Pandemic Stress Indicators: Expert Panel
As part of its Task Force on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, IGPA is actively evaluating the social and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Illinois residents.
About
IGPA is developing several Pandemic Stress Indicators, designed to evaluate the social and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Illinois residents. The Pandemic Stress Indicators grew out of the work on IGPA’s Task Force on the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic. This indicator is a frequent poll of three sets of experts about pandemic policies. Experts on economics, public health, and/or vulnerable populations from across Illinois have generously agreed to provide regular opinions on various pandemic policies.
IGPA published a Policy Spotlight, titled Ongoing Expert Advice on Pandemic Policies, identifying trends from the Pandemic Stress Indicator Expert Panel surveys conducted over the summer. The Policy Spotlight and all of the results from the Pandemic Stress Indicator Expert Panel survey can be found on this page.
Reports
Ongoing Expert Advice on Pandemic Policies
LATEST EXPERT PANEL REPORT
Wave 10: Dec. 2
Since May, as one component of the IGPA Pandemic Stress Indicators, a panel of three sets of experts have periodically shared their opinions about pandemic policies. Specialists on economics, public health, and/or vulnerable populations from across Illinois have generously agreed to provide regular perspectives on various pandemic policies. In answering the surveys, all panelists provide only their personal views and do not offer official positions on behalf of their respective institutions. The 10th wave of the Pandemic Stress Indicator Expert panel survey was launched on Dec. 2, and we received 19 responses. The focus of this final consultation of 2020 concerned, in large part, COVID-19 vaccines and plans to implement a comprehensive vaccination program. Respondents were asked how they would prioritize the distribution of vaccine doses at this early stage, while scarcity and logistical challenges of distributing the vaccine loom large. We asked who should determine the priority sequence for vaccination, offering five response options (the president, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “(CDC”), governors, local officials, hospital and clinics) plus “other.” Nearly every respondent chose the CDC, with only one preferring sub-national decentralization of the decision (“governors”) and one selecting “the FDA—the entity actually doing it”. [1] We next sought our respondents’ views about who should receive the vaccine first, by listing 10 groups (randomly ordered) and asking for rankings, from 1 (highest priority) to 10 (lowest). Table 1 reveals near consensus that those first in line should be hospital employees working directly with COVID-19 patients. The next highest rankings, in a near tie, were hospital workers not directly in contact with COVID-19 patients and employees at long-term-care facilities. Congregate care facilities have been hot spots for COVID-19 spread throughout the U.S., so it is probably not surprising that residents of long-term care facilities came next. Respondents exhibited less agreement on the remaining groups, as the relatively close clustering of means over the fifth through 10th items in Table 1 reveals. A different dimension of priority is how available vaccine doses will be distributed across and within states. In regard to the latter, we asked, “Within Illinois, do you expect that the procedure for allocating vaccine doses across regions/counties will be fully transparent?” Respondents were quite evenly divided and unsure: five said yes, four no, and 10 opted for maybe or not sure.
Previous Panel Reports
Pandemic Stress Indicator: Expert Panel Wave 10 (December 2, 2020)
Since May, as one component of the IGPA Pandemic Stress Indicators, a panel of three sets of experts have periodically shared their opinions about pandemic
Pandemic Stress Indicator: Expert Panel Wave 9 (October 25, 2020)
Over recent months, IGPA has developed multiple Pandemic Stress Indicators, designed to evaluate the social and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Illinois residents.
MEMBERS OF THE EXPERT PANEL
Evan Anderson
Affiliation
Northern Illinois University
Laurence Appel
Affiliation
Chief Financial Officer at University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System | University of Illinois Chicago
Brandi Barnes
Affiliation
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Mark Daniel Bernhardt
Affiliation
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Mark Borgschulte
Affiliation
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Stephen Brown
Affiliation
Director of Preventive Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine | University of Illinois Chicago
Beverly Bunch
Affiliation
Professor, School of Public Management and Policy | University of Illinois Springfield
Patricia Byrnes
Affiliation
Associate Professor, College of Business and Management | University of Illinois Springfield
Lorraine Conroy
Affiliation
Professor and Division Director, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health | University of Illinois Chicago
Toni Corona
Affiliation
Madison County Health Department
Michael Fagan
Affiliation
Northwestern University
Joseph M. Feinglass
Affiliation
Northwestern University
Barbara Fiese
Affiliation
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Lidia Filus
Affiliation
Northeastern Illinois University
Tamara Fuller
Affiliation
Research Associate Professor and Director of the Children and Family Research Center, School of Social Work | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Michael Gelder
Affiliation
Northwestern University
Robert J. Gordon
Affiliation
Northwestern University
Betsy Goulet
Affiliation
Clinical Assistant Professor, School of Public Management and Policy | University of Illinois Springfield
Jeremy Groves
Affiliation
Northern Illinois University
Bart Hagston
Affiliation
Jackson County Health Department
Mark D. Hayford
Affiliation
Loyola University Chicago
Ronald Hershow
Affiliation
Associate Professor and Director of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health | University of Illinois Chicago
Hana Hinkle
Affiliation
University of Illinois Chicago
Joseph Hoereth
Affiliation
Director, Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs | University of illinois Chicago
Wiley Jenkins
Affiliation
Southern Illinois University
Timothy Johnson
Affiliation
University of Illinois Chicago
Greg Kaplan
Affiliation
University of Chicago
Sage Kim
Affiliation
Associate Professor, School of Public Health | University of Illinois Chicago
Brenda Koester
Affiliation
Associate Director, Family Resiliency Center | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Kenneth Kriz
Affiliation
Distinguished Professor, School of Public Management and Policy | University of Illinois Springfield
Janet Liechty
Affiliation
Associate Professor, School of Social Work | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Justin McDaniel
Affiliation
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Ruby Mendenhall
Affiliation
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Edward Mensah
Affiliation
University of Illinois Chicago
Linda Rae Murray
Affiliation
University of Illinois Chicago
Katie Parrish
Affiliation
Lake Land College
Sarah Patrick
Affiliation
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Alicia Plemmons
Affiliation
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Carolyn A. Pointer
Affiliation
Southern Illinois University
Tara Powell
Affiliation
Associate Professor, School of Social Work | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Tyler Power
Affiliation
Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce
Elizabeth Powers
Affiliation
Associate Professor, Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Chris Setti
Affiliation
Greater Peoria Economic Development Council
Abigail Silva
Affiliation
Loyola University Chicago
Brian Smith
Affiliation
University of Illinois Springfield
Tracy J. Smith
Affiliation
Executive Director, Office of Community Initiatives and Complex Care, School of Medicine, Southern Illinois University Springfield
Nicole M. Summers-Gabr
Affiliation
Assistant Professor, Department of Population Science and Policy, School of Medicine, Southern Illinois University
Vidya Sundareshan
Affiliation
Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine, Southern Illinois University
James A. Swartz
Affiliation
Professor, College of Social Work, Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Health Affairs | University of Illinois Chicago
Kevin Sylwester
Affiliation
Professor and Interim Director of the School of Analytics, Finance, and Economics, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Karriem Watson
Affiliation
University of Illinois Chicago
Moheeb Zidan
Affiliation
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Knox College
AUTHOR
Brian Gaines

Affiliation
Professor, Department of Political Science, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
bjgaines@illinois.edu
Brian Gaines’ research deals with all aspects of elections, electoral rules, and public opinion. Some of his work has dealt with campaign-finance fraud, pros and cons of convenience voting, inference from survey experiments, and assessing bias in electoral maps.
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