Social Implications

Crisis Standards of Care This new report from the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reports findings from a series of forums in which clinicians from hospitals across New York City discussed their experiences Read More

Nursing Homes This article by Gorges & Konetzka uses data from over 13,000 US nursing homes to determine whether case mix, facility characteristics, and community spread were associated with racial differences in COVID-19-associated deaths among residents. The study found that Read More

Health Care Workers This study by Yang et al. assesses whether health care workers (HCWs) are at risk of worse outcomes associated with COVID-19 (mechanical ventilation or death) compared to patients who are not HCWs. The target of the study Read More

Biden White House Establishes National Covid-19 Response Priorities In an effort to better coordinate efforts to respond to a pandemic that has now resulted in more than 400,000 deaths, President Biden, within 24 hours of taking office, set out a Read More

Resource Allocation and Social Inequities This article by Schmidt, Roberts & Eneanya critiques the use of facially neutral (or “colorblind”) criteria for the allocation of scarce resources such as ventilators. Such neutral frameworks are designed to maximize utility, typically lives Read More

Vaccine Allocation Equity The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation published a very simple but effective infographic to depict the difference between policies and interventions aimed at equality, and those seeking equity: Imagine instead of a bicycle, the example used: Access to 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

COVID-19 Vaccines  The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine received an Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for use in adults. On Saturday, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which offers guidance to the CDC concerning vaccine policy, unanimously 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

Disparities This article by Ogedegbe et al. examines racial/ethnic disparities in COVID-19 hospitalization and mortality among patients of a large New York City health system. Consistent with other existing data, this study found that Black and Hispanic patients were more Read More