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This article highlights the successful implementation of a pediatric pharmacy team’s strategic plan during the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan, titled “Vision 2020,” aimed to enhance team cohesion, accountability, and service quality. Despite pandemic challenges, the team achieved numerous goals and objectives through effective data gathering, buy-in from management, and progress tracking. The article emphasizes the importance of team-level strategic planning for clinical service lines.

US public health laboratories (PHLs) faced numerous challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, including operational difficulties, high testing demand, federal mismanagement, material shortages, outdated information systems, workforce issues, and inadequate funding. Clear mandates, improved leadership support, streamlined processes, effective partnerships, robust supply chain management, upgraded systems, enhanced workforce strategies, and adequate funding are crucial for future preparedness.

Developing strategic plans for population health and public health practice is particularly important in situations of scarce resources. This article notes that current planning efforts often rely on single metrics like cost-effectiveness and lack transparency and stakeholder input. It highlights the usefulness of multi-criteria decision-making tools that incorporate multiple stakeholder views and criteria. The authors suggest that institutions of higher education can help improve population and public health practice by teaching students about modern strategic planning tools that incorporate multiple factors and promote transparency and clarity in decision-making.

The Community Outreach Specialist (COS) program aimed to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake among rural communities through targeted outreach efforts. The program trained and deployed community outreach specialists who engaged with community members, provided education about COVID-19 and vaccination, addressed concerns and misconceptions, and facilitated access to vaccination services. The COS program in reaching and engaging with socially vulnerable and medically underserved populations, successfully increasing vaccine acceptance and uptake in these communities by building trust, addressing barriers to vaccination, and tailoring outreach strategies to the local context. The article discusses the importance of community-based approaches, cultural competency, and collaboration with local organizations and leaders in achieving successful vaccine outreach. It also emphasizes the need for sustained efforts to ensure equitable access to vaccination and to address disparities in vaccine uptake among different populations.

A 9-week social media campain promoting COVID-19 prevention to mothers of teen daughters was found to increase exposure to credible online information online. This campaign effectively used an epidemiological model for monitoring, diagnosing, and responding to misinformaiton from mothers on COVID-19.

Focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the diversion of resources, attention, and efforts away from other critical public health issues. This diversion has led to missed opportunities and negative consequences for various public health domains, such as chronic disease prevention, mental health services, substance abuse treatment, and environmental health. This article suggests the need for a comprehensive approach that balances the response to COVID-19 with the maintenance and resumption of other essential public health activities. It calls for increased investment in public health infrastructure, workforce capacity, and policy frameworks to mitigate the opportunity costs and ensure a more resilient and equitable public health system in the future.

COVID-19 caused significant disruptions to routine vaccination efforts worldwide. Several factors contributed to these disruptions, including reduced healthcare access, fear of infection, and diversion of healthcare resources towards COVID-19 response. These led to a decline in immunization rates, leaving populations vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases. The article emphasizes the importance of addressing these collateral impacts and implementing strategies to mitigate the negative consequences. It suggests various approaches such as ensuring vaccine supply chains, enhancing public trust in vaccines, and implementing catch-up vaccination campaigns. The authors stress the need for collaborative efforts between public health agencies, healthcare providers, and communities to restore and maintain routine immunization services amidst the ongoing pandemic.

This article examines the association between county-level Black/white residential segregation and COVID-19 vaccination rates. Findings emphasize the need for considering interaction effects and stratified analysis when modeling disparities in COVID-19 vaccinations. Doing so can better inform policies around effective vaccine distribution and outreach.

This article discusses the challenges of contact tracing among people experiencing homelessness. It suggests combining the traditional person-based approaches to contact tracing with location-based contact tracing approaches when conducting investigations among unhoused individuals. Location-based approaches collect data on the places people have visited in the past 48 hours, rather than the individuals with whom they interacted. Facility-wide testing and resources can be provided in locations where someone accessed support services.

Community health workers, sometimes called health navigators, played a key role in the public health response to COVID-19, especially among communities of color. This report describes how the community health workforce can be developed by public health departments and shares findings from a community health worker training program focused on vaccination, prevention, and contact tracing.