Pandemic Health Care: COVID-19 Health Crisis Explained by Experts
With the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact being felt in every area of American life, it is more important than ever to provide rigorous research to inform reporting on this crisis. To meet this growing need, Scholars Strategy Network has compiled a list of scholars who are available to be contacted for comments and analysis. Below are the scholars who can comment on public health and health care as pertaining to coronavirus.
You can connect with all researchers available to comment on the COVID-19 pandemic here.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the weaknesses of domestic and global public health, providing a window of opportunity for policy reform. Humankind needs a new vision, a new architecture, new coordination among renewed systems to ensure central health capabilities for all. Our recently published OUP book, Global Health Justice and Governance, lays out the critical problems facing the world today and offers a new theory of justice and governance as a way to resolve these seemingly intractable issues.”
"In an epidemic or pandemic situation, medical and human resources may be stretched to the point of exhaustion. Appropriate planning must incorporate plans of action that minimize public health morbidity and mortality while maximizing the appropriate use of medical and human healthcare resources."
"The American hospital system has a wide range of medical specialists, first-rate research capacity, and the best medical technologies in the world. But hospitals and healthcare personnel are unevenly distributed across rural and urban areas, making the rural population particularly vulnerable to such a novel and lethal virus. In addition, quite a few states will be in shortage of hospital beds and physicians if we fail to slow the speed of spread."
"Due to racialized anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies, immigrants were already afraid to seek health care before COVID-19. Now, fear of being "public charges" under the new Trump administration rule change and ongoing ICE detentions will cause these communities to "shelter in place" even when they need vital care that could save their lives. As many immigrants (and some citizens in mixed-status families) will likely be left out of the proposed economic stimulus packages, they will essentially be left on their own to weather this outbreak, further exacerbating this public health crisis for the country."
"An inexcusable delay in testing, an underfunded and unprepared public health system, and bitter political divisions have combined to create an unprecedented threat to the nation."
"Community conversations about ventilator rationing need to happen now. A worse case scenario is that ventilators are rationed and communities are up in arms because they disagree with how decisions are being made."
Professor Rosenbaum is best known for her work on the expansion of Medicaid, the expansion of community health centers, patients' rights in managed care, civil rights and health care, and national health reform.
"Broader access to health insurance and health care providers play a key role in slowing down and managing this epidemic, particularly in resource poor communities. Local health departments and community health centers serve as primary sources of preventative care and routine screening for highly vulnerable residents."
"This emergency will test the limits and capacities of the Medicaid program, which insures 1 in 5 Americans. While federal and state governments are leveraging flexibility within Medicaid to respond to COVID-19, the most important question is whether Congress will expand coverage to cover all beneficiaries' testing and treatment."