Sharecare, the digital health company helping people manage all their health in one place, today announced initial results and insights from more than 115,000 responses it received in April1 for "Flatten the Curve" – the national survey it developed in partnership Dr. Sandro Galea, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, and Publicis Health Media to better understand community well-being and behavior change during the COVID-19 pandemic. While 98% of Flatten the Curve respondents indicate they did their part to slow the spread of COVID-19 and 36% are experiencing more feelings of gratitude, the data points to a significant increase in worry across the United States – estimated as more than 230% – due to the pandemic.2
More than 25 million Britons experienced high anxiety in the days after lockdown measures were announced- and women are feeling the most pain, says study | Daily Mail
It comes as medics warn the UK could face an avalanche of mental health cases as the countries 42-day lockdown continues.
Dr Sandro Galea, from Boston University, warned measures enacted to stop the spread of the virus would 'undoubtedly' impact mental health and well-being.
'These consequences are of sufficient importance that immediate efforts focused on prevention and direct intervention are needed to address the impact of the outbreak on individual and population level mental health.
A Cartoon Guide to Conflict of Interest Claims Fair and Foul | PLOS Blogs
“For research or other work to achieve the highest possible level of public trust, it doesn’t just have to be free of the influence of conflicts: it has to be seen to be. But many people will never accept a position that doesn’t accord with their own beliefs – or even anything ever done or said by a person they have a grudge against, or whom they envy or just plain dislike. And then if they dig enough, or get creative enough, they can find a personal COI to try to discredit the person’s research or opinions.
There’s a rich vein to mine here. Sandro Galea has published a typology of potential non-financial conflicts (with a rejoinder by Bero and Grundy). Galea includes career interest, clique-ish academic networks, and ideological conflicts of interest. I agree these can be serious conflicts that lead everyone astray. The next cartoon is from a post I wrote about ideological conflicts of interest while I was working on a vaccine issue: “
By a student, for students: A self-care podcast to help now and in the future | CT Post
“In a first-person piece featured on BU Today, the dean of Boston University’s School of Public Health said “the mental health effects of COVID-19 can shape health for many years, long past the events that precipitated them.”
“While it can be difficult to take the long view when the events of the moment are so compelling,” Sandro Galeo wrote, “it is necessary if we are to ensure the steps we take now are in the best interest of public health once this pandemic passes and our task moves from one of response to one of recovery.”
BU labs, researchers and students fight COVID-19 | Daily Free Press
“The School of Public Health has also turned its attention entirely to education and research surrounding the coronavirus. Sandro Galea, dean of SPH, has been especially vocal via social media and SPH platforms regarding the coronavirus outbreak.
As chair of the Massachusetts Public Health Association’s Emergency Task Force on Coronavirus and Equity, Galea has emphasized the importance of state policies that improve conditions for high-risk members of the community, including the disabled, elderly and low-income individuals.
“We need to create guidelines and suggestions for the Commonwealth to make sure that we have policies in place to protect those who are most vulnerable in a [time] of change,” Galea said. “Those groups we often don’t think about, but those are the groups who are going to be most affected.”
’COVID-19 kills in many ways’: The suicide crisis facing healthcare workers | National Observer
“The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, and efforts to contain it, represent a unique threat, and we must recognize the pandemic that will quickly follow it — that of mental and behavioural illness — and implement the steps needed to mitigate it,” Dr. Sandro Galea, of the Boston University School of Public Health, and colleagues wrote in an April article in JAMA Internal Medicine.
A separate article, published this month in JAMA Psychiatry, warned that the stress, trauma, and isolation associated with the coronavirus pandemic may create a “perfect storm” among medical professionals, many of whom are already at an increased risk of death by suicide.
After COVID-19: (Re)building Resilient Cities | Boston University School of Public Health
This panel will explore the role of cities in creating the conditions for health, particularly in a time of pandemic. It will address how cities can be rebuilt with a focus on resilience and on promoting healthy populations.
Cohosted with the Boston University Initiative on Cities.
Facebook Live: COVID-19 'Ask Me Anything' with Sandro Galea | April 29, 2020
Inequality and the Coronavirus Outbreak | Bloomberg Radio Interview
Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, discusses inequalities that exist amidst the coronavirus outbreak. Bloomberg Businessweek Editor Joel Weber and Bloomberg News U.S. Technology Editor Molly Schuetz talk about a Chinese video site serving teens anime with a side of nationalism. Bloomberg New Economy Editorial Director Andy Browne walks through why Wuhan may be the city of the future. And we Drive to the Close with Ron Carson, CEO of the Carson Group. Hosts: Carol Massar and Jason Kelly. Producer: Doni Holloway.
Sharecare launches free platform to enable providers in the U.S. with telehealth | New Kerala
Based on more than 75,000 completions of the Flatten the Curve survey - which Sharecare developed in partnership with Dr. Sandro Galea, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, to better understand community well-being and behavior change during the COVID-19 pandemic - 42% of Americans feel that the pandemic has negatively affected their healthcare access in some way, with nearly 60% noting they would still want to access care with their primary physician if they experienced COVID-19 symptoms. Additionally, according to the Sharecare Community Well-Being Index and data from Area Health Resources, the U.S. faces serious healthcare access challenges apart from the pandemic with 33% of all counties in the U.S. having only one M.D. per 2,000 residents; 44% of all counties without a pediatrician; and 48% with no OB-GYN.
