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EpiCore was launched in 2013 and is a tool designed to supplement traditional infectious disease surveillance efforts by bringing together human, animal, and environmental experts on a digital platform to provide field-based verification efforts of global public health events1,2. Public health professionals from organizations around the globe, including Ending Pandemics, HealthMap, Geosentinel, MSF-OCBA, ProMED, and EDIS-RSOE, are trained as Moderators and are able to send Requests for Information (RFIs). Moderators utilize nontraditional resources, such as social media and news articles, to identify potential health events. Through EpiCore, moderators send out a RFI to EpiCore members located in a geographic area where a new or known health event is occurring. Health experts who receive the RFI may anonymously respond with information about the health event. A moderator reviews the responses and determines whether the information verifies a new event or updates a known ongoing event. Verified and updated events are summarized and published on the EpiCore public dashboard and shared with WHO EIOS. The study period was January 2020 - July 2022. In the study period, 231 RFIs were sent requesting signals about potential health events; 111 of those RFIs received responses with information that allowed moderators to confirm or negate a suspected event, or update a known ongoing event. 82% of those RFIs were responded to within 24 hours. EpiCore is a resource for public health professionals and organizations to supplement traditional infectious disease surveillance efforts. For example, information collected through EpiCore was used to provide timely details on the emerging COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China in January 2020. Additionally, responses to RFIs supported surveillance efforts of the 2022 global monkeypox outbreak. Future efforts include outreach and engagement with existing and new members to expand EpiCore's member base in countries with few to no members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological and laboratory studies suggest face masks are an effective non-pharmaceutical intervention for reducing spread of SARS-CoV-2. These studies cannot measure individual risk reduction or account for individual behavioral and demographic confounders. Here we present a novel longitudinal assessment of the protective role of masks in a national cohort of individuals enrolled in a syndromic surveillance tool prior to the first case of COVID-19 in the United States. The study population consisted of a subset of participants (N=4,723 adults) enrolled in Flu Near You (FNY), a web-based longitudinal syndromic surveillance platform. Weekly self-reports of respiratory syndromes were used to assess the onset of COVID-like illness (CLI) symptoms from January to June 2020. An annual retrospective questionnaire submitted by this subset of FNY participants assessed precautionary behaviors (masking, distancing, etc.) and demographic information. We used a previously validated exposure variable (self-reported likelihood to wear masks while visiting family and friends and while grocery shopping) to measure mask wearing. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the effect of mask wearing on CLI while controlling for age, gender, precautionary behavior (social distancing contacts, adoption date), county population density and time-varying county COVID-19 burden. There were 1,293 reports of respiratory symptoms over the study period. Individuals characterized as most likely to wear masks were 45% [24%-61%] less likely to report symptoms of COVID-like illness compared to individuals characterized as least likely to wear masks. Mask-wearing also demonstrated a protective effect for those characterized as somewhat likely to wear masks (HR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.42-0.84, p=0.003) and those who were likely to wear masks in only one of the two circumstances (HR. 0.59, 95% CI: 0.42-0.83, p=0.002), compared to respondents least likely to wear masks. Sensitivity analyses with alternative broad and narrow CLI definitions produced a similar magnitude and protective effect. Face masks were effective as a non-pharmaceutical intervention at preventing respiratory illness in the FNY population. The individual risk reduction was consistent with previous ecological measures of the protective effect of face masks, as well as robust to adjustment for behavioral, demographic, and environmental confounders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]