Bielefeld School of Public Health

The Covid-19 Pandemic intersects and relates to several of our research priorities, especially global health, policy-related evidence, health inequites and determinants, migration, and infectious disease epidemiology. As such, the department seeks to contribute to knowledge in these diverse, but interrelated fields. We are interested in national and supranational governance aspects of the pandemic, examining reciprocal relationships between inequality and spread or management of Covid-19, vulnerabilities towards the virus and pandemic policy responses, and methods to monitor the Covid-19 epidemic to support containment and mitigation strategies.

Covid19 Pandemic Policy Monitor

The COVID-19 Pandemic Policy Monitor (COV-PPM) is a database that covers Covid-19 containment measures and their temporal sequence at the European level (EU27, EEA, UK) as well as at the level of the German federal states. The data collected are used to retrace the different measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and to analyse their impact at the population level, considering geographical and temporal factors. This research approach also allows to examine the effectiveness of these policy measures in relation to their timing, and combinations of measures. More...

Covid19 Small-area Monitor

Timely and regional data is essential to monitor the dynamics of the Covid-19 epidemiology, and such data will be even more important in the aftermath of the first wave of the pandemic when lock-down measures are removed or relaxed. Existing approaches at small-area level monitor daily incident cases, incident deaths, or cumulative incidence or mortality per population. Such measures of disease frequency, however, provide only limited information on regional risks. More sophisticated measures, such as reproduction rates come along with a time-lag and are not available at small-area level. We use daily data of Robert Koch-Institute to calculate standardised incidence ratios (SIR) and mortality ratios (SMR) at small-area district level to provide a measure of observed versus expected cases given the underlying age- and sex- structure of the district population. We further model district-level risk using spatial epidemiology methods. More...

Rapid Review Response Unit (RRRUn) for Population Health Action and Evidence-Informed Policy

The Rapid Review Response Unit (RRRUn) aims to produce timely best-available evidence on population health determinants, risks, or interventions to inform societal action or policy making in situations which require a scientific basis for decision making. At the moment, the RRRUn aligns its work completely with the Competence Network Public Health Covid-19 to facilitate generation of evidence for decision making in the scope of the pandemic.
Individuals, health organisations, public health services, and policy makers may suggest topics to be considered for a rapid review under the RRRUn. More...

Lancet Migration - Migration and Covid-19 Working Group

As the world responds to the unprecedented global public health emergency of the Covid-19 pandemic migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, who are often excluded from health systems and living in informal contexts, or in detention/reception centres, face much greater challenges. As part of the Lancet Migration network and the ‘Migration and Covid-19 Working Group’ we contribute to the discussion across regions on this topic; collate academic resources on the topic; and produce and disseminate relevant expert public health evidence around migration and Covid19. More...

"Stop Covid" Project

In collaboration with the Robert Koch-Institute and funded by the German Ministry of Health, the project aims to assess the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions on the Covid19 pandemic. Link to project: StopptCOVID-Studie (German only)