COVID-19 U.S. State Policy (CUSP) Database

The team is expanding a comprehensive, publicly available COVID-19 U.S. State Policy database - CUSP. The CUSP database is free to access and documents the dates of health and social policies in the wake of COVID-19 and its economic ramifications in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The researchers will continue to expand the database to track COVID-19 social safety net policies and health care policies. The database will help inform health and social policy decisions that promote a culture of health and rapid response policy research with a focus on policies that affect vulnerable populations. Outcomes: The CUSP database will allow for evaluation of how state policy responses to COVID-19 shape outcomes such as COVID-19 cases and deaths and financial distress, food insecurity, housing insecurity, and mental distress, particularly for populations disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and its economic ramifications. Methodology: The CUSP research team has the following process for tracking each policy change: 1) search government websites for executive orders and directives pertaining to the specific policy; 2) search for media coverage of each policy in each state; 3) compare to a complementary state tracking effort through media or non-profit organizations to validate policy changes, if possible; 4) double check each date and states with no policy changes; 5) post to publicly available database with comments on coding decisions; 6) invite comments through the publicly available database and publicly document any revisions.