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COVID-19: HHS Agencies' Planned Reviews of Vaccine Distribution and Communication Efforts Should Include Stakeholder Perspectives, Report to Congressional Committees
From the Highlights: "Vaccination remains critical in the federal response to the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic. Vaccine implementation-- prioritizing, allocating, distributing, and administering doses--requires coordination among federal, state, and local levels and other stakeholders. HHS agencies--including CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and HRSA [Health Resources and Services Administration]--set up federal vaccine distribution programs, such as CDC's retail pharmacy program that sends doses directly to pharmacies. The federal government also sends vaccine doses to states for further distribution. The CARES [Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security] Act includes a provision for GAO [U.S. Government Accountability Office] to report on its ongoing monitoring and oversight efforts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This report examines (1) stakeholder perspectives on federal programs to distribute and administer COVID-19 vaccines, (2) efforts to inform health officials, providers, and the public about vaccination, and (3) actions HHS [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] agencies are taking to evaluate their vaccine implementation efforts. GAO reviewed data and documents from HHS, CDC, and HRSA, and reviewed information from and interviewed state and local health officials in four states and one city selected, in part, for geographic variation. GAO also interviewed other stakeholders, including 12 national associations representing health care providers and others."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2021-11
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Dose of Dignity: Equitable Vaccination Policies for Incarcerated People and Correctional Staff During the COVID-19 Pandemic
From the Abstract: "Since its emergence in early 2020, the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic has altered the lives of millions of Americans. As it so often is during times of crisis, our most vulnerable communities have disproportionately suffered and were overlooked. Among these myriad communities, incarcerated people became a particularly potent symbol of our failure to handle the spread of the virus. In December 2020, a beacon of hope emerged with the introduction of new cutting-edge vaccines which promised to bring the world back to where it was just a year-and-a-half ago. Here again, however, policy and politics have led states to adopt different distribution plans that, broadly speaking, deprioritized incarcerated populations and in some cases correctional staff as well. [...] Our findings show that vaccination policies tended to systematically ignore or disadvantage incarcerated individuals. We argue that by adopting such policies, states have neglected to comply with their legal obligations, grounded in existing and emerging Eighth Amendment jurisprudence and long-standing ethical responsibilities to proactively vaccinate this population. This is particularly true given that prisons are among the high-risk 'congregate settings' that are widely recognized by health experts, and often by the states themselves, as deserving of immediate distribution of vaccines. Based on these obligations, and given recent new virus outbreaks and the realization that some form of COVID-19 is here to stay (and other pandemics may be around the corner), this Essay concludes with recommendations for the future."
Southern California Law Review
Ravid, Itay; Hyatt, Jordan M.; Chanenson, Steven L.
2021-09-20
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COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by Vaccination Status
From the Background: "Vaccination is a critical tool to help stop the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic. All authorized COVID-19 vaccines in the US are highly effective at protecting people from getting sick or severely ill with COVID-19, including those infected with Delta and other known variants. COVID-19 vaccination can also reduce the spread of disease overall, helping to keep communities safe. Because no vaccines are 100 percent effective, it is expected that some fully vaccinated people will get sick with COVID-19, and that number will increase as more people get vaccinated. Vaccine effectiveness can also be affected by an individual's own immune system, like how well they respond to the vaccine when it is given and how much their immunity wanes over time. Real world, state-specific data showing the impact of vaccination on outcomes, including infection and death, can help illustrate these benefits, improve confidence in vaccines, and raise vaccination rates in Texas. This analysis will be updated periodically to include the most recent four-week span with complete data."
Texas. Department of State Health Services; Texas Health and Human Services Commission
2021-11-08
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Research Brief: Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Related Restrictions on Homicide and Property Crime
From the Introduction: "Over the course of just a few weeks during the first few months of 2020, the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic radically changed the nature of social interaction and economic activity in all regions across the world. By the first week of April 2020, 3.9 billion people - more than half the global population - were under some form of lockdown. In the months that followed, countries enforced a broad spectrum of restrictions, adjusting and readjusting their response in accordance with the course of the pandemic. These ongoing changes are affecting all aspects of life, with crime being no exception. This research brief is aimed at providing initial observations about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on four types of crime: homicide, robbery, theft and burglary. Based on ongoing data collection launched by UNODC [United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime] in March 2020, trends before and after lockdown measures were introduced are compared in order to assess whether the measures have had a significant impact on those crimes. The possible longer-term impact of the emerging global economic crisis on the same forms of crime is also discussed."
