American journal of public health
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Objectives. To estimate the critical care bed capacity that would be required to admit all critical COVID-19 cases in a setting of unchecked SARS-CoV-2 transmission, both with and without elderly-specific protection measures. Methods. ⋯ Under a hypothetical intervention that halves infections among the elderly, critical care peak requirements would have exceeded the prepandemic capacity of most high-income countries. Public Health Implications. Pandemic control strategies that rely exclusively on protecting the elderly are likely to overwhelm health care systems.
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Objectives. To determine the number of excess deaths (i.e., those exceeding historical trends after accounting for COVID-19 deaths) occurring in Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods. ⋯ Conclusions. Total deaths are significantly higher than historical trends in Florida even when accounting for COVID-19-related deaths. The impact of COVID-19 on mortality is significantly greater than the official COVID-19 data suggest.
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Historical Article
Politics, Pushback, and Pandemics: Challenges to Public Health Orders in the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.
During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, many state governors faced an increasing number of acts of defiance as well as political and legal challenges to their public health emergency orders. Less well studied are the similar acts of protest that occurred during the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, when residents, business owners, clergy, and even local politicians grew increasingly restless by the ongoing public health measures, defied public health edicts, and agitated to have them rescinded. We explore several of the themes that emerged during the late fall of 1918 and conclude that, although the nation seems to be following the same path as it did in 1918, the motivations for pushback to the 2020 pandemic are decidedly more political than they were a century ago.