United States

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

This week’s post focuses on schools as a source of free- and reduced-price meals for children, and the disruption the COVID-19 pandemic has wrought on that function, just as families with children are facing increased levels of food insecurity. Innovation 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

Crisis Standards of Care This report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security analyses the experience of hospitals across New York City during the surge of COVID-19 patients in the city from April to June 2020 with a focus Read More

This week’s post focuses on recent research on the role of school closures as a non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) in curbing COVID-19 spread, and survey results from educators on how the pandemic has shaped and shifted teaching and learning. School Closures Read More

Hospital Staffing Shortages As reported in multiple sources, including this STAT article and this NPR article, hospitals across at least 25 states are experiencing critical staff shortages. While many of these hospitals have built up their reserves of other resources Read More

Resource Allocation This article by Buckwalter and Peterson examines U.S. public attitudes toward scarce resource allocation strategies using a set of three studies involving a combined 1,868 participants through online platforms. The research questions targeted attitudes about specific principles used Read More

Overcoming Anti-Vaccine Rhetoric With the recent announcement of an impending COVID-19 vaccine, former CDC director Tom Frieden commented on the effect of misinformation and vaccine hesitancy. He argues that critical components of effective public health risk messaging has been conspicuously Read More

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages and many government officials and school administrators are making tough decisions about in-person schooling, some new summaries characterize the risk of COVID spread in schools, and new evidence on the early childhood care and education Read More

Vulnerable Populations This study by Clift, et al. from the United Kingdom assessed COVID-19 mortality risk among persons with Down syndrome. Down syndrome has not been included among known risk factors by UK or US health authorities, but it is Read More