Few novel or emerging infectious diseases have posed such vital ethical challenges so quickly and dramatically as the novel coronavirus SARS‐CoV‐2. The World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern and recently classified Covid‐19 as a worldwide pandemic. As of this writing, the epidemic has not yet peaked in the United States, but community transmission is widespread. President Trump declared a national emergency as fifty governors declared state emergencies. In the coming weeks, hospitals will become overrun, (...) stretched to their capacities. When the health system becomes stretched beyond capacity, how can we ethically allocate scarce health goods and services? How can we ensure that marginalized populations can access the care they need? What ethical duties do we owe to vulnerable people separated from their families and communities? And how do we ethically and legally balance public health with civil liberties? (shrink)

On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization classified COVID‐19, caused by Sars‐CoV‐2, as a pandemic. Although not much was known about the new virus, the first outbreaks in China and Italy showed that potentially a large number of people worldwide could fall critically ill in a short period of time. A shortage of ventilators and intensive care resources was expected in many countries, leading to concerns about restrictions of medical care and preventable deaths. In order to be prepared (...) for this challenging situation, national triage guidance has been developed or adapted from former influenza pandemic guidelines in an increasing number of countries over the past few months. In this article, we provide a comparative analysis of triage recommendations from selected national and international professional societies, including Australia/New Zealand, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Pakistan, South Africa, Switzerland, the United States, and the International Society of Critical Care Medicine. We describe areas of consensus, including the importance of prognosis, patient will, transparency of the decision‐making process, and psychosocial support for staff, as well as the role of justice and benefit maximization as core principles. We then probe areas of disagreement, such as the role of survival versus outcome, long‐term versus short‐term prognosis, the use of age and comorbidities as triage criteria, priority groups and potential tiebreakers such as ‘lottery’ or ‘first come, first served’. Having explored a number of tensions in current guidance, we conclude with a suggestion for framework conditions that are clear, consistent and implementable. This analysis is intended to advance the ongoing debate regarding the fair allocation of limited resources and may be relevant for future policy‐making. (shrink)

A question arising from the COVID-19 crisis is whether the merits of cases for climate policies have been affected. This article focuses on carbon pricing, in the form of either carbon taxes or emissions trading. It discusses the extent to which relative costs and benefits of introducing carbon pricing may have changed in the context of COVID-19, during both the crisis and the recovery period to follow. In several ways, the case for introducing a carbon price is stronger (...) during the COVID-19 crisis than under normal conditions. Oil costs are lower than normal, so we would expect less harm to consumers compared to normal conditions. Governments have immediate need for diversified new revenue streams in light of both decreased tax receipts and greater use of social safety nets. Finally, supply and demand shocks have led to already destabilized supply-side activities, and carbon pricing would allow this destabilization to equilibrate around greener production for the long-term. The strengthening of the case for introducing carbon pricing now is highly relevant to discussions about recovery measures, especially in the context of policy announcements from the European Union and United States House of Representatives. Key Policy Insights: • Persistently low oil prices mean that consumers will face lower pain from carbon pricing than under normal conditions. • Many consumers are more price-sensitive during the COVID-19 context, which suggests that a greater relative burden from carbon prices would fall upon producers as opposed to consumers than under normal conditions. • Carbon prices in the COVID-19 context can introduce new revenue streams, assisting with fiscal holes or with other green priorities. • Carbon pricing would contribute to a more sustainable COVID-19 recovery period, since many of the costs of revamping supply chains are already being felt while idled labor capacity can be incorporated into firms with lower carbon-intensity. (shrink)

Since March 2020, many countries throughout the world have been in lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Italy, the quarantine began on March 9, 2020, and containment measures were partially reduced only on May 4, 2020. The quarantine experience has a significant psychological impact at all ages but can have it above all on adolescents who cannot go to school, play sports, and meet friends. In this scenario, this study aimed to provide a general overview of the (...) perceived risk related to COVID-19 and the psychological experience of quarantine in a large sample of Italian adolescents. 978 adolescents (males = 339; females = 639) living in 13 Italian regions and attending upper secondary school (age range: 13–20, M = 16.57, SD = 1.20), responded to an internet-based questionnaire about perceived health risk related to COVID-19, knowledge and information on measures to control the pandemic, beliefs and opinions on stage two of the quarantine, and psychological experiences related to quarantine. 31.1% of the participants lived in "red zones," which are places where the government has imposed stricter measures of containment due to exponential and uncontrolled growth in contagion cases compared to other areas in Italy. According to our results, Italian adolescents had a low perception of risk of COVID-19. Perceived comparative susceptibility and perceived seriousness were also very low. However, they were aware of the restriction measures necessary to contain the spread of the virus, and they agreed with the limitations imposed by the government. Females and adolescents living in a “red zone” showed more significant psychological negative feelings about the quarantine experience. However, no significant differences were found about the regions where the teenagers of our sample live and the other variables related to the COVID-19 experience. This is very interesting data, leading us to hypothesize that the participants' negative feelings may be more related to the adolescent period than to the pandemic itself. (shrink)

Patient visitor restrictions were implemented in unprecedented ways during the COVID-19 pandemic and included bans on any visitors to dying patients and bans separating mothers from infants. These were implemented without high quality evidence they would be beneficial and the harms to patients, families and medical personnel were often immediately clear. Evidence has also accumulated finding strict visitor restrictions were accompanied by long-term individual and societal consequences. We highlight numerous examples of restrictions that were enacted during the COVID-19 (...) pandemic, including some that continue to be in place today. We outline six specific concerns about the nature and effects of the visitor restrictions seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. These considerations may help provide both an ethical and science-based framework, through which healthcare workers, families and government entities can work towards safeguarding patient and family rights and well-being. (shrink)

