Research Publications (Food Safety)

This editorial considers the persisting importance of rhetoric and equity in health policy analysis, implementation, and outcomes. It argues that employing social determinants of health, and intersectional and rhetorical frames, can improve life and health outcomes, as measured by morbidity and mortality. The pertinence of these frames with regard to the crises brought on by the COVID‐19 pandemic is discussed, and the plan for a special issue on disparties and COVID‐19 is announced.

Although the exact origin of SARS‐CoV‐2, the etiologic agent of COVID‐19, is currently unknown, there is substantial evidence to suggest the source of transmission of the virus occurred within the Wuhan wet market. In these markets, bats and wild animals are frequently sold and stored in close contact. During several of the world's past pandemics, bats were essential to the spread of zoonotic diseases from bat to another animal or to humans directly.

COVID‐19 presents an existential challenge for millions of people and a generational challenge for the globe. Scientific research is the primary vehicle in humanity's attempts to understand the virus and mitigate its effects. Research on the pathogen is critically important. At the same time, COVID‐19's consequences are due to more than the pathogen.

The COVID‐19 pandemic has brought renewed attention to the lack of urban planning and its public health implications in developing countries. Slum communities face the dual challenges of chronically poor residential environments and the acute effects of a pandemic and the preventive measures that follow.

An emerging infectious disease event like the coronavirus (COVID‐19) pandemic demands careful communication of public health messages to diverse audiences. However, misinformation is easily generated and amplified when a rapidly evolving epidemiological situation is coupled with gaps in scientific knowledge about a novel pathogen.

In spite of presumed readiness to confront infectious disease outbreaks, the United States was unprepared for the advent of the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) in the early months of 2020. The response was slow, mired in ad hoc responses, lack of planning, challenges in supply chains and human resources, and discord in balancing public health measures with economic considerations arising from far‐reaching disruptions in various sectors. The lessons learned derive from such challenges.

Many jurisdictions enacted stay‐at‐home orders (also called shelter‐in‐place orders, safer‐at‐home orders, or lockdowns) when SARS‐CoV‐2 began spreading in the United States. Based on Google mobility data, every state had substantially fewer visits to transit stations, retail and recreation facilities, workplaces, grocery stores, and pharmacies by the end of March 2020 than in the previous two months.

COVID‐19 temporarily severed the production and the supply chains for fentanyl, a synthetic narcotic responsible for over 30,000 deaths in the United States in 2018. Much fentanyl was produced in Wuhan, China, the source of the epidemic. Fentanyl was previously sold directly to American consumers through online websites and was also supplied by Mexican drug traffickers, who produced the drug from precursor chemicals purchased from China.

Racial disparities are apparent in the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) in the United States, yet the factors contributing to racial inequities in COVID‐19 mortality remain controversial. To better understand these factors, we investigated racial disparities in COVID‐19 mortality among America's essential workers.

A lesson learned from decades of research is that businesses and nonprofits can form private partnerships to serve the public good. One such partnership is a cause‐related marketing campaign, where a business donates a portion of its sales to a nonprofit to address a social need.

The novel coronavirus pandemic poses unique challenges to forcibly displaced populations around the world. Months into the pandemic, countries are still scrambling to enact policies that mitigate the outbreak and minimize the strain on their health‐care infrastructures and economies. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees continues to work with member states to provide guidance and assistance to those populations protected under their mandate.

The SARS‐CoV‐2/COVID‐19 pandemic has been devastating to the U.S. health‐care system and sheds light on gaps in preparedness and response to biological threats. From limited personal protective equipment to staffing issues, hospitals are struggling to respond to the novel coronavirus outbreak. Unfortunately, hospital biopreparedness is a product of prioritization for hospital leadership and either exists or is neglected.

The coronavirus has affected billions of people worldwide. As of early June, estimates of infections exceeded six million individuals, about double the number from early May. The United States has experienced more cases than Spain, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey, Canada, Japan, and Russia combined. To make things worse, the structure of the U.S. health‐care system may significantly impede access to needed medical services while exposing patients to financial liabilities.

Prolonged school closures are one of the most disruptive forces in the COVID‐19 era. School closures have upended life for children and families, and educators have been forced to determine how to provide distance learning. Schools are also an essential source of nonacademic supports in the way of health and mental health services, food assistance, obesity prevention, and intervention in cases of homelessness and maltreatment.

While the impact of obesity on chronic disease has been widely examined, there has been less research regarding the influence of obesity on infectious diseases, particularly respiratory diseases.

President Trump mentioned the potential antiviral benefits of hydroxychloroquine as the COVID‐19 crisis became evident in the United States. Politics and mass media in the United States have been undergoing a process of partisan polarization over the last 20–30 years. While partisanship has long affected reactions toward news or information, particularly when it comes from an elected official, the situation appears to be worsening in American politics.