The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), originally called the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile (NPS), is the United States' national repository of antibiotics, vaccines, chemical antidotes, antitoxins, and other critical medical supplies. Its website states:
"The Strategic National Stockpile's role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled, as well. The supplies, medicines, and devices for life-saving care contained in the stockpile can be used as a short-term stopgap buffer when the immediate supply of adequate amounts of these materials may not be immediately available."
The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New York metropolitan area. The hospital's two flagship medical centers are Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Marc K. Siegel is an American physician, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, author, and contributor to The Hill, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Fox News, and member of the board of contributors at USA Today. He is the medical director of NYU's Doctor Radio on Sirius XM.
Jonathan David LaPook is an American board-certified physician in internal medicine and gastroenterology who is the Chief Medical Correspondent for CBS News. Named the Mebane Professor of Gastroenterology in 2013, he is Professor of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and has an active medical practice in New York City. He joined CBS News in 2006.
Deena Hinshaw is a Canadian doctor who serves as the Deputy Provincial Health Officer of British Columbia and served as Chief Medical Officer of Health for the province of Alberta from January 28, 2019, to November 14, 2022, after being removed by Danielle Smith. She provided daily updates on the COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta to the public throughout most of 2020 and into 2021, though she stopped holding regular briefings in at the end of June 2021. She also provided recommendations to Jason Kenney, the former Premier of Alberta and the Emergency Management Cabinet Committee.
Bonnie J. Fraser Henry is a Canadian physician and public servant who has been the provincial health officer at the British Columbia Ministry of Health since 2014. Henry is also a clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia. She is a specialist in public health and preventive medicine, and is a family doctor. In her role as provincial health officer, Henry notably led the response to COVID-19 in British Columbia (BC).
Dara Kass is an emergency medicine physician and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. She is also an advocate for advancing the careers of women in medicine. While treating patients during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Kass became infected. Since then, she has become a prominent voice advocating for access to personal protective equipment and more effective measures to combat the spread of the disease.
Oxiris Barbot is an American pediatrician who served as the Commissioner of Health of the City of New York from 2018 to 2020. She was then appointed to public health positions with Columbia University and the JPB Foundation, and in 2022 became president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit United Hospital Fund.
Uché Blackstock is an American emergency physician and former associate professor of emergency medicine at the New York University School of Medicine. She is the founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, which has a primary mission to engage with healthcare and related organizations around bias and racism in healthcare with the goal of mobilizing for health equity and eradicating racialized health inequities. During the COVID-19 pandemic Blackstock used social media to share her experiences and concerns as a physician working on the front lines and on racial health disparities and inequities exposed by the pandemic. She is best known for her work amplifying the message on racial health inequities and her media appearances speaking on the COVID-19 pandemic. She has been featured on Meet the Press, PBS NewsHour, Slate and Forbes among others. Blackstock became a Yahoo! News Medical Contributor in June 2020.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-abortion government officials in several American states enacted or attempted to enact restrictions on abortion, characterizing it as a non-essential procedure that can be suspended during the medical emergency. The orders have led to several legal challenges and criticism by abortion-rights groups and several national medical organizations, including the American Medical Association. Legal challenges on behalf of abortion providers, many of which are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood, have successfully stopped some of the orders on a temporary basis, though bans in several states have not been challenged.
Megan L. Ranney is a practicing American emergency physician currently serving as the Warren Alpert Endowed Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rhode Island Hospital and the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Ranney is the incoming Dean of the Yale School of Public Health. Previously, Ranney served as the Academic Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and was the founding Director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted hospitals around the world. Many hospitals have scaled back or postponed non-emergency care. This has medical consequences for the people served by the hospitals, and it has financial consequences for the hospitals. Health and social systems across the globe are struggling to cope. The situation is especially challenging in humanitarian, fragile and low-income country contexts, where health and social systems are already weak. Health facilities in many places are closing or limiting services. Services to provide sexual and reproductive health care risk being sidelined, which will lead to higher maternal mortality and morbidity. The pandemic also resulted in the imposition of COVID-19 vaccine mandates in places such as California and New York for all public workers, including hospital staff.
Lorna Margaret Breen was an American physician who was the emergency room director at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. She died by suicide in 2020, while taking a break with family in Charlottesville, Virginia during the coronavirus pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted healthcare workers physically and psychologically. Healthcare workers are more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection than the general population due to frequent contact with infected individuals. Healthcare workers have been required to work under stressful conditions without proper protective equipment, and make difficult decisions involving ethical implications. Health and social systems across the globe are struggling to cope. The situation is especially challenging in humanitarian, fragile and low-income country contexts, where health and social systems are already weak. Services to provide sexual and reproductive health care risk being sidelined, which will lead to higher maternal mortality and morbidity.
Cleavon Gilman is an emergency physician and public health advocate in the United States. He is also an Iraq war veteran having been a Navy Hospital Corpsman attached to the U.S. Marine Corps. He completed his residency training in New York City at the Presbyterian Hospital during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently moved to Yuma, Arizona in June 2020.
Brendan G. Carr is an American medical doctor and professor. He is Professor and Endowed System Chair of Emergency Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Mount Sinai Health System.
The United States' response to the COVID-19 pandemic with consists of various measures by the medical community; the federal, state, and local governments; the military; and the private sector. The public response has been highly polarized, with partisan divides being observed and a number of concurrent protests and unrest complicating the response.
Amesh Adalja is an American infectious disease physician. He specializes in infectious disease, bioterrorism, and emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and a clinical assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
The United Kingdom's response to the COVID-19 pandemic consists of various measures by the healthcare community, the British and devolved governments, the military and the research sector.
James Maskalyk is a Canadian emergency medicine physician, author, and meditation teacher.
