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MMWR Early Release: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, October 1, 2021: COVID-19 Outbreaks at Youth Summer Camps -- Louisiana, June-July 2021
The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Series is prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). [It] is the agency's primary vehicle for scientific publication of timely, reliable, authoritative, accurate, objective, and useful public health information and recommendations. This Early Release issue of MMWR contains the following article: "COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] Outbreaks at Youth Summer Camps -- Louisiana, June-July 2021." Notifiable Diseases and Mortality Tables from WWMR can be accessed at the following link [http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/index2021.html].
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.)
2021-10-01
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MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, October 1, 2021
The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Series is prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). [It] is the agency's primary vehicle for scientific publication of timely, reliable, authoritative, accurate, objective, and useful public health information and recommendations. This issue of MMWR contains the following: "Progress Toward Poliomyelitis Eradication -- Pakistan, January 2020-July 2021"; Disparities in COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] Vaccination Status, Intent, and Perceived Access for Noninstitutionalized Adults, by Disability Status -- National Immunization Survey Adult COVID Module, United States, May 30-June 26, 2021"; "Association Between K-12 School Mask Policies and School-Associated
COVID-19 Outbreaks -- Maricopa and Pima Counties, Arizona, July-August 2021"; "COVID-19-Related School Closures and Learning Modality Changes --United States, August 1-September 17, 2021"; "Pediatric COVID-19 Cases in Counties With and Without School Mask Requirements - United States, July 1-September 4, 2021"; "Safety Monitoring of an Additional Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine -- United States, August 12-September 19, 2021"; "Notes from the Field: Deaths Related to Hurricane Ida Reported by Media -- Nine States, August 29-September 9, 2021"; "Notes from the Field: E-Cigarette Use Among Middle and High School Students - National Youth Tobacco Survey, United States, 2021"; and "QuickStats: Age-Adjusted Death Rates for Female Breast Cancer, by State --National Vital Statistics System, United States, 2019." Notifiable Diseases and Mortality Tables from this issue can be accessed at the following link [https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/index2021.html].
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.)
2021-10-01
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COVID-19 Relief Assistance to Small Businesses: Issues and Policy Options [Updated October 1, 2021]
From the Summary: "The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) administers several types of programs to support small businesses, including direct disaster loan programs for businesses, homeowners, and renters; loan guaranty and venture capital programs; management and technical assistance training programs; and contracting programs. Congressional interest in these programs has become especially acute in the wake of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic's widespread adverse economic impact on the national economy."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Dilger, Robert Jay, 1954-; Lindsay, Bruce R.
2021-10-01
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COVID-19 Pandemic
From the Introduction: "The 2021 Annual Report will focus on the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic and its implications for life expectancy, with a definite emphasis on the UK situation but without losing sight of the global picture. The aim is to condense a variety of useful, unbiased information into one convenient reference guide that the target audience may use to better understand and navigate their responsibilities in a domain of great uncertainty. The Report will firstly provide an overview of the current state of the pandemic, with a focus on the UK situation within the global context. We will then summarise the development and deployment of vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, and the behavioural insights we gained from the social change brought on by the pandemic. We will devote one chapter to the economic fallout of the pandemic in the UK and its effect on pre-existing social inequalities. One chapter will focus on how COVID-19 has affected the NHS and the social care system. Lastly, we will summarise the development and adoption of new technologies in healthcare in the wake of the pandemic."
Longevity Science Panel
Dunnell, Karen; Blakemore, Colin; Haberman, Steven, 1951- . . .
2021-10
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SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern and Variants Under Investigation in England
From the Summary: "This report has been published to continue to share the detailed variant surveillance analyses which contribute to the variant risk assessments and designation of new VOCs [variants of concern] and VUIs [variants under investigation]. The specialist technical briefings contain early data and analysis on emerging variants and findings have a high level of uncertainty. A separate report is published [hyperlink] covering surveillance data on all other VOCs and VUIs."
