Briefing the US Congress—How well did US states manage COVID-19?

Did COVID mandates prevent deaths? What are the economic and educational trade-offs associated with protecting people from COVID-19? What should states do to protect lives and livelihoods when the next pandemic arrives? 

These are the questions that the authors of the study Assessing COVID-19 pandemic policies and behaviours and their economic and educational trade-offs across US states from Jan 1, 2020, to July 31, 2022: an observational analysis received when they met with members of the US Congress and their staffers in June and July. Associate professor Joseph Dieleman (IHME), researcher Emma Castro (IHME), and director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations Thomas Bollyky traveled to Capitol Hill to share their findings with the US House and Senate. The Council on Foreign Relations arranged the visit. The authors met with: 

• Representative Ami Bera, MD (California). 
• Minority and majority staff from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions. 
• Majority staff from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.  

Learn more about the authors’ findings by watching IHME’s Global Health Insights podcast “COVID resiliency in the US.”