We present the perspective of a Bioethics Consultation Service operating in an urban hospital in Dayton, Ohio, USA, as it adapted to treating Sars-CoV-2 patients throughout 2020. Since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Ohio on 9 March 2020, until 1 January 2021, the Bioethics Consultation Service was consulted 60 times, a 22.5% increase from the same period of 2019. The most common diagnoses requiring consultation included end-stage renal disease requiring dialysis, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, and sepsis. Only (...) 10% of consultations were for patients hospitalized with COVID-19. This is a qualitative analysis of the cases we saw and a discussion of factors that affected our service while adapting to COVID-19 standards of care. (shrink)

Trust in vaccination is eroding, and attitudes about vaccination have become more polarized. This is an observational study of Twitter analyzing the impact that COVID-19 had on vaccine discourse. We identify the actors, the language they use, how their language changed, and what can explain this change. First, we find that authors cluster into several large, interpretable groups, and that the discourse was greatly affected by American partisan politics. Over the course of our study, both Republicans and Democrats entered (...) the vaccine conversation in large numbers, forming coalitions with Antivaxxers and public health organizations, respectively. After the pandemic was officially declared, the interactions between these groups increased. Second, we show that the moral and non-moral language used by the various communities converged in interesting and informative ways. Finally, vector autoregression analysis indicates that differential responses to public health measures are likely part of what drove this convergence. Taken together, our results suggest that polarization around vaccination discourse in the context of COVID-19 was ultimately driven by a trust-first dynamic of political engagement. (shrink)

As we write, U.S. cities and states with extensive community transmission of Covid‐19 are in harm's way—not only because of the disease itself but also because of prior and current failures to act. During the 2009 influenza pandemic, public health agencies and hospitals developed but never adequately implemented preparedness plans. Focused on efficiency in a competitive market, health systems had few incentives to maintain stockpiles of essential medical equipment. Just‐in‐time economic models resulted in storage of only those supplies needed (...) then. At the same time, global purchasing in search of lower prices reduced the number of U.S. suppliers, with hospitals dependent on foreign companies. There is still a possibility that the pandemic will be manageably bad rather than unmanageably catastrophic in this country. Immediate, powerful, and sustained federal action could make the difference. (shrink)

Background The COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt every society as SARs-CoV-2 variants surge among the populations. Health care providers are exhausted, becoming ill themselves, and in some instances have died. Indeed, hospitals are struggling to find staff to care for critically ill patients most in need. Previous work has reported on the unending work-related conditions that hospital staff are laboring under and their subsequent mental and physical health strains. Health care providers need support, but it is not clear where (...) that support is to come from. While much research has reported on the COVID-19-related fears of nurses and physicians, fewer studies have focused on supportive features of the hospital work environment and how it may provide relief to front-line health care providers.Purpose This purpose of this study was to explore an often-overlooked resource within hospital systems across the United States—clinical ethicists—and examine their many roles during COVID-19 and the types of ethical issues they addressed with nurses, physicians, administrators, and others.Methods This was a primary analysis of semi-structured, qualitative interviews with 23 clinical ethicists across the United States. The interviews were conducted from November 2020–April 2021 and were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and de-identified; both inductive and deductive analyses were used to identify qualitative themes.Results Five major themes were identified: ethical issues that were increasingly more complex, moral distress that was “endemic,” shifting ethical paradigms from the focus on the individual to the population, fostering a supportive environment, and organizational ethics: variation in the value, roles, and policy input of clinical ethicists.Conclusions Our findings report on the integral and expanded role of clinical ethicists at an unprecedented time in our nation, and how they stepped forward to support front-line clinicians in hospitals across the country. (shrink)

Managing grand challenges demands a relational leader who encourages collaboration, coordination, and trust with various stakeholders. Although leaders appear to play a critical role in addressing grand challenges, relatively little research exists about the factors that inform stakeholder perceptions of leaders during a grand challenge. To address this limitation, we integrate implicit leadership theory and gender role theory to consider stakeholders’ gender prescriptive expectations when evaluating leader effectiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic. We theorize that stakeholders advantage female leaders based (...) on mental schemas of what is required in a pandemic—relational leadership—and stakeholders’ prescriptive expectations of female leaders as more relational. Using a laboratory experiment, we find that female leaders are perceived as more relational, and hence, more effective than their male counterparts. Our findings advance scholars’ and practitioners’ understanding of strategic leadership, stakeholder management, and grand challenges. (shrink)

Hope, gratitude, fear, and disgust may all be key to encouraging preventative action in the context of COVID-19. We pre-registered a longitudinal experiment, which involved monthly data collections from September 2020 to September 2021 and a six-month follow-up. We predicted that a hope recall task would reduce negative emotions and elicit higher intentions to engage in COVID-19 preventative behaviours. At the first time point, participants were randomly allocated to a recall task condition (gratitude, hope, or control). At each (...) time point, we measured willingness to engage in COVID-19 preventative behaviours, as well as experienced hope, gratitude, fear, and disgust. We then conducted a separate, follow-up study in February 2022, to see if the effects replicated when COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed in the UK. In the main study, contrary to our pre-registered hypothesis, we found that a gratitude recall task elicited more willingness to engage in COVID-19 preventative behaviours in comparison to the neutral recall task. We also found that experienced gratitude, hope, and fear were positively related to preventative action, while disgust was negatively related. These results present advancement of knowledge of the role of specific emotions in the COVID-19 pandemic. (shrink)