Great Britain. Crown Office; United Kingdom Health Security Agency
2021-10-01
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COVID-19 Pandemic: Observations on the Ongoing Recovery of the Aviation Industry, Report to Congressional Addressees
From the Highlights: "International flight restrictions, local stay-at-home orders, and a general fear of contracting and spreading COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] through air travel had a sudden and profound effect on the U.S. aviation industry. According to Department of Transportation (DOT) statistics, passenger traffic in April 2020 was 96 percent lower systemwide than April 2019, and remained 60 percent below 2019 traffic levels throughout 2020. This report examines (1) immediate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses across the aviation industry; (2) actions those businesses took in response; (3) actions the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] took to help the industry respond to the pandemic; and (4) the outlook for industry recovery, among other issues."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2021-10
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Are We Entering a New Age of Pandemics?
From the Document: "COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] is only the latest in a succession of new infectious threats that have emerged in recent decades. Since 1970, we've faced bird flu, SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome], Ebola, Nipah virus, Marburg fever, cryptosporidiosis and hantavirus. Not to mention resurging diseases, which include monkeypox, dengue and yellow fever, drug-resistant malaria, and even plague. And while HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, may have emerged as early as the 1920s, it only became a mass global killer in the 1980s, responsible for over thirty million deaths since then. The irony of our progress against death from infection over the past two centuries is that our success has helped create the perfect environment for the emergence of a new disease outbreak, and for that outbreak to have catastrophic global social and economic impact. Does that mean we are entering a new age of pandemics? Certainly, the risk is there. Evolutionary biologist Katherine Smith and colleagues at Brown University studied more than 12,000 reported disease outbreaks worldwide since 1980 and concluded that both the number of diseases and the number of outbreaks have been increasing over time. [...] Adding to the danger--and despite everything we've learned since the first age of pandemics--the world responds poorly to the risk of outbreak infections. Not least, we could reduce that risk in the first place through far better sanitation, for humans and domestic animals alike."
Center for Global Development
Kenny, Charles
2021-10
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COVID-19 Contracting: Indian Health Service Used Flexibilities to Meet Increased Medical Supply Needs, Report to Congressional Addressees
From the Government Accountability Office Highlights: "The Indian Health Service (IHS) serves over 2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. These groups have been disproportionately vulnerable to negative outcomes from COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019]. During emergencies, federal contracting staff face pressure to work quickly to meet increased needs. We examined some of IHS's COVID-related contracts to see how the agency's efforts fared. [...] We analyzed relevant federal procurement data through June 30, 2021. We also reviewed four contracts-- covering about 1/4 of obligations in IHS's largest product category (medical and surgical instruments, equipment, and supplies). We also interviewed IHS contracting officials."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2021-10
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Masks and Respirators for the 21st Century: Policy Changes Needed to Save Lives and Prevent Societal Disruption
From the Executive Summary: "Masks and respirators have played an essential role in the response to the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic for both healthcare workers and the public. However, the masks and respirators that both healthcare workers and the public have needed to rely upon leave much to be desired. [...] In this report, we provide an overview of the history and types of masks and respirators that exist and consider the development, manufacture, approval, and stockpiling of better respiratory protection for healthcare workers, the nonhealthcare workforce, and the public in the United States. We address issues related to acceptance and willingness to wear face coverings, masks, or respirators. We discuss ways to foster ingenuity in designs of new devices, promote advanced development, obtain regulatory approval, and stockpile a reasonable number of devices."
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Center for Health Security
Toner, Eric (Eric S.); Veenema, Tener Goodwin; Adalja, Amesh A. . . .
