Last data update: Jun 03, 2024. (Total: 46935 publications since 2009)
Records 1-3 (of 3 Records) |
Query Trace: Castonguay FM [original query] |
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Estimated public health impact of concurrent mask mandate and vaccinate-or-test requirement in Illinois, October to December 2021
Castonguay FM , Barnes A , Jeon S , Fornoff J , Adhikari BB , Fischer LS , Greening B Jr , Hassan AO , Kahn EB , Kang GJ , Kauerauf J , Patrick S , Vohra S , Meltzer MI . BMC Public Health 2024 24 (1) 1013 BACKGROUND: Facing a surge of COVID-19 cases in late August 2021, the U.S. state of Illinois re-enacted its COVID-19 mask mandate for the general public and issued a requirement for workers in certain professions to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing. The mask mandate required any individual, regardless of their vaccination status, to wear a well-fitting mask in an indoor setting. METHODS: We used Illinois Department of Public Health's COVID-19 confirmed case and vaccination data and investigated scenarios where masking and vaccination would have been reduced to mimic what would have happened had the mask mandate or vaccine requirement not been put in place. The study examined a range of potential reductions in masking and vaccination mimicking potential scenarios had the mask mandate or vaccine requirement not been enacted. We estimated COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations averted by changes in masking and vaccination during the period covering October 20 to December 20, 2021. RESULTS: We find that the announcement and implementation of a mask mandate are likely to correlate with a strong protective effect at reducing COVID-19 burden and the announcement of a vaccinate-or-test requirement among frontline professionals is likely to correlate with a more modest protective effect at reducing COVID-19 burden. In our most conservative scenario, we estimated that from the period of October 20 to December 20, 2021, the mask mandate likely prevented approximately 58,000 cases and 1,175 hospitalizations, while the vaccinate-or-test requirement may have prevented at most approximately 24,000 cases and 475 hospitalizations. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that mask mandates and vaccine-or-test requirements are vital in mitigating the burden of COVID-19 during surges of the virus. |
Adapting COVID-19 contact tracing protocols to accommodate resource constraints, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 2021
Jeon S , Watson-Lewis L , Rainisch G , Chiu CC , Castonguay FM , Fischer LS , Moonan PK , Oeltmann JE , Adhikari BB , Lawman H , Meltzer MI . Emerg Infect Dis 2024 30 (2) 333-336 Because of constrained personnel time, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (Philadelphia, PA, USA) adjusted its COVID-19 contact tracing protocol in summer 2021 by prioritizing recent cases and limiting staff time per case. This action reduced required staff hours to prevent each case from 21-30 to 8-11 hours, while maintaining program effectiveness. |
Building a simple model to assess the impact of case investigation and contact tracing for sexually transmitted diseases: Lessons From COVID-19
Castonguay FM , Chesson HW , Jeon S , Rainisch G , Fischer LS , Adhikari BB , Kahn EB , Greening B Jr , Gift TL , Meltzer MI . AJPM Focus 2024 3 (1) 100147 INTRODUCTION: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed a simple spreadsheet-based tool to help state and local public health officials assess the performance and impact of COVID-19 case investigation and contact tracing in their jurisdiction. The applicability and feasibility of building such a tool for sexually transmitted diseases were assessed. METHODS: The key epidemiologic differences between sexually transmitted diseases and respiratory diseases (e.g., mixing patterns, incubation period, duration of infection, and the availability of treatment) were identified, and their implications for modeling case investigation and contact tracing impact with a simple spreadsheet tool were remarked on. Existing features of the COVID-19 tool that are applicable for evaluating the impact of case investigation and contact tracing for sexually transmitted diseases were also identified. RESULTS: Our findings offer recommendations for the future development of a spreadsheet-based modeling tool for evaluating the impact of sexually transmitted disease case investigation and contact tracing efforts. Generally, we advocate for simplifying sexually transmitted disease-specific complexities and performing sensitivity analyses to assess uncertainty. The authors also acknowledge that more complex modeling approaches might be required but note that it is possible that a sexually transmitted disease case investigation and contact tracing tool could incorporate features from more complex models while maintaining a user-friendly interface. CONCLUSIONS: A sexually transmitted disease case investigation and contact tracing tool could benefit from the incorporation of key features of the COVID-19 model, namely its user-friendly interface. The inherent differences between sexually transmitted diseases and respiratory viruses should not be seen as a limitation to the development of such tool. |
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