Study gauges effectiveness of COVID-19 burden mitigation policies

In a new study published in JAMA Network Open, researchers have created a dataset and data visualization dashboard to evaluate the effectiveness of state and territory-level policies enacted to reduce the severity of COVID-19's impact on older people served by home health care agencies and nursing homes.

The authors found many policies within states and territories did not correspond with reductions in community or nursing home-level COVID-19 burden (i.e. number of cases and mortality counts). This suggests that policy effectiveness may depend on implementation and compliance. The study also found that policies focused less on home health care agencies compared with nursing homes, despite both settings serving vulnerable older populations.

Research finds negativity about vaccines surged on Twitter after COVID-19 shots became available There was a marked increase in negativity about vaccines on Twitter after COVID-19 vaccines became available, according to a presentation at the ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID) in Barcelona, ... Science X Medical Xpress

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The analysis also found that spikes in the number of negative tweets coincided with announcements from governments and health care authorities about vaccination.