Modelling the Differing Impacts of Covid-19 in the UK Labour Market.

This article studies the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on graduates and non-graduates in the United Kingdom. We construct a DSGE model with search frictions that is designed around key features of the UK labour market and simulate the model using an array of shocks, designed to mimic the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. We show that our relatively simple macroeconomic model can describe the impact of the pandemic on output, employment and wages. Our results show that the impact of the pandemic on employment and wages was more severe for non-graduates than for graduates, and that up to 5 million jobs would have been lost in the first wave of the pandemic in the absence of the Job Retention Scheme.

A model framework for projecting the prevalence and impact of Long-COVID in the UK.

The objective of this paper is to model lost Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) from symptoms arising from COVID-19 disease in the UK population, including symptoms of 'long-COVID'. The scope includes QALYs lost to symptoms, but not deaths, due to acute COVID-19 and long-COVID. The prevalence of symptomatic COVID-19, encompassing acute symptoms and long-COVID symptoms, was modelled using a decay function. Permanent injury as a result of COVID-19 infection, was modelled as a fixed prevalence. Both parts were combined to calculate QALY loss due to COVID-19 symptoms. Assuming a 60% final attack rate for SARS-CoV-2 infection in the population, we modelled 299,730 QALYs lost within 1 year of infection (90% due to symptomatic COVID-19 and 10% permanent injury) and 557,764 QALYs lost within 10 years of infection (49% due to symptomatic COVID-19 and 51% due to permanent injury). The UK Government willingness-to-pay to avoid these QALY losses would be £17.9 billion and £32.2 billion, respectively. Additionally, 90,143 people were subject to permanent injury from COVID-19 (0.14% of the population). Given the ongoing development in information in this area, we present a model framework for calculating the health economic impacts of symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 infection. This model framework can aid in quantifying the adverse health impact of COVID-19, long-COVID and permanent injury following COVID-19 in society and assist the proactive management of risk posed to health. Further research is needed using standardised measures of patient reported outcomes relevant to long-COVID and applied at a population level.

Australia’s incipient eviction crisis: No going back

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia was facing an incipient eviction crisis, the gravity of which had been obscured by inadequate data and the gradual mounting of systemic problems of unaffordability and insecurity. This article reviews the legal framework around tenancies and evictions and the sparse data it produces. Tribunal data obtained by the author shows that Australia?s two largest jurisdictions had, prior to the pandemic, a termination application rate somewhat more than half that of the US ?crisis? rate. The article concludes with directions for further research and reforms to address evictions in an enduring way, beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Management of sleep apnea in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: With the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak there has been concern that patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who develop COVID-19 may be at risk of greater morbidity and mortality than patients without OSA. COVID-19 is associated with an increased mortality in the elderly and particularly those with obesity, hypertension and diabetes, features which are typically seen in patients with OSA. This article describes the COVID-19 environment in New York City in which patients were evaluated and treated for OSA. METHODS: A telephone questionnaire survey of 112 OSA patients determined the occurrence of COVID-19 in the sleep apnea population and the patients' perspective on sleep apnea Positive Airway Pressure (PAP) management during the COVID-19 outbreak. The three main objectives of the survey were as follows: (1) To discover how patients were coping with COVID-19 pandemic in terms of their sleep apnea and PAP use, (2) To determine whether PAP usage changed after the onset of the outbreak in terms of adherence, and (3) To find out if patients were concerned about whether they were at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 because of their sleep apnea and, if they became infected, whether COVID-19 might result in greater complications because of the presence of sleep apnea. RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS: The adjustment in clinical management of OSA patients is described both during the peak of the outbreak in New York State (NYS), as well as the proposed modifications that will be instituted in order to return to full sleep center activities.