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Deficiencies in Select Community Care Consult (Stat) Processes During the COVID-19 Pandemic
From the Executive Summary: "The VA [Department of Veterans Affairs] Office of the Inspector General (OIG) conducted a national review of select community care consults (stat community care consults) that were generated during a 103-day period at the outset of the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic to evaluate consult processes. Patient involvement in care urgency disagreements and reporting of adverse events in community care were also reviewed. When the OIG identified deficiencies in processes, electronic health records (EHRs) of the patients at issue were further examined for potential negative outcomes. [...] In this report, the OIG addressed two components of the stat community care consult process-- the clinical aspect and the administrative aspect. To review the clinical aspect, the OIG evaluated whether care was rendered within 24 hours. For the administrative aspect, the OIG evaluated whether the status of stat community care consults was changed to complete within 24 hours. Facility processes were assessed through EHR reviews and survey responses."
United States. Department of Veterans Affairs. Office of Inspector General
2021-11-10
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Resources for Effective COVID-19 Vaccine Communication
From the Document: "This toolkit focuses on engaging people who have been unable or have been hesitant to become fully vaccinated. Here are some ways you can determine who still needs the vaccine in your community. [...] Reach out to your 'public health department' to find out who still needs the vaccine in your community. Start with the vaccine coordinator within the health department and they will guide you to the information you need. Consider both who is not vaccinated in terms of raw numbers of people, and also, which communities are being vaccinated at a lower than average percentage. [...] As you begin to prioritize communities, work with trusted community leaders to check your data and assumptions. Ask for their thoughts about COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] and vaccination, explore what's keeping people from getting vaccinated understand what information and support they need and ask how you can help."
National League of Cities
2021-09
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7 Ways to Boost Data Impact in Response to the Pandemic: Advice from the Nation's State Chief Data Officers
From the Document: "The COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic is affecting every state and illuminates the critical role data plays in their response efforts. The members of the State Chief Data Officers Network [hyperlink], which consists of 25 state Chief Data Officers [CDO] across the country, are stepping up to support their states' efforts to use data. Whether understanding supplies of personal protective equipment, which hospitals are nearing capacity, or reporting accurate testing data to the public, state CDOs are leaning in to improve how data are shared and used. Based on CDOs experiences to date, adopting effective practices in the COVID-19 response will help states move from crisis to recovery. Right now states are focused on sharing data about testing, infection rates in nursing homes and correctional facilities, and unemployment. In the future, state leaders will need the right data to inform the recovery phase and how to best reopen child care centers, economic sectors, and schools. [Included in this document are] best practices the State Chief Data Officers Network recommends to improve states' ability to share and use data during this crisis and through recovery."
Georgetown University. Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation
2020-04-30
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Economic Costs and Benefits of Accelerated COVID-19 Vaccinations
From the Introduction: "Just as COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] produced a global economic shock, the COVID-19 vaccination programs are generally understood to be a prerequisite for a return to normalcy in our social and economic lives. Emergency measures to research, test, produce, and distribute vaccines have been expensive, but increases in GDP resulting from the vaccines are expected to exceed those costs by wide margins. Few studies have quantified the economic costs and benefits of different rates of COVID-19 vaccination, however. This Policy Brief focuses on developing such a quantitative assessment for the United States; the approach may be applied to other countries as well. Two illustrative scenarios support the conclusion that most plausible options to accelerate vaccinations would have economic benefits that far exceed their costs, in addition to their more important accomplishment of saving lives. This Policy Brief shows that if, for example, the United States had adopted a more aggressive policy in 2020 of unconditional contracts with vaccine producers, the up-front cost would have been higher but thousands of lives would have been saved and economic growth would have been stronger. Instead, the federal government conditioned its contracts on the vaccines' being proven safe and effective. The projections presented here show that even if unconditional contracts led to support for vaccines that failed the phase III trial and ultimately were not used, the cost would have been worth it. [...] We also examine a slower-than-baseline scenario, based on the pace of vaccinations that has occurred and is projected for the European Union."
