scholarly journals Isolation, quarantine, social distancing and community containment: pivotal role for old-style public health measures in the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
A Wilder-Smith ◽  
D O Freedman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Movement Restriction ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Public health measures were decisive in controlling the SARS epidemic in 2003. Isolation is the separation of ill persons from non-infected persons. Quarantine is movement restriction, often with fever surveillance, of contacts when it is not evident whether they have been infected but are not yet symptomatic or have not been infected. Community containment includes measures that range from increasing social distancing to community-wide quarantine. Whether these measures will be sufficient to control 2019-nCoV depends on addressing some unanswered questions.

scholarly journals A Failure of Political Communication Not a Failure of Bureaucracy: The Danger of Presidential Misinformation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 614-620 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Hatcher
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Medical Procedures ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Incorrect Information

President Trump’s communications during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic violate principles of public health, such as practicing transparency and deferring to medical experts. Moreover, the president’s communications are dangerous and misleading, and his lack of leadership during the crisis limits the nation’s response to the problem, increases political polarization around public health issues of social distancing, and spreads incorrect information about health-related policies and medical procedures. To correct the dangerous path that the nation is on, the administration needs to adopt a more expert-centered approach to the crisis, and President Trump needs to practice compassion, empathy, and transparency in his communications.

scholarly journals Harnessing testing strategies and public health measures to avert COVID-19 outbreaks during ocean cruises

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerardo Chowell ◽  
Sushma Dahal ◽  
Raquel Bono ◽  
Kenji Mizumoto
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Contact Network ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Testing Strategies ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

AbstractTo ensure the safe operation of schools, workplaces, nursing homes, and other businesses during COVID-19 pandemic there is an urgent need to develop cost-effective public health strategies. Here we focus on the cruise industry which was hit early by the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 40 cruise ships reporting COVID-19 infections. We apply mathematical modeling to assess the impact of testing strategies together with social distancing protocols on the spread of the novel coronavirus during ocean cruises using an individual-level stochastic model of the transmission dynamics of COVID-19. We model the contact network, the potential importation of cases arising during shore excursions, the temporal course of infectivity at the individual level, the effects of social distancing strategies, different testing scenarios characterized by the test’s sensitivity profile, and testing frequency. Our findings indicate that PCR testing at embarkation and daily testing of all individuals aboard, together with increased social distancing and other public health measures, should allow for rapid detection and isolation of COVID-19 infections and dramatically reducing the probability of onboard COVID-19 community spread. In contrast, relying only on PCR testing at embarkation would not be sufficient to avert outbreaks, even when implementing substantial levels of social distancing measures.

scholarly journals The role of race and scientific trust on support for COVID-19 social distancing measures in the United States

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0254127
Author(s):  
Sara Kazemian ◽  
Sam Fuller ◽  
Carlos Algara
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Institutional Trust ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
The Media ◽  
Racial Lines ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Pundits and academics across disciplines note that the human toll brought forth by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States (U.S.) is fundamentally unequal for communities of color. Standing literature on public health posits that one of the chief predictors of racial disparity in health outcomes is a lack of institutional trust among minority communities. Furthermore, in our own county-level analysis from the U.S., we find that counties with higher percentages of Black and Hispanic residents have had vastly higher cumulative deaths from COVID-19. In light of this standing literature and our own analysis, it is critical to better understand how to mitigate or prevent these unequal outcomes for any future pandemic or public health emergency. Therefore, we assess the claim that raising institutional trust, primarily scientific trust, is key to mitigating these racial inequities. Leveraging a new, pre-pandemic measure of scientific trust, we find that trust in science, unlike trust in politicians or the media, significantly raises support for COVID-19 social distancing policies across racial lines. Our findings suggest that increasing scientific trust is essential to garnering support for public health policies that lessen the severity of the current, and potentially a future, pandemic.

scholarly journals Controlling the cascade of corona

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muneeba Azmat
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Limited Data ◽  
Press Releases ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
First Case ◽  
Pandemic Response ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