2021-10
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Federal Hiring: OPM Should Collect and Share COVID-19 Lessons Learned to Inform Hiring During Future Emergencies, Report to Congressional Addressees
From the Highlights: "The COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic has had far-reaching effects on federal programs and operations. To address this public health crisis, Congress and the administration made several hiring authorities available to agencies to hire staff with the needed skills to effectively respond to the pandemic. The CARES [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security] Act includes a provision for GAO [Government Accountability Office] to report on ongoing monitoring and oversight efforts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This report examines: (1) the new hiring authorities provided to federal agencies for COVID-19 response and the extent to which selected agencies have used them; (2) selected agencies' experiences using those hiring authorities, including lessons learned; and (3) OPM [Office of Personnel Management]'s efforts to assess agencies' use of the COVID-19 related hiring authorities."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2021-10
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COVID-19: Federal Agencies' Initial Reentry and Workplace Safety Planning, Report to Congressional Addressee
From the Government Accountability Office (GAO) Highlights: "The federal government employs approximately 2.8 million civilian workers, a workforce that plays an important role in maintaining vital government services. The White House, OMB [Office of Management and Budget], and other cognizant agencies issued guidance to support federal agencies as they developed tailored plans for bringing the federal workforce back to offices and safely conducting on-site work. The CARES [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security] Act included a provision for GAO to monitor and oversee the federal government's response to the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic. This report (1) examines agencies' approaches to initial reentry planning, (2) assesses the extent to which agencies' workplace safety plans are consistent with federal guidance, and (3) examines the coordination and oversight of federal reentry and workplace safety planning across the government. GAO analyzed federal guidance from cognizant agencies to identify crosscutting themes for reentry planning, and reviewed OMB guidance on workplace safety principles. GAO assessed workplace safety plans, reentry plans, and relevant documentation from the 24 CFO [Chief Financial Office] Act agencies against the themes and principles identified in guidance and interviewed agency officials. GAO also reviewed guidance to identify oversight and coordination responsibilities and reviewed prior GAO work on pandemic preparedness and interagency collaboration."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2021-10
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COVID-19: Additional Actions Needed to Improve Accountability and Program Effectiveness of Federal Response, Report to Congressional Committees
From the Highlights: "As of September 23, 2021, the U.S. had about 43 million reported cases of COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] and about 699,000 reported deaths, according to CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]. The country also continues to experience economic repercussions from the pandemic. Six relief laws, including the CARES [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security] Act, had been enacted as of August 31, 2021, to address the public health and economic threats posed by COVID-19. As of that same date (the most recent for which governmentwide data was available), the federal government had obligated a total of $3.9 trillion and expended $3.4 trillion of the $4.8 trillion in COVID-19 relief funds that had been appropriated by these six laws, as reported by federal agencies. The CARES Act includes a provision for GAO [Government Accountability Office] to report on its ongoing monitoring and oversight efforts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This report examines the federal government's continued efforts to respond to, and recover from, the COVID-19 pandemic."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2021-10
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COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on Socioeconomic Inequality in Psychological Distress in the UK: An Update
From the Introduction: "Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), has tracked its participants with web-based Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] Surveys during the first two waves of the pandemic, between April 2020 and March 2021. This paper addresses socioeconomic inequality in mental health, measured by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), and extends the work of Davillas and Jones (2021) that presented results for the first wave of Covid in the UK between April and July 2020. The contribution of this short paper is to extend the span of the UKHLS Covid-19 Survey data to include all survey waves. This allows us to follow the progress of the UK population's mental wellbeing during the easing of the first national lockdown, the period of limited restrictions during the summer of 2020 and the second national lockdown up to March 2021. After the outbreak of Covid-19 there was a substantial deterioration in population mental wellbeing and the prevalence of mental problems increased (e.g., Banks and Xu, 2020). The experience of mental health problems is disproportionate across groups, by gender, age, race and socioeconomic status. Groups with disadvantaged backgrounds such as lower socioeconomic positions and pre-existing psychological distress were more likely to experience adversities including job loss and financial stress, and difficulties accessing basic requirements like food and medical care (Pierre et al., 2021)."