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Gagnon, Joseph E.; Kamin, Steven, 1957-; Kearns, John
2021-05
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Economic Policy for a Pandemic Age: How the World Must Prepare
From the Document: "This PIIE [Peterson Institute for International Economics] Briefing sets out some key lessons of the current response to COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019], along with policy recommendations to help prepare for the real possibility of a pandemic age. These innovations include multilateral projects as well as coordinated actions by individual countries, all making the world more resilient to a slow ebb of the current pandemic and to future pandemics. The Briefing covers 11 policy areas in which cooperative forward-looking policy action will materially improve our chances of truly escaping today's plague and making future plagues less costly."
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Bolle, Monica Baumgarten de; Obstfeld, Maurice; Posen, Adam Simon
2021-04
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Financial Sector Return to Normal Operations Resource Guide
From the Introduction: "In response to immediate risks associated with the coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19), financial services firms moved many worker members to remote work. Now firms continue to evaluate the risks and are developing plans to return workers to offices. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to returning worker members to offices, given the number of variables, which include, but are not limited to, differences in the types of business activities conducted by financial firms, state and local governments, community densities, COVID-19 infection rates (number of cases and deaths), access to healthcare facilities, availability of testing and vaccines, school closures, and public transportation availability. A phased approach may allow firms the ability to return worker to offices based on current levels of transmission as well as state and local government restrictions. This resource guide provides considerations for U.S. financial services firm's decision makers as they determine how to safely return worker to offices and other facilities. It includes resources for aligning to state and local restrictions and options to consider in making decisions about operational status while protecting the health and safety of workers, customers, and communities. While this resource guide is intended for U.S. financial firms, given the global impact of COVID-19 and the interdependency of supply chains, it may prove useful for firms with global operations."
Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council
2020-05-27
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Navigating the World That COVID-19 Made: A Strategy for Revamping the Pandemic Research and Development Preparedness and Response Ecosystem
From the Introduction: "Over the past several decades, governments and international agencies commissioned dozens of scenarios, blue ribbon reports, and multiday tabletop exercises that revealed the potential toll and trajectory of a major epidemic and the glaring need for a robust capacity for vaccine research and development (R&D) and response. Despite these warnings, adequate upgrades were not made to most national and international structures, and the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic revealed that a true, end-to-end R&D and response ecosystem--meaning, one that both produces and delivers needed vaccines to global populations in a rapid and equitable fashion--remains an elusive goal. The goals of this report are to: (1) identify the greatest opportunities and workable ideas for shortening the time to vaccine availability and (2) eliminate disparities in access in future pandemics by proposing ways to rework the architecture that supports the end-to-end vaccine R&D and response ecosystem. This report is comprised of 3 major sections. The first section defines what the pandemic vaccine R&D and response ecosystem is: a network of interacting actors and infrastructure involved in researching, developing, manufacturing, allocating, distributing, financing, and delivering vaccines against pandemic threats. It describes this ecosystem at the national and global levels and assesses its performance in the COVID-19 pandemic. The second section of this report identifies ways in which COVID-19 has changed government, industry, and institutional perceptions and priorities for the pandemic R&D and response ecosystem to confront to future threats. It considers the strategic implications of those changes for efforts to ensure the world is better prepared when the next pandemic threat emerges, as it inevitably will. The third section of this report assesses the major gaps and opportunities revealed along the value chain to the production of COVID-19 vaccines, including the sharing of genetic sequence data, viral specimens, and biological reference materials; prior research on platform technologies and pathogens with pandemic potential; establishment and scale up of manufacturing capacity; equitable distribution and access; and mobilization of financing and resources."
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Center for Health Security
Bollyky, Thomas J.; Nuzzo, Jennifer B.; Shearer, Matthew P. . . .
2021-10
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COVID-19 Attracts Patriotic Troll Campaigns in Support of China's Geopolitical Interests
From the Document: "Over the past several weeks, a loosely coordinated pro-China trolling campaign on Twitter has: [1] Harassed Western media outlets [2] Impersonated Taiwanese users in an effort to undermine Taiwan's position with the World Health Organisation (WHO) [3] Spread false information about the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] outbreak [4] Joined in pre-existing inauthentic social media campaigns. At this stage, there's no clear evidence of state direction behind this trolling campaign. However, the trolling campaign is having a significant political impact, including being publicly identified by Taiwan's Investigation Bureau as interfering in the already complex relationship between Taiwan and the WHO."
Australian Strategic Policy Institute
Thomas, Elise; Zhang, Albert
2020-04?
