Public Health Scientific Electronic Library Online

The fourth update of the Pandemic Influenza Plan prepared by the US Department of Health and Human Services, from 2017, included measures for different government and civil society areas. In addition, in order for the response to be proportional to the severity of the situation, it uses the Pandemic Severity Assessment Framework as a risk assessment tool, proposing two assessment dimensions: transmissibility and clinical severity. …

Various scientific journals in Brazil have published studies on the impact of primary healthcare (PHC) on the population's health, including in identifying the limits and conditions for improvement in the current context. However, rather than improving the PHC proposal, there have been mass layoffs. Scientists have also decried the underfinancing of SUS, including the impacts of a fiscal austerity policy that has cut essential budget funding from the social and health areas. …

Although Brazil is experiencing the pandemic's initial effects, the discussion on the country's food security situation and its interfaces is of the utmost urgency, based on what has already happened in Europe. The food industry is facing numerous uncertainties, with limited orientation on food production, distribution, marketing, or home preparation of meals. …

Chloroquine was unequivocally demonstrated to have in vitro inhibiting effects on SARS-CoV-2 infection and was precociously publicized as having a beneficial effect in COVID-19 patients after a study conducted in Marseille, France showed a viral load reduction in COVID-19 patients. Since there is no specific antiviral therapy for coronavirus infections to date, the announcement of partial and fragile data led to precipitated political manifestations by major government leaders and contributed to uncoordinated recommendations of the drug to severe patients. …

In times of fear and uncertainty, when threats to survival become one of the main issues of daily life, many believe that mental health care can wait and that efforts should focus on preserving life. However, mental health is precisely one of the keys to surviving this pandemic. This editorial lists some topics we believe are particularly worthy of attention and deserve full consideration both by health care workers and by the general population. …

Based on an interdisciplinary approach, the article makes a social historical reading of the epidemics in the world and their impacts on human life, punctuating the differences with the so-called Covid-19. The proliferation of the virus has forced a radical change in the daily lives of populations on a global level, suggesting that it is possible to act collectively to create future worlds. The radical action of isolation against the virus has demonstrated relevant impacts with respect to the climate emergency, at a time when it reveals the impacts of denialism, the interests and limits of capitalism and the financial market in the epidemic crisis. …

During pandemics it's common for health professionals, scientists and managers to focus predominantly on the pathogen and the biological risk in an effort to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms involved and propose measures for preventing, containing and treating the disease. In such situations, the psychological and psychiatric implications secondary to the phenomenon tend to be neglected, generating gaps in coping strategies and increasing the burden of associated diseases. …

A 73-year-old man was admitted to the emergency department with a 4-day history of fever, chills, dry cough, and fatigue. He had arrived in São Paulo, Brazil, on the preceding day. His symptoms had begun when he was traveling in northern Italy with 12 friends, three of whom had been diagnosed with COVID-19. He reported having systemic arterial hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus. …

December 12th 2019 marked the appearance of a new coronavirus (COVID-19). Declared a pandemic by the WHO, COVID-19 has been exposing the weaknesses of health systems and challenging governments globally. Revista de Administração Pública drew up a series of actions to join in on the efforts of public, private, and non-profit actors mobilized in facing the pandemic. …

The world faces global problems for which science is needed as part of the solution. Yet the scientific communication system is not nearly as quick and open as necessary for efficient worldwide collaboration. The powers that are in a position to reform the system are too timid. Will crises like COVID-19 shake them awake? …