Equity and the Vaccine Rollout “We don’t want equity and speed at odds with one another,” said California’s Health Secretary Mark Ghaly at a recent news conference. As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout approaches its third month, more information is now
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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
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This week’s post focuses on employment effects of pandemic-induced school closures, a topic covered previously in October and December posts. COVID-19 disruptions have created a difficult balancing act for working parents, and evidence shows that the challenges are particularly acute
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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
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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
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MUST READ POLICY PIECES: This week, the New Yorker published “The Plague Year” by Lawrence Wright, a tour-de-force piece of reporting on the nation’s pandemic response. Having read a great deal of policy-related reporting on the outbreak, I believe this
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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
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COVID-19 Hospitalizations in Young Adults It has been shown that age and comorbidity influence outcomes of those hospitalized with COVID-19. Specifically, older patients are more likely to experience severe adverse effects of the disease and numerous studies have corroborated this.
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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
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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
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