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ID2020, Bill Gates and the Mark of the Beast: How COVID-19 Catalyses Existing Online Conspiracy Movements
From the Document: "Against the backdrop of the global Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has become the subject of a diverse and rapidly expanding universe of conspiracy theories. As an example, a recent poll found that 44% of Republicans and 19% of Democrats in the US now believe that Gates is linked to a plot to use vaccinations as a pretext to implant microchips into people. And it's not just America: 13% of Australians believe that Bill Gates played a role in the creation and spread of the coronavirus, and among young Australians it's 20%. Protests around the world, from Germany to Melbourne, have included anti-Gates chants and slogans."
Australian Strategic Policy Institute
Thomas, Elise; Zhang, Albert
2020-06-25
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ASPI Presents: Covid-19 and Radicalisation [video]
From the Video Description: "ASPI's [Australian Strategic Policy Institute] Dr John Coyne, Head of Strategic Policing and Law Enforcement and Head of the North and Australia's Security, and Elise Thomas, researcher with ASPI's International Cyber Policy Centre, speak with Peta Lowe, Principal Consultant with Phronesis Consulting and Training Australia, about the potential impact of Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] on far right wing extremism, recruitment and radicalisation." The duration of this video is 33 minutes and 47 seconds.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute
Coyne, John; Thomas, Elise; Lowe, Peta
2020-04-13
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Covid-19 Disinformation and Social Media Manipulation: Automating Influence on Covid-19
From the Introduction: "ASPI ICPC [Australian Strategic Policy Institute International Cyber Policy Centre] has investigated a campaign of cross-platform inauthentic activity, conducted by Chinese-speaking actors and broadly in alignment with the political goal of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to denigrate the standing of the US. This appears to be targeted primarily at Western and US-based audiences by artificially boosting legitimate media and social media content in order to amplify divisive or negative narratives about the US. This has included highlighting racial tensions, amplifying criticisms of the US's handling of the coronavirus crisis, and political and personal scandals linked to President Donald Trump. However, there's no clear indication of a partisan lean in this campaign. President Trump appears to be criticised in his capacity as a leader of the US rather than as a presidential candidate. [...] This activity is valuable as a case study because it highlights the ways in which social media platforms provide a vector for small-scale actors to engage in covert political influence campaigns targeting citizens and voters in other nations in ways that can complement state-driven propaganda. The investigation offers insights into behavioural patterns that can reveal coordinated inauthentic activity designed to drive influence, even when it is disguised through selective sharing of authentic content by accounts with profiles that offer a veneer of legitimacy."
Australian Strategic Policy Institute
Thomas, Elise; Zhang, Albert; Wallis, Jake
2020-08
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Covid-19 Disinformation and Social Media Manipulation: Viral Videos: Covid-19, China and Inauthentic Influence on Facebook
From the Introduction: "For the latest report in our series on Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] disinformation, we've investigated ongoing inauthentic activity on Facebook and, to a lesser extent, YouTube. This activity uses both English- and Chinese -language content to present narratives that support the political objectives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). These narratives span a range of topics, including assertions of corruption and incompetence in the Trump administration, the US Government's decision to ban TikTok, the George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests, and the ongoing tensions in the US-China relationship. A major theme, and the focus of this report, is criticism of how the US broadly, and the Trump administration in particular, are handling the Covid-19 crisis on both the domestic and the global levels."
Australian Strategic Policy Institute
Thomas, Elise; Zhang, Albert; Wallis, Jake
2020-09
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Covid-19 Disinformation and Social Media Manipulation: Pro-Russian Vaccine Politics Drives New Disinformation Narratives
From the Introduction: "On 17 July, a press release was posted to the websites of the Luhansk People's Republic, the pro-Russian self-declared state in Luhansk, Eastern Ukraine. The press release related to a supposed US Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] vaccine trial that had been conducted on Ukrainian volunteers, including soldiers, in Kharkiv (which is controlled by the Ukrainian Government). According to the press release, of the 15 patients who received the trial vaccine, five were killed, including four Ukrainian soldiers. The press release was published the day after Russia announced plans to mass-produce its own vaccine in a matter of weeks. The Ukrainian vaccine trial never happened. However, this disinformation narrative--which has clear political, anti-American and anti-Ukrainian Government undertones--has achieved widespread dissemination in multiple languages and across multiple communities. [...] The success of this completely fictional narrative reflects a broader shift across the disinformation space. As the world's focus moves from the initial response to the coronavirus crisis towards the race to a vaccine, with all of the complex geopolitical interests that entails, political disinformation is also moving on from the origins of the virus to the vaccine race. This report uses the US-Ukrainian vaccine narrative as a case study to examine how political disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines is being laundered into the international information ecosystem."
