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How New York City Vaccinated 6 Million People in Less Than a Month

John Florio Ouisie Shapiro

December 18, 2020 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

When a smallpox outbreak was deemed to be a likelihood in New York City in 1947, the city’s health commissioner rapidly launched a vaccination campaign that leveraged internal collaboration, consistent and transparent communication, and contact tracing. The effort culminated in more than six million people receiving vaccination in under a month, and only 12 infections and two deaths total. While this "public health triumph" hold lessons for the current COVID-19 pandemic, experts caution, “It’s almost inconceivable that we’re going to be able to do something similar as rapidly and as effectively.”

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There are worse viruses than Covid-19 out there. How do we avoid the next big one?

Debora MacKenzie

December 08, 2020 |

Ensia |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: China

Public health experts are strategizing for how to combat the next pandemic by learning from what failed to prevent the most recent coronavirus pandemic. From increasing surveillance of viruses to using diagnostic technologies to "screen for novel infections more systematically," there are a series of protocols that countries failed to utilize that can be enacted now as a preventative measure.

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Covid Superspreader Risk Is Linked to Restaurants, Gyms, Hotels

Kristen V. Brown

November 10, 2020 |

Bloomberg |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Data from mobile phones was used to create infection models that present how COVID-19 is spreading. Researchers plotted where people went, where they were coming from, how crowded those places were, and how long they stayed there alongside the number of cases in those neighborhoods to show that the three most common places of catching the virus are restaurants, gyms, and hotels. The research can inform public policy decisions to keep people safe by implementing effective and limited lockdowns which can prevent the spread of the virus as well as limit the financial fallout for businesses.

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How effective are China's attempts to reduce the risk of wildlife spreading disease to humans?

Michael Standaert

November 05, 2020 |

Ensia |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: China, Shebu, Guangdong

In order to get a handle on the spread of COVID-19, and to prevent future zoonotic disease outbreaks, China introduced temporary regulations banning commercial breeding of wildlife for meat consumption. These have hit farmers hard, with at least 20,000 farming operations shutting down by the end of February. With the bans on their way to fully becoming a law, local governments are trying to provide training and loans to help farmers transition to new products, but some claim the process is slow and doesn’t go far enough to prevent the breeding of the banned creatures for fur farming and traditional medicine.

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The ambitious effort to piece together America's fragmented health data

Nicole Wetsman

October 19, 2020 |

The Verge |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

The uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and the health impacts it may have for different people prompted doctors from across the U.S. to create a national patient database to better study and understand how the virus interacts with other underlying conditions. Although the database itself is adaptable and researchers hope it can also be used in the face of future pandemics, they also say "five years from now, the greatest value of this data set won’t be the data. It’ll have been the methods that we learned trying to get it working."

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Cities are using poop to look for early Covid-19 outbreaks

Katherine Ellen Foley

September 03, 2020 |

Quartz |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Arizona

Wastewater-based epidemiology is helping scientists and public health experts track the prevalence of coronavirus in communities. Although this practice can be complicated by the size of cities and lacks a standardized testing protocol, it has already helped identify outbreaks at two universities.

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What sewage can tell us about the spread of COVID-19

Jane C. Hu

September 02, 2020 |

High Country News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Bozeman, Montana

Scientists in Bozeman, Montana are tracking community spread of COVID-19 by studying samples from the city’s wastewater. Although this form of tracking is more tedious and not necessarily as effective as testing individuals via a swab, the wastewater tracking program is able detect the virus and help health officials identify the area where it likely originated from.

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The mosquito strategy that could eliminate dengue

Ewen Callaway

August 27, 2020 |

Nature |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Indonesia, Yogyakarta

In Indonesia, Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes are transmitting dengue at a much slower rate than those not infected with the bacterium according to a controlled research study that expands on existing experimentation conducted elsewhere in the world. Although the trial was cut short due to the prevalence of COVID-19, the results were substantial enough that researchers are encouraging efforts to scale the technology worldwide.

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For Quick Coronavirus Testing, Israel Turns to a Clever Algorithm

David Halbfinger

August 21, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Israel, Beersheba

The Israeli government is preparing to roll out a new form of pooled testing as the count of COVID-19 cases continues to increase. The methodology, which has already shown promise as a successful pilot project, works more efficiently than other pooled-testing efforts by using a combinatorial algorithm that was "developed a decade ago to speed the detection of rare genetic mutations."

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As the Nation Begins Virus Tracing, It Could Learn From This N.J. City

Sharon Otterman

May 21, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Paterson, New Jersey

In New Jersey, health officials in the city of Paterson has been tracing the novel coronavirus for months, which may have helped contain the spread of the virus. Their disease investigations team has been able to successfully trace about 90 percent of the more than 5,900 positive cases in the city. A state grant allowed them to scale the team during the pandemic.

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