Volume 20, Issue 7, July 2020, Page 80-82.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light significant failures and fragilities in our food, health, and market systems. Concomitantly, it has emphasized the urgent need for a critical re-evaluation of many of the policies and practices that have created the conditions in which viral pathogens can spread. However, there are many factors that are complicating this process; among others, the uncertain, rapidly evolving, and often poorly reported science surrounding the virus’ origins has contributed to a politically charged and often (...) rancorous public debate, which is concerning insofar as the proliferation of divisive discourse may hinder efforts to address complex and collective concerns in a mutually cooperative manner. In developing ethical and effective responses to the disproportionate risks associated with certain food production and consumption practices, we argue that the focus should be on mitigating such risks wherever they arise, instead of seeking to ascribe blame to specific countries or cultures. To this end, this article is an effort to inject some nuance into contemporary conversations about COVID-19 and its broader implications, particularly when it comes to trade in wildlife, public health, and food systems reform. If COVID-19 is to represent a turning point towards building a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient world for both humans and nonhuman animals alike, the kind of fractioning that is currently being exacerbated by the use of loaded terms such as “wet market” must be eschewed in favour of a greater recognition of our fundamental interconnectedness. (shrink)

Cross jurisdictional collaboration efforts and emergency vaccine plans that are consistent with Tribal sovereignty are essential to public health emergency preparedness. The widespread adoption of clearly written federal, state, and local vaccine plans that address fundamental assumptions in vaccine distribution to Tribal nations is imperative for future pandemic response.

this article makes the case that the rationale of open science and responsible innovation will help to build public planetary goods: the necessity of this rationale is illustrated on the COViD-19 case.

Solnicaet alargue that “Jewish law and modern secular approaches based on professional responsibilities obligate physicians to care for all patients even those with communicable diseases”. The authors base their viewpoint on the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg and apply it to suggest that physicians are obligated to endanger themselves during epidemics, such as COVID-19. It is argued that Solnicaet al’s analysis of Rabbi Waldenberg’s text and their conclusion that healthcare workers are obligated to endanger themselves while treating patient who (...) suffer from contagious illness during epidemics according to Jewish law suffer from various shortcomings. Indeed, Jewish law looks favourably on healthcare workers who take a reasonable risk in treating their patients in the context of epidemics. However, it is considered a voluntary supererogatory act—not obligatory. Solnicaet almay express a legitimate ethical viewpoint. However, it does not seem to represent the mainstream approach of what Jewish law would demand as obligatory from its practitioners. (shrink)

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers around the globe had been forced to move their teaching to full-time online, remote teaching. In this study, we aimed at understanding teacher burnout during COVID-19. We conducted a survey among 399 teachers at the peak of a prolonged physical school closure. Teachers reported experiencing more burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contributing factors to this burnout were high family work conflict and low online teaching proficiency. Burnout was associated with (...) lower work-related wellbeing: Lower work commitment, and higher turnover intentions. It was also associated with lower psychological wellbeing: More depressive and anxiety symptoms, and lower subjective wellbeing. Approach coping strategies served as a protective factor against the burnout-turnover intentions association. We conclude with recommendations on how to mitigate teacher burnout, thereby contributing to teacher wellbeing. (shrink)

The study aims to ascertain how different levels of society have been influenced by the impact of pandemics over the last many years. The study also determines the societal implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. The integrative literature survey method is adopted to extract the secondary data pertinent to the socio-economic effect of pandemics and COVID-19 on society. Primary data is collected to diagnose the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown on employees (N = 210) working in (...) the Indian organized sector. Findings of the study suggest that pandemics have been a cause of economic slowdown measured with a fall in gross domestic product (GDP) at the macro level. The reduced level of economic activity is found to be negatively related to an individual socio-economic status building their psychological distress. The descriptive analysis of the data reveals that although employees have managed their jobs and finances during COVID-19, they have experienced stress in their lives due to the pandemic. The study assimilates the pandemic effect using inductive reasoning to develop a COVID quadrilateral conceptual framework. (shrink)

The current COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need to “think outside the box”. As societies across the planet gradually become more interconnected, the dominance of outmoded social practices surrounding human interaction, work, leisure and space is being challenged on a daily basis. Mediatic productions such as film have always presented opportunities for expanding the reach of particular messages and disseminating topical views and perspectives. In honour of Federico Fellini (1920-1993) on the 100th anniversary of his birth, this paper undertakes (...) a comprehensive comparison between the bold and absurdist cinema of the Post-Neorealist filmmaker and today’s also strange and perplexing social environment. Contextualising his cinema within an auteurist framework, we highlight how ground-breaking Fellini was in embracing the unconventional; by doing so he provided a practical guide for navigating contemporary reality. With productions that seduce and impress viewers worldwide, Fellini defied established cinematographic practices, as exemplified by his experimentation with overlapping narrative styles. His films bestir a new way of thinking by generating an anomalous world, one where events take place beyond the scope of what the viewer anticipates as “natural”. But the appraisal of what is “natural” is contingent upon the viewer’s belief structure: by presenting a world where events happen outside the realm of practical expectations, Fellini’s timeless cinema questions outdated belief systems and sets the guidelines for how to navigate the unanticipated complexities of the contemporary world. Reality and fiction merge into one. (shrink)