Australian Strategic Policy Institute
Thomas, Elise; Zhang, Albert; Currey, Emilia
2020-08
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Covid-19 Disinformation and Social Media Manipulation: Twisting the Truth: Ongoing Inauthentic Activity Promoting Falun Gong, the 'Epoch Times' and Truth Media Targets Australians on Facebook
From the Introduction: "This short investigation examines two suspicious Facebook pages that promote content supportive of Falun Gong and its associated media entities, including the 'Epoch Times' and New Tang Dynasty (NTD) media, yet don't declare any direct affiliation. Both pages display behaviours reminiscent of two networks previously removed from the platform, which Facebook attributed as linked to Truth Media and Epoch Media Group. One of the pages is run primarily by Australian-based moderators, while the other is run from Vietnam. These pages are using different strategies, including paid advertisements, systematically sharing content into Australian Facebook groups (including fringe and conspiracy groups), and attempting to drive traffic to 'Epoch Times' and Falun Gong-affiliated sites. Despite the different approaches, however, the pages are broadly aligned in their messaging and seek to influence Australians on a range of issues, including Australia's relationship with China, opinions of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and the leadership of the Victorian state government."
Australian Strategic Policy Institute
Thomas, Elise
2020-09
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Open Data for Economic Recovery
From the About This Guidebook: "This guidebook was compiled by staff of the State CDO [Chief Data Officer] Network at the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation. We compiled these findings based on interviews with subject-matter experts and conversations with members of the State CDO Network. We used this research to identify data sets that states can and should publish to increase transparency and accountability and effectively respond to the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] crisis. The key datasets in this report are coordinated with issues and use cases developed for the State CDO Network's previous report, Leveraging Data for Economic Recovery: A Roadmap for States [hyperlink]. Additionally, we conducted research on the legal and policy environment around open data in states, and the range of state-level decisions on the privacy of data related to COVID-19."
Georgetown University. Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation
Abazajian, Katya; Ward, Natalie; Crowley, Kell . . .
2021-06
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Procuring Differently: How Colorado Used User Research and Active Vendor Management for COVID-19 Technology
From the Summary: "As part of an effective pandemic response, the State of Colorado needed a comprehensive digital solution for case investigation and contact tracing, which has been used by local public health agencies. In June 2020, the state implemented an innovative and entirely virtual vendor selection process to evaluate these solutions under the direction of the Colorado Digital Service (CDS), a team within the Governor's Office of Information Technology. 'Vendors were invited to provide a test environment where their solution could be assessed' based on functionality, user experience, and technical fit. Stakeholders across the state of Colorado participated directly in an interactive evaluation and selection process, which provided opportunities to assess vendors' work style and culture, center evaluation on user needs, and generate buy-in from users. A human-centered approach was essential to ensure widespread use of the solution and to provide robust data for state-level decision-making on its case-investigation and contact-tracing efforts. By requiring vendors to demonstrate value through 'demos not memos [hyperlink],' CDS was able to support the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment (CDPHE) in selecting the solution that enhanced CDPHE's ability to meet public health needs while still saving the state time and money. 'A vendor was selected in just 19 days and $15 million under budget.' Separate from this project, the State of Colorado has also enabled software for the public to receive exposure notifications [hyperlink]."
Georgetown University. Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation
Faust, Elaina; Martin, Reilly; Carroll, Conor . . .
