Lessons learned from the epidemiology and control of the COVD-19 pandemic in the American Continent the perspective of field epidemiologists

Abstract

On December 12, 2022, a panel seminar organized by the American Journal of Field Epidemiology (AJFE) was held with the enthusiastic support of the National Institute of Health of Colombia. More than 200 professionals from Colombia, Peru, Brazil, El Salvador, Canada, the USA, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Chile, and Mexico participated. The panelists, moderated by Dr. Marjorie Pollack, member of the AJFE Editorial Board and associate editor of ProMED, presented the epidemiological characteristics of the pandemic in Colombia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, as well as the public health response with which it was responded to mitigate and control it. The panelists emphasized the value of the preparation provided by the existence of field epidemiology training programs, the existence of a response plan, of establishing good communication with decision makers to make them collectively. The Costa Rican experience of using epidemiology to facilitate the provision of health services to patients with COVID-19 was shared. Likewise, the panelists emphasized that the misinformation, spread on the internet and some other means, had a negative impact, and the experience of educating those working for the news media was shared. It was commented that greater agility is needed to respond early to events that could lead to a pandemic. The panelists added the pandemic highlighted, more than ever before, the importance of having appropriate communication strategies to inform the public.