scholarly journals Phased implementation of COVID-19 vaccination: rapid assessment of policy adoption, reach and effectiveness to protect the most vulnerable in the US

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yun Li ◽  
Moming Li ◽  
Megan Rice ◽  
Yanfang Su ◽  
Chaowei Yang
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Rapid Assessment ◽  
State Level ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
The Public ◽  
Contentious Issue ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
The Us ◽  
Vaccine Distribution

AbstractObjectivesThe US and rest of the world have suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic for over a year. The high transmissibility and severity of this virus have provoked governments to adopt a variety of mitigation strategies. Some of these previous measures, such as social distancing and mask mandates, were effective in reducing the case growth rate yet became economically and administratively difficult to enforce as the pandemic continued. In late December 2020, COVID-19 vaccines were first approved in the US and states began a phased implementation of COVID-19 vaccination. However, there is limited quantitative evidence regarding the effectiveness of the phased COVID-19 vaccination. This study aims to provide a rapid assessment of the adoption, reach, and effectiveness of the phased implementation of COVID-19 vaccination.MethodsWe utilize an event-study analysis to evaluate the effect of vaccination on the state-level, daily COVID-19 case growth rate.ResultsThrough this analysis, we assert that vaccination is effective in reducing the spread of COVID-19 shortly after the first shots were given. Specifically, the case growth rate declined by 0.124, 0.347, 0.345, 0.464, 0.490, and 0.756 percentage points corresponding to the 1-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20, 21-25, and 26 or more day periods after the initial shots.ConclusionsThe findings could be insightful for policymakers as they work to optimize vaccine distribution in later phases, and also for the public as the COVID-19 related health risk is a contentious issue.

scholarly journals Phased Implementation of COVID-19 Vaccination: Rapid Assessment of Policy Adoption, Reach and Effectiveness to Protect the Most Vulnerable in the US

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (14) ◽  
pp. 7665
Author(s):  
Yun Li ◽  
Moming Li ◽  
Megan Rice ◽  
Yanfang Su ◽  
Chaowei Yang
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Rapid Assessment ◽  
State Level ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
The Public ◽  
Contentious Issue ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
The Us ◽  
Vaccine Distribution

The US and the rest of the world have suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic for over a year. The high transmissibility and severity of this virus have provoked governments to adopt a variety of mitigation strategies. Some of these previous measures, such as social distancing and mask mandates, were effective in reducing the case growth rate yet became economically and administratively difficult to enforce as the pandemic continued. In late December 2020, COVID-19 vaccines were first approved in the US and states began a phased implementation of COVID-19 vaccination. However, there is limited quantitative evidence regarding the effectiveness of the phased COVID-19 vaccination. This study aims to provide a rapid assessment of the adoption, reach, and effectiveness of the phased implementation of COVID-19 vaccination. We utilize an event-study analysis to evaluate the effect of vaccination on the state-level daily COVID-19 case growth rate. Through this analysis, we assert that vaccination was effective in reducing the spread of COVID-19 shortly after the first shots were given. Specifically, the case growth rate declined by 0.124, 0.347, 0.345, 0.464, 0.490, and 0.756 percentage points corresponding to the 1–5, 6–10, 11–15, 16–20, 21–25, and 26 or more day periods after the initial shots. The findings could be insightful for policymakers as they work to optimize vaccine distribution in later phases, and also for the public as the COVID-19 related health risk is a contentious issue.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Policy Differences across US States: Shutdowns, Reopening, and Mask Mandates

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (24) ◽  
pp. 9520
Author(s):  
Xue Zhang ◽  
Mildred E. Warner
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
State Level ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Short Period ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Impact

This work used event study to examine the impact of three policies (shutdowns, reopening, and mask mandates) on changes in the daily COVID-19 infection growth rate at the state level in the US (February through August 2020). The results show the importance of early intervention: shutdowns and mask mandates reduced the COVID-19 infection growth rate immediately after being imposed statewide. Over the longer term, mask mandates had a larger effect on flattening the curve than shutdowns. The increase in the daily infection growth rate pushed state governments to shut down, but reopening led to significant increases in new cases 21 days afterward. The results suggest a dynamic social distancing approach: a shutdown for a short period followed by reopening, combined with universal mask wearing. We also found that the COVID-19 growth rate increased in states with higher percentages of essential workers (during reopening) and higher percentages of minorities (during the mask mandate period). Health insurance access for low-income workers (via Medicaid expansion) helped to reduce COVID-19 cases in the reopening model. The implications for public health show the importance of access to health insurance and mask mandates to protect low-income essential workers, but minority groups still face a higher risk of infection during the pandemic.

scholarly journals Community Pharmacists Roles During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
pp. 089719002098062
Author(s):  
Karl Hess ◽  
Albert Bach ◽  
Kimberly Won ◽  
Sheila M. Seed
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Pharmacy Practice ◽  
Community Pharmacists ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
Public Health Services ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Us