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
2020-12-10?
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Dangerous Link Between Social Media, Misinformation, and Vaccination Rates [infographic]
From the image: "A new study provides irrefutable evidence that people who rely on social media for information about COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] are much more likely to believe misinformation about the virus, and much less likely to be vaccinated. [...] Poll among a sample of 3,000 adults, conducted September 20-22, 2021 by Morning Consult on behalf of the de Beaumont Foundation and Dr. Frank Luntz. The interviews were conducted online and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of adults based on gender, educational attainment, age, race, and region. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points." For more information, visit changingthecovidconversation.org
de Beaumont Foundation
2021-09?
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How Conspiracists Exploited COVID-19 Science
From the Document: "Instead of envisioning an untidy world filled with randomness, unintended consequences, innocent action gone awry and new evidence, conspiracists envision one that is inhabited by powerful individuals who conceal malign activities and intent. The fluid nature of emergent science provides fuel for conspiracy theorists who offer certainty in place of the provisional, sometimes-updated statements of health experts. At the same time, conspiracy proponents question the trustworthiness and motives of those in the federal agencies, philanthropic institutions and pharmaceutical companies who fund basic research and develop, deliver and, in the case of some of the federal agencies, regulate public access to medical treatments, including vaccines. Filtering the world through these lenses, during the pandemic conspiracists have drawn on and manipulated statements and actions by public health experts, such as Dr Anthony Fauci (director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases), on topics that range from mask wearing and COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] treatments to vaccine safety and the funding of coronavirus research. Understanding the susceptibilities that conspiracists exploit should help us to identify ways to better safeguard both the trustworthiness of health science and public trust in it."
Springer Nature (Firm)
Jamieson, Kathleen Hall
2021-11-01
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Preventing Violence in American Cities with Safer Alcohol Sales: Tools Cities Can Use to Address Increasing Alcohol Use and Violence Since the Onset of COVID-19
From the Issue: "Alcohol consumption has been rising in the U.S. since the turn of the century, along with alcohol-related harms. On average, alcohol use contributes to 104,000 deaths per year in the U.S., including 47% of homicides, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates. Alcohol problems cost the U.S. $249 billion in 2010, the last year for which an estimate is available. Alcohol is the number one drug used by young people, and every year approximately 3,500 people under 21 die because of alcohol use. Prior to the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic, negative consequences of alcohol use were rising: Alcohol-specific death rates increased 55% from 2000 to 2016, emergency department visits involving alcohol consumption grew by 62% from 2006 to 2014, and the age-adjusted death rate for alcoholic liver disease, an indicator of excessive use, rose by 37.2% from 2000 to 2017. Newer data show that the rates of alcohol sales and binge drinking have increased sharply since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic."
CityHealth
2021-03-01?
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Operation Warp Speed: The Interagency and Public-Private Collaborations that Drove It [video]
From the video description: "In this webinar from the Council on Strategic Risks, Christine Parthemore and Andy Weber host Dr. Matt Hepburn and Dr. Monique K. Mansoura to discuss Operation Warp Speed and how [to] build on its success in the future." Operation Warp Speed is a program funded by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and originally launched by the U.S. government (as a public-private partnership) to oversee and speed up the development and distribution of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines and treatments. The duration of this video is 58 minutes and 47 seconds. Closed captioning and an auto-generated transcript are available for use.
Council on Strategic Risks
Parthemore, Christine; Weber, Andy; Hepburn, Matthew J. . . .
2021-10-27
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Assessment of COVID-19-Related Immigration Concerns Among Latinx Immigrants in the US
From the Key Points: "'Question'[:] What proportions of Latinx immigrants endorse statements about the immigration ramifications of engaging in COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019]-related testing, treatment, and contact tracing? 'Findings'[:] In this survey study of 336 adult Latinx immigrants in the US, 89 participants (27%) believed that hospital emergency departments provided the only source for COVID-19-related testing or treatment for uninsured immigrants. A total of 106 participants (32%) agreed that using public COVID-19-related testing and treatment services could jeopardize an individual's immigration prospects; 96 participants (29%) and 114 participants (34%), respectively, would not identify an undocumented household member or coworker during contact tracing. 'Meaning'[:] These results suggest that substantial proportions of Latinx immigrants have immigration concerns about engaging in COVID-19-related testing, treatment, and contact tracing."
