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Tag: Agencies

  • Trust in public health agencies during COVD-19 | News

    Trust in public health agencies during COVD-19 | News

    Reduced trust driven by issues about exterior affect and conflicting suggestions

    For speedy launch: March 6, 2023

    Boston, MA—In the initial nationally consultant survey of U.S. older people on causes for have confidence in in federal, condition, and neighborhood public wellness agencies’ details for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan Faculty of Community Health and fitness and colleagues discovered that the Facilities for Sickness Manage and Prevention (CDC) was remarkably trusted for information by far more than 1-third of U.S. grown ups, whilst point out and neighborhood health and fitness departments ended up remarkably reliable by about one-quarter. An supplemental 37-51{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of adults reliable these community wellbeing companies considerably, and <10{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} reported no trust at all in these agencies for health information.

    High levels of trust were not primarily due to people believing agencies had “done a good job” controlling the spread of COVID-19, but rather to public beliefs that agencies communicated clear, science-based recommendations and provided protective resources, such as tests and vaccines. The survey found that lower levels of trust were primarily related to beliefs that health recommendations were influenced by politics or corporations, or were conflicting.

    “Trust in public health agencies is crucial for enabling effective policies that save lives during emergencies,” said lead author Gillian SteelFisher, principal research scientist in the Department of Health Policy and Management and director of global polling at the Harvard Opinion Research Program. “Emergency programs have been underfunded for decades, but these data make clear how important it is to ensure public health agencies have appropriate stockpiles, have authority to make decisions based on scientific information, and have a stronger communication infrastructure.”

    The survey’s findings will be published March 6, 2023, in the March issue of Health Affairs, a themed issue focused on public health lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. The survey was conducted in February 2022 among a nationally representative sample of 4,208 U.S. adults.

    The researchers also found significant differences in reasons that the public trusts federal, state, and local public health agencies. Public trust in the CDC was related primarily to beliefs in their scientific expertise, whereas trust in state and local public health agencies was more related to their provision of direct, compassionate care.

    In addition, the study found key differences in the primary reasons why adults had lower levels of trust. Among those who reported trusting public health agencies “somewhat,” concerns were focused on conflicting recommendations and the perception of political influence. By comparison, those who reported trusting agencies “not very much” or “not at all” raised many more concerns, including agencies’ recommendations going “too far” and limited trust in government generally.

    The researchers used the results to suggest takeaways to inform public health leaders in COVID-19 and future emergencies. They suggested a need to enhance policies around stockpiles of protective resources such as masks to support a robust communication infrastructure in which public health agencies are given clear authority to disseminate science-based recommendations and to engage trusted partners, such as clinicians and religious leaders, to amplify agency communications. Such measures would allow public health agencies to develop strategies to more effectively engage different segments of the public who have varying levels of trust, the researchers said.

    Other Harvard Chan School co-authors included Mary Findling and Hannah Caporello.

    Howard Koh, Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership, Health Policy and Management at Harvard Chan School, served as an issue advisor for Health Affairs, and co-authored a paper in the issue about public health workforce retention.

    The study was conducted through a cooperative agreement between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, who subcontracted to the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

    “Trust in US Federal, State, and Local Public Health Agencies During COVID-19: Responses and Policy Implications,” Gillian K. Steelfisher, Mary G. Findling, Hannah L. Caporello, Keri M. Lubell, Kathleen G. Vidoloff Melville, Lindsay Lane, Alyssa A. Boyea, Thomas J. Schafer, Eran N. Ben-Porath, Health Affairs, March 6, 2023, doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2022.01204

    Visit the Harvard Chan School website for the latest news, press releases, and multimedia offerings.

    Image: iStock / DrAfter123

    For more information:

    Maya Brownstein

    [email protected]

    ###

    Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health brings together dedicated experts from many disciplines to educate new generations of global health leaders and produce powerful ideas that improve the lives and health of people everywhere. As a community of leading scientists, educators, and students, we work together to take innovative ideas from the laboratory to people’s lives—not only making scientific breakthroughs, but also working to change individual behaviors, public policies, and health care practices. Each year, more than 400 faculty members at Harvard Chan School teach 1,000-plus full-time students from around the world and train thousands more through online and executive education courses. Founded in 1913 as the Harvard-MIT School of Health Officers, the School is recognized as America’s oldest professional training program in public health.

  • U.S. Agencies Divided Over COVID-19 ‘Lab Leak’ Origin Theory | Health News

    U.S. Agencies Divided Over COVID-19 ‘Lab Leak’ Origin Theory | Health News

    U.S. agencies are divided over the origin of COVID-19, with a new report from the Office of Electricity about the weekend including gas to the hearth.

