scholarly journals COVID-19 Contact Tracing

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-58
Author(s):  
Teresa Scassa
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Local Public Health ◽  
Health Initiatives ◽  
Rights Issues

This article surveys the rise of contact tracing technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic and some of the privacy, ethical, and human rights issues they raise. It examines the relationship of these technologies to local public health initiatives, and how the privacy debate over these apps made the technology in some cases less responsive to public health agency needs. The article suggests that as countries enter the return to normal phase, the more important and more invasive contact tracing and disease surveillance technologies will be deployed at the local level in the context of employment, transit, retail services, and other activities. The smart city may be co-opted for COVID-19 surveillance, and individuals will experience tracking and monitoring as they go to work, shop, dine, and commute. The author questions whether the attention given to national contact tracing apps has overshadowed more local contexts where privacy, ethical, and human rights issues remain deeply important but relatively unexamined. This raises issues for city local governance and urban e-planning.

scholarly journals Development of a Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Using a Public Health Lens to Determine Local Health Vulnerabilities: An Ontario Health Unit Experience

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 2237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgan Levison ◽  
Ainslie Butler ◽  
Steven Rebellato ◽  
Brenda Armstrong ◽  
Marina Whelan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Health Impacts ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Local Public Health

Climate change is negatively impacting the health of Canadians and is accordingly expected to have a significant impact on public health agencies and their response to these health impacts throughout the twenty-first century. While national and international research and assessments have explored the potential human health impacts of climate change, few assessments have explored the implications of climate change from a local public health perspective. An applied research approach to expand local knowledge and action of health vulnerabilities through a climate change action plan and vulnerability assessment was utilized by a local public health agency. Adoption and adaptation of the approach used may be valuable for public health organizations to assist their communities. Through completing a vulnerability assessment, an evidentiary base was generated for public health to inform adaptation actions to reduce negative health impacts and increase resiliency. Challenges in completing vulnerability assessments at the local level include the framing and scoping of health impacts and associated indicators, as well as access to internal expertise surrounding the analysis of data. While access to quantitative data may be limiting at the local level, qualitative data can enhance knowledge of local impacts, while also supporting the creation of key partnerships with community stakeholders which can ensure climate action continues beyond the scope of the vulnerability assessment.

scholarly journals At udskyde det uundgåelige: Om brugen af kausal viden i forebyggende tiltag

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (17) ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Hulvej Rod ◽  
Tine Curtis
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Public Health Research ◽  
Causal Knowledge ◽  
Local Public Health ◽  
The Future ◽  
Prevention And Health Promotion ◽  
Local Public Health Agency ◽  
Public Health Practitioners

This paper discusses the heavy reliance upon a particular kind of causal knowledge in prevention and health promotion. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with prevention professionals working with interventions targeting teenage drinking in Denmark, the paper argues that, while attempting to provide predictions for the future, prevention creates certain problems for itself in the moments of social interaction where it is practiced. The paper suggests that prevention can be seen as an attempt at postponing the future and through empirical examples it is illustrated how this project causes a number of practical problems to prevention professionals. The paper begins by sketching the causal epistemology that dominates current public health research. Next, ethnographic descriptions of (i) an educational intervention in Danish schools and (ii) a meeting for parents arranged by a local public health agency provide the material for discussing the practical use of causal knowledge. It is shown that this knowledge becomes contradicted and undermined in the social interaction between public health practitioners and their target groups, and that – paradoxically – this knowledge tends to actualize the very phenomenon it seeks to prevent. The paper employs Bourdieu’s distinction between two modes of anticipatory intelligence, the project and the protention, and argues that, in the interaction between prevention professionals and target group, the widespread use of causal knowledge might inhibit and counteract the situational competencies of prevention professionals.

scholarly journals Mangroves, garbage, fishing: Bringing everyday ecology to Sydney’s industrial Georges River

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Goodall ◽  
Allison Cadzow ◽  
Denis Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Waste Disposal ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
City Development ◽  
Local Data ◽  
Local Public Health ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Impact

Post war problems of rising urban, industrial pollution and intractable waste disposal are usually considered as technical and economic problems only, solutions to which were led by experts at State level, and filtered into Australia from the ferments occurring in the United States and Britain in the 1960s and 70s. This paper investigates the change which arose from the localities in which the impact of those effects of modern city development were occurring. In particular, this study looks at a working class, industrial area, the Georges River near Bankstown Municipality, which was severely affected by Sydney’s post-war expansion. Here, action to address urgent environmental problems was initiated first at the local level, and only later were professional engineers and public health officials involved in seeking remedies. It was even later that these local experts turned from engineering strategies to environmental science, embracing the newly developed ecological analyses to craft changing approaches to local problems. This paper centres on the perspective of one local public health surveyor, employed by a local municipal council to oversee waste disposal, to identify the motives for his decisions to intervene dramatically in river health and waste disposal programs. Rather than being prompted to act by influences from higher political levels or overseas, this officer drew his motivation from careful local data collection, from local political agitation and from his own recreational knowledge of the river. It was his involvement with the living environments of the area – the ways in which he knew the river - through personal and recreational experiences, which prompted him to seek out the new science and investigate emerging waste disposal technologies.

