scholarly journals Public Health Policies and Global COVID-19 Outbreak

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Komaroff ◽  
A A Belhouchet

Abstract Background Was the world prepared to face the pandemic with a standard strategy? Objectives To evaluate the association between public health interventions against the COVID-19 outbreak and the outcome. Methods The observational study included data on incidence of confirmed COVID-19 cases (outcome) and public health non-pharmaceutical interventions (exposure) from five countries: France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and the USA, December 31, 2019 through April 12, 2020. The public health measures were grouped into five categories: lockdown, movement restrictions, public health measures, social (including social distancing) and economic measures, and use of facial mask. The multiple linear regressions were utilized to test the hypothesis that implementation of some public health measures was associated with the change in the incident number of COVID-19 cases, 2-sided, α = 0.05. Results The incidence of COVID-19 would be significantly greater without lockdown (1.89 times, p-value <.0001), public health and economic measures (25.17, p-value <.0001), and using masks (11.93, p-value=0.002), assuming that all other public health policies are the same. The effectiveness increases with earlier time of implementation. Among considered countries, South Korea was the most efficacious, where all measures were statistically significantly efficacious (p-value <0.05). Conclusions The findings demonstrate an association between public health measures and the outcome. The experience from South Korea should be studied further as the most effective non-pharmacological approach to fight the disease. This paper is the first step to develop the standardized approach utilizing the public health interventions to be applied effectively to the globe population. Key messages the most effective measures to control the COVID-19, and future outbreaks. The effect of particular measure varied by country and time of implementation.

Author(s):  
Ruth R. Faden ◽  
Sirine Shebaya

Public health policies sometimes make demands on individuals who do not stand to benefit from the policies, and they sometimes interfere with liberty even when they do benefit the individuals in question. In such instances, a moral justification for a public health intervention is required. This chapter sets forth five justifications for public health interventions: (1) overall benefit, (2) collective action and efficiency, (3) fairness in the distribution of burdens, (4) prevention of harm (the harm principle), and (5) paternalism. The chapter discusses each justification in turn, posits that often more than one justification applies to a given policy, and argues against frameworks that place disproportionate attention on conflicts between liberty and health.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Yue Yu ◽  
Chen Xu ◽  
Hu-Wen Wang ◽  
Rui-Jie Chang ◽  
Yin-Qiao Dong ◽  
...  

Abstract In the past five months, success in control the national epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been witnessed in China. The implementation of public health measures accounts for the success which include different interventions in the early or later stages of the outbreak. It is clear that although not all measures were universally effective worldwide, their achievements have been significant. More solidarity is needed to deal with this global pandemic with more learning and understanding. Understanding which of the public health interventions implemented in China were effective may provide ideas for international epidemic control.


2021 ◽  
pp. 126-156
Author(s):  
James Wilson

This chapter addresses how to prioritize public health policies. Public health interventions need to be justifiable to individuals, but designing approaches to prioritization that are adequately justifiable to individuals can be extremely difficult. One tool for clarifying the problem, which has been widely explored in the philosophical literature, is the idea of a claim—where the strength of an individual’s claim depends on features such as how badly off they are, their capacity to benefit, the time at which their need arises, and whether the bad that will befall them is certain or merely possible. The chapter argues that it is mistaken to think that there is a single and uniquely correct way of measuring claims. Approaches to prioritization need to be pluralistic, and need to reflect on the measures most appropriate for a particular policy challenge.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 163-164
Author(s):  
Jeconiah Louis Dreisbach

The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) presents a great challenge to developing countries with limited access to public health measures in grassroots communities. The World Health Organization lauded the Vietnamese government for its proactive and steady investment in health facilities that mitigate the risk of the infectious disease in Vietnam. This short communication presents cases that could benchmark public health policies in developing countries.


2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 317
Author(s):  
Alessandra Conceição Leite Funchal Camacho ◽  
Maria José Coelho

