Influences of vaccination and public health strategies on COVID-19 dynamics in the United States: Evaluating policy impacts, behavioral responses, and variant proliferation

Research Article

International Journal of One Health, 9(2): 172-180

https://doi.org/10.14202/IJOH.2023.172-180

Jae Man Park¹, Seong Min Jo², Xiao Li¹, Vahed Maroufy³, and George W. Williams⁴

1. Department of Management, Policy and Community Health, School of Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, USA.
2. Department of Internal IT Audit, Kakao Pay, Seongnam, Republic of Korea.
3. Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, School of Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, USA.
4. Department of Anesthesiology, McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, USA.

Background and Aim: The United States (US) government implemented interventions against COVID-19, but their effects on variant-related risks remain inconclusive. We aimed to assess the causal effects of vaccination rates, booster uptakes, face mask mandates, and public area mobility (societal behavioral factor) on early-stage COVID-19 case and death growth rates and identify the most effective public health response for controlling COVID-19 in the US.

Materials and Methods: We performed retrospective analyses using four standard correlated random effects models, analyzing a robust panel dataset that encompasses 16,700 records across all fifty US states. Models 1 and 3 analyzed COVID-19 case rates and death growth rates, respectively, from January 2021 to November 2021. In contrast, using the data from August 2021 to November 2021, Models 2 and 4 assessed the effect of Delta variants and booster shots on COVID-19 case and death growth rates, respectively.

Results: We found that face mask mandate (p < 0.01) and workplace mobility (p < 0.05) led to lower COVID-19 case growth rates. COVID-19 vaccination uptake rate reduced COVID-19 death growth rates (p < 0.01). Furthermore, contrary to Epsilon variant (p < 0.01), which contributed to reduced COVID-19 case growth rates, Delta variant led to significant increases in COVID-19 cases (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: This study suggests that immediate public health interventions, like mask mandates, are crucial for crisis mitigation, while long-term solutions like vaccination effectively address pandemics. The findings of this study not only sheds light on the recent pandemic but also equips policy-makers and health professionals with tools and knowledge to tackle future public health emergencies more effectively. Keywords: COVID-19, face mask mandate, public mobility, vaccination, variants.

Keywords: COVID-19, face mask mandate, public mobility, vaccination, variants.

How to cite this article: Park JM, Jo SM, Li X, Maroufy V, and Williams GW (2023) Influences of vaccination and public health strategies on COVID-19 dynamics in the United States: Evaluating policy impacts, behavioral responses, and variant proliferation, Int. J. One Health, 9(2): 172-180.

Received: 07-10-2023 Accepted: 05-12-2023 Published online: 23-12-2023

Corresponding author: Xiao Li E-mail: xiao.li@uth.tmc.edu

DOI: 10.14202/IJOH.2023.172-180

Copyright: Park, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.