JAMA Network
Galletly, Carol L.; Lechuga, Julia; Dickson-Gomez, Julia, 1969- . . .
2021-07-19
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Lessons Learnt from the COVID-19 Pandemic from a Financial Stability Perspective: Final Report
From the Introduction: "The COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic is the first major test of the global financial system after the financial crisis of 2008. While the core of the financial system - including major banks and financial market infrastructures (FMIs) - proved resilient, the macroeconomic shock led initially to severe liquidity stress in some other parts of the system. In particular, the stress in key funding markets highlighted financial vulnerabilities in parts of the NBFI [non-bank financial intermediation] sector and prompted unprecedented central bank intervention. While significantly different in nature from the 2008 crisis, this real-life test holds important lessons for financial policy, especially on the functioning of the G20 [Group of 20] financial regulatory reforms. Against this background, the Italian G20 Presidency asked the FSB [Financial Stability Board] to identify preliminary lessons for financial stability from the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this request, the FSB, in collaboration with SSBs, prepared an interim report on lessons learnt. [...] This final report updates the assessment provided in the July interim report and outlines actions by the FSB and SSBs [standard-setting bodies] in response to lessons learnt. The update reflects feedback from external stakeholders and the FSB RCGs [Regional Consultative Groups], obtained through outreach events. It also takes into account recent studies in this area and progress made in relevant international initiatives."
Financial Stability Board
2021-10-28
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Reopening California: Seeking Robust, Nondominated COVID-19 Exit Strategies
From the Abstract: "The COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic required significant public health interventions from local governments. Although nonpharmaceutical interventions often were implemented as decision rules, few studies evaluated the robustness of those reopening plans under a wide range of uncertainties. This paper uses the Robust Decision Making approach to stress-test 78 alternative reopening strategies, using California as an example. This study uniquely considers a wide range of uncertainties and demonstrates that seemingly sensible reopening plans can lead to both unnecessary COVID-19 deaths and days of interventions. We find that plans using fixed COVID-19 case thresholds might be less effective than strategies with time-varying reopening thresholds. While we use California as an example, our results are particularly relevant for jurisdictions where vaccination roll-out has been slower. The approach used in this paper could also prove useful for other public health policy problems in which policymakers need to make robust decisions in the face of deep uncertainty."
PLoS ONE
Nascimento de Lima, Pedro; Lempert, Robert J.; Vardavas, Raffaele . . .
2021-10-26
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COVID-19 Policy Playbook: Legal Recommendations for a Safer, More Equitable Future
From the Document: "This report, including 39 chapters by more than 50 experts, updates and expands the initial rapid COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] legal assessment published in August 2020. The failures we noted in the first Report have only worsened, culminating in the sad moment in February when the country reached 500,000 deaths. For Volume II of the Report, our team has revisited the legal issues we first surveyed early in the pandemic, and have added new topics, including education, data systems, and the lessons of the 2020 pandemic election. Even for the subjects covered previously, this Report consists of largely new material, including new, post-election recommendations, which we highlight in this summary. Volume I confronted a historic failure of law and policy. Volume II points to a historic opportunity to remake our institutions, public and clinical health law and policy, and the social contract. Once again, we have asked our authors to focus on how law has served the nation's response to COVID-19, and to offer concrete suggestions for immediate and long-term changes to better serve the health of the nation."
Public Health Law Watch
Gable, Lance A.; Levin, Donna E.; Parmet, Wendy E. . . .
