California

Women’s Health and COVID-19 Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted health care delivery as we know it, often restricting access to routine health services. Women’s health was not immune to this disruption. In this month’s review, we discuss recent literature on Read More

Examining How We Collect Race and Ethnicity Data COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted racial and ethnic minority groups. Public health strategies to help prevent and address these inequities include strategic allocation of resources and culturally appropriate messaging. Such strategies require reliable Read More

Racial and Ethnic Disparities This article by Reitsma et al. adds to the literature on racial and ethnic disparities related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The article analyzes exposure risk, testing, and cases, providing a detailed assessment at the subcounty level Read More

Resource Allocation This article by Kerr & Schmidt provides a review of existing literature related to ventilator rationing protocols with a focus on disadvantaged populations’ views on appropriate principles. While the authors identified a large number of ventilator triage guidelines Read More

Resource Allocation The National Academy of Medicine joined eight other national organizations in calling for governors, state health departments, and health system partners to prepare for implementation of crisis standards of care (CSC) during COVID-19 surge. The NAM recommendation comes Read More

Health Care Workers This article by Feinstein et al. addresses the potential for a mental health crisis among frontline health care workers as a result of the pandemic and surrounding circumstances, such as lack of PPE, shortages of critical care Read More

Testing Supplies and Capacity This N.Y. Times article details continuing challenges regarding availability and processing of coronavirus testing kits in Arizona, which has experienced a surge in COVID-19 cases. Drive-up testing sites have 3-mile lines, labs have twice as many Read More

Two significant court cases were released last week. Supreme Court says religious services may be restricted without violating First Amendment: I discuss the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision not to disturb California’s Executive Order restricting the size of live religious gatherings Read More

This report describes how universal, serial reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction testing of residents in a long-term care skilled nursing facility in Los Angeles, California, helped to interrupt transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 in the facility. On March 28, 2020, two Read More

Ethical framework for managing the health services response to Covid-19 proposed by UK experts  The authors of “Ethical anchors and explicit objectives: ensuring optimal health outcomes in the Covid 19 pandemic” attempt to fill a gap caused by what they Read More