Primary Care and Population Health, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States of America.
Ikigai Research, Los Angeles, CA, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2022 Oct 12;17(10):e0248793. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0248793. eCollection 2022.
Systematic approaches to epidemiologic data collection are critical for informing pandemic responses, providing information for the targeting and timing of mitigations, for judging the efficacy and efficiency of alternative response strategies, and for conducting real-world impact assessments. Here, we report on a scoping study to assess the completeness of epidemiological data available for COVID-19 pandemic management in the United States, enumerating authoritative US government estimates of parameters of infectious transmission, infection severity, and disease burden and characterizing the extent and scope of US public health affiliated epidemiological investigations published through November 2021. While we found authoritative estimates for most expected transmission and disease severity parameters, some were lacking, and others had significant uncertainties. Moreover, most transmission parameters were not validated domestically or re-assessed over the course of the pandemic. Publicly available disease surveillance measures did grow appreciably in scope and resolution over time; however, their resolution with regards to specific populations and exposure settings remained limited. We identified 283 published epidemiological reports authored by investigators affiliated with U.S. governmental public health entities. Most reported on descriptive studies. Published analytic studies did not appear to fully respond to knowledge gaps or to provide systematic evidence to support, evaluate or tailor community mitigation strategies. The existence of epidemiological data gaps 18 months after the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need for more timely standardization of data collection practices and for anticipatory research priorities and protocols for emerging infectious disease epidemics.
系统的流行病学数据收集方法对于为大流行应对提供信息至关重要，包括为针对性和时机选择提供缓解措施、判断替代应对策略的效果和效率，以及进行真实世界影响评估。在这里，我们报告了一项范围界定研究，以评估美国 COVID-19 大流行管理中可用流行病学数据的完整性，列举了美国政府对传染病传播、感染严重程度和疾病负担参数的权威估计，并描述了截至 2021 年 11 月发表的与美国公共卫生相关的流行病学调查的范围和规模。虽然我们找到了大多数预期的传播和疾病严重程度参数的权威估计值，但有些参数缺失，有些参数存在很大的不确定性。此外，大多数传播参数在国内都没有得到验证，也没有在大流行期间进行重新评估。随着时间的推移，公共疾病监测措施在范围和分辨率方面都有了显著提高；然而，它们在特定人群和暴露环境方面的分辨率仍然有限。我们确定了 283 篇由美国政府公共卫生实体的调查人员撰写的已发表的流行病学报告。其中大部分报告的是描述性研究。发表的分析性研究似乎没有充分解决知识空白，也没有提供系统证据来支持、评估或调整社区缓解策略。在宣布 COVID-19 大流行 18 个月后，仍存在流行病学数据差距，这突显出需要更加及时地规范数据收集做法，并为新发传染病的流行制定前瞻性研究重点和方案。