The present study is couched within Rachman's three-pathway theory of fear acquisition. Besides the direct contact with the objects of fear, this model also includes two indirect pathways to fear acquisition: negative information transmission and modeling. The study aims to explore the contribution of these three factors to the level of children's fear of COVID-19. The sample consisted of 376 children, aged 7–19, and one of their parents. The survey was conducted online during the COVID-19 national state of (...) emergency in the Republic of Serbia. The children assessed their fear of COVID-19, general fearfulness, negative information transmission, and modeling by their parents, as well as the level of exposure to negative information outside their home. The parents assessed their own fear of COVID-19 and trait anxiety. Parents' anxiety, children's age, and children's general fearfulness were used as covariates. The results of our path analysis provide support for Rachman's notion of indirect pathways. The more the parents were afraid of COVID-19, the more they expressed this, which in turn led to an increase in the children's fear of COVID-19. Furthermore, children's exposure to negative information related to COVID-19, provided by their teachers and peers or stemming from the media, directly contributed to the level of children's fear. The results of the study emphasize the importance of caregivers' behavior during global health crises and provide some clues as to what caregivers may do to protect their children's mental health in such circumstances. (shrink)

The 2019-2020 pandemic of the SARS-CoV-2 virus—the cause of the novel COVID-19 disease—is an exceptional moment in modern human history. The abrupt and intense cessation of human activities in the first months of the pandemic, when large parts of the global human population were in lockdown, had noticeable effects on the environment that can serve to identify key learning experiences to foster a deep reflection on the human relationship with nature, and their interdependence. There are precious lessons to be (...) learned. A global, tangible threat was needed to trigger a global lockdown, where different societies adopted different strategies and management measures to adapt or transform their activities. Humanity is still coming to terms with how to relaunch the economy while preventing further outbreaks. Here, I summarize the immediate positive and negative effects that the pandemic has had on the natural environment, with emphasis on marine ecosystems. I reflect on key lessons learned from this unprecedented situation so far. The essential role that the oceans play in maintaining the functioning of natural systems and key socio-economic activities is exceptionally relevant, and I discuss key not-to-miss opportunities to add the ‘Blue Recovery’ to the international agenda under the new ‘Build Back Better’ or ‘Healthy Recovery’ context after the acute phase of COVID-19. Achieving sustainable use of the ocean is one of the grand challenges of the new decade, and marine ecologists must play a more proactive role. (shrink)

The public health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to a rapid surge in activity in biomedical and social science. The pandemic created a need for new scientific knowledge specifically related to the new, emerging infectious agent and it quickly showed huge gaps in knowledge in relation to social and policy responses to pandemics. Governments all over the world accepted the COVID-19 pandemic as a significant public health crisis and went into crisis mode in order to end (...) the crisis and mitigate its impacts. One area in which rapid policy changes occurred was in relation to research ethics. Research ethics systems and guidelines were changed in many countries. The COVID-19 crisis also led to a flurry of philosophical and bioethical work arguing that traditional research ethics rules and principles should be suspended, rethought, or abolished. This essay will analyze whether a public health crisis justifies changing research ethics principles and policies and, if so, what the scope of justified changes is. (shrink)

The concept of time poverty is useful for investigating the widely reported exacerbation of gender inequality in families during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. I explore the nature and frequency of this situation in Ontario, Canada to assess domestic inequality, free time, and gendered wellbeing as issues of social justice. Between January and June, 2021, I administered online time use surveys to 100 self-identified women and 100 self-identified men who were living with a spouse and had at least one child learning (...) remotely. The combined responsibilities for the household, childcare, and children’s online learning were overwhelming for the vast majority of women. Consequently, their general experience in the context of the pandemic was one of intensified “time poverty,” a condition I conceptualize as incorporating paid work, the “patriarchal dividend” in domestic task allocation, the endless nature of feminized care-related responsibilities, and women’s consequent lack of recuperative leisure. I assess the nature of leisure, its importance to wellbeing, and the impact of its shortage on women’s lives. Finally, I consider theories of social justice that can illuminate and rectify the imbalances entrenched in gendered divisions of labour within families. The study contributes to pandemic and time poverty literatures, and to the social justice literature by identifying time poverty as an aspect of social injustice in the pandemic context. (shrink)

Religion has emerged as a strong coping mechanism that has been employed by many people around the world during the chaotic atmosphere of the pandemic, and numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the relationship between religion and COVID-19. However, there is need for more studies examining how COVID-19 and death anxiety impacted individuals’ religious lives in the post-COVID-19 period. This phenomenological investigation examines the post-Covid-19 effects on the religious lives of individuals in Turkey who experienced (...) severe Covid-19 and fear of death. The analyses of the research revealed that experiencing severe COVID-19 and death anxiety seem to contribute to strengthen religious commitments among the participants. According to research analyses, due to the severe COVID-19 and death anxiety, the participants reported that they (a) had a better understanding of human helplessness and the power of God, have tended to deepen their religious commitments; (b) gained a more robust understanding of the transient and mortal nature of the world; and (c) experienced a fear of dying as a sinner and considered the rest of their lives as a second chance given by God. All three of these factors appear to contribute to the involvement of religion in participants' lives in the post-COVID-19 period. (shrink)

