Letters
Defining covid-19 elimination
Elimination of covid-19: beware of surveillance bias
BMJ 2021; 374 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n2126 (Published 03 September 2021) Cite this as: BMJ 2021;374:n2126
- Stefano Tancredi, fellow in public health12,
- Daniela Anker, postdoctoral research fellow and epidemiologist1,
- Laura Rosella, professor of public health and epidemiologist3,
- Arnaud Chiolero, professor of public health and epidemiologist14
- 1Population Health Laboratory (#PopHealthLab), University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
- 2Department of Biomedical, Metabolic, and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
- 3Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada
- 4School of Population and Global Health, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- achiolero{at}gmail.com
Surveillance bias occurs when looking at health conditions that have differential intensity across populations, over time, or according to care setting or type of patient.1 As a result, any difference in frequency of the condition might not reflect a change in the actual risk of this condition but rather differences in the modality of detection or patient characteristics.2
Is this happening with covid-19? On the brink of a new wave of the pandemic, clarity on this point is …
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