2021-03
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Women Peace and Security Index 2021/22
From the Overview: "Women's inclusion, justice, and security are more critical than ever in the midst of a pandemic that has wreaked havoc around the world. This year's global report, the third since the inaugural edition in 2017, finds a slowdown in the pace of improvement in the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Index and widening disparities across countries. The range of scores on the 2021 WPS Index is vast, with Norway at the top scoring more than three times better than Afghanistan at the bottom. The range of scores is much wider than in 2017, when the score of the top performer was about twice that of the worst performer. This widening gap reflects rising inequality in the status of women across countries: countries at the top continue to improve while those at the bottom get worse, mirroring global trends in wealth and income inequality."
Georgetown University. Institute for Women, Peace and Security; International Peace Research Institute
2021
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COVID-19, Disinformation and Hateful Extremism
From the Executive Summary: "The COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic has provided a breeding ground for conspiracy theories, disinformation and hateful extremism. Pandemics are inherently fast-moving and information is constantly evolving, creating opportunities for hateful extremist groups to spread doubt, fear and suspicion among the public. Forums such as 4Chan and Reddit are hubs for real-time debate, conspiracy theories and disinformation. Similarly, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube play a role in generating and amplifying false information. During lockdown and with rising unemployment, more people have been spending time at home and online, with greater exposure to false information and hateful extremist narratives. Particularly in the COVID-19 context, it is important to ensure that today's digital generations are equipped to identify hateful extremism and false narratives in order to build societal resilience. As COVID-19 presents an unprecedented challenge and a catalyst for false information, this rapidly developing area requires research input. There is a need to consolidate existing research, better understand the evidence base and address gaps to inform primary research, policy planning and decision making."
Great Britain. Commission for Countering Extremism
Cox, Kate; Ogden, Theodora; Jordan, Victoria . . .
2021-03
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Vaccinations and the Economic Recovery, Virtual Hearing Before the Joint Economic Committee of the Congress of the United States, One Hundred Seventeenth Congress, First Session, April 14, 2021
This is the April 14, 2021 hearing on "Vaccinations and the Economic Recovery," held before the Joint Economic Committee of the Congress of the United States. From the opening statement of Donald S. Beyer Jr.: "The pandemic and its tragic health and economic consequences have dominated our lives for the last year. After more than a year of physical distancing and mask wearing, of fearing for our health and the health of our loved ones, of widespread unequal economic hardship, the potential returning to a sense of normalcy is finally within sight. [...] Thankfully, the economy is beginning to recover. Much of that recovery is due to the remarkable vaccination efforts unfolding in our country and throughout the world right now. Millions of shots are going into arms every single day." Statements, letters, and materials submitted for the record include those of the following: Celine Gounder, Paul Romer, Belinda Archibong, and Alexander Tabarrok.
United States. Government Publishing Office
2021
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Election Assistance Commission: Assessment of Lessons Learned Could Improve Grants Administration, Report to Congressional Committees
From the Highlights: "During the 2020 federal elections, the EAC [U.S. Election Assistance Commission] administered $400 million in grant funds provided by the CARES [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security] Act to help states prepare for and respond to the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic. The CARES Act included a provision for GAO [Government Accountability Office] to report on its ongoing monitoring and oversight efforts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This report (1) describes information that the EAC provided to state and local election officials for conducting elections during the pandemic, (2) describes how the EAC administered CARES Act grant funding, and (3) examines the extent to which the EAC assessed its CARES Act grants administration."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2021-11
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Sentinel Communities Insights: 'COVID-19: One Year Later' Vaccine Rollout, Implications for Community Recovery, and Critical Gaps That Remain - Synthesis Report
From the Introduction: "In 2020, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) began tracking the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] response and recovery efforts of nine communities across the United States with the goal of better understanding how the pandemic, and the local response to it, is impacting health, well-being, and equity in those communities. [...] In this report, over a year into the pandemic, we review efforts toward vaccination and community response and recovery across sectors--and the critical gaps that remain. The past year has shown that recovery from COVID-19 has demanded a response across sectors--health, economic, housing, education, and more--and communities have approached their responses across these sectors in different ways. The American Rescue Plan also brings historic funding to local communities who have significant discretion over how funds are used. While some have used COVID-19 response and recovery resources to reaffirm their approaches to health and equity, other communities continue to encounter long-standing barriers to solving such entrenched community problems."
