Global response

This chapter discusses when and how the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) a pandemic following its first emergence in Wuhan, China. Different countries around the world tried to contain the virus through taking cautionary steps by initiating at least a 2-week lockdown and by following recommendations on implementing social distancing of 6 feet, the wearing of masks in public, and washing hands with warm water and soap for at least 20s. COVID-19 is believed to have originated from bats and believed to have spread all around the world before it was first diagnosed in Wuhan, China. As the virus swept the world, some countries, such as Italy, faced a shortage of hospital beds. New York, which also faced a hospital bed shortage very early on during the pandemic, was declared an epicenter of the virus in the United States. Moreover, nursing homes in many developing countries were badly hit and reported a high number of deaths related to COVID-19. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Improving Construction Safety: Lessons Learned from COVID-19 in the United States

During the COVID-19 pandemic, construction accidents in the United States (US) dropped dramatically compared to previous years. This research uses Saunders’ research onion approach to conduct a deep and systematic analysis of pre- and post-COVID-19 data to understand this phenomenon. The proposed research framework examines safety and prevention measures implemented by the US government, using data collected from various US government agencies, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and US Bureau of Labor Statistics. COVID-19’s effects on construction site health and safety were analyzed and ranked in order of efficacy in a hierarchy of control, and findings reveal a number of safety measures that can potentially be implemented to promote improved construction safety even after COVID-19 is over.

Myocarditis Post Moderna Vaccination: Review of Criteria for Diagnosis.

Case reports of myocarditis post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mRNA vaccination have not uniformly reported long-term follow-up beyond 90 days. We present a 23-year-old male who is typical of a patient presenting with myocarditis post-COVID-19 mRNA-1273 Moderna vaccination (young males, onset several days after second dose of the mRNA vaccine, and excellent short term complete recovery). Follow-up at 128 days revealed no residual sequelae in our patient. Although a definitive diagnosis of myocarditis requires an endomyocardial biopsy (EMB), diagnosis is usually made clinically and with imaging in most clinical settings unless part of an approved research protocol or if indicated clinically. We recommend active surveillance and reporting for myocarditis post mRNA vaccination and even consider reporting those with symptom onset beyond 90 days.

CDC's Efforts to Quantify Prescription Opioid Overdose Deaths Fall Short.

In a 2018 report titled, Quantifying the Epidemic of Prescription Opioid Overdose Deaths, four senior analysts of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including the head of the Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, acknowledged for the first time that the number of prescription opioid overdose deaths reported by the CDC in 2016 was erroneous. The error, they said, was caused by miscoding deaths involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF) as deaths involving prescribed fentanyl. To understand what caused this error, the authors examined the CDC's methodology for compiling drug-related mortality data, beginning with the source data obtained from approximately 2.8 million death certificates received each year from state vital statistics registrars. Systemic problems often begin outside the CDC, with a surprisingly high rate of errors and omissions in the source data. Using the CDC's explanation for what caused the error, the authors show why an international program used by the CDC for reporting mortality is ill-suited for compiling and reporting drug overdose deaths. Except for heroin, methadone, and opium, each of which has an individual program code, all other opioids are separated in just two program codes according to whether they are synthetic or semisynthetic/opiates. Methadone-involved deaths pose a special problem for the CDC because methadone has dual indications for treating pain and for treating opioid use disorder (OUD). In 2019, more than seven times more methadone was administered or dispensed for OUD treatment than was prescribed for pain, yet all methadone-involved deaths are coded by the CDC as involving the prescribed form of the drug. The authors conclude that the CDC was at fault for failing to recognize and correct this problem before 2016. Public policy consequences of this failure are briefly mentioned.