This review discussed the effects of the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic on the psychological wellbeing of people with Parkinson's disease focusing specifically on depressive symptoms, anxiety levels, sleep, and quality of life. Together with motor symptoms, psychological symptoms are common and disabling conditions in the clinical course of PD becoming a relevant topic as a result of the lockdown measure due to alter their everyday life. We searched on PubMed online electronic databases for English articles published between (...) January 2020 and 31 December 2021. Twenty-eight relevant studies were found and included in the review. Heterogeneous data emerged from the topics analyzed. Overall, data from depression studies showed significant depressive symptoms if the patient was analyzed longitudinally or vs. a control group consisting in healthy subjects, while these differences become minimal when the control group is a family member. Differently, in most of the studies reviewed there is no evidence of a statistically significant impact on anxiety disorders, nor on the quality of sleep. Conversely, PD patients showed a statistically significant negative impact of QoL compared with control groups or other neurological conditions. Although these findings must be interpreted carefully in the light of the studies' limitations, both in methodology and design, collectively our review showed that COVID-19 pandemic has had negative effects on the mental health of people with PD, due to disruption of healthcare services, loss of usual activities and supports and reduction in physical activity. (shrink)

Caring for hospitalized patients with COVID-19 raises ethical dilemmas in which clinicians must weigh the unknown value of an intervention against the unknown risk of viral transmission. Current guidelines for delivering high-value care in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic do not directly address ethical dilemmas that arise from the unique concerns of individual patients. We propose an “ethical pause” in which clinicians address ethical dilemmas by taking time to ask three questions that invoke the major bioethical principles (...) of beneficence, nonmaleficence, and distributive justice: will this intervention help my patient? Could this intervention harm my patient? Could this intervention harm or help others? Using two exemplar cases, we demonstrate how the process of deliberately asking and answering structured ethical questions is a mindful problem-solving strategy that facilitates delivery of high-value care. (shrink)

This work analyzes and characterizes the spread of the COVID-19 disease in Mexico, using complex networks and optimization approaches. Specifically, we present two methodologies based on the principle of the rupture for the GC and Newton's law of motion to quantify the robustness and identify the Mexican municipalities whose population causes a fast spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Specifically, the first methodology is based on several characteristics of the original version of the Vertex Separator Problem, and the second is (...) based on a new mathematical model. By solving VSP, we can find nodes that cause the rupture of the giant component. On the other hand, solving the NLM can find more influential nodes for the entire system’s development. Specifically, we present an analysis using a coupled social network model with information about the main characteristics of the contagion and deaths caused by COVID-19 in Mexico for 19 months. This work aims to show through the approach of complex networks how the spread of the disease behaves, and, thus, researchers from other areas can delve into the characteristics that cause this behavior. (shrink)

BackgroundIn the pandemic time, many low- and middle-income countries are experiencing restricted access to COVID-19 vaccines. Access to imported vaccines or ways to produce them locally became the principal source of hope for these countries. But developing a strategy for success in obtaining and allocating vaccines was not easy task. The governments in those countries have faced the difficult decision whether to accept or reject offers of vaccine diplomacy, weighing the price and availability of COVID-19 vaccines against the (...) concerns over their efficacy and safety. We aimed to analyze public opinion regarding the governmental strategies to obtain COVID-19 vaccines in three Central Asian countries, focusing particularly on possible ethical issues.MethodsWe searched for opinions expressed either in Russian or in the respective national languages. We provided data on the debate within three countries, drawn from social media postings and other sources. The opinion data was not restricted by source and time. This allowed collecting a wide range of possible opinions that could be expressed regarding COVID-19 vaccine supply and human participation in the vaccine trial. We recognized ethical issues and possible questions concerning different ethical frameworks. We also considered scientific data and other information, in the process of reasoning.ResultsAs a result, public views on their respective government policies on COVID-19 vaccine supply ranged from strongly negative to slightly positive. We extracted the most important issues from public debates, for our analysis. The first issue involved trade-offs between quantity, speed, price, freedom, efficacy, and safety in the vaccines. The second set of issues arose in connection with the request to site a randomized trial in one of the countries (Uzbekistan). After considering additional evidence, we weighed individual and public risks against the benefits to make specific judgements concerning every issue.ConclusionsWe believe that our analysis would be a helpful example of solving ethical issues that can arise concerning COVID-19 vaccine supply around the world. The public view can be highly critical, helping to spot such issues. An ignoring this view can lead to major problems, which in turn, can become a serious obstacle for the vaccine coverage and epidemics’ control in the countries and regions. (shrink)

Using the case of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies in the United Kingdom as illustration, this essay offers a framework for understanding the role of narratives and competition among narratives in mediating the relationships between scientific advisers and policymakers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, competing judgments about scientific independence and democratic accountability, about the risks of action and inaction, and about the appropriate balance of costs and benefits to society as a whole and to subgroups of (...) the population were filtered through the narrative perspectives of different discourse coalitions. This narrativization of the process had both positive and negative effects. On the one hand, it provided common platforms for the integration of disparate types of knowledge relevant to policymaking. On the other hand, narratives provided platforms for rival coalitions in ongoing contests that left unresolved the central normative questions of distributional fairness and democratic accountability. (shrink)