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; RAND Corporation
2021-07
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Sentinel Communities Insights: 'Spotlight on COVID-19' Emerging Themes Across Communities
From the Introduction: "Since 2016, the Sentinel Communities project [hyperlink] has monitored activities on health, well-being, and health equity across 29 communities. As the nation confronts the impact of the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic and the legacy of racial inequities that the disease highlights, it is an opportunity to review how diverse communities across the United States are planning for, mitigating, and recovering from the effects of the pandemic. This project takes a deeper look at nine of the Sentinel Communities and explores how prior efforts to address health and health equity, along with the relative impact of COVID-19 in each community, have influenced whether and how each community has responded to this pandemic. Information is quickly evolving and findings in this first report and the corresponding nine Sentinel Community summaries describe community responses to COVID-19 through early June 2020. Future reports, developed every few months, will further document the response and recovery of these communities."
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; RAND Corporation
2020-07
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Sentinel Communities Insights: 'Impacts of COVID-19 and Pandemic Response on Children and Families' Synthesis Report
"In 2020, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) began tracking the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] response and recovery efforts of nine communities across the United States with the goal of better understanding how the pandemic, and the local response to it, is impacting health, well-being, and equity in those communities. [...] In this series of reports, we examine the impact of the pandemic on children and families. When COVID-19 began rapidly spreading in the U.S., policymakers issued stay-at-home orders, closed businesses, and restricted group gatherings. Schools also moved to remote instruction and many child-care services closed. Since then, response and recovery have been shaped by decisions made by local and state officials with respect to the reopening of businesses, schools, and child-care facilities, and the investments that communities are making to support the safety and wellbeing of working families and to facilitate remote learning. This report, based on information available through early February 2021, summarizes the decisions nine communities have made with respect to their local economies and COVID-19 mitigation, and the impacts those decisions are having on children and families as well as on equity."
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; RAND Corporation
2021-03
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Sentinel Communities Insights: 'Collaboration in Communities to Address COVID-19' Continuing Themes Across Communities
From the Introduction: "In July 2020, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) released the first set of reports [hyperlink] in the Sentinel Communities: Spotlight on COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] project. Those reports summarized the early impacts of the pandemic in nine communities around the United States, and included a synthesis report that documented emerging themes around the communities' responses to these challenges. In this second synthesis report, we take a deeper look at how cross-sector collaboration [hyperlink] is contributing to ongoing response and recovery efforts. Improving overall health and well-being within any community requires creative solutions driven by collaboration across sectors. Trajectories of community response and recovery to the COVID-19 pandemic can be shaped by how well individuals and public and private institutions work together within communities. Successful cross-sector collaboration encourages people to see the connections between their work-- whether in health care, education, transportation, community development, law enforcement, business, or other fields--and the broader health and well-being of their community. This set of reports summarizes how elements of cross-sector collaboration--such as sharing data or investments, developing mutually beneficial policies, or forming innovative partnerships--have shaped each community's response to the pandemic."
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; RAND Corporation
2020-10
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Public Law 116-260: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021
From the Document: "An Act making consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, providing coronavirus emergency response and relief, and for other purposes."
United States. Government Publishing Office
2020-12-27
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Supporting a Nation in Crisis: Solutions for Local Leaders to Improve Mental Health and Well-Being During and Post-COVID-19
From the Introduction: "During the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic, social isolation and loneliness caused by social distancing, coupled with overwhelming loss of life and widespread economic crisis, create a perfect storm for affecting Americans' mental health and well-being. We know from prior pandemics and natural disasters that COVID-19 and its implications have the potential to trigger or worsen anxiety, depression, addiction issues, suicide, and other mental health challenges. [...] This action guide is intended for local policymakers and civic institutions (e.g., anchor institutions such as universities, hospitals, and other enduring organizations that play a vital role in their local communities and economies; chambers of commerce; philanthropies; and multi-sector collaboratives). It provides recommendations that can be implemented to address mental health in both the immediate response and recovery phases of the pandemic. This guide also highlights a handful of focus populations uniquely affected by the mental health challenges of COVID-19 and suggests community-specific tactics to address these needs. While this does not represent an exhaustive list, the well-being of these groups has been fundamentally altered by the pandemic."
