Public Willingness to Engage With COVID-19 Contact Tracing, Quarantine, and Exposure Notification.

OBJECTIVES: We conducted a survey to understand how people's willingness to share information with contact tracers, quarantine after a COVID-19 exposure, or activate and use a smartphone exposure notification (EN) application (app) differed by the person or organization making the request or recommendation. METHODS: We analyzed data from a nationally representative survey with hypothetical scenarios asking participants (N = 2157) to engage in a public health action by health care providers, public health departments, employers, and others. We used Likert scales and ordered logistic regression to compare willingness to take action based on which person or organization made the request, and we summarized findings by race and ethnicity. RESULTS: The highest levels of willingness to engage in contact tracing (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.74; 95% CI, 1.55-1.96), quarantine (aOR = 1.91; 95% CI, 1.69-2.15), download/activate an EN app (aOR = 1.30; 95% CI, 1.16-1.46), and notify other EN users (aOR = 1.43; 95% CI, 1.27-1.60) were reported when the request came from the participant's personal health care provider rather than from federal public health authorities. When compared with non-Hispanic White participants, non-Hispanic Black participants reported significantly higher levels of willingness to engage in contact tracing (aOR = 1.32; 95% CI, 1.18-1.48), quarantine (aOR = 1.49; 95% CI, 1.37-1.63), download/activate an EN app (aOR = 2.19; 95% CI, 2.01-2.38), and notify other EN users (aOR = 1.63; 95% CI, 1.49-1.79). CONCLUSIONS: Partnering with individuals and organizations perceived as trustworthy may help influence people expressing a lower level of willingness to engage in each activity, while those expressing a higher level of willingness to engage in each activity may benefit from targeted communications.

Digital Tools Adopted by Public Health Agencies to Support COVID-19 Case Investigation and Contact Tracing, United States, 2020-2021.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, public health agencies implemented an array of technologies and digital tools to support case investigation and contact tracing. Beginning in May 2020, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials compiled information on digital tools used by its membership, which comprises 59 chief health officials from each of the 50 states, 5 US territories, 3 freely associated states, and the District of Columbia. This information was presented online through a publicly available technology and digital tools inventory. We describe the national landscape of digital tools implemented by public health agencies to support functions of the COVID-19 response from May 2020 through May 2021. We also discuss how public health officials and their informatics leadership referenced the information about the digital tools implemented by their peers to guide and refine their own implementation plans. We used a consensus-based approach through monthly discussions with partners to group digital tools into 5 categories: surveillance systems, case investigation, proximity technology/exposure notification, contact tracing, and symptom tracking/monitoring. The most commonly used tools included the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System Base System (NBS), Sara Alert, REDCap, and Maven. Some tools such as NBS, Sara Alert, REDCap, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics were repurposed or adapted for >1 category. Having access to the publicly available technology and digital tools inventory provided public health officials and their informatics leadership with information on what tools other public health agencies were using and aided in decision making as they considered repurposing existing tools or adopting new ones.

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Biospecimen Program: NHANES III (1988-1994) and NHANES 1999-2014.

BACKGROUND: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey's 9NHANES) biospecimena program was formed to manage the collection of biospecimena (including serum, plasma, urine, and DNA) from NHANES cycles, the storage of biospecimens in NHANES biospecimens, accessing of biospecimens by researchers and the providing of resulting data to future researchers. Data from biospeceimen research can be combined with existing NHANES data. OBJECTIVE: This report provides background on the development of NHANES biorepositories and describes the collection, processing, and storing of biospecimens; ethical considerations and informed consent; and the proposal process for accessing biospecimens and resulting data. The number and types of biospecimens collected in each survey cycle from NHANES III (1988- 1994) through NHANES 1999-2014 are discussed so that researchers can understand what biospecimens are available if they are considering using NHANES biospecimens in their research.