Today's academia is obsessed about writing and speaking gobbledygook. At least most of the time. It has little time in sitting still and actually reading fiction, poetry and say, Wittgenstein. One pretends to say fancy things about these authors but one does not actually read books anymore. COVID 19 Lockdown prompted this author to answer queries from students and peers about a reading list. So prepare a wide ranging list he did which covers everything from the version of Mahabharata (...) one ought to read to novels on celibacy. But then he chose to publish at Prabuddha Bharata over all other platforms because the Ramakrishna Mission has the finances to keep this list alive 200 years hence. This was written during COVID 19 Lockdown in India at the end of April, 2020. Nirad C Chaudhuri insisted on making a good bibliography in his magnum opus. This author follows Nirad C Chaudhuri in quietly speaking about how Harold Bloom plagiarised the Late Professor John Senior's reading list. The list also comments on Romanticism and the art of writing itself. The list on Hinduism is truly contrarian. One hopes that this list survives when GoodReads and other Listopias are no longer. -/- Today's academia is obsessed about writing and speaking gobbledygook. At least most of the time. It has little time in sitting still and actually reading fiction, poetry and say, Wittgenstein. One pretends to say fancy things about these authors but one does not actually read books anymore. COVID 19 Lockdown prompted this author to answer queries from students and peers about a reading list. So prepare a wide ranging list he did which covers everything from the version of Mahabharata one ought to read to novels on celibacy. But then he chose to publish at Prabuddha Bharata over all other platforms because the Ramakrishna Mission has the finances to keep this list alive 200 years hence. This was written during COVID 19 Lockdown in India at the end of April, 2020. Nirad C Chaudhuri insisted on making a good bibliography in his magnum opus. This author follows Nirad C Chaudhuri in quietly speaking about how Harold Bloom plagiarised the Late Professor John Senior's reading list. The list also comments on Romanticism and the art of writing itself. The list on Hinduism is truly contrarian. One hopes that this list survives when GoodReads and other Listopias are no longer. -/- These COVID 19 days, while the First world is mooning over syllabi for their kids and third and fourth world folks like me are tackling Umphan; I chose to prepare a new kind of syllabus. A syllabus which is not merely a list. In these days of incessant and meaningless webinars which my students can only spread memes about and only the poor and doctors will actually travel to white nations which are killing their own; here's a list which ends with Hindu classics which are contrarian. Nirad C Chaudhuri, a much maligned man in India and a forgotten polyglot in white privileged academia said we must first prepare a bibliography. So, Figure it out. I used some of the Hindu resources on recognition mentioned here and tried to work on Stephen King; a privileged white tenure track person from Trumpland just snowballed me. Now, this list is syllabi and also just a list of a bunch of books to read during Lockdowns which will be more common in the future because COVID 19, as Dr Fauci tells us; is here to stay. Even if one COVID 19 person is there; then along with Ebola, my white privileged tenure track fiends; off you go to gagaland. We in India already know these diseases. Go figure it out. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged countries, regions, schools, and individuals. School closures due to lockdowns forced changes in the teaching practices and the learning support provided to children at home. This study aimed to provide insights on the changes between the first and the second lockdowns in Portugal, concerning remote teaching practices and family support to children's education. A self-report questionnaire was filled by 144 parents of third grade students. The results show that, between the two lockdowns, there was a (...) significant decrease in the amount of support provided at home to school assignments and activities, as well as in the amount of time spent by students in TV broadcasted lessons and in reading training supported by the family. Inversely, families reported a significant increase in the amount of time spent by students in independent reading activities and in the time spent in training reading guided by teachers. The number of synchronous lessons with a teacher and the number of times students trained reading during a synchronous lesson also increased in the second lockdown. Additionally, in the second lockdown, parents perceived synchronous lessons to be more effective at improving their child's reading skills and perceived themselves as more capable of supporting their child in reading acquisition. These findings are used to discuss school responses and remote teaching and learning practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. (shrink)

Aims and objectivesTo qualitatively explore COVID-19-related experiences of mothers of preterm infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the main challenges they face, and the resources available for them.BackgroundThe birth of a preterm infant is a stressful event under otherwise normal circumstances. The outbreak of COVID-19, the uncertainty about the virus and how it spreads, and the restrictions imposed, may have exacerbated the stress of caring for a preterm infant.DesignRetrospective interviews.MethodsIn-depth interviews with 12 mothers of preterm infants who (...) were hospitalized in the NICU at the time of study. The interview addressed challenges and resources related to coping with the pandemic. The interviews were transcribed and content analyzed, based on Lieblich et al’s model for narrative analysis. This research was conducted in accordance with the COREQ checklist.ResultsThe overarching experience shared by all mothers was accumulative stress caused by a combination of factors related to the infant’s health and COVID-19-related stressors. A central theme was the dissonance between the mothers’ expectations from the birth and infant, and the reality they encountered. Other themes included fear of infecting the infant, loneliness, and stress caused by the restrictions that disrupted daily routines. Resources included a sense of shared fate regarding the pandemic, improvements in the infant’s condition, religious faith, emotional support from the partner, and support from professional staff.ConclusionCaring for a preterm infant during a pandemic is a challenging experience on many levels. The loss of significant support resources puts mothers of these infants at a higher risk for psychological distress.Relevance to clinical practiceAwareness of mothers’ accumulative stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic may assist the staff in developing procedures that can alleviate parental stress, for example by enabling mothers to connect to each other, giving clear information to compensate for physical and social distancing and providing professional mental health support. (shrink)