de Beaumont Foundation; Well Being Trust
Hare Bork, Rachel; Gendelman, Moriah
2020-08
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Synergistic Interventions to Control COVID-19: Mass Testing and Isolation Mitigates Reliance on Distancing
From the Author Summary: "The global spread of SARS-CoV-2 [severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2] and the strategies used to manage it have come at significant societal costs. We analyze how mixed control strategies, which utilize interventions that prevent new infections from occurring (e.g., distancing or shut-downs) and others that actively search for and isolate existing infections (here, mass testing), can achieve improved public health outcomes while avoiding severe socio-economic burdens. Our results suggest that increasing testing capacity, including the number of tests available and the speed at which test results are provided, can reduce reliance on costly preventative interventions. Such reduction is possible with more isolation of active infections, including those without reported symptoms. However, failing to maintain preventative interventions without sufficient testing capacity can lead to large increases in infection burdens. By defining the combined effect of these interventions through mathematical models, this study provides insight into relaxation of distancing measures, and lays the groundwork for future public health economics analyses on the cost-effectiveness of combined management strategies."
Public Library of Science
Howerton, Emily; Ferrari, Matthew J.; Bjornstad, Ottar N. . . .
2021-10-28
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Public Health Messaging in a Politicized Pandemic- 2020 Virtual Summit [video]
From the Video Description: "Communicating about COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] Response Measures in a Volatile Environment Effective messaging is essential in order to make the legal, policy, or fiscal changes demanded by this pandemic. COVID-19 is top of mind for citizens, public health, health care and local policy makers alike, but people with different political perspectives view COVID differently. In this challenging time, it's crucial that public health professionals be able to speak productively and meaningfully with people who hold different political perspectives and view complex health issues differently. This session will present research that shows the relationship between our political views and the foundational moral values with which we resonate. Though all of us confront numerous divides ranging from generational to political, the public health workforce can bridge these differences to become trusted messengers and further the health of their communities during this pandemic. This session is designed to benefit both frontline public health workers and organizational managers engaging in law, policy and/or fiscal change." The duration of the video is 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 44 seconds.
Network for Public Health Law
Matthews, Gene W.; Hunter, Dawn; Thomas, Elizabeth
2020-09-22
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Impact of COVID-19 on the DPRK's Health System and Future Inter-Korean Biomedical Cluster Cooperation in the Post-Pandemic Era
From the Introduction: "In this essay, Sang Min Park discusses the impact of COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] and the international sanctions regime on the DPRK [The Democratic People's Republic of Korea] healthcare system, trends in global health aid for the DPRK and the role of the ROK [Republic of Korea], and a future inter-Korean Biomedical Cluster Cooperation model in a post-pandemic era, with implications for cooperative threat reduction (CTR+). [...] The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is yet to confirm any official cases of COVID-19. Since the start of the pandemic in January 2020, the DPRK has taken extensive measures to control COVID-19, including imposing strict border controls, a 30-day quarantine for those with COVID-like symptoms, lockdowns of entire counties and cities, and a ban on travel between provinces. Several researchers have summarized the status of COVID-19 in the DPRK, its response to the pandemic, and the pandemic's impact on the economy and regional security of the DPRK. This paper will attempt to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the DPRK health system as well as its future implications in three major ways: 1) a brief update of the DPRK's response to COVID-19 epidemic in 2021 and its impacts on the DPRK health system; 2) trends in global health aid to the DPRK during the international sanctions regime and the role of the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the COVID-19 pandemic era; and 3) how to build a sustainable and synergistic horizontal inter-Korean cooperation model in the post-pandemic era."
Nautilus Institute
Park, Sang Min
2021-11-08
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Building Resilient, Equitable, and Healthy Communities Post Pandemic and Always: Recommendations for the Next Administration and 117th Congress
From the Document: "The nation's urban local health departments are critical to building a healthier, safer, and more secure nation. Metropolitan areas are now home to almost 84% of Americans, and BCHC [Big Cities Health Coalition] member health departments serve nearly 62 million or 1 in 5 Americans. At their best, these health departments positively impact entire populations and create an environment in which the healthy, safe option is the default option. [...] In the midst of a worldwide pandemic, it has never been more important to make public health decisions based on science and data. Elected leaders need to be transparent and refrain from undermining or politicizing science and data. Inconsistent messaging and a top-down approach have been harmful to the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] response. All levels of government must work together to present a unified front to the American people."