The aim of this paper is to review the roles that community pharmacists in the United States (US) can play to support public health measures during the current severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic (COVID-19). Community pharmacists in the US are highly visible and accessible to the public and have long been regarded as a source for immunization services as well as other public health activities. In the US, the scope of pharmacy practice continues to expand and incorporate various health services on a state-by-state level. For the purposes of this article, a PubMed literature search was undertaken to identify published articles on SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, pharmacist- and pharmacy-based immunization and other public health care activities in the US in order to identify and discuss roles that community pharmacists can play during this pandemic including as vaccinators, screeners and testers. In conclusion, community pharmacists are knowledgeable and capable providers of public health services and are easily accessible and well regarded by the public. The incorporation of community pharmacists into this nation’s COVID-19 pandemic response plan can help aid recovery efforts in the US.

scholarly journals Preferences for COVID-19 vaccine distribution strategies in the US: A discrete choice survey

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0256394
Author(s):  
Ingrid Eshun-Wilson ◽  
Aaloke Mody ◽  
Khai Hoan Tram ◽  
Cory Bradley ◽  
Alexander Sheve ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Discrete Choice ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Sampling Weights ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Vaccination Rates ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Us ◽  
Vaccine Distribution

Background The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the US has been immensely successful in vaccinating those who are receptive, further increases in vaccination rates however will require more innovative approaches to reach those who remain hesitant. Developing vaccination strategies that are modelled on what people want could further increase uptake. Methods and findings To inform COVID-19 vaccine distribution strategies that are aligned with public preferences we conducted a discrete choice experiment among the US public (N = 2,895) between March 15 to March 22, 2021. We applied sampling weights, evaluated mean preferences using mixed logit models, and identified latent class preference subgroups. On average, the public prioritized ease, preferring single to two dose vaccinations (mean preference: -0.29; 95%CI: -0.37 to -0.20), vaccinating once rather than annually (mean preference: -0.79; 95%CI: -0.89 to -0.70) and reducing waiting times at vaccination sites. Vaccine enforcement reduced overall vaccine acceptance (mean preference -0.20; 95%CI: -0.30 to -0.10), with a trend of increasing resistance to enforcement with increasing vaccine hesitancy. Latent class analysis identified four distinct preference phenotypes: the first prioritized inherent “vaccine features” (46.1%), the second were concerned about vaccine “service delivery” (8.8%), a third group desired “social proof” of vaccine safety and were susceptible to enforcement (13.2%), and the fourth group were “indifferent” to vaccine and service delivery features and resisted enforcement (31.9%). Conclusions This study identifies several critical insights for the COVID-19 public health response. First, identifying preference segments is essential to ensure that vaccination services meet the needs of diverse population subgroups. Second, making vaccination easy and promoting autonomy by simplifying services and offering the public choices (where feasible) may increase uptake in those who remain deliberative. And, third vaccine mandates have the potential to increase vaccination rates in susceptible groups but may simultaneously promote control aversion and resistance in those who are most hesitant.

What Europe and the US could learn from the Covid Crisis

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 238-247
Author(s):  
Karl Aiginger
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
Structural Policy ◽  
Policy Governance ◽  
The Public ◽  
Recovery Programs ◽  
Health Goals ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
The Us ◽  
Screen Performance ◽  
Very High

The European Economy is underperforming in the Covid Crisis, as it did in the Financial Crisis. If economic strength is measured by growth of GDP, Europe’s recovery in 2021 will be two percentage points below the loss in 2020, while the US will enjoy a net gain of 2 percentage points in these two crisis years. To the benefit of Europe, the paper finds that fatal causalities relative to population due to Covid were lower in Europe, and we therefore conclude that Europe chose a different tradeoff between economic and health goals. We report differences in fiscal and monetary response, but also in structural policy, governance and the political process in the two regions. Decisions in the US, once a problem has been recognized as important, are quicker; more resources can be shifted, even if the public debt is already very high. Finally, we screen performance for sustainability and life expectancy, which shows advantages for Europe that could be extended in the recovery programs.

Discrimination in public accommodations

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 597-613
Author(s):  
Anna Harvey ◽  
Emily A. West
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
State Level ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Union Army ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
The Public ◽  
Weight Losses ◽  
The Us ◽  
Widespread Belief ◽  
The Impact

AbstractDespite widespread belief in the efficacy of statutes prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations, including protections for the use of privately provided yet publicly available services such as transportation, hotels, and restaurants, we lack causal estimates of the impacts of these statutes on the well-being of those they are designed to protect. We leverage the US Supreme Court's 1883 strike of the public accommodations provisions in the Civil Rights Act of 1875, along with variation in state-level statutes, to identify the impact of the Act's public accommodations provisions. Using a panel of repeated geo-located medical exams of US Colored Troops (USCT) and white Union Army veterans, and a series of difference-in-differences, geographic regression discontinuity, and placebo designs, estimates consistently suggest that the Court's ruling led to meaningful weight losses for USCT veterans in states without state-level public accommodations statutes. These findings suggest that statutes prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations can have significant positive impacts on the well-being of those they are designed to protect.

