Helping Public Health Decision-Makers Refine Community Coronavirus Disease-2019 Vaccination Efforts–Association between Confirmed Coronavirus Disease-2019 Cases and Vaccinations.
The response to the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) epidemic included biomedical and vaccine research as well as identification of COVID-19 cases, contact tracing, community health promotion and disease prevention and community vaccination. The COVID-19 vaccinations remind public health professionals and non-professionals alike of this essential public health intervention for controlling infectious diseases. Actions that seek to improve existing vaccination efforts are equally important for effective public health programming.
Globally and in the United States, public health officials continue to monitor the prevalence of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) cases along with incidence, mortality, and the population vaccinated. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) also publishes similar COVID-19 data from the population that utilized VA medical facilities. Elected leaders, public health professionals, and clinicians remain concerned about the number of new COVID-19 cases and individuals who have received COVID-19 vaccinations.
This project explored the association between the aggregate number of COVID-19 cases identified within a healthcare system and the aggregate number of COVID-19 vaccinations administered
within the same system as well as the implications of the findings for public health action.
While vaccinations are effective for preventing vaccine-preventable diseases in a population, some members in a population refuse to receive vaccination.12 The control of communicable diseases relies on the application of public health sciences, and study of how members of a population understand a communicable disease and disease prevention efforts in a cultural context. Small-area questionnaires might be useful for examining how populations understand a communicable disease and related prevention activities.
Public Health Open J. 2021; 6(2): 37-42. doi: 10.17140/PHOJ-6-157