Finding Circuit Breaker Hard to Cope With? Help is Just A Call or Click Away | Asia One
“Sandro Galea, Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at Boston University of Public Health in an interview with the World Economic Forum said, "The fact that social isolation is associated with poor mental health is unquestionable". He suggested keeping to a routine, exercising and keeping connected with loved ones via technology as ways to mitigate the toll.
While there are tips you can follow to keep calm, everyone is built differently and manages stressors and anxiety differently. Needing help should not be seen as a sign of weakness.”
Many Latino Families on the Front Lines of Coronavirus Pandemic Excluded from Relief | NBC DFW
“The coronavirus pandemic has not only exposed the differences between who is healthy in this country and who is not — a divide often driven by poverty, racism and a lack of access to health care — but also has dramatized the way in which everyone’s health is connected, said Dr. Sandro Galea, the dean of Boston University’s School of Public Health and co-chairman of Massachusetts’ Emergency Task Force on Coronavirus and Equity. COVID-19 has been such a disaster for the United States because the country underinvested in public health and had no capacity for an organized, centrally coordinated response from federal, state and local governments, said Galea, who has a new book co-written with Dr. Michael Stein called “Pained: Uncomfortable Conversations about the Public’s Health.”
Covid-19: Be Ready for The Coming Mental Health Pandemic | Physician's Weekly
The Covid-19 pandemic brought us something on a global scale that hasn’t been seen before — social distancing. While, on the one hand, this is coming at a time when there are tools for people to keep in touch with each other — texting, social media, video conferencing, telecommute opportunities — on the other hand, this new normal can have mental health consequences.
“The worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, and efforts to contain it, represent a unique threat, and we must recognize the pandemic that will quickly follow it — that of mental and behavioral illness — and implement the steps needed to mitigate it,” Sandro Galea, MD, from Boston University School of Public Health, and colleagues wrote in JAMA Internal Medicine.
'A high risk perfect storm': loneliness and financial despair take toll on US mental health | The Guardian
“Crisis services and clinicians have scrambled to adapt by rolling out virtual therapy and telehealth consultations. But the country’s inadequate mental health infrastructure, means this is unlikely to be enough.
“The US mental health system is patchy at best and faces being overwhelmed by the likely substantial increases in anxiety and depression, substance use, domestic violence and child abuse,” said Sandro Galea, the dean of Boston University’s school of public health.”
Coronavirus Seminar Series : Media, Social Media, and COVID-19 | Boston University School of Public Health
This seminar will explore the roles that media and social media have played in shaping both the national and global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as how media will shape our health in the pandemic’s aftermath.
Hosted in collaboration with WBUR.
Facebook Live: COVID-19 'Ask Me Anything' with Sandro Galea | April 22, 2020
Treating Substance Use Disorders in the Era of COVID-19 | Psychology Today
“As the pandemic continues and new cities and counties emerge as hotspots for COVID-19 outbreaks, we need to be mindful of the many existing and evolving cases of SUD. Of particular concern are the most marginalized and vulnerable among society.
“The economic consequences of COVID-19 will be particularly acute for those who are unstably housed, economically insecure, and who are dependent on social services,” according to Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, Dean of Boston University School of Public Health. He added: “Individuals with SUD often face all three of these challenges, placing them at particularly high risk of experiencing poorer health due to COVID-19-induced society shifts.”
Moral dilemma of choosing between lives and livelihoods | National Herald India
In 2011, a research team at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, led by Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, chair of Epidemiology, estimated the number of US deaths attributable to social factors using a systematic review of the available literature combined with vital statistics data.
“The investigators found that approximately 2,45,000 deaths in the United States in the year 2000 were attributable to low levels of education, 176,000 to racial segregation, 162,000 to low social support, 133,000 to individual-level poverty, 119,000 to income inequality, and 39,000 to area-level poverty. Overall, 4.5% of US deaths were found to be attributable to poverty—mid- way between previous estimates of 6% and 2.3%,” the study concludes. “Social causes can be linked to death as readily as can pathophysiological and behavioral causes,” points out Dr. Galea.
Sandro Galea: What is the difference between health and medicine | Science Focus Podcast
This week we talk to the Sandro Galea, Dean of the school of public health at Boston University.
His book, called Well: What We Need to Talk About When We Talk About Health (£18.99, OUP) takes a deep look at the differences between health and medicine, and looks at how everything from the environment, taxation, education and even luck plays a part in the overall health of a nation.
Speaking before the coronavirus pandemic, he explains the surprising factors that influence public health, which countries are doing it well, and why he felt he had to write this book.
Province provides additional $53 million for mental health supports | Click Lancashire Independent News
"We need an unprecedented research response if we are to limit the negative consequences of this pandemic on the mental health of our society now and in the future". As many as 35 people have now succumbed to the infection in the UAE. "We can well expect there to be a rise in mental illness nationwide", first author Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, dean of the School of Public Health, Boston University, Massachusetts, told Medscape Medical News.
Our surveys show these changes are already having a considerable impact on our mental health.