The pandemic of the 2019 novel Coronavirus has seen unprecedented exponential growth. Within three months, 192 countries have been affected, crossing more than 1 million confirmed cases and over 60 thousand deaths until the first week of April. Decision making in such a pandemic becomes difficult due to limited data on the nature of the disease and its propagation, course, prevention, and treatment. The pandemic response has varied from country to country and has resulted in a heterogeneous timeline for novel Coronavirus propagation. We compared the public health measures taken by various countries and the potential impact on the spread. We studied 6 countries including China, Italy, South Korea, Singapore, United Kingdom(UK), United States(US), and the special administrative region of Hong Kong. All articles, press releases, and websites of government entities published over a five-month period were included. A comparison of the date of the first diagnosed case, the spread of disease, and time since the first case and major public health policy implemented for prevention and containment and current cases was done. An emphasis on early and aggressive border restriction and surveillance of travelers from infected areas, use of information technology, and social distancing is necessary for control of the novel pandemic. Moving forwards, improvement in infrastructure, and adequate preparedness for pandemics is required.

scholarly journals Facemask shortage and the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak: Reflections on public health measures

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 100329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huai-liang Wu ◽  
Jian Huang ◽  
Casper J.P. Zhang ◽  
Zonglin He ◽  
Wai-Kit Ming
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

scholarly journals The novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV: The effects of social distancing and partial health confinement on the psychological state of Parkinson's disease patients

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abderrahmane Achbani ◽  
Sofiane Ait wahmane ◽  
Zakaria Ouhaz ◽  
Mohamed Elatiqi ◽  
Hasnaa Sine ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Psychological State ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Personal Protection Equipment ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Clinical Conditions

Background: The novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV caused by SARS-CoV-2, has caused global, large and major public health issues. During the pandemic, different public health strategies were implemented in order to reduce the spread of this virus. These strategies consisted on increasing the frequency of hand-washing, using personal protection equipment, social distancing and restricting movements cities along with sealing national borders. During this crisis, Health Systems undergo important pressure and remarkable efforts were implemented to provide an efficacious reaction to this emergency. However, the actual global policy of diverting the attention exclusively to the COVID-19 pandemic and overshadowing other clinical conditions may have substantial negative implications. There are particular concerns around the increased vulnerability of patients living with a chronic disease, and this also includes neurological conditions like Parkinson’s disease (PD). Aims:  This review discusses the different outcomes of social distancing on PD patients and summarizes the circuitry of social behaviour in the context of PD. We consider the possible psychological and behavioral outcomes of quarantine and social isolation as part of national policies to limit the spread of the virus. Conclusion: In total, this evidence suggests that the drastic COVID19 pandemic measures could result in affective, cognitive and psychological alterations in these patients. Given this we suggest that patients with PD should be accompanied by their caregivers and encouraged to interact virtually with other family members and friends using different communication technologies. We also recommend healthcare providers to adopt telemedicine for outpatients visits and display educational programs for the patients.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and Importance of Social Distancing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fahim Aslam
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
Reproduction Rate ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Current Outbreak ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

The current outbreak of the novel coronavirus also known as COVID-19 was declared as a public health emergency by the WHO where over a million people have been affected by the disease with over 50000 deaths till date. Social distancing is a method to minimize crowd interactions and prevent the spread of disease within groups of people. This is a common practice which has been carried out over generations to minimize the spread of virus by limiting its reproduction rate (R0) among communities. The article focuses on how social distancing has been used to deal previous pandemics globally and the issues that needs to be addressed to tackle the COVID-19 threat.

scholarly journals Harnessing testing strategies and public health measures to avert COVID-19 outbreaks during ocean cruises

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerardo Chowell ◽  
Sushma Dahal ◽  
Raquel Bono ◽  
Kenji Mizumoto
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Contact Network ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Testing Strategies ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

AbstractTo ensure the safe operation of schools, workplaces, nursing homes, and other businesses during COVID-19 pandemic there is an urgent need to develop cost-effective public health strategies. Here we focus on the cruise industry which was hit early by the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 40 cruise ships reporting COVID-19 infections. We apply mathematical modeling to assess the impact of testing strategies together with social distancing protocols on the spread of the novel coronavirus during ocean cruises using an individual-level stochastic model of the transmission dynamics of COVID-19. We model the contact network, the potential importation of cases arising during shore excursions, the temporal course of infectivity at the individual level, the effects of social distancing strategies, different testing scenarios characterized by the test’s sensitivity profile, and the testing frequency. Our findings indicate that PCR testing at embarkation and daily testing of all individuals aboard, together with increased social distancing and other public health measures, should allow for rapid detection and isolation of COVID-19 infections and dramatically reducing the probability of onboard COVID-19 community spread. In contrast, relying only on PCR testing at embarkation would not be sufficient to avert outbreaks, even when implementing substantial levels of social distancing measures.

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