Le mouvement de réappropriation des espaces physiques et virtuels de parole pour dénoncer les injustices et ceux qui les commettent a pris des formes multiples : de l’occupation de places publiques à la libération de la parole contre les violences systémiques, sexistes et racistes en particulier, via des mouvements comme #MeToo et #OnVeutRespirer. Les féminismes contemporains s’inscrivent ainsi dans un contexte de mobilisation caractérisé par la défiance vis-à-vis d’une démocratie représentative perçue comme confisquée par les élites et par un horizon (...) de « convergence des luttes » ne recomposant pas l’hégémonie d’un critère ou d’une idéologie. Comment, au sein de la société française contemporaine, l’entrecroisement des urgences écologique, sociale et sanitaire questionne-t-il le rapport à l’engagement, en particulier féministe? Cette interrogation est appréhendée à partir d’une enquête qualitative, menée de juillet 2019 à août 2020, auprès de plus de 120 responsables associatifs féministes, anti-racistes, écologistes, antispécistes, pour la justice sociale et/ou de lutte contre la pauvreté, mais aussi d’activistes avec des affiliations plurielles et fluides. Après avoir abordé la manière dont la question du « faire commun » se pose à l’ère de la Covid-19 et des controverses autour de la « cancel culture », nous examinerons comment les féminismes contemporains sont mis à l’épreuve par l’horizon d’une émancipation partagée dans une interdépendance apaisée. (shrink)

From an integrative approach of parable interpretation that combines ethical, evolutionary, historical, and psychological perspectives, the current research empirically examined the purely theorized assumption elucidating the behaviors of the priest, Levite, and Samaritan in the good Samaritan parable by the regulatory focus theory. In one experiment conducted during the COVID-19 outbreak, 93 Polish participants were randomly assigned to a simulated vignette of the good Samaritan parable where either the prevention or promotion regulatory focus was manipulated. The results confirmed a (...) certain favorable tendency to offer quasi-realistic help in both the regulatory focus conditions. The finding highlights a dynamic association in goal pursuit motivation and prosocial behavior in a pandemic context regarding the good Samaritan parable. The current study is among rare empirical research which reflects a challenge people respond to offer help in simulated scenarios as original as the good Samaritan parable. (shrink)

Despite the growing visibility of religious women’s responses to COVID-19 in the media, the discourses of religion and the pandemic in emerging scholarship were preoccupied with the responses of churches to COVID-19, and neglected the contributions of religious women to the pandemic in Zambia. This article, therefore, explores the interface between religion and COVID-19 through the representations of the responses of Roman Catholic religious sisters to the pandemic, in the media in Zambia, from a religious health asset (...) perspective. The study drew on two objectives, namely, to describe the representations of Roman Catholic religious sisters’ responses to COVID-19 in the media; and to explain the nature of the Roman Catholic religious sisters’ responses to the pandemic as represented in the media with a focus on the utilisation of RHAs. It drew on an interpretive case study in which data were collected through content analysis. It shows that the responses of the religious sisters were covered more in Catholic related media. These responses ranged from providing key COVID-19 messages, integrating COVID-19 in the existing programmes to providing basic equipment and food to the needy communities as shaped by the utilisation of RHAs at their disposal, and as informed by their prophetic mission. The article argues that the Roman Catholic religious sisters’ responses to the pandemic affirmed women’s active roles in combating the pandemic.Contribution: The article’s contribution lies in adding the narratives of women’s contributions to the pandemic in the early stages of the outbreak of COVID-19 to women theologies scholarship in Africa. And also, extending the utilisation of RHAs to the new pandemic and the implications it draws on the need for engendering religious responses to the pandemic by capturing women’s narratives during a pandemic as part of constructing women theologies in the face of COVID-19. (shrink)

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has been regarded as a public health emergency that caused a considerable degree of public panic during its early stage. Some irrational behaviors were also triggered as a result of such panic. Although there has been plenty of news coverage on public panic due to the outbreak, research on this phenomenon has been limited. Since panic is the main psychological reaction in the early stage of the pandemic, which largely determines the level of psychological adaptation, (...) time of psychological recovery, and the incidence of PTSD, there exists a demand to conduct investigation on it. From a public governance perspective, the government’s assessment of public panic may affect the efficiency and effectiveness of pandemic prevention and control. Therefore, it is of obvious practical significance to investigate public panic during the COVID-19 pandemic and analyze its influential factors. The self-compiled COVID-19 Social Mentality Questionnaire was used to collect data from a total of 16,616 participants online, and 13,511 valid responses were received. The results from the chi-square test showed that there were differences in gender, educational level, age, pandemic-related knowledge, self-efficacy, risk level, and objective social support. Furthermore, multiple linear regression analysis results showed that self-efficacy, gender, educational level, age, risk level, pandemic-related knowledge, and objective social support were significant predictors of public panic. Among the research variables, self-efficacy, gender, educational level, and age were negative predictors of panic while risk level, pandemic-related knowledge, and objective social support were positive predictors of panic. (shrink)