    The Wall Avenue Journal on Sunday described that the Electricity Department made a decision with “low confidence” that the coronavirus most most likely emerged from an accidental lab leak in China. Officials stated the improve of position was dependent on new information that hasn’t been shared publicly.

    White Household national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday acknowledged that the intelligence neighborhood doesn’t have a “definitive answer” to the problem of COVID-19’s origin.

    “There is a selection of sights in the intelligence neighborhood,” Sullivan told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “Some features of the intelligence group have arrived at conclusions on one aspect, some on the other. A range of them have explained they just don’t have plenty of details to be absolutely sure.”

    “Here’s what I can convey to you,” he continued. “President Biden has directed, continuously, every single ingredient of our intelligence neighborhood to set effort and hard work and methods guiding acquiring to the base of this issue. … But, appropriate now, there is not a definitive reply that has emerged from the intelligence group on this issue.”

    Cartoons on the Coronavirus

    On the global amount, the Planet Well being Organization is nevertheless investigating, continuously declaring that it is probable the origin will in no way be identified.

    As lately as this thirty day period, the group said that much more cooperation from China is necessary to progress its scientific studies.

    “We will not stop till we realize the origins of this, and it is getting increasingly difficult since the extra time that passes, the extra hard it gets to be to really recognize what took place in those people early stages of the pandemic,” WHO’s Maria Van Kerkhove said at a press conference.

    China on Monday dismissed the Electricity Department’s report, with an formal saying that “certain events need to cease rehashing the ‘lab leak’ narrative, prevent smearing China and prevent politicizing origins-tracing.”

    The place Do Agencies Stand on the ‘Lab Leak’ Concept?

    The Energy Section joins the FBI in supporting the concept that the virus accidentally emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

    Although the DOE arrived to its summary with “low” assurance, the FBI achieved its conclusion in 2021 with “moderate” self-assurance. But The Wall Road Journal reported that the organizations achieved their conclusions individually for distinct factors.

    Also, the Electrical power Section reportedly shared the information with other agencies, but none of them transformed their personal conclusions.

    Four companies and a countrywide intelligence panel claimed they think the pandemic probable started out with purely natural transmission from animal to human.

    The remaining two agencies, which consist of the CIA, are however undecided.

    One factor that is typically agreed on is that China did not manufacture the virus for use in warfare. The Countrywide Intelligence Council in 2021 described that the intelligence local community is in settlement that “the virus was not created as a biological weapon.” The report also stated that the intelligence local community “assesses China’s officials did not have foreknowledge of the virus in advance of the original outbreak of COVID-19 emerged.”

    But it acknowledged that the intelligence local community continues to be divided above COVID-19’s origin, noting that “China’s cooperation most probable would be necessary to get to a conclusive assessment of the origins of COVID-19.”

    Republicans Seize on DOE Report

    The new report from the Electrical power Division has reinvigorated the lab leak concept, underscoring that while the genuine origin could not be recognized anytime shortly, the theories are not going absent.

    It gave new strength to Republicans on Capitol Hill who very long held the lab leak theory and who designed a Home subcommittee to examine it.

    Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, tweeted that it does not make any difference that the lab leak idea was “proven correct.”

    “What matters is keeping the Chinese Communist Social gathering accountable so this does not come about all over again,” he stated.

    Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio tweeted that “the govt caught up to what Actual America knew all alongside.”

    Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, tweeted that “for several years, Anthony Fauci and Biden officials referred to as this a conspiracy.”

    GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri tweeted that he would introduce legislation to make the U.S. intelligence reports on COVID-19 “open to the people.”

    The report is most likely to gasoline congressional Republicans’ hearings on COVID-19 origins.

  • a16z-Backed Sprinter Health Helping In-Home Care Agencies with Census Challenges

    a16z-Backed Sprinter Health Helping In-Home Care Agencies with Census Challenges

    Sprinter Overall health – an on-desire cellular health and fitness startup – has raised a large amount of income because it was started at the commencing of very last calendar year.

    The business, which companions with household-based mostly treatment companies, has taken a gradual-and-regular solution to paying that funds as it figures out what is effective in the residence and what doesn’t. Of the almost $38 million it has raised, it hasn’t used additional than $5 million of it.

    Co-founder and CEO Max Cohen has located price in enjoying the extensive video game, irrespective of whether it has to do with deploying capital or discovering the suitable dwelling wellbeing and house care companions.