ABSTRACTObjective: to examine the public health policies of the elderly in the references of the main databases from 2004 to 2008. Method: study of systematic review of literature conducted on databases of the Library of Health, in September 2008. For information analysis was organized the content found on the year, publication type and methods/techniques, content and essence of the production of knowledge, database, the authors' recommendations. Results: the references that were analyzed 26 and 10 in the database SCIELO, one in the BDENF and 15 in the LILACS. Conclusion: we observed an increase in publications dealing with professionals in health operationalized the public health policies of the elderly as the main recommendations bringing the development of public policies that take into account the specifics of the elderly, facilitating their access and that could reduce inequality. Mention the importance of visibility of the aging process and adequacy of public policies aimed at expansion of the strategies that have the caregiver as the leading subject. Descriptors: health public policy; aged; nursing.RESUMOObjetivo: analisar as políticas públicas de saúde do idoso nas referências das principais bases de dados de 2004 a 2008. Método: estudo de revisão de literatura sistemática realizada nas bases de dados da Biblioteca Virtual da Saúde, em setembro de 2008. Para análise das informações foi realizada a organização do conteúdo encontrado quanto ao ano, tipo de publicação e métodos/técnicas, essência do conteúdo e produção do conhecimento, base de dados, recomendações dos autores. Resultados: as referências analisadas foram 26 sendo 10 na base de dados SCIELO, uma na BDENF e 15 na LILACS. Conclusão: Verificamos um aumento de publicações que tratam de profissionais na área da saúde operacionalizando as políticas públicas de saúde do idoso trazendo como principais recomendações o desenvolvimento de políticas públicas que levem em conta as especificidades do idoso, facilitando o seu acesso e que possam reduzir desigualdades. Referem a relevância da visibilidade do processo de envelhecimento e adequação das políticas públicas visando à ampliação de estratégias que tenham o cuidador como sujeito principal. Descritores: políticas públicas de saúde; idoso; enfermagem.RESUMENObjetivo: analizar las políticas de salud pública a los ancianos en las referencias de las principales bases de datos de 2004 a 2008. Método: estudio de revisión sistemática de literatura sobre las bases de datos de la Biblioteca de la Salud, en setiembre de 2008. Resultados: las referencias que se analizaron fueron 26, tenendo 10 en la base de datos SCIELO, 01 referencia en la BDENF y 15 en el LILACS. Conclusión: se observó un aumento de publicaciones relacionadas a los profesionales de la salud en la práctica las políticas de salud pública de los ancianos con principales recomendaciones sobre el desarrollo de políticas públicas que tengan en cuenta las características específicas de los ancianos, facilitando su acceso y que podrían reducir la desigualdad. Mencionan la importancia de la visibilidad del proceso de envejecimiento y la adecuación de las políticas públicas con la ampliación de estrategias que tienen el cuidador como principal sujeto. Descriptores: políticas públicas de salud; ancianos; enfermería.


2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Onora O'Neill

Most work in medical ethics across the last twenty-five years has centered on the ethics of clinical medicine. Even work on health and justice has, in the main, been concerned with the just distribution of (access to) clinical care for individual patients. By contrast, the ethics of public health has been widely neglected. This neglect is surprising, given that public health interventions are often the most effective (and most cost-effective) means of improving health in rich and poor societies alike.In this essay I explore two sources of contemporary neglect of public health ethics. One source of neglect is that contemporary medical ethics has been preoccupied—in my view damagingly preoccupied—with the autonomy of individual patients. Yet individual autonomy can hardly be a guiding ethical principle for public health measures, since many of them must be uniform and compulsory if they are to be effective. A second source of neglect is that contemporary political philosophy has been preoccupied—in my view damagingly preoccupied—with the requirements for justice within states or societies, and (until very recently) has hardly discussed justice across borders. Yet public health problems often cross borders, and public health interventions have to measure up to the problems they address.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Kelly-Irving ◽  
Emilie Gaborit ◽  
Laurence Mabile ◽  
Florent Beraut ◽  
Thierry Lang ◽  
...  

Background: Governments across Europe have attempted to address the obesogenic environment through a variety of policy measures over the last two decades. A growing literature advocates for complex population interventions in public health. Such approaches embrace the need for interventions that can operate within the complexity of real-life situations as well as capturing and tracking interactions between an intervention and its context. Aim: This paper describes the original interdisciplinary methodological approach of a research project. The study was designed to ascertain whether complex public health interventions can be transferred from one local context to another while remaining loyal to their initial objectives. Method: An integrated interdisciplinary qualitative design was established to elaborate and answer the research questions. Three disciplinary strands were involved: Political Science, Public Health and Sociology. The three strands worked together while applying their specific methodological approaches. Results: The Political Science strand analysed the public health nutrition intervention taking a socio-historic policy studies top-down perspective. The Public Health Strand developed a method of analysing the three interventions through a co-construction process with the participants. This allows for the key functions, forms and context of each intervention to be identified and compared. The Sociology strand performed ethnographic methods to observe and analyse the deployment and activities linked with each intervention across sites. Together the three strands provide an interdisciplinary analysis of the length and breadth of the interventional scope with which to answer the research questions. Discussion: Here, we discuss the operational challenges involved in the project, including the difficulties encountered with the interdisciplinary approach, as well as field work challenges.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 219-252
Author(s):  
A. Zhebit

The article is focused on the problem of human rights (HRs), limited or derogated from, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While addressing some HRs limitations, derogations and even abuses, and their consequent problems, the aim is to try to analyze policy, social, moral and personal dilemmas of HRs restrictions as well as motivations behind the types of public and social behavior, in the course of the pandemic, in response to the public measures of sanitation, social distancing and confinement, travel restrictions and social assistance, recommended by the WHO and selectively followed by governments. Learning from some old experience and deriving new lessons from the pandemic, as well as from public and social actions and reactions, the purpose of the present article is to assess whether or not public health policies in this context, implemented nationally or internationally, can promote change in the HRs paradigm in the face of the existing dilemmas and dichotomies in HRs, aggravated by the pandemic. The conclusion is that the extant HRs paradigm should be redefined to address better the political, social, economic, environmental and, especially, existential exigencies of “rainy times”, thus leading to the creation of a new universal HRs code or to harmonizing the existing one.


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