IZA Institute of Labor Economics
Gao, Xiaoying; Davillas, Apostolos; Jones, Andrew M., 1960-
2021-10
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Improving Women's Mental Health During a Pandemic
From the Abstract: "In low-income settings, women are vulnerable to the psychological distress caused by the social and economic impact of large-scale shocks (e.g., pandemics, natural disasters, political). This paper evaluates a randomized over-the-phone counseling intervention aimed at mitigating the mental health impact of COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] on a sample of 2,402 women across 357 villages in Bangladesh. We find that the provision of mental support to participating women improves their mental health ten months post-intervention, leading to reductions of 20.4% in the prevalence of moderate and severe stress and 32.8% in depression, relative to women in the control group. We also find positive impacts on economic outcomes: household food security and time invested in homeschooling of children, suggesting that improvement in mental health is an important step toward better economic well-being for these women. Finally, we also observe impacts on various other outcomes, including preventive health behavior associated with COVID-19 and vaccination take-up. Our results suggest that this type of low-cost intervention can be effective in providing rapid psychological support to vulnerable groups in times of crises."
IZA Institute of Labor Economics
Vlassopoulos, Michael; Siddique, Abu; Rahman, Tabassum . . .
2021-10
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COVID-19 Pandemic and School Closure: Learning Loss in Mathematics in Primary Education
From the Abstract: "Italy was the first Western country hit by Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] in February 2020, responding with a tight lockdown and full school closure until the end of the school year. This paper estimates the effect of the pandemic and school closure on the math skills of primary school pupils in Italy. We compare the learning achievements of two cohorts of pupils, the pre-Covid and the Covid cohort. For both cohorts, we match scores on the national standardised assessment in grade 2 with scores on a standardised test delivered by the researchers at the end of grade 3. The pandemic had a large negative impact on the pupils' performance in mathematics (-0.19 standard deviations). Among children of low-educated parents, the learning loss was larger for the best-performing ones (up to -0.51 s.d.) and for girls (-0.29 s.d.)."
IZA Institute of Labor Economics
Contini, Dalit; Di Tommaso, M. L. (Maria Laura); Muratori, Caterina . . .
2021-10
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Remote Working and Mental Health During the First Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic
From the Abstract: "We use longitudinal data from the SHARE [Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe] survey to estimate the causal effect of remote working during the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic on mental health of senior Europeans. We face endogeneity concerns both for the probability of being employed during the pandemic and for the choice of different work arrangements conditional on employment. Our research design overcomes these issues by exploiting variation in the technical feasibility of remote working across occupations and in the legal restrictions to in-presence work across sectors. We estimate heterogeneous effects of remote working on mental health: we find negative effects for respondents with children at home and for those living in countries with low restrictions or low excess death rates due to the pandemic. On the other hand, the effect is positive for men and for respondents with no co-residing children."
IZA Institute of Labor Economics
Bertoni, Marco; Cavapozzi, Danilo; Pasini, Giacomo, 1976- . . .
2021-10
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COVID-19: Lessons Learned from Interior and Treasury's Administration of Cares Act Funds Could Improve Federal Emergency Relief to Tribes, Report to Congressional Committees
From the Highlights: "GAO [United States Government Accountability Office] has previously found that COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] disproportionately harmed the public health and economies of tribal nations in the U.S. In March 2020, the CARES Act [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act] appropriated over $9 billion for federal programs for tribes and their members--this amount included $8 billion for Treasury's CRF [Community Reinvestment Fund] Tribal Set-Aside and $453 million for Interior's OIP [Operation of Indian Programs] (CARES Act funds). The CARES Act includes a provision for GAO to report on its ongoing monitoring and oversight efforts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This report is part of that body of work. It examines (1) approaches Interior and Treasury took to distribute CARES Act funds to tribes and steps necessary for tribes to access and use these funds, and (2) challenges the agencies and selected tribes faced and lessons learned that could improve future federal emergency relief to tribes."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2021-10
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Silenced and Misinformed: Freedom of Expression in Danger During COVID-19
From the Executive Summary: "The right to freedom of expression has been attacked globally in the context of the Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic and thus increased the dangers posed by the public health crisis. The right to freedom of expression, including the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, is a human right which enables everyone to enjoy a range of other human rights, including the right to health. Freedom of expression is vitally important during complex public health crises like the Covid-19 pandemic, because a free flow of accurate, evidence-based and timely information increases awareness about health risks and how to prevent and deal with them. Open debate and scrutiny can ensure higher levels of trust in public health measures and help challenge misinformation and allow the necessary exchange of information to find effective ways of tackling the crisis. Freedom of expression is key to holding governments accountable for their policy responses to the health crisis. Indeed, the ability of everyone to engage in a debate about possible solutions and contribute to the response is a crucial element in overcoming the crisis itself. Winning the battle against the virus includes not just government-led actions, but also bottom-up approaches which can only come about if freedom of expression and access to information are enabled. As the World Health Organization puts it, to be able to successfully fight back Covid-19, states should 'inform, empower and listen to communities'. However, in the current Covid-19 context, governments have curtailed freedom of expression instead of encouraging it."