    “We did not want to go too considerably much too fast. The purpose for that is you can close up having an thought that becomes a solution that isn’t in fact validated,” Cohen explained to Dwelling Health Treatment News. “We are a Silicon Valley organization. And in that globe, you speak a ton about a little something referred to as PMF [product-market fit], which is earning certain that the market place demands the merchandise that you’ve developed, and the selling price place you can deliver it at will work.”

    The business has previously described alone to HHCN as “DoorDash for your next blood draw.” It sends nurses and phlebotomists into the property for lab draws, very important checks, COVID-19 testing and extra.

    Its direct trader is a16z. Supplemental contributors in its funding rounds include things like Normal Catalyst, Accel and Google Ventures, amid some others.

    Right before it started off to invest revenue, Sprinter wished to hone in on a handful of partnerships to test its model. Now, it’s finally commencing to unfold out in a far more significant way.

    “Anecdotally, what we’ve been explained to by these residence wellbeing organizations is that they are capable to enhance their census due to the fact we had been in a position to free up their time,” Cohen said. “Their nursing staff is serving to when persons have to have nurses. And when persons just will need something simple like vitals or blood draws, they send out us and we have upcoming-working day availability that just will make it less difficult.”

    Sprinter has partnered with at least 20 home-based treatment businesses in the Bay Location at this place. The company is also live in Los Angeles and Sacramento, and searching to increase to San Diego this year. Shortly ample, it hopes to be in other states as well, such as New Jersey, Texas and Florida.

    “We’re beginning to bring these other partnerships on-line that are extra of a countrywide scale,” Cohen mentioned. “The product is one thing that is truly replicable in distinct geographies. We can convey our technological innovation system with us. We have nationwide partners like Naveris that have wants all about the place. And so we can convey that organization with us as very well. So now we’ll commence to faucet into that progress funding to let us to go a little little bit a lot quicker.”

    Massachusetts-centered Naveris and Sprinter declared a partnership at the commencing of February. Naveris uses proprietary technological know-how to detect early symptoms of most cancers in the patients it serves. Sprinter’s nurses and phlebotomists will be enlisted to draw blood on behalf of Naveris in patients’ households.

    There are a great deal of innovative, scientifically driven businesses out there who really don’t have the time or resources to just take their design and deliver it to patients’ homes. That is exactly where Sprinter will come in.

    “Their excellence is not likely to be all-around the logistics of minimizing a person’s travel time and having them to the proper residence,” Cohen explained. “We say, ‘Let us choose on that technologies resolution aspect.’ Then they can fear about processing the samples, and frankly, generating additional value for their clients [elsewhere].”

    Addressing staffing and fairness in health and fitness care

    However some of Sprinter Health’s most important associates are household health and dwelling treatment agencies, it is, in a feeling, also a home-based mostly treatment corporation by itself. That indicates it is topic to the turbulent staffing ecosystem as well.

    To steer clear of as several of all those woes as feasible, the business deviates from the path that other health and fitness treatment companies businesses have taken. Its nurses and phlebotomists are entire-time staff.

    “It essentially drives expense down if you have substantial utilization,” Cohen mentioned. “Because what that implies is that, if you are hectic all working day, you’ve got a established of fixed fees and you don’t have to spend a middleman cost to e-book a person that can complete that check out. And in our design of acquiring total-time employees, it guarantees that we’re essentially heading to abide by by with it we’re not going to terminate the appointment. And when we get there, the personnel are going to be trained continuously.”

    Possessing that comprehensive-time team also offers off a notion of dependability to likely associates.

    On top of that, that dependability implies much better service for the clients, quite a few of which have been victims of an inequitable U.S. overall health care method, Cohen reported.

    “We’ve been speaking about health fairness permanently, but it looks that there is basically an energy to set some dollars behind it now,” he reported. “We’re viewing a wish where by we’re last but not least declaring, ‘Let’s not just produce concierge treatment for the most affluent. Let us uncover a way to meet people in which they’re at.’ And I’m setting up to see companions essentially be inclined to invest in that extra closely. That is an intriguing tailwind, and I want to see where by that goes, because I’m quite optimistic about that.”

    Some insurers are also commencing to attempt to deal with those well being equity problems, but at the area stage. For instance, they are sending distant affected person monitoring (RPM) devices, lab exams and other items to beneficiaries.

    But that is not generally profitable, Cohen added.

    “I do surprise how lots of of these individuals are heading to get explained unit and depart it in the packaging, mainly because it’s overwhelming,” he said. “So a single aspect of our company that we can establish out is the skill to in essence be ready to go in and teach individuals how to use these products – how to established it up, configure it and make positive it has been hooked up appropriately. I believe which is an region that’s heading to nonetheless require a human in the loop for at minimum the subsequent 10 to 20 a long time.”