Contact tracing in the US is at a critical inflection point. In the early days when COVID-19 first arrived in the US, when federal resources should have been mobilized to bolster our defenses against the virus, the response to the emerging pandemic became a political fight, rather than a public health campaign. The Trump Administration’s unwillingness to publicly acknowledge the seriousness of the virus and to respond quickly in an organized, systematic way allowed infections to run amok across the country. Despite over 8 million cases, 225,000 deaths, and an outbreak striking the White House and Congress, pandemic response efforts continue to be politicized. In the absence of federal leadership, states have been playing catch up since day one with little to no resources at their disposal. Read full article.
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Patricia Pittman, director of the Mullan Institute of Health, was quoted in this recent Reuters article addressing Hospital ICUs leaning on telemedicine amid the pandemic. Read the full article here.
"Even if beds were available, qualified staff are hard to find. It’s estimated that 43 states, including South Carolina, face a shortage of highly trained ICU doctors, known as intensivists, according to researchers at George Washington University. These shortages may worsen with hospitalizations in many states predicted to peak this fall, when the coronavirus mixes with flu season, according to Patricia Pittman, director of the university’s Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity." The Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity was cited in an article in this Teaching and Learning in Nursing article by Kathleen Gravens PhD, RN and Sharon Goldfarb DNP, RN, FNP-BC.
Abstract: The Organization of Associate Degree Nursing has declared Advancing the Social Mission of Nursing as the major theme for the year (Meyer, 2020). Nursing's historic roots are embedded in social mission. Social mission encompasses the social determinants of health, which are a major factor impacting health outcomes. In order to effectively prepare associate degree nursing graduates to address issues related to health equity, nurse educators should re-examine the core purpose of nursing education to ensure inclusion of social mission. Read Full Article here. Dr. Candice Chen was featured in this National Geographic piece about contact tracing written by Lois Parshley.
BETWEEN A SWEEP of mountains and an expanse of dark waters, a 14-story building looms over Prince William Sound. Most of Whittier, Alaska’s 280 residents live in the peach-colored confines of Begich Tower, which was built in 1956 as a U.S. Army barracks. The building has its own post office and grocery store. An underground tunnel leads to the town’s small school. “We are our own petri dish—we share the same ventilation system,” says Jim Hunt, the city’s manager. Read more. The Most American COVID-19 Failure Yet Contact tracing works almost everywhere else. Why not here?8/31/2020 Dr. Candice Chen was featured in the Atlantic piece by Olga Khazan.
With her thin eyebrows arched high on her forehead, Robyn Openshaw urged her 212,000 fans to stand up to a new menace: contact tracing. Openshaw, a widely followed health blogger who goes by “Green Smoothie Girl” on Facebook, had recently heard of a bill in Congress that would provide $100 million to mobile health clinics to help monitor the spread of COVID-19. Read more. |
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