Agenda Comparison Grid Assignment Template 2
Agenda Comparison Grid Assignment Template for Part 1 and Part 2
Introduction
Coronavirus pandemic issues are on daily headlines in social media, and in every conversation, it has made it a worldwide crisis, with the United States, not an exception. Coronavirus’s high infection rate, socio-economic impact, high mortality rate, international and national awareness, and concern have made the disease a public health crisis needing immediate actions to stop the detrimental effects. The policymakers have been involved in finding a solution to the pandemic worldwide. In the United States, Trump and Biden’s administration deployed measures to curb the spread of the virus. The assignment compares these two presidential administration actions to resolve the disease. A fact sheet to communicate the healthcare issue to policymakers is also attached.
Part 1: Agenda Comparison Grid
| Identify the Population Health concern you selected. | The coronavirus pandemic is the topic I selected for discussion. | |
| Describe the Population Health concern you selected. | Since 2019, the Coronavirus pandemic has been on every President’s agenda due to its impact on the public on all sectors of life. Increased rate of transmission of covid 19 led to overwhelming hospitals to the extent that healthcare facilities were full of covid 19 admissions. Overwhelmed hospitals caused depletion of hospital care resources leading to increased mortality rate. Being a new disease, little information is known about the actual cause of the disease and even the rate of its spread. The current research identifies the key coronavirus clinical features, thus making diagnosis easy. In several nations and states, Covid 19 has resulted in healthcare shortages, increasing death rates, and social and economic consequences that have significantly impacted the lives of country residents. The issuance of a country’s lockdown, for example, reduced the country’s economic activities (Kates et al., 2020). | |
| Administration (President Name) | Trump administration | Biden administration |
| Explain how each of the two presidential administrations approached the issue. | The presidential administration served as a supplier of last resort. Coronavirus outbreak trajectories and community spreading worsened due to weak national planning and poor uncoordinated regulations related to coronavirus response. Uncoordinated states’ responses led to poor handling of the disease during the President’s administration due to lack of planning (Kates et al., 2020).
The other President’s response to the epidemic was to lock the country’s borders and stop the virus from entering the country. On 31st January, President Trump issued an executive order suspending entrance from China, followed by others subsequently. Unfortunately, with local disease spread already ongoing in the United States and difficulties screening incoming travelers, travel restrictions proved ineffective in slowing the spread of the virus in the United States (Kates et al., 2020). After a spike in the number of people infected with the coronavirus, the President issued social distancing measures and stay-at-home directives to combat the virus’s spread (Kates et al., 2020). The President also approved four emergency spending acts enacted by Congress, which provided trillions of dollars to combat COVID-19 and provide unprecedented flexibility and relief to individuals, corporations, states, and municipal governments. He has put the Defense Production Act (DPA) to expand production, prioritize, and allocate supplies in the United States. |
He implemented a national emergency response strategy to stop the virus from spreading, safeguard frontline workers, and save lives. He proposed a plan to encourage the federal government to take the lead in COVID-19 response tactics such as managing healthcare supplies used to control and treat coronavirus, contact tracing, and expanding coronavirus testing capacity (Kates et al., 2020).
The President assumed responsibility for ensuring that crucial supplies were delivered to the state and tribes. The Defense Production Act was enacted to improve the production of face masks and other equipment such as ventilators to increase supply, particularly in hard-to-reach places. Biden also encouraged the Americans to wear masks in public places and maintain social distance to minimize the disease spread. Biden has also called for legislation to extend financial support to individuals, education institutions, and businesses beyond what’s approved by Congress or endorsed by the government and improve insurance coverage to assist states in delivering COVID-19-related services and completely eradicate cost-sharing for COVID-19 treatment (Kates et al., 2020). The President also encouraged people to get coronavirus vaccines in large numbers. He made sure the vaccines were available in most places to cover a large population vaccinated. Biden also established international engagements to support the fight against Covid-19 ((Kates et al., 2020). |
| Identify the allocations of resources that the current and previous presidents dedicated to this issue. | The President allocated medical supplies through the Defense Production Act. The medical supplies included ventilators and personal protective equipment to prevent the spread of the virus (Maves et al., 2020).
He also allocated money to combat coronavirus by approving the emergency spending acts ((Kates et al., 2020).
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The President allocated finances to use in treating coronavirus
He also allowed coronavirus vaccines in the country to control the disease. Many people were vaccinated over a short period, thus minimizing the disease spread. He also provided critical medical supplies such as personal protective equipment, masks, and ventilators (Maves et al., 2020).
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Part 2: Agenda Comparison Grid Analysis
| Administration | |
| Which administrative agency (like HHS, CDC, FDA, OHSA) would most likely be responsible for helping you address the healthcare issue you selected? Why is this agency the most helpful?
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Center for disease control and prevention (CDC) would help address the public’s disease. Covid 19 being a worldwide epidemic, CDC has been at the forefront of providing prevention measures guidelines. The agency is also involved in delivering covid 19 testing services to the public. It gives recommendations on the issuance and use covid 19 vaccines and has a V-safe that track any side effect or adverse effect associated with the use of the vaccines. This agency detects any variant of covid 19 available, disseminating the information worldwide (Christie et al., 2021). Center for disease control is an essential agency as it provides the public with all the information concerning covid 19, such as its variant, prevention guidelines, and vaccinations. It develops the covid 19 testing agents such as polymerase chain reaction test and equips other laboratories to perform the test. Without the agency, we would not understand the changing variants of covid 19, and the mortality rate would be high. Misinformation and fear would still prevent the public from knowing the actual means of disease prevention and the functionality of covid 19 vaccines.
