Non-pharmaceutical interventions: evaluating challenges and priorities for future health shocks

Non-pharmaceutical interventions implemented during health shocks such as the covid-19 pandemic require rapid, robust, and rigorous evaluation that can generate timely evidence to guide government policy and maintain public confidence, say Azeem Majeed and colleagues The covid-19 pandemic has been among the most challenging global health crises since the second world war.1 Alongside the high rates of infection, hospital admission, and mortality, covid-19 had significant effects on mental and physical health, long term complications, delayed diagnoses for other conditions, direct and indirect social and economic costs (for example, children’s education)