In this newly added 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.
The COVID-19 Questions We Don’t Have Answers For Yet
Interview published June 23, 2021 in in the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Blog
More than a year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, science is still grappling with many unanswered questions about the virus, its variants, human response, the immunity conferred by vaccines, and other such issues. In this interview, virologist Gigi Gronvall, PhD, from The Center for Health Security talks about what we know, what we don’t know and what research is underway to answer these and more of some of the biggest lingering questions about COVID-19.
Disease surveillance for the COVID-19 era: time for bold changes
Comment Article published June 19, 2021 in The Lancet.
The ability of health systems across countries to fight the Covid-19 were undermined by weak surveillance of cases and insufficient national capacity to integrate data for timely adjustment of response measures. Public health decision making relies on real-time, accurate surveillance. As communities and economies struggle to recover from the consequences of these surveillance deficiencies, the article stresses on the urgent need for countries and multilateral agencies to take a hard look at what failed and to act boldly to implement the necessary improvements to disease surveillance.
Research study, published May 27, 2021 in the Emerald Insight Journal
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is felt across global population, but the marginalized and vulnerable groups in low-income countries are predicted to carry the largest and longest standing burden. The research findings emphasize the most urgent needs to be addressed per population group, the variety of state-level responses as well as best practices observed to deal with mitigation issues and opportunities for both short and long term solutions.