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| How do you think your selected healthcare issue might get on the presidential agenda? How does it stay there? | Covid 19 is a worldwide issue. Its effects, such as high mortality rate, high communicability, social and economic impact, national and international concern and regulations, public awareness, and concerns, make coronavirus get into the presidential agenda. It has affected all the continents and was declared a worldwide disaster by the world health organization. Every country has been mandated to enforce covid 19 prevention guidelines to prevent the high mortality rate. Being a global problem, the President has to declare covid 19 a national disaster, which will pave the way for support from other states. The President has to address the nation regularly and provide insight into it to know what is happening. Lack of enough resources, research, and knowledge on managing the disease make it stay on the presidential agenda. |
| Who would you choose to be the entrepreneur/ champion/sponsor (this can be a celebrity, a legislator, an agency director, or others) of the healthcare issue you selected? An example is Michael J. Fox, a champion for Parkinson’s disease. | I would choose Dr. Rochelle Paula Walensky, the director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in the United States. |
Part 3: FACT SHEET
Why coronavirus is important and should be included in the agenda for legislation.
Epidemiology
The pandemic affects all people, ages, and all genders. The entire population is susceptible to coronavirus; thus, everyone is at risk until herd immunity is established. The infection rate is high, especially the secondary attack rate. The mean serial interval (the period between onset of symptoms) is 4 to 5 days (Dhar Chowdhury & Oommen, 2020).
Physical, economic, psychological, and social effects
Coronavirus causes respiratory complications and advances to major body organs.
It also causes depression, anxiety, and stress among the health workers handling Covid-19 patients and among the relatives of covid 19 infected people.
Economically, covid 19 has negatively affected the country’s economy because most resources prevent and treat the virus. With the disease’s high infection and mortality rate, the critical hospital supplies are quickly depleted, rendering the state economically unstable. Most of the funds are used to produce and purchase tools for covid 19 treatments. Managing the disease is costly for individuals and the government. The virus causes social effects by preventing the physical interaction of people due to social distancing.
Mortality and morbidity rate
Different coronavirus variants have different transmission rates, with the Omicron variant being highly transmissible compared to the Delta variant. The Omicron variant was identified in November 2021. As of 20th December 2021, the average death attributed to coronavirus was 1300 per day in the United States and 70000 admissions even with coronavirus vaccine (Del Rio et al., 2022).
Role of the nurse in coronavirus agenda setting
Prevention and early diagnosis
Nurses can play a significant role in detecting coronavirus infected person through screening, isolating the person to prevent further spread, and doing contact tracing. Therefore, they can treat the patient or refer them for further management (Anders, 2021).
Disease notification
Since nurses are at the forefront in testing and managing coronavirus, they can report disease cases as they occur for planning and resource allocation (Anders, 2021).
Advocacy
Nurses can advocate for the provision of personal protective equipment and medical machines such as ventilators for use in virus management.
They can also advocate for quality, cost-effective and accessible healthcare services to manage covid-19 cases (Anders, 2021).
They can also advocate for new coronavirus management standards if they do not produce positive outcomes since they interact with patients daily.
Conclusion
In the United States, the Trump administration and the Biden administration were involved in finding a solution to the Covid-19 pandemic. The two presidential administrations had effective agendas and strategies to address the healthcare issue. Biden’s administration strategies were the best of the two presidential administrations since they were organized and the government was at the forefront, giving guidelines to take as a state. The best agency to address the issue is the Center for disease control and prevention, with Dr. Rochelle Paula Walensky as the director.
The disease epidemiology, social and economic impacts, high mortality rate effectively communicate the disease to policymakers as an urgent disease requiring immediate interventions. The nurses also play an integral role in addressing the healthcare issue since they directly contact Covid-19 patients. They can diagnose the disease, do a report and notify the authorities and advocate for quality services to address the issue.
References
- Anders R. L. (2021). Engaging nurses in health policy in the era of COVID-19. Nursing Forum, 56(1), 89–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12514
- Christie, A., Brooks, J. T., Hicks, L. A., Sauber-Schatz, E. K., Yoder, J. S., Honein, M. A., & CDC COVID-19 Response Team (2021). Guidance for Implementing COVID-19 Prevention Strategies in the Context of Varying Community Transmission Levels and Vaccination Coverage. Mmwr. Morbidity And Mortality Weekly Report, 70(30), 1044–1047. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7030e2
- Kates, J., Michaud, J., Levitt, L., Pollitz, K., Neuman, T., Long, M., Rudowitz, R., Musumeci, M., Freed, M., & Cubanski, J. (2020). Comparing Trump and Biden on COVID-19. Retrieved from https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/comparing-trump-and-biden-on-covid-19/
- Del Rio, C., Omer, S. B., & Malani, P. N. (2022). Winter of omicron—the evolving COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA, 327(4), 319-320. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.24315
- Dhar Chowdhury, S., & Oommen, A. M. (2020). Epidemiology of COVID-19. Journal of Digestive Endoscopy, 11(1), 3–7. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0040-1712187
- Maves, R. C., Downar, J., Dichter, J. R., Hick, J. L., Devereaux, A., Geiling, J. A., Kissoon, N., Hupert, N., Niven, A. S., King, M. A., Rubinson, L. L., Hanfling, D., Hodge, J. G., Jr, Marshall, M. F., Fischkoff, K., Evans, L. E., Tonelli, M. R., Wax, R. S., Seda, G., Parrish, J. S., & ACCP Task Force for Mass Critical Care (2020). Triage of Scarce Critical Care Resources in COVID-19 An Implementation Guide for Regional Allocation: An Expert Panel Report of the Task Force for Mass Critical Care and the American College of Chest Physicians. Chest, 158(1), 212–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2020.03.063