2021-02
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U.S. Equity-First Vaccination Initiative: Early Insights [2022]
From the Document: "The Equity-First Vaccination Initiative (EVI) aims to reduce racial disparities in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination rates in the United States and, over the longer term, to strengthen the public health system to achieve more-equitable outcomes. To accomplish these goals, The Rockefeller Foundation has funded demonstration sites in Baltimore, Maryland; Chicago, Illinois; Houston, Texas; Newark, New Jersey; and Oakland, California, to plan and implement hyper-local, place-based strategies to increase vaccine confidence and access for communities that identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). This interim report introduces the initiative and the anchor partners in each of the five demonstration sites, highlights the initial work of selected community-based organizations to which the anchor partners are making subgrants, synthesizes lessons learned across the EVI in its first three months, and suggests policy implications for decisionmakers to consider as they seek to support hyper-local, community-driven efforts to reduce inequities in COVID-19 vaccination."
RAND Corporation
Faherty, Laura J.; Ringel, Jeanne S.; Williams, Malcolm V. . . .
2022
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Project and Expenditure Report User Guide: State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds
From the Overview: "This document provides information on using Treasury's Portal to submit the required Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) Project and Expenditure (P&E) reports. It is a supplement to the Compliance and Reporting Guidance (Reporting Guidance [hyperlink]), which contains relevant information and guidance on the reporting requirements. Additionally, you should visit Treasury's SLFRF home page [hyperlink] for the latest guidance and updates on programmatic and reporting topics, as well as information on Treasury's Interim Final Rule [hyperlink] (IFR). Each SLFRF recipient is required to submit periodic reports with current performance and financial information including background information about the SLFRF projects that are the subjects of the reports; and financial information with details about obligations, expenditures, direct payments, and subawards."
United States. Department of the Treasury
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Executive Education Program: Federalism During a Global Pandemic [video]
From the Video Description: "During this webinar, John Yoo, Heller Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley, explores the constitutional allowances/case precedents re: the roles and responsibilities of federal, state and local government in national emergencies like COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019]." The duration of this video is 49 minutes and 39 seconds.
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Wilson, Dawn; Yoo, John
2020-04-03
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Missouri's Public Health Response to COVID-19: Key Findings and Recommendations for State Action and Investment
From the Executive Summary: "This report from the study, 'Strengthening Missouri's Capacity to Respond to Public Health Crises,' summarizes key findings that are relevant to strengthening the state's and local public health agencies' (LPHAs) capacity to respond to future public health crises. With funding from Missouri Foundation for Health, a George Washington University study team conducted 138 stakeholder interviews within public health and other sectors involved in the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] response, revealing several key opportunities for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS). Missouri, like many other states, faced great challenges in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Missouri now has a singular opportunity to build stronger public health agencies at state and local levels with unprecedented amounts of funding from the federal government."
Milken Institute School of Public Health; Missouri Foundation for Health
Levi, Jeffrey, PhD
2021-09
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Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality
From the Abstract: "This systematic review and meta-analysis are designed to determine whether there is empirical evidence to support the belief that 'lockdowns' reduce COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] mortality. Lockdowns are defined as the imposition of at least one compulsory, non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI). NPIs are any government mandate that directly restrict peoples' possibilities, such as policies that limit internal movement, close schools and businesses, and ban international travel. This study employed a systematic search and screening procedure in which 18,590 studies are identified that could potentially address the belief posed. After three levels of screening, 34 studies ultimately qualified. Of those 34 eligible studies, 24 qualified for inclusion in the meta-analysis. They were separated into three groups: lockdown stringency index studies, shelter-in-place-order (SIPO) studies, and specific NPI studies. An analysis of each of these three groups support the conclusion that lockdowns have had little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality. More specifically, stringency index studies find that lockdowns in Europe and the United States only reduced COVID-19 mortality by 0.2% on average. SIPOs were also ineffective, only reducing COVID-19 mortality by 2.9% on average. Specific NPI studies also find no broad-based evidence of noticeable effects on COVID-19 mortality. While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument."
Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise
Herby, Jonas; Jonung, Lars; Hanke, Steve H.
2022-01
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Inequality Kills: The Unparalleled Action Needed to Combat Unprecedented Inequality in the Wake of COVID-19
From the Summary: "A new billionaire has been created every 26 hours since the pandemic began. The world's 10 richest men have doubled their fortunes, while over 160 million people are projected to have been pushed into poverty. Meanwhile, an estimated 17 million people have died from COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019]--a scale of loss not seen since the Second World War. These issues are all part of the same, deeper malaise. It is that inequality is tearing our societies apart. It is that violence is rigged into our economic systems. It is that inequality kills. The coronavirus pandemic has been actively made deadlier, more prolonged, and more damaging to livelihoods because of inequality. Inequality of income is a stronger indicator of whether you will die from COVID-19 than age. Millions of people would still be alive today if they had had a vaccine--but they are dead, denied a chance while big pharmaceutical corporations continue to hold monopoly control of these technologies. This vaccine apartheid is taking lives, and it is supercharging inequalities worldwide."
