Non-pharmaceutical interventions in the State of Georgia: Economic implications

Background

As Covid-19 spread rapidly, many countries implemented a strict shelter-in-place to "flatten the curve" and build capacity to treat in the absence of effective preventative therapies or treatments. Policymakers and public health officials must balance the positive health effects of lockdowns with economic, social, and psychological costs. This study examined the economic impacts of state and county level restrictions during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic for two regions of Georgia.

Methods

Taking unemployment data from the Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker with mandate information from various sites, we examined trends before and after a mandate's implementation and relaxation using joinpoint regression.

Results

We found mandates with the largest impact on unemployment claims rates were the shelters-in-place (SIPs) and closures of non-essential businesses. Specific to our study, mandates had an effect where first implemented, i.e., if the state implemented an SIP after the county, the state-wide SIP had no additional measurable effect on claims rates. School closures had a consistent impact on increasing unemployment claims rates, but to a lesser degree than SIPs or business closures. While closing businesses did have a deleterious effect, implementing social distancing for businesses and restricting gatherings did not. Notably, the Coastal region was less affected than the Metro Area. Additionally, our findings indicate that race ethnicity may be a larger predictor of adverse economic effects than education, poverty level, or geographic area.

Conclusions

Our findings coincided with other studies in some areas but showed differences in what indicators may best predict adverse effects and that coastal communities may not always be as impacted as other regions in a state. Ultimately, the most restrictive measures consistently had the largest negative economic impacts. Social distancing and mask mandates can be effective for containment while mitigating the economic impacts of strict SIPs and business closures.

'Idiopathic' chronic gastric volvulus

Gastric volvulus usually occurs secondary to another condition such as hiatal hernia. We report a case of so-called "idiopathic' gastric volvulus where the only abnormality was laxity of the gastric attachments. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy was unhelpful in making the diagnosis, but a barium meal clearly demonstrated the abnormality. The patient underwent a Polya gastrectomy with a retrocolic gastroenterostomy, which was thought to be the best method of ensuring gastric fixation.

Use of a pylon for early ambulation after below-knee amputation: a preliminary report

The fitting of a prosthesis immediately after amputation offers many advantages. These include early ambulation, more rapid healing of the amputation site and a decrease in the number of complications resulting from prolonged bed rest. The major problems preventing the widespread use of immediate fitting are the specialized prosthetic care required and the high cost of the appliance. The authors describe a new pylon designed for early ambulation after below-knee amputation. Its application does not require special training, it is inexpensive, safe and effective. This pylon was used in the early postoperative period in 20 amputees, without any major complications.

An investigation of allied health faculty attitudes toward faculty development concepts

Allied health faculty attitudes toward faculty development issues were determined by using a semantic differential technique. The faculty development issues included: (1) faculty evaluation by students, (2) faculty evaluation by peers, (3) faculty evaluation by chairperson and/or program director, (4) continuing education and (5) faculty tenure. Subjects (n=128) included students and graduates of a graduate program in allied health education and administration (program affiliates) with a master's degree in education. Other subjects included faculty located within geographic proximity to the graduate program who had received a master's degree other than in education as their most advanced degree (nonprogram affiliates). Differences in allied health faculty attitudes toward the faculty development issues were attributed to the degree to which faculty had been socialized into the educational system. Four factors emerged from factor analytic procedures on which subject attitudes were compared: the merit, organization, style and rigor of faculty development activities. Significant differences were found among program affiliates but no between program affiliates and nonprogram affiliates.

Development of a shock absorbing biomedical elastomer for a new total elbow replacement design

A shock absorbing concept of a total elbow replacement is presented. The development of a polyurethane elastomer with suitable damping and vibration characteristics, and the impact tester for comparative evaluation of elastic properties are described.

Glycerol phosphate shuttle in virus-transformed cells in culture

The glycerol phosphate shuttle is shown not only to be present and functional in virus-transformed cells, but its level is higher than in normal cells in culture. The increased aerobic glycolysis that has been demonstrated for these cells after transformation, therefore, is not due to an impairment of hydrogen transfer pathways.

Analytical gel chromatography of rabbit muscle amylo-1,6-glucosidase/4-alpha-glucanotransferase under denaturing and non-denaturing conditions

Rabbit muscle amylo-1,6-glucosidase/4-alpha-glucanotransferase has a molecular weight of 160 000-170 000 as determined by analytical gel chromatography under denaturing and non-denaturing conditions. Three different data analyses of the results of gel chromatography in the presence of 6 M guanidine-HCl on 4% agarose give values of 159 000, 161 000, and 165 000 for amylo-1,6-glucosidase/4-alpha-glucanotransferase from rabbit muscle. Analytical gel chromatography under non-denaturing conditions gives a value of 170 000 for the molecular weight and a value of 4.8 nm for the Stokes'' radius. A calculation based on the Stokes radius using the Svedberg equation gives a value of 160 000 for the molecular weight. This verifies by two independent methods the previously reported molecular weight for the protein using sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The results establish that the mammalian debranching enzyme is a single polypeptide chain containing two enzymatic activities.

Dynamics of metabolism of normal and virus-transformed chick cells in culture

Application of steady-state tracer technique to normal and transformed cells in tissue culture allows quantitation of intracellular pool sizes of many metabolites and determination of rate of carbon flow along diverse paths. Using a unique apparatus to control the environmental conditions, we show that the glucose carbon flow into tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates and amino acids is unchanged upon transformation. The increased glycogen formation and glycolysis varies with the glucose concentration in the medium, correlates with the faster glucose transport of transformed cells, and cannot be explained by a difference in growth rate alone.

Effects of prolonged dark adaptation on autokinetic movement

To determine the effects of prolonged dark adaptation on autokinetic movement 2 groups of 10 Ss with equal numbers of men and women were subjected to 1 hr. or 5 min. of dark adaptation before tests on autokinetic judgments. Ss dark adapted for 1 hr. had shorter latency of onset of movement ( p < .001) than Ss with 5 min. of dark adaptation. There was no significant difference between men and women.