Amnesty International
2021-10
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Driving Digital Acceleration: The 2021 State CIO Survey
From the Executive Summary: "2021 was a year that continued to be dominated by the response to the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic. In this twelfth annual state chief information officer (CIO) survey, we received the perspective of 49 state and territory CIOs on the short- and long-term impact of the pandemic for state CIO organizations. We also received updates from CIOs on many of the traditional topics covered by the survey, including digital transformation, adoption of cloud, emerging technologies and legacy modernization. A major theme of this year's survey is whether the accelerated pace of state technology and digital services transformation over the past eighteen months will persist beyond the pandemic."
National Association of State Chief Information Officers; Grant Thornton; Computing Technology Industry Association
2021-10
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Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force: Final Report and Recommendations
From the Letter from the Chair: "President Biden charged this Task Force with recommending actions to mitigate health inequities caused or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and to prevent such inequities in the future. [...] This report presents a case for change, proposed actions for the Biden-Harris administration to prioritize, and outcomes to set the vision for what the country can achieve. And, of course, this report holds the specific recommendations the Task Force has generated throughout many months--recommendations intended to disrupt the predictability of who is harmed first, and harmed worst in times of national crisis."
Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force
2021-10
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Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force: Proposed Implementation Plan and Accountability Framework
From the Introduction: "As part of the administration's response to the devastating COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic, President Joseph R. Biden issued Executive Order 13995, which established the Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force (The 'Task Force'). Following guidance from this executive order, the Task Force convened to recommend actions against long-standing and emerging health inequities exacerbated by the pandemic. [...1] 'Section One' of this document is a proposed implementation plan. It includes overarching implementation guidance and the 55 prioritized recommendations with action steps. [2] 'Section Two' of this document is a proposed accountability framework. It includes an evaluation framework with a logic model approach. It suggests establishing and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs). This report references various populations and settings of interest as communities of color and other underserved populations, considering where people live, work, and learn."
Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force
2021-10
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Collateral Damage from COVID
From the Introduction: "We are flooded with data and stories on infections, hospitalizations, and deaths attributed to COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019]. At nearly 650,000 U.S. deaths as of the beginning of September 2021, those numbers are very large, and the immediate day-to-day impact of the pandemic has tended to dominate the news. But there is also a great deal of underreported collateral damage, costing many lives while shattering hopes and dreams, especially among the working poor. [...] This collateral damage--unintended consequences--of our personal and policy responses to the virus is immense. Excess deaths from causes other than COVID have been sharply higher than normal during the pandemic. These consequences can be extreme, such as violence and deaths of despair, but many other all-too-human costs--divorces, alcoholism, drug abuse, and derailed careers--have yet to be measured. It will be some time before all the costs can be tallied, but we can start to see and quantify many of them, and also highlight others that need to be investigated. Understanding the full scope of the damage will help close gaps between conventional wisdom and reality. Ideally, it should also inform our future personal and policy responses to pandemics and other emergencies. We owe it to ourselves to dispassionately study policy choices that were made, so that we can respond faster and better in the future. It will be invaluable if we can also recognize that scientific method does not mean seeking out evidence that supports one's personal opinion, but involves actively seeking to test our hypotheses, and openly exploring alternative perspectives."
