public health w6

4

Fatma

Provide an insight on the differences/similarities of the state data and the Interpretive summary for the week.

COVID-19 and influenza vaccines lessen illness, hospital admissions, and mortalities. Nearly all of the metrics in the Interpretive Summary and Montgomery County, Maryland, point in the same direction. In this instance, hospitalization and death rates have significantly reduced. Interpretive Summary data indicates that over 50% of the counties reported a low COVID-19 community level, where Montgomery resorts (CDC, 2022b). On average, the number of new cases has dropped by 15.9% over the last seven days, as of September 14, 2022, compared to 9.92% in Montgomery County during the same period. In this county, the number of hospital admissions reduced by approximately 20%, which is reflected in the weekly summary (CDC, 2022a).

If people avail themselves of getting tested, these rates may go down further. However, more individuals have sort vaccination in Montgomery County (95%) than reported in the weekly summary (70.9%) (CDC, 2022a). Vaccines against COVID-19, now available in the United States, do an excellent job of preventing individuals from becoming extremely sick, hospitalized, and perhaps even succumbing (Moghadas et al., 2021). Vaccinating kids and teenagers have reduced the severity of illness from COVID-19.

Therefore, vaccination is one of the public health efforts that have caused a reduction in the stated metrics. Vaccinating against COVID-19 is a great way to avoid contracting the disease and perhaps suffering from its severe symptoms. Anyone who has ever been exposed to COVID-19 might benefit from being immunized. Vaccination frequency is strongly encouraged by the CDC for all children and adults aged six months and above. However, ongoing conformity with non-pharmaceutical therapies has been instrumental. Thus, some public health efforts include wearing face masks and getting tested when symptoms reveal.

References

CDC. (2022a). COVID-19 integrated county view.

 https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view?list_select_state=Maryland&data- type=CommunityLevels&list_select_county=24031

CDC. (2022b). Make mine a double. COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review.

 https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html

Moghadas, S. M., Vilches, T. N., & Zhang, K. (2021). The impact of vaccination on COVID-19 outbreaks in the United States. medRxiv 2020: 1–16.

  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7709178/

Jaymia

As of September 22, 2022, there are 226 (7.0%) counties, districts, or territories with a high COVID-19 Community Level, 1,1005 (31.2%) counties with a medium Community Level, and 1,986 (61.7%) counties with a low Community Level. Compared with last week, this represents a large decrease (-6.3 percentage points) in the number of high-level counties, a moderate decrease (-4.7 percentage points) in the number of medium-level counties, and a large increase (+11.0 percentage points) in the number of low-level counties (CDC, 2022). As of September 21, 2022, the current 7-day moving average of daily new cases (54,186) decreased 10.6% compared with the previous 7-day moving average (60,593). A total of 95,700,347 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States as of September 21, 2022 (CDC, 2022).

The COVID-19 community level is high in North Carolina. Recommended actions based on the current level are to wear a mask indoors in public and on public transportation. Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines. Get tested if you have symptoms and if you are at high risk for severe illness, consider taking additional precautions. The case rate per 100,000 population is 249 and new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population is 11.5 (CDC, 2022). COVID-19 community levels were calculated on Thursday, September 22, 2022. New COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population (7-day total) are calculated using data from Thursday, September 15, 2022- Wednesday, September 21, 2022. New COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population (7-day total) and percent of inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients (7-day average) are calculated using data from the 14th to the 20th. 

Vaccinations and boosters seem to be working at both levels. Of those who have completed the primary series, about 109.6 million people have received a booster dose, and 4.4 million people have received an updated (bivalent) booster dose. However, 49.9% of the total booster-eligible population has not yet received a booster dose in the United States. In North Carolina, 353,483 people are vaccinated with at least one dose and 254,043 are vaccinated fully. That is 92.5% and 66.5% of the total population vaccinated to some capacity. 

Setting a strong mandate for public communication is key to its effectiveness in combating disinformation and gaining public trust. Public communication is demonstrating its value as a government lever and as a tool for crisis management and policy delivery. To be successful, these efforts can rely on established approaches for strategy, coordination, evidence, and transparency (OECD, 2014). Reviewing what is known about the drivers of risk behaviors and rapidly filling in knowledge gaps can also be beneficial. An effective national plan needs to engage the population with messages that are new and surprising in order to grab people's attention. The communications must motivate action by making the behavior something that individuals will want to do. Above all, the advocated behavior has to be possible. Rapid in-depth research into what people are doing and why, especially in vulnerable or marginalized groups (WorldBank, 2020). 

Sara, J. et al., (2020). 10 steps to developing a communications strategy to help combat COVID-19 (Coronavirus). WorldBank.  https://blogs.worldbank.org/water/10-steps-developing-communications-strategy-help-combat-covid-19-coronavirus

COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review. (2022, September 23). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved September 23, 2022, from  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html

CDC. (2020, March 28). COVID Data Tracker. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved September 23, 2022, from  https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view?list_select_state=North+Carolina&data-type=CommunityLevels&list_select_county=37067

Transparency, communication and trust: The role of public communication in responding to the wave of disinformation about the new Coronavirus. (n.d.). OECD. Retrieved September 23, 2022, from  https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/transparency-communication-and-trust-the-role-of-public-communication-in-responding-to-the-wave-of-disinformation-about-the-new-coronavirus-bef7ad6e/