Comparing SARS-CoV-2 infections in the US Military Health System and national data: opportunities for future pandemic surveillance
Megan Clare Craig-Kuhn, Laveta Stewart, Erica Sercy, Caryn Stern, Brock Graham, Amber Michel, Edward Parmelee, Stacy Shackelford, Simon Pollett, Timothy Burgess, David R. Tribble · 2026
Read Comparing SARS-CoV-2 infections in the US Military Health System and national data: opportunities for future pandemic surveillance by Megan Clare Craig-Kuhn, Laveta Stewart, Erica Sercy, Caryn Stern, Brock Graham, Amber Michel, Edward Parmelee, Stacy Shackelford, Simon Pollett, Timothy Burgess, David R. Tribble (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-12883756.txt.
Description
Megan Craig-Kuhn and co-authors compare COVID-19 case counts in the US military health system with national data in this paper, published in 2025. The military system cares for a population spread across the country, which could make it a useful early warning source in a pandemic. That value had never been formally assessed.
Using medical records from facilities worldwide, the team identified about 2.22 million infections, split among lab-confirmed, probable, and possible cases. Case peaks matched the national waves of late 2020 and 2021 and early 2022. After adjusting for age and sex, regional rates in the military system tracked national patterns closely. The authors argue the system can support future pandemic surveillance.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Megan Clare Craig-Kuhn, Laveta Stewart, Erica Sercy, Caryn Stern, Brock Graham, Amber Michel, Edward Parmelee, Stacy Shackelford, Simon Pollett, Timothy Burgess, David R. Tribble |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 28 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |