The control of consumption by the public health authority

Epidemic curves are used by decision makers and the public to infer the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic and to understand the appropriateness of response measures. Symptom onset date is commonly used to date incident cases on the epidemic curve in public health reports and dashboards; however, third-party trackers date cases by the date they were publicly reported by the public health authority. These two curves create very different impressions of epidemic progression. On April 1, 2020, the epidemic curve based on public reporting date for Ontario, Canada showed an accelerating epidemic, whereas the curve based on a proxy variable for symptom onset date showed a rapidly declining epidemic. This illusory downward trend is a feature of epidemic curves anchored using date variables earlier in time than the date a case was publicly reported, such as the symptom onset date. Delays between the onset of symptoms and the detection of a case by the public health authority mean that recent days will always have incomplete case data, creating a downward bias. Public reporting date is not subject to this bias and can be used to visualize real-time epidemic curves meant to inform the public and decision makers.

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Ebola and the Law in the United States: A Short Guide to Public Health Authority and Practical Limits

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.2538187 ◽

2014 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Polly J. Price

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

United States ◽

Health Authority ◽

The United States ◽

Public Health Authority ◽

The Law

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Relationship (or its lack) between population and a water and sanitation service: a study of users' perception in Vitória (ES) Brazil

Journal of Water and Health ◽

10.2166/wh.2010.067 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 764-778 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Sara Ramos da Silva ◽

Léo Heller ◽

Jorge de Campos Valadares ◽

Sandy Cairncross

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Health Risk ◽

Water Supply ◽

Health Authority ◽

Capital City ◽

Public Health Authority ◽

Water And Sanitation ◽

Local Public Health ◽

Water Handling ◽

Inadequate Knowledge

The objective of this paper is to identify and analyse the perception of groups of dwellers of Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil, regarding their relationship with the water and sanitation service and aspects of water handling. Participants living in four distinct urban districts of the capital city were interviewed in their own houses and the Discourse of the Collective Subject approach was employed to order the data so obtained. The testimonies revealed the health risk to which individuals were exposed by virtue of: (i) inadequate knowledge concerning the water supply offered, (ii) lack of stimulus to exert their citizens' rights and obligations in relation to the water provided for their consumption and (iii) poor channels of communication between the community, the water and sanitation service and the local public health authority. The study concluded that there is a need to rethink the forms of information provided to the population that are presently adopted by these institutions.

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