Reason Foundation
Arnott, Robert D.; Kalesnik, Vitali; Wu, Lillian
2021-10
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State Cross-Agency Collaboration During the COVID-19 Pandemic Response
From the Introduction and Background: "The COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic has offered major challenges and opportunities for state policymakers. Due to strained resources and rapidly changing circumstances, states have had to adapt quickly as they plan, coordinate, and manage services for residents. Several states established strong inter-agency partnerships to collectively facilitate cross-sector solutions in the immediate crisis. Public health, social service and other public sectors engaged in new ways with the health sector to address the range of health and social challenges and to strengthen the safety net. Some of this engagement leveraged cross-sector strategies already proliferating across the country to advance whole person health (including in rural communities) and spurred efforts to address long-standing health inequities, especially in communities of color. This brief highlights Illinois, Indiana, and Rhode Island's cross-agency strategies during COVID-19, and it draws out themes, lessons, and best practices for states to consider during recovery and when preparing for future public health emergencies."
National Academy for State Health Policy (U.S.)
Higgins, Elinor; Cooper, Rebecca
2021-10
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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 Working Paper: The COVID-19 Pandemic and Food Security in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Review of the Emerging Microeconomic Literature
From the Abstract: "This paper reviews preliminary findings from the emerging microeconomic literature on observed changes in food insecurity associated with the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic. The review complements existing macroeconomic projections of food insecurity, based on expected changes in income and prices, by providing discussions of local-level, microeconomic differences in food insecurity. The review focuses on studies conducted in low- and middle-income countries that include household survey data, measuring food insecurity, collected both before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, the authors review eight studies--seven from countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and one from India. The authors discuss findings and limitations in this emerging literature, with the goal of informing responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. A key takeaway is that--although most studies in the review find evidence of increasing food insecurity amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there is also evidence of resilience (at least in terms of food security) among some subpopulations."
United States. Department of Agriculture. Economic Research Service
Bloem, Jeffrey R.; Farris, Jarrad
2021-10
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Farmers to Families? An Investigation into the Trump Administration's Food Box Program
From the Executive Summary: "This staff report presents findings from an investigation conducted by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis into how the Trump Administration, through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), administered the Farmers to Families Food Box Program (Food Box Program or Program) in 2020. The Select Subcommittee launched an investigation into the Program in August 2020 following reports that the Trump Administration, under then-Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, had mismanaged the program, resulting in large awards to contractors with questionable experience. [...] The Select Subcommittee's investigation focused on three distributors awarded large first-round contracts that had been the subject of multiple press reports questioning their fitness for the program. While none of the three contractors reviewed in the Select Subcommittee's investigation were renewed for the second round of the Program, the Trump Administration failed to enact certain critical improvements to the Program until its third round. Even after these improvements were implemented, the Program suffered from significant problems, such as poor-quality box contents, food safety issues, failed deliveries, and uneven distribution that excluded many suffering communities. After undertaking a review of the Food Box Program, the Biden Administration ended the Program on May 31, 2021. In the future, USDA must incorporate lessons learned from this Program to ensure the safety of recipients, limit risks of waste, fraud, and abuse, and ensure the effective, efficient, and equitable use of funds. The Select Subcommittee recommends that, when designing and implementing future food distribution programs, USDA take more care in evaluating contractors, issue and enforce guidance on eligible partner organizations and emergency pricing, and take other appropriate steps to maximize support for hungry Americans while minimizing food waste and abuse of food distribution programs."
