be younger and healthier on average than the citizen population. Vulnerabilities, demographics, and COVID-19 risk factors in noncitizen populations vary with immigration status; age and sex profiles of noncitizens may be factors in vaccine planning and public health programs. Primary languages spoken in communities may also impact the design of vaccine and public health outreach campaigns. This report presents population estimates by four categories of immigration status - lawful permanent residents (LPRs), resident nonimmigrants, refugees and asylees, and unauthorized immigrants - and addresses risks each status group may face." Supplemental data files for this annual report can be located here in the library: [https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=856904]
United States. Office of Immigration Statistics; United States. Department of Homeland Security. Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office
2021-05
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Digital Infrastructure for the Post-Pandemic World
From the Foreword: "This paper, part of the 'Skills for the Post-Pandemic World' series of research reports, explores the importance of digital infrastructure for the skills ecosystem - a basic fact that has been profoundly illustrated by the impact of the pandemic on work and education. It highlights how access to this basic and essential infrastructure is unevenly distributed across Canada in terms of geography but also in terms of the diverse populations that make up our country. The analysis also investigates how the pandemic has compounded this inequality, thereby further underlining the critical importance of addressing it. More positively, the author offers recommendations on how to do just that, whether by exploring how to get the most out of the cheapest and most ubiquitous technologies or by identifying where to target government funds, attention and effort. Please join us in considering what these findings mean for skills training and opportunities in Canada."
Public Policy Forum (Ottawa, Ont.); Ryerson University. Ted Rogers School of Management. Diversity Institute; Future Skills Centre
Middleton, Catherine
2021-05
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Venezuela Regional Humanitarian Crisis and COVID-19 [Updated April 30, 2021]
From the Document: "The deteriorating humanitarian situation in Venezuela has elevated congressional concerns about the country, which remains in a deep crisis under the authoritarian rule of President Nicolás Maduro. Even before the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Venezuelans were facing a lack of food, medicine and health, and access to social services. Political persecution, hyperinflation, loss of income, and oppressive poverty also contributed to a dire situation. According to household surveys, the percentage of Venezuelans living in poverty increased from 48.4% in 2014 to 96% in 2019 (80% in extreme poverty). By the end of 2020, more than 7 million people were estimated to require humanitarian assistance, with pregnant and nursing women, those with chronic illnesses, indigenous people, migrants, children under five, and people with disabilities particularly in need. Food insecurity is a significant issue, mainly due to the price of food rather than its lack of availability. Many households do not have reliable access to potable water, and interruptions in electrical service and gas supplies are common. With a collapsed health system, overall health indicators, particularly infant and maternal mortality rates, have worsened. Along with COVID-19, previously eradicated diseases have become a major concern. Fuel shortages, exacerbated by the end of U.S.- licensed oil for diesel swaps in the fall of 2020, have reportedly had an impact on humanitarian aid delivery."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Margesson, Rhoda; Seelke, Clare Ribando
2021-04-30
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H. Rept. 117-24: Security Screening During COVID-19 Act, Report to Accompany H.R. 1877, Including Cost Estimate of the Congressional Budget Office, April 30, 2021
From the Purpose and Summary: "H.R. 1877, the 'Security Screening During COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] Act' directs the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator to issue a plan to enhance security operations during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce the spread of the virus at passenger screening checkpoints and among the TSA workforce. Under the bill, the TSA Administrator will coordinate with the Department of Homeland Security Chief Medical Officer, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop a plan that identifies best practices among foreign governments, airports, air carriers, and other Federal agencies regarding COVID-19 and pinpoints specific operational changes that TSA can make to reduce the spread of the coronavirus at checkpoints based on those best practices. The TSA Administrator would be required to consult with stakeholders and the TSA workforce when developing the plan and submit the finalized strategy to Congress. A Government Accountability Office report on implementation of the plan would be due one year after implementation begins."
United States. Government Publishing Office
2021-04-30
