In this section of the newsletter, we provide excerpts of and links to relevant and topical studies, opinion pieces, blogs, and other articles published on leading scientific platforms on health systems, medicine, and allied social sectors
Longer intervals and extra doses of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine
Comment Article published September 1, 2021 in The Lancet
The article talks about the policy implications for vaccine implementation of the study investigating the persistence of immunogenicity after a single dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, the immunity after an extended interval (44–45 weeks) between the first and second doses, and the antibody immune response to a third dose as a booster given 28–38 weeks after the second dose. The results show substantially higher antibody titres after the second dose among individuals with almost a year between doses than among individuals who had an 8–12 week interval.
Mental health: build predictive models to steer policy
Comment Article published September 26, 2021 in Nature
A crisis is growing in mental health and the associated economic hardships as the widespread impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The article talks about the need to combine economic, social and medical data to forecast the need for and design services to address the growing crisis of mental health.
Article published September 13, 2021 in in the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Blog
The article talks about a new dashboard launched by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) which analyses the findings of a global survey on vaccine hesitancy. The robust tool captures knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors around vaccines, masking, and other mitigation measures from respondents in more than 100 countries. The findings can help governments and experts work to increase acceptance rates.