Oxfam International
Ahmed, Nabil
2022-01
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Suitability and Sufficiency of Telehealth Clinician-Observed, Participant-Collected Samples for SARS-CoV-2 Testing: The iCollect Cohort Pilot Study
From the Abstract: "The severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic calls for expanded opportunities for testing, including novel testing strategies such as home-collected specimens. [...] We aimed to understand whether oropharyngeal swab (OPS), saliva, and dried blood spot (DBS) specimens collected by participants at home and mailed to a laboratory were sufficient for use in diagnostic and serology tests of SARS-CoV-2." This article was originally published on the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Public Health and Surveillance website: [https://publichealth.jmir.org/2020/2/e19731].
JMIR Publications
Guest, Jodie L.; Sullivan, Patrick Sean; Valentine-Graves, Mariah . . .
2020-06-25
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Comparison of Social Media, Syndromic Surveillance, and Microbiologic Acute Respiratory Infection Data: Observational Study
From the Abstract: "Internet data can be used to improve infectious disease models. However, the representativeness and individual-level validity of internet-derived measures are largely unexplored as this requires ground truth data for study. [...] This study sought to identify relationships between Web-based behaviors and/or conversation topics and health status using a ground truth, survey-based dataset. [...] This study leveraged a unique dataset of self-reported surveys, microbiological laboratory tests, and social media data from the same individuals toward understanding the validity of individual-level constructs pertaining to influenza-like illness in social media data. Logistic regression models were used to identify illness in Twitter posts using user posting behaviors and topic model features extracted from users' tweets." This article was originally published on the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Public Health and Surveillance website: [https://publichealth.jmir.org/2020/2/e14986/].
JMIR Publications
Daughton, Ashlynn R.; Chunara, Rumi; Paul, Michael J. (Computer scientist)
2020-04-24
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Mining Physicians' Opinions on Social Media to Obtain Insights into COVID-19: Mixed Methods Analysis
From the Abstract: "The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is considered to be the most daunting public health challenge in decades. With no effective treatments and with time needed to develop a vaccine, alternative approaches are being used to control this pandemic. [...] The objective of this paper was to identify topics, opinions, and recommendations about the COVID-19 pandemic discussed by medical professionals on the Twitter social medial [sic] platform. [...] Using a mixed methods approach blending the capabilities of social media analytics and qualitative analysis, we analyzed COVID-19-related tweets posted by medical professionals and examined their content. We used qualitative analysis to explore the collected data to identify relevant tweets and uncover important concepts about the pandemic using qualitative coding. Unsupervised and supervised machine learning techniques and text analysis were used to identify topics and opinions." This article was originally published on the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Public Health and Surveillance website: [https://publichealth.jmir.org/2020/2/e19276/].
JMIR Publications
Wahbeh, Abdullah; Nasralah, Tareq; Al-Ramahi, Mohammad . . .
2020-06-18
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Urban Intelligence for Pandemic Response: Viewpoint
From the Abstract: "Previous epidemic management research proves the importance of city-level information, but also highlights limited expertise in urban data applications during a pandemic outbreak. In this paper, we provide an overview of city-level information, in combination with analytical and operational capacity, that define urban intelligence for supporting response to disease outbreaks. We present five components (movement, facilities, people, information, and engagement) that have been previously investigated but remain siloed to successfully orchestrate an integrated pandemic response. Reflecting on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak that was first identified in Wuhan, China, we discuss the opportunities, technical challenges, and foreseeable controversies for deploying urban intelligence during a pandemic. Finally, we emphasize the urgency of building urban intelligence through cross-disciplinary research and collaborative practice on a global scale." This article was originally published on the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Public Health and Surveillance website: [https://publichealth.jmir.org/2020/2/e18873/].
JMIR Publications
Lai, Yuan; Yeung, Wesley; Celi, Leo Anthony G.
