RESUMEN
Background: Despite the development of safe and effective vaccines and antiviral treatments against COVID- 19, marginalized racial/ethnic groups in the United States continue to be disproportionally burdened by COVID-19. In response to this inequity, public health officials in several states designed, usually in an ad-hoc manner, policies aimed to be more equitable in both access and distribution of COVID-19 interventions. Method(s): We constructed an age- and race-stratified mathematical model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and COVID-19 vaccination. We fit our model to data from Oregon at the beginning of 2021. Next, we explored counterfactual scenarios where we determined the optimal use of limited amounts of vaccine over the first 4 months of 2021 with the goal of minimizing 1) number of deaths or Years of Life Lost (YLL), 2) the inequity in mortality or YYL between race groups, 3) a combination of both. We compared them to a base-case scenario without vaccination. Result(s): When vaccine supply is very limited (enough to cover 10% of the population), there is a trade-off between minimizing mortality or minimizing inequity (Fig.1). For minimizing mortality, it is optimal to allocate vaccine to the oldest age group, irrespective of race. To minimize inequity, vaccine needs to be allocated first to the marginalized populations in the young- and middle-aged groups, incurring significantly more deaths in all groups, including the marginalized ones, compared to minimizing mortality (Fig.1). When minimizing both deaths and inequity, the optimal vaccination strategy achieved a significant reduction in inequity while preserving most of the reduction in mortality (Fig.1). When minimizing YYL and inequity, the optimal allocation resulted in a more equitable distribution of resources and outcomes across race groups. Once vaccine supply was enough to cover 20% of the population, our results suggest that it is possible to minimize both mortality (or YYL) and inequity, by protecting marginalized communities and the oldest populations at the same time. Conclusion(s): With low vaccine supply, there is a trade-off between being more equitable and reducing mortality. This is true because COVID-19 related mortality is concentrated in the oldest population while marginalized populations are predominately young. This trade-off quickly disappears when more vaccine is available. An interdisciplinary approach is needed to address the inequitable distribution of resources and outcomes in public health. Mortality rate (left), Years of Life Lost (center) and Indices of Disparity (right) with no vaccination (top row), minimizing deaths (2nd row), inequity (3rd row) or both (4th row) with enough vaccine to cover 10% of the population.
RESUMEN
The purpose of this study was to determine the association of location and types of crimes in the Philippines and understand the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns by comparing the crime incidence and associations before and during the pandemic. A document review was used as the main method of data collection using the datasets from the Philippine Statistics Authority-Annual Statistical Yearbook (PSA-ASY). The dataset contained the volume of index crimes in the Philippines from 2016 to 2020. The index crimes were broken down into two major categories: crimes against persons and crimes against property. Incidence of crime-by-crime type was available for different administrative regions in the Philippines. Chi-square test and correlation plot of chi-square residual were used to determine the associations between the locations and types of index crimes. A correlation plot of the chisquare residual was used to investigate the patterns of associations. Results suggest that the continuing effort of the Philippine government to fight against criminality has resulted in a steady decline in the incidence of index crimes in the Philippines. The pandemic too contributed to the decline of crime incidence in the country. These results imply that police surveillance activities in highly populated areas and specific interventions to address sexual violence must be in place during community lockdowns. The Philippine National Police should heighten its campaign in violence against women and increase its workforce visibility especially in remote and densely populated areas. The results of this study can be used as input to local government units for developing programs and plans on crime prevention. For future researches, it is recommended to conduct a precinct level analysis for a closer look at crime surveillance. © 2021 International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences. Under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
RESUMEN
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread worldwide with an unprecedented impact on society. In the Philippines, several interventions such as mobility restrictions for different age groups and vaccination prioritization programs have been implemented to reduce the risks of infections and mortality. This study aimed to identify age-sex composition with greater susceptibility, longer hospitalization and higher fatality. The COVID-19 cases from March 2020 to April 2021 provided by the Department of Health Davao Region in the Philippines were analyzed. A Chi-square test was used to determine the difference in proportions of COVID-19 cases among age-sex compositions. A correlation plot of chi(2) test residual was employed to investigate the differences in susceptibility. Boxplots and Kruskal-Wallis tests were utilized to compare the length of hospitalizations. The study found a significant difference in the COVID-19 susceptibility among age-sex compositions (p < 0.01). Male children and female senior citizens were the most susceptible age-sex compositions. Furthermore, senior citizens had the longest hospital days wherein the median and IQR days were 19 (15-27) for men and 18 (16-29) for women. Male senior citizen was the subgroup with the highest case fatality (21.4%, p < 0.01). It is recommended that the number of cases among senior citizens be used as an input in the planning and allocation of medical resources at the provincial and regional levels. The local government unit executives in the region can also take advantage of the availability of age-sex composition data in stratifying localities, planning, allocating COVID-19-related resources and imposing mobility restrictions.