scholarly journals Applying a Behavioral Model Framework for Disaster Recovery Research in Local Public Health Agencies: A Conceptual Approach

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Walsh ◽  
Stephanie Garrity ◽  
Lainie Rutkow ◽  
Carol B. Thompson ◽  
Kandra Strauss-Riggs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Educational Intervention ◽  
Emergency Preparedness ◽  
Disaster Recovery ◽  
Recovery Period ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Behavioral Model ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Model Framework ◽  
Local Public Health

AbstractThe local public health agency (LPHA) workforce is at the center of the public health emergency preparedness system and is integral to locally driven disaster recovery efforts. Throughout the disaster recovery period, LPHAs have a primary responsibility for community health and are responsible for a large number of health services. In the face of decreasing preparedness funding and increasing frequency and severity of disasters, LPHAs continue to provide essential disaster life cycle services to their communities. However, little is known about the confidence that LPHA workers have in performing disaster recovery-related duties. To date, there is no widely used instrument to measure LPHA workers’ sense of efficacy, nor is there an educational intervention designed specifically to bolster disaster recovery-phase efficacy perceptions. Here, we describe the important role of the LPHA workforce in disaster recovery and the operational- and efficacy-related research gaps inherent in today’s disaster recovery practices. We then propose a behavioral framework that can be used to examine LPHA workers’ disaster recovery perceptions and suggest a research agenda to enhance LPHA workforce disaster recovery efficacy through an evidence-informed educational intervention. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:403–408)

In the Name of Population Well-Being: The Case for Public Health Surveillance

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy L. Fairchild ◽  
Ronald Bayer
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Chronic Disease ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Public Health Activity ◽  
Individual Informed Consent

AbstractSurveillance is the radar of public health. Without tracking, often by name, the incidence and prevalence of both infectious and chronic disease, health officials would be unable to understand where and how to potentially intervene or what resources might be required to protect populations. Surveillance without individual informed consent has been challenged in the name of both bioethics and human rights. In this article we contend that a robust conception of public health not only justifies surveillance but, without disregarding the need to respect individuals, provides an affirmative duty to engage in surveillance. There may be social and political circumstances in which the names of those reported cannot be protected from unwarranted disclosure and misuse for ends that have little to do with protecting the public's health. But while the potential for misuse requires an ongoing, searching scrutiny of disease surveillance, remote or hypothetical threats should not serve to undermine this vital public health activity.

What Predicts Local Public Health Agency Performance Improvement? A Pilot Study in North Carolina

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. E22-E33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anjum Hajat ◽  
Dorothy Cilenti ◽  
Lisa M. Harrison ◽  
Pia D.M. MacDonald ◽  
Denise Pavletic ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
North Carolina ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Performance Improvement ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Public Health Agency ◽  
Local Public Health ◽  
Local Public Health Agency

scholarly journals Intent to Vaccinate Children against COVID-19: Low levels of trust in public health agencies trust across rural communities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enbal Shacham ◽  
Germysha Little ◽  
Steve Scroggins ◽  
Avery Fredman ◽  
Ricardo Wray ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Local Public Health ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
Health Agencies ◽  
State And Local

Background: A COVID-19 vaccination for children is positioned to be a critical resource in the pandemic-prevention effort. However, studies have shown hesitation towards COVID-19 vaccination uptake and a lack of trust in government agencies; putting children at risk for not receiving preventative medical care. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between trust in public health agencies and parental intention to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. Methods: Residents of a Midwestern state who reported being parent/guardian of one or more child, aged <18 living at home, were recruited to participate in a cross-sectional online survey conducted during September-October 2020 (n=238). Participants were asked their level of trust in both state and local public health departments and if they planned on vaccinating their children against COVID-19. Resident geography, rural, suburban, and urban, was categorized using definitions from the Health Resource Services Administration (HRSA) and matched to participant county of residence. Descriptive and binomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to predict probability of vaccine intent for children.Results:. Among participants, 132 (55.5%) reported intention to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. Factors that were found to significantly decrease probability of vaccinating child were being a rural resident and lower level of trust in both state and local public health agencies. Discussion: Results from this study highlight the importance of addressing public health agency mistrust among individuals, regardless of geography, to assure more equitable vaccine delivery. Further, special focus may be needed for those living in more isolated, less populated areas, where a higher level of trust may be needed before parents vaccinate their children.

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