2020-04-14
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Novel Coronavirus in Cape Town Informal Settlements: Feasibility of Using Informal Dwelling Outlines to Identify High Risk Areas for COVID-19 Transmission from a Social Distancing Perspective
From the Abstract: "The challenges faced by the Global South during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic are compounded by the presence of informal settlements, which are typically densely populated and lacking in formalized sanitation infrastructure. Social distancing measures in informal settlements may be difficult to implement due to the density and layout of settlements. This study measures the distance between dwellings in informal settlements in Cape Town to identify the risk of COVID-19 transmission. [...] The aim of this paper is to determine if social distancing measures are achievable in informal settlements in Cape Town, using two settlements as an example. We will first examine the distance between dwellings and their first, second, and third nearest neighbors and then identify clusters of dwellings in which residents would be unable to effectively practice social isolation due to the close proximity of their homes." This article was originally published on the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Public Health and Surveillance website: [https://publichealth.jmir.org/2020/2/e18844].
JMIR Publications
Gibson, Lesley; Rush, David
2020-04-06
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Population-Level Interest and Telehealth Capacity of US Hospitals in Response to COVID-19: Cross-Sectional Analysis of Google Search and National Hospital Survey Data
From the Abstract: "As the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is widely spreading across the United States, there is a concern about the overloading of the nation's health care capacity. The expansion of telehealth services is expected to deliver timely care for the initial screening of symptomatic patients while minimizing exposure in health care facilities, to protect health care providers and other patients. However, it is currently unknown whether US hospitals have the telehealth capacity to meet the increasing demand and needs of patients during this pandemic. [...] We investigated the population-level internet search volume for telehealth (as a proxy of population interest and demand) with the number of new COVID-19 cases and the proportion of hospitals that adopted a telehealth system in all US states." This article was originally published on the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Public Health and Surveillance website: [https://publichealth.jmir.org/2020/2/e18961].
JMIR Publications
Hong, Young-Rock; Lawrence, John; Williams, Dunc, Jr. . . .
2020-04-07
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Conducting Clinical Research During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Investigator and Participant Perspectives
From the Abstract: "As the medical landscape changes daily with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, clinical researchers are caught off-guard and are forced to make decisions on research visits in their ongoing clinical trials. Although there is some guidance from local and national organizations, the principal investigator (PI) is ultimately responsible for determining the risk-benefit ratio of conducting, rescheduling, or cancelling each research visit. The PI should take into consideration the ethical principles of research, local/national guidance, the community risk of the pandemic in their locale, staffing strain, and the risk involved to each participant, to ultimately decide on the course of action. While balancing the rights and protection of the human subject, we seldom examine patients' views and opinions about their scheduled research visit(s). This article discusses the ethical principles of beneficence and autonomy in helping the decision-making process. We discuss ways to weigh-in local and national guidance, staffing strain, and institutional support into the decision-making process and outline potential changes needed for regulatory bodies depending on the decision. Further, we discuss the need to weigh-in the individual risk-benefit ratio for each participant and present a decision tree to navigate this complex process. Finally, we examine participant and caregiver perspectives on their fears, sense of preparedness, and factors that they consider before deciding whether to keep or postpone the research appointments. This entry also provides PIs ways to support their research participants in both scenarios, including provision of psychological support." This article was originally published on the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Public Health and Surveillance website: [https://publichealth.jmir.org/2020/2/e18887].
JMIR Publications
Padala, Prasad R.; Jendro, Ashlyn M.; Padala, Kalpana P.
2020-04-06
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Relationship Between Demographic, Socioeconomic, and Health-Related Parameters and the Impact of COVID-19 on 24 Regions in India: Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study
From the Abstract: "The impact of the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic has varied widely across nations and even in different regions of the same nation. Some of this variability may be due to the interplay of pre-existing demographic, socioeconomic, and health-related factors in a given population. [...] The aim of this study was to examine the statistical associations between the statewise prevalence, mortality rate, and case fatality rate of COVID-19 in 24 regions in India (23 states and Delhi), as well as key demographic, socioeconomic, and health-related indices." This article was originally published on the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Public Health and Surveillance website: [https://publichealth.jmir.org/2020/4/e23083/].
JMIR Publications
Rajkumar, Ravi Philip
2020-11-27