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Oversight and Reform. Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis
2021-10
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High Public Debt in an Uncertain World: Post-Covid-19 Dangers for Public Finance
From the Document: "During the Covid-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] crisis, governments have had little choice but to support the economy while trying to keep the spread of the disease under control; this means accepting large deficits. Now that the health emergency is subsiding, governments have to chart a new course for public finance. The starting point is a higher level of public debt. In some countries, such as Italy or the US, public debt has increased by between 25 and 30 percentage points relative to GDP [gross domestic product]. Moreover, the levels reached by a number of countries (close to 160 percent of GDP for Italy, 130 percent of GDP for the US, 200 percent of GDP for Greece) are above the levels that would have been considered prudent a few years ago. [...] The key reason why high public debt should be considered a potential source of problems, even in an environment of low rates, is another important, but often overlooked, legacy of the Covid-19 crisis: increased uncertainty."
EconPol Europe
Gros, Daniel
2021-10
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COVID-19--Oversight of the Emergency Food Assistance Program--Interim Report [October 2021]
From the Objective: "Our ongoing inspection has four objectives. This report addresses Objective 1: What criteria did FNS [Food and Nutrition Service] use to approve States for food and administrative funds provided under the FFCR [Families First Coronavirus Response] and CARES [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security] Acts. The Objective 1 includes the following sub objectives: (a) How much did FNS allocate to each State for food assistance and administrative funds under each act?; (b) Did FNS deny any State request for food assistance and/ or administrative funds provided under each act?; (c) Did FNS use different criteria to approve States for food assistance and administrative funds under each act?; and (d) What impact, if any, could changes to the criteria have on the integrity of the program? [...] We evaluated the process FNS used to approve States for food and administrative funds provided under the FFCR and CARES Acts. [...] We made no recommendations in this report."
United States. Department of Agriculture. Office of the Inspector General
2021-10
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COVID-19 Working Paper: Filling the Pandemic Meal Gap: Disruptions to Child Nutrition Programs and Expansion of Free Meal Sites in the Early Months of the Pandemic
From the Abstract: "The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic struck the United States abruptly and unexpectedly, forcing the closure of schools and childcare providers nationwide beginning in March 2020. These closures disrupted the provision of meals to children through the largest of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) child nutrition programs. In response, USDA issued a series of waivers, as allowed by law, to facilitate the continued provision of meals to children while prioritizing the health and safety of communities. This working paper assesses the extent to which the existing child nutrition infrastructure was able to rapidly adapt to meet the needs of children in the immediate aftermath of the unforeseen crises. It documents disruptions in the provision of meals through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), and Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) from March through May 2020, and it examines the extent to which waivers allowing greater flexibility in their implementation and the expansion of free meal sites helped to compensate for these disruptions."
United States. Department of Agriculture. Economic Research Service
Toossi, Saied
2021-10
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Household Experiences in America During the Delta Variant Outbreak
From the Executive Summary: "This report examines the most serious problems facing U.S. households during the delta variant outbreak, with an aim to identify vulnerable populations in urgent need of government help or charitable aid. NPR [National Public Radio], The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted a survey August 2 - September 7, 2021, to examine the most serious problems facing households across America in the past few months when it comes to their finances, healthcare, racial/ethnic discrimination, education, caregiving, work, and well-being. Despite billions of dollars appropriated by federal and state governments during the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] outbreak to protect vulnerable Americans, as well as recent reports that the poverty rate has declined, results from this survey show that a substantial share of households across the U.S. have not been adequately protected from financial problems. Many report serious impacts across different areas of their lives in the past few months alone. Of note, this poll measured experiences just before federal pandemic unemployment benefits ended and at the time housing eviction protections expired, so estimates do not include the potential impact of these events. These findings raise important concerns about the limited financial resources of many U.S. households to weather the economic effects of the delta variant outbreak, as a significant share have lost their household savings during the COVID-19 outbreak and are facing major problems paying for basic costs of living, including rent, utilities, and medical care."
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; National Public Radio (U.S.)
2021-10
