Dear John,

We are excited to announce that applications for the 2024-2025 Health Equity Fellowship for Trainees cohort are now open. Find out more below!

Lockdown Policies Perception In Europe

In their article in the December issue of Health Affairs, Lasse Falk and coauthors examine the relationship between objective and subjective measures of stringency of COVID-19 lockdown policies in seven European countries.

The researchers also investigate sociodemographic factors influencing perceptions of policy stringency.

The researchers find that higher objective policy stringency was associated with an increased likelihood of perceiving the stringency of policies as high, and a higher income decreased the likelihood of perceiving policies as very strict.

They also determine that higher trust in COVID-19 information from governments was associated with lower perceived policy stringency.

Falk and coauthors find that socioeconomically vulnerable groups perceived lockdown policies as stricter, potentially due to “the fact that they may bear a greater burden from these restrictions,” and conclude that containment policies should be designed in ways that are equitable and consider the circumstances of those likely to be most affected. 

The Health Equity Fellowship for Trainees (HEFT) is a part of Health Affairs’ national initiative to advance equity in health policy and health services scholarly publishing.

The purpose of the Fellowship is to increase the quantity and quality of manuscripts published by early-career researchers interested in addressing health inequities among underserved racial and ethnic populations, while cultivating future health equity research leaders.

In the program, fellows will receive multilayered mentorship from experienced Health Affairs authors and editorial staff for eighteen months (July 2024–December 2025).

Mentors will work with fellows to make fellows’ manuscript submissions more likely to be accepted by Health Affairs or another journal.

Manuscript submissions must be related to addressing health inequities among underserved populations.

Applications for the 2024–2025 Health Equity Fellowship for Trainees cohort are now open from December 4, 2023–February 15, 2024.

Please share this opportunity with your networks.

Why Dropping Most COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates Is Now Ethical

Nir Eyal et al.

The 2024-2025 Health Equity Fellowship For Trainees: Applications Now Open

Patrick Odai-Afotey

With today's featured journal article focusing on COVID-19 and global health, get the full story by exploring our extensive archive of podcasts on these topics.

Take a look below at a few highlighted episodes:

• A Health Podyssey: James Robinson on Life Sciences Innovation Acceleration (August 2023)
• Health Affairs This Week: Lawrence Gostin on The End of COVID As We Know It (May 2023)
• A Health Podyssey: Salin Sriudomporn on Vaccine Funding Gaps (January 2023)
• A Health Podyssey: Christopher Ruhm on COVID-19 & Economic Recession's Mortality Effects (November 2022)