Big Cities Health Coalition
2020-10-19
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Bad Actors in News Reporting: Tracking News Manipulation by State Actors
From the Document: "The global spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) created fertile ground for attempts to influence and destabilize different populations and countries. In response to this, RAND Corporation researchers conducted a proof-of-concept study for detecting these efforts at scale. Marrying a large-scale collection pipeline for global news with machine-learning and data analysis workflows, the RAND team found that both Russia and China appear to have employed information manipulation during the COVID-19 pandemic in service to their respective global agendas. This report is the second in a series of two reports; the first (Matthews, Migacheva, and Brown, 2021) focused on qualitative and descriptive analysis of the same data referred to in this report. Here, we describe our analytic workflows for detecting and documenting state-sponsored malign and subversive information efforts, and we report quantitative results that support the qualitative findings from the first report. [...] As part of our analysis, we searched for both differences and similarities in the topics discussed by Russian, Chinese, and Western news media, and we found that conspiracy theories and geopolitical posturing were relatively common in Russian and Chinese news articles compared with Western (U.S. and UK) articles. The work we describe here lays the foundation for a robust protective capability that detects and sheds light on state-actor information manipulation and misconduct in the global arena."
RAND Corporation
Johnson, Christian; Marcellino, William M.
2021
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MMWR Early Release: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, November 5, 2021: The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' Interim Recommendation for Use of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine in Children Aged 5-11 Years -- United States, November 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: "The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' Interim Recommendation for Use of Pfizer-Biontech COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] Vaccine in Children Aged 5-11 Years -- United States, November 2021." Notifiable Diseases and Mortality Tables from MMWR can be accessed at the following link [http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/index2021.html]
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.)
2021-11-05
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Modeling the Impact of Social Distancing and Targeted Vaccination on the Spread of COVID-19 Through a Real City-Scale Contact Network
From the Introduction: "[T]argeted vaccination strategies that prioritize high-contact individuals far outperform a baseline strategy of vaccinating people at random for reducing cases, even when the targeted strategy is only imperfectly implemented. In this work, we expand on that approach by performing a comparative study of the effectiveness of both social distancing and a vaccination strategy that targets those with the most physical contacts (such as workers in high-contact public-facing professions). This analysis is motivated by the fact that both mitigation strategies have significant challenges and high costs, so it is important to quantify their respective marginal benefits. Social distancing suppresses economic activity, has deleterious effects on child education, and leads to increased levels of depression and anxiety. Prioritizing the most high-contact individuals for vaccination has both direct challenges toward identifying those individuals and the opportunity costs of not prioritizing other vulnerable groups, and it could slow overall distribution. (We stress that the vaccination policy choice we are considering is not whether to prioritize vaccination, but whether to accept the costs associated with a targeted vaccination strategy.) In this study, we only attempt to quantify the effectiveness of these two COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] mitigation strategies for reducing the total number of cases; we do not model the number of hospitalizations or deaths, although these are also important factors for policy makers to consider. Nor do we consider other vaccination strategies, such as prioritizing the elderly, because our data source does not provide the necessary information to do so."
RAND Corporation
Hartnett, Gavin S.; Parker, Edward; Gulden, Timothy R. . . .
2021-06
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Biological Research at the Department of Energy: Leveraging DOE's Unique Capabilities to Respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Energy of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, House of Representatives, One Hundred Sixteenth Congress, Second Session, September 11, 2020
This is the September 11, 2020 hearing on "Biological Research at the Department of Energy: Leveraging DOE's Unique Capabilities to Respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic," held before the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. From the opening statement of Lizzie Fletcher Webex: "This hearing will examine the historic reasons for why the Department possesses advanced bioscience capabilities to address the Nation's great challenges and to stimulate innovation, how this expertise and DOE's [Department of Energy's] biological research tools are being leveraged to respond to the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic, and what future directions for the Department's biological system research can provide solutions for our Nation's most pressing issues." Statements, letters, and materials submitted for the record include those of the following: Mary Maxon, Debra Mohnen, Glenn C. Randall, and Kelly C. Wrighton.
United States. Government Publishing Office
2020