scholarly journals Strategies that make vaccination easy and promote autonomy could increase COVID-19 vaccination in those who remain hesitant.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid Eshun-Wilson ◽  
Aaloke Mody ◽  
Khai Hoan Tram ◽  
Cory Bradley ◽  
Alexander Scheve ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Waiting Times ◽  
Vaccination Campaign ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
Black African ◽  
Vaccination Rates ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Us ◽  
Vaccine Distribution ◽  
Vaccination Campaigns

The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the US has been immensely successful in vaccinating those who are receptive, further increases in vaccination rates however will require more innovative approaches to reach those who remain hesitant, deliberative or indifferent. Phenomena such empty mass vaccination sites and wasted vaccine doses in some regions suggest that in addition to dispelling misinformation and building trust, developing more person-centered vaccination strategies, that are modelled on what people want could further increase uptake. To inform vaccine distribution strategies that are aligned with public preferences for COVID-19 vaccination campaign features we conducted a survey and discrete choice experiment among a representative sample of 2,895 people in the US, between March 15 and March 22, 2021. We found that on average the public prioritized ease, preferring single to two dose vaccinations, vaccinating once rather than annually and reduced waiting times at vaccination sites - for some these were the primary preference drivers. Vaccine enforcement reduced overall vaccine acceptance, with a trend of increasing control aversion with increasing vaccine hesitancy, particularly among those who were young, Black/African American or Republican. These data suggest that making vaccination easy and promoting autonomy by offering the public choices of vaccination brands and locations may increase uptake, and that vaccine mandates could compromise autonomy and increase control aversion in those who are hesitant - reducing vaccination in such groups and potentially undermining the goals of COVID-19 vaccination campaigns.

Refusal to Mourn

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Runions
Keyword(s):  
American Politics ◽  
Psychoanalytic Theory ◽  
Civil Religion ◽  
Judith Butler ◽  
American People ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
The Public ◽  
American Civil Religion ◽  
The Us ◽  
Robert Bellah

In her recent book Precarious Life, Judith Butler points out that not more than ten days after 9/11, on 20 September 2001, George W. Bush urged the American people to put aside their grief; she suggests that such a refusal to mourn leads to a kind of national melancholia. Using psychoanalytic theory on melancholia, this article diagnoses causes and effects of such national melancholia. Further, it considers how a refusal to mourn in prophetic and apocalyptic texts and their interpretations operates within mainstream US American politics like the encrypted loss of the melancholic, thus creating the narcissism, guilt, and aggression that sustain the pervasive disavowal of loss in the contemporary moment. This article explore the ways in which the texts of Ezekiel, Micah, Revelation, and their interpreters exhibit the guilt and aggression of melancholia, in describing Israel as an unfaithful and wicked woman whose pain should not be mourned. These melancholic patterns are inherited by both by contemporary apocalyptic discourses and by the discourse of what Robert Bellah calls ‘American civil religion’, in which the US is the new Christian Israel; thus they help to position the public to accept and perpetuate the violence of war, and not to mourn it.

Interaction of Ukrainian Diaspora and the USA Government Regarding Celebration of Ukrainian Independence Day on January 22

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (47) ◽  
pp. 136-145
Author(s):  
Halyna Shchyhelska
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
The United States ◽  
100Th Anniversary ◽  
Totalitarian Regime ◽  
The Public ◽  
Us Congress ◽  
The Us ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
The Usa

2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of Ukrainian independence. OnJanuary 22, 1918, the Ukrainian People’s Republic proclaimed its independence by adopting the IV Universal of the Ukrainian Central Rada, although this significant event was «wiped out» from the public consciousness on the territory of Ukraine during the years of the Soviet totalitarian regime. At the same time, January 22 was a crucial event for the Ukrainian diaspora in the USA. This article examines how American Ukrainians interacted with the USA Government institutions regarding the celebration and recognition of the Ukrainian Independence day on January 22. The attention is focused on the activities of ethnic Ukrainians in the United States, directed at the organization of the special celebration of the Ukrainian Independence anniversaries in the US Congress and cities. Drawing from the diaspora press and Congressional Records, this article argues that many members of Congress participated in the observed celebration and expressed kind feelings to the Ukrainian people, recognised their fight for freedom, during the House of Representatives and Senate sessions. Several Congressmen submitted the resolutions in the US Congress urging the President of United States to designate January 22 as «Ukrainian lndependence Day». January 22 was proclaimed Ukrainian Day by the governors of fifteen States and mayors of many cities. Keywords: January 22, Ukrainian independence day, Ukrainian diaspora, USA, interaction, Congress

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