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COVID-19 Pandemic Mental Health Public Health Research

A Clean Bill of Health Newsletter – June 23, 2022

Peek Inside today’s A Clean Bill of Health Newsletter:

– US President Biden approved State of Montana’s request for a major disaster declaration, which sets in motion federal aid for the three counties devastated by severe flooding in Yellowstone Park, per The Washington Post.

– LinkedIn News Top 25 Healthcare companies to grow your career:
1. Kaiser Permanente | 2. Arthrex | 3. Parexel | 4. athenahealth | 5. Teladoc Health | 6. Walgreens Boots Alliance | 7. MicroVention-Terumo | 8. The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | 9. CVS Health | 10. City of Hope | 11. ZEISS Medical Technology | 12. Hologic, Inc. | 13. Allscripts | 14. UnitedHealth Group | 15. Galderma | 16. Avanos Medical | 17. Curology | 18. UChicago Medicine | 19. Varian | 20. University of Maryland Medical Center | 21. The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson | 22. Nevro | 23. Medtronic | 24. Pfizer | 25. Elanco

Which company should I visit this Summer? Help me and tag people in the thread!

– Latest review on the impact by COVID-19 lockdown on the performing and creative artists in the entertainment industry was just published in Elsevier Social Sciences & Humanities Open Journal.

Next Week Free Webinar on Tuesday, June 28 at 1 PM EDT with researchers and practitioners University of Washington, US Maritime Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and WESTON MEDICAL PUBLISHING, LLC in the mental health area and in the maritime industry

Our newsletter community is growing and thank you for your emails, comments, and messages! We are building a newsletter that constantly empowers and connects all the various ways we strive for a clean bill of health.

Please continue to help me spread the word!

Categories
Public Health

Are you subscribed to my newsletter yet?

Having a weekly newsletter isn’t an easy task especially when not selling anything. For the past 13 weeks, I have curated conversational and important updates to public health, healthcare, and technology intersectional space.

Our growing newsletter community is now over 800 people strong, and thank you for your supportive emails, comments, and messages! We are building a newsletter that constantly empowers and connects all the various ways we strive for a clean bill of health.

In the latest ‘A Clean Bill of Health’ newsletter, we discuss briefly past week’s well-attended and wonderful Zoom webinar on the mental health research of emergency management and public health professionals since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you for everyone joining us!

We also share the neat healthcare technology case in hospitals for improving patient experiences with the partnership of Feedtrail & Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.

Please continue to help me spread the word!

Quote of the week:
“We all get scared and want to turn away, but it isn’t always strength that makes you stay. Strength is also making the decision to change your destiny.”
~ Zoraida Córdova, Labyrinth Lost #quoteoftheweek #dailyquote

Categories
Mental Health

2022 Mental Health Awareness Month

Action is needed to help curb the growing realities of mental health issues among adults and youths. Today may be the last day of #mentalhealthawarenessmonth but our work to improve our mental health is something that extends more than a month – we must be aware and act everyday. 

For example, recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study shows evidence of ‘persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness’ growing among United States high school students throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Per @WHO, full death toll associated directly or indirectly with the COVID-19 pandemic (described as “excess mortality”) between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021 was approximately 14.9 million deaths (with a range from 13.3 to 16.6 million).

One of key takeaway from the @CDCgov study:
-> Poor mental health, persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors were LESS PREVALENT among those who felt CLOSE TO PEOPLE at school and were virtually connected with others during the pandemic.

🎥 Check out “Speaking on Mental Health” below – it was created by students & supported by @DirectChangeCA @takeactionformh @LACDMH

Categories
Public Health Research

How can we create frictionless experiences to connect the elderly populations to their healthcare teams?

There is an ongoing assumption that elderly communities are averse to technology, but that is not true. Could it be that the digital health companies are just not designing for their needs and/or improving educational outreach efforts to teach new tech advancements?

In past years, colleagues and I have been discussing the practicalities of using emerging technologies to address the growing issue of elderly loneliness and its implications and adaptations to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Technological advancements have offered remarkable opportunities to deliver care and maintain connections despite the need to stay physically separated. These tools can be integrated into crisis communications, public health responses, and healthcare programs to help the elderly communities. However, it must be done strategically and informed by the type of loneliness at play, environmental factors, socioeconomics, and technological literacy (including feedback to improve tech design and function).

What are ways your teams are creating frictionless experiences to connect to the elderly populations?

Categories
COVID-19 Pandemic Public Health

“No jab, No job” – latest on vaccine mandate in workplace

“No jab, No job” is being passed around the workplaces this week. Announcement is from Citi to adopt a COVID-19 vaccine mandate policy, marking first major bank with such policy.

Categories
COVID-19 Pandemic Public Health

Retail shops reducing hours due to surging COVID-19 cases

Happy New Year! Last year ended with ongoing debate and even backlash about the COVID-19 vaccine mandates at many companies to help curb new infections at workplace. This year opened with retailers reducing hours regardless of vaccine status.

Categories
COVID-19 Pandemic Public Health

SUSPENDED? OSHA pauses Emergency Temporary Standard for businesses

The enforcement of COVID-19 vaccine mandate for businesses is now suspended by U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, pending further court order.

Timeline of events: less than 2 months ago, news emerged about President Biden’s plans for large businesses (>100 employees) to have employees vaccinated for COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing. Less than 2 weeks ago, U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced January 4, 2022 as deadline to meet this requirement, labeling it as an Emergency Temporary Standard (https://publichealthdisasters.com/2021/11/12/new-us-covid-19-requirement-for-100-employees/).

Categories
COVID-19 Pandemic Public Health

New US COVID-19 Requirement for 100+ employees

Only a month or so ago, news emerged about President Biden’s plans for large businesses (>100 employees) to have employees vaccinated for COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing. Recently US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR OSHA announced January 4, 2022 as deadline to meet the new requirement (link).

Categories
COVID-19 Pandemic Global Health

The death toll of COVID-19 pandemic reached 5 million people today

The global death toll of the COVID-19 pandemic reached 5 million people today, roughly under 2 years since first identification of novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (https://time.com/6112287/5-million-covid-deaths/). The pandemic is still not over until it is over everywhere.

The U.S., European Union, Britain and Brazil account for one-eighth of the global population, but almost half of reported deaths from the coronavirus. For example, US leads the world in the number of confirmed deaths from the virus with more than 745,800 people dead from COVID-19, then Brazil (with more than 607,000 deaths) and India (with more than 450,000 deaths) [https://www.npr.org/2021/11/01/1051020063/the-covid-19-pandemic-has-killed-5-million-people-globally].

Categories
COVID-19 Pandemic Public Health

Growing Tensions Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates

What will cut the tensions over COVID-19 vaccines and various mandates placed by governments, businesses and institutions?

With many returning to the office, the growing tensions between the ‘vaxxed and unvaxxed’ continue to build. Spilling over this tension is now the decisions made by governments, businesses and institutions in instilling COVID-19 vaccine mandates. For example, 40% of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents in the nation’s airports and thousands of pilots have not reported their status with the deadline just weeks away (NBC News).