COVID-19 U.S. state policies

States across the country have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with a flood of policy changes, from physical distancing and mask requirements to expansions of social safety net programs and eviction freezes. The COVID-19 US State Policy (CUSP) database is a publicly available dataset that is free for all users to download. CUSP is designed to be a tool for researchers, policymakers, the media, and the public to better understand how policies impact population health and health equity. Our team tracks when and how states implemented over 200 policies during the COVID-19 pandemic and includes original source documentation. In a rapidly changing policy context, we hope for CUSP to facilitate rapid response research and policymaking. We also always recommend triangulating our data with additional data sources on policies of interest. Our introductory webinar shares our team’s findings after a year of collecting policy data and offers further suggestions for how to use the CUSP database. (author introduction)