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AbstractThe author comments on the importance of the World Medical & Health Policy journal in light of current medical policy needs. It is suggested that we need to share knowledge and different health management innovation more quickly and effectively, and that health communications is key.

AbstractThe world tried to control the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) at national and regional levels through various mitigation strategies. In the first wave of infections, the most extreme strategies included large‐scale national and regional lockdowns or stay‐at‐home orders. One major side effect of large‐scale lockdowns was the shuttering of the economy, leading to massive layoffs, loss of income, and livelihood. Lockdowns were justified in part by scientific models (computer forecast and simulations) that assumed exponential growth in infections and predicted millions of fatalities without these 'non‐pharmaceutical interventions' (NPI). Some scientists questioned these assumptions. Regions that followed other softer mitigation strategies such as work from home, crowd limits, use of masks, individual quarantining, basic social distancing, testing, and tracing – at least in the first wave of infections – saw similar health outcomes. Clear results were confusing, complicated, and difficult to assess. Ultimately, in the USA, what kind of mitigation strategy was enforced became a political decision only partly based on scientific models. We do not test for what levels of NPI are necessary for appropriate management of the first wave of the pandemic. Rather we use the 'inverse‐fitting Gompertz function' methodology suggested by anti‐lockdown advocate and Nobel Laureate Dr. Levitts to estimate the rate of growth/decline in COVID‐19 infections as well to determine when disease peaking occurred. Our estimates may help predict levels of first‐wave infections in the future and help a region to monitor new outbreaks prior to opening its economy. The inverse fitting function is applied to the first wave of infections in the USA and in the hard‐hit New York and New Jersey regions for the time period March to June 2020. This is the earliest days of pandemic in the USA. The estimates for the rates of growth/decline are computed and used to predict underlying future infections, so that decision makers can monitor the disease threat as they open their economies. This preliminary and exploratory analysis and findings are discussed briefly and presented primarily in charts and tables, but the following waves of disease diffusion are not included and certainly were not anticipated.

This study examines the impact of the determinants of new firm formation in New England at the county level from 1999 to 2009. Based on the Spatial Durbin panel model that accounts for spillover effects, it is found that population density and human capital positively affect single-unit firm births within a county and its neighbors. Population growth rate also exerts a significant positive impact on new firm formation, but most of the effect is from spatial spillovers. On the contrary, the ratio of large to small firm in terms of employment size and unemployment rate negatively influence single-unit firm births both within counties and among neighbors. However, there is no significant impact of local financial capital and personal income growth on new firm formation.

AbstractThis paper examines the spatial clustering and correlation of epicentres of the 2015 Gorkha earthquake and its spatial relationship to the telecommunications infrastructure of Nepal. Ripley's K function analysis suggests that epicentres of the main earthquake shock and aftershocks and base stations of worldwide Interoperability for microwave access are generally clustered. However, the cluster patterns decline over distance. Moran's I statistics further suggested that the epicentres and base stations at the district level are spatially significant and positively correlated. As Nepal is one of the most earthquake‐prone countries in the world, this paper recommends that the Government of Nepal, operators, and other concerned parties should identify the importance of telecommunications infrastructure and develop a critical infrastructure plan including location and redundancy options to mitigate and minimize the detrimental impacts of earthquakes and other disasters on telecommunications services in the country.