All in Pandemic Response

What Lessons from the First Wave Apply to a Second Wave of COVID-19?

What Lessons from the First Wave Apply to a Second Wave of COVID-19?

Arling G., Blaser M., Cailas M.D., Canar J., Cooper B., Geraci P., Osiecki K., and Sambanis A.
Pandemic Response, Public Health Informatics, Research, University of Illinois at Chicago, Articles

Basing decisions on overall COVID-19 case counts and mortality can be misleading and offer faulty guidance for delivering public health interventions to high risk populations. A University of Illinois School of Public Health and Purdue research team has been examining spatial and temporal patterns of COVID-19 mortality with a focus on the significant loss of life from COVID-19 among Long-Term Care Facility (LTCF) residents in contrast to mortality in the community residents of private households (non-LTCF).

Making Polling Places Safer From COVID-19

Making Polling Places Safer From COVID-19

Nicholas Peneff and Alessa Holliday
Pandemic Response, Public Health Informatics

The pandemic has raised unprecedented fears of voting in person in the upcoming election. Despite these fears it has been predicted that a record turnout of perhaps 145 million votes will be cast , two thirds in person in largely indoor polling buildings .Using a virus transmission model developed at the University of Colorado, an analysis was made of the effects of increasing ventilation and restricting occupancy at polling places as a method of increasing the safety of such in-person voting.

Contact Tracing Key to COVID-19 Wellness

Contact Tracing Key to COVID-19 Wellness

Susan Laue
Pandemic Response, Public Health Informatics, Interviews

Informatics LifeLine’s Susan Laue interviews Dr. Bryant Karras, Chief Informatics Officer, and Maria Courogen, Branch Director for Disease Containment for the Washington State Department of Health on the subject of contact tracing. In this interview, we discuss the basics of contact tracing, then move on to discuss resource needs, informatics applications, resource tradeoffs, funding, training, and measuring success.