Few studies have actually explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in college students, although many studies have suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic poses a great threat to people’s mental health in many cohorts. Furthermore, college students may be a particularly vulnerable cohort that needs more attention and access to psychological services due to the psychological changes involved in the transition to college and the characteristics of college students’ study habits and lifestyle. Therefore, investigating the (...) basic characteristics of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college freshmen is of great practical importance and has theoretical implications for the identification and provisioning of services to vulnerable cohorts. A total of 5,818 college freshmen completed the College Student Adaptability Inventory. The results suggest that the mean detection rate of the seven dimensions of undergraduate maladjustment to university is 27.13%. Specifically, livelihood self-management adaptability has the highest detection rate, while environmental general evaluation has the lowest detection rate. Moreover, the school adaptation of college freshmen is impacted by gender, number of siblings, and family socioeconomic status. Specifically, students who are female, an only child, and have a lower SES have lower levels of school adaptation. However, the school adaptation of college freshmen is not influenced by minority status or left-behind status. The findings of the present study suggest that the maladaptation of college freshmen has been a common phenomenon in China during the COVID-19 epidemic. Prevention programs may be most helpful if they pay more attention to effective intervention efforts for students who are female, an only child, and have a lower SES. (shrink)

Introduction:Healthcare workers facing the threatening COVID-19 can experience severe difficulties. Despite the need to evaluate both the psychological distress and positive protective resources, brief and reliable assessment tools are lacking.Aim:Study 1 aimed at developing a new assessment tool to measure psychological distress and esteem in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study 2 aimed to explore and compare the psychological reactions of healthcare workers of the COVID-19 and the non-COVID-19 wards.Methods:In Study 1, psychologists created 25 items (...) based on their clinical experience. A preliminary qualitative evaluation selected the best 15 items for the new tool assessing the COVID-19 psychological impact with 2 scales: psychological distress and esteem. The CPI-HP was administered to 110 healthcare professionals to study its psychometric properties and the internal structure with exploratory graph analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Study 2 compared two groups of healthcare professionals of the COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 departments.Results:In Study 1, the CPI-HP showed satisfying psychometric properties, and the two-factor structure was confirmed with good fit indices. In Study 2, the two groups of healthcare workers showed comparable levels of psychological distress and resilient coping, but the COVID-19 group displayed significantly higher esteem and appreciation of the experience.Discussion:All operators showed high psychological distress during the emergency, but the COVID-19 group reported higher resources, probably due to stronger group cohesion and greater esteem, perceived meaning, and own work value.Conclusion:Assessing the psychological distress and resources of healthcare professionals with specific tools is important. Psychological interventions should promote their psychological health. (shrink)

The aim of this study was to understand how training and playing conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic affected the performance of Euroleague Basketball players. Using a non-participant observation analysis, the study compared the seasons before the lockdown with the season after restart. Paired t-tests and Wilcoxon tests were applied for variables with normal and non-normal distributions, respectively. The results revealed significant changes in several offensive and defensive performance-related variables during pandemic times : free throw attempts, free throw percentage, turnovers, (...) three-point attempt rate, fouls, points, and possessions. The pre-pandemic HA significantly decreased after the lockdown, with games played with no crowd. The one-sample t-test showed that the HA after the COVID-19 interruption was not significantly greater than 50%, indicating that the HA did not endure during the pandemic condition. Although significant differences between home and away teams were found for most performance-related variables in both pre-pandemic and pandemic conditions, variations of the relative HA were only significant for free throw attempts, points, and turnovers. The results of this study showed that performance variables were affected by the COVID-19 lockdown. Thus, these findings may help coaches, players, and referees to counteract unwanted competitive events and improve their overall performance, regardless of the contextual/situational circumstances encountered. (shrink)

Data analysis from diverse medical fields suggests that we have reached a tipping point in the digitalization dynamic through the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, leading to an escalation of physical inactivity and related diseases. The lack of prioritization of physical activity designed to intervene against obesity, diabetes, loneliness, depression, anxiety disorders and suicide risk could destabilize our current global health system beyond rehabilitation. To counteract this, the author outlines the basis for a sustainable solution to best integrate physical activity into (...) work, daily life and education. In addition, he highlights the potential benefits of combining exercise training with microdosing of psilocybin or of active ingredient essences of psilocybin-containing mushrooms. The article also shows that the integration of mindfulness-based practice and neuroplastic movement practice is a necessity and a competitive advantage for the future. (shrink)

During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, a wide range of digital technologies and data analytics have been incorporated into pandemic response models globally, in the hope of better detecting, tracking, monitoring and containing outbreaks. This increased digital involvement in disease control has offered the prospect of heightened effectiveness in all of the above, but not without raising other concerns. This paper contributes to ongoing discussions of the digital transformation in disease control by proposing a materialist analysis of how (...) such control has become operative and what its effects may be, both now and in the future. Using Taiwan's digital pandemic response as a case study, the paper explores specific ways in which material processes and arrangements have shaped digital measures, as well as the actions that rendered such measures operable, with their ensuing consequences. This analysis illustrates the importance of historical, material and technological specificities and contingencies to our understanding of how digital disease control takes a particular shape. It also demonstrates how shifting regimes of practice continually reconfigure the ways in which digital disease control functions. The paper argues that paying greater attention to the materialities of digital disease control can provide a more nuanced understanding of the complex ways in which society may be protected or harmed by its use, possibly simultaneously. It is hoped that such increased attentiveness may inform more considered and careful preparation for subsequent pandemics. (shrink)

Este artigo retoma os conceitos de poder disciplinar e biopoder em Michel Foucault para, então, fazer um diagnóstico do contexto pandêmico causado pela Covid-19. Ao se considerar que mais da metade da população mundial foi orientada ao isolamento social, bem como à alteração de hábitos cotidianos a fim de diminuir a propagação do vírus SARS-CoV-2, é possível perceber em Foucault as medidas da técnica disciplinar e da tecnologia biopolítica, ambas direcionadas à preservação da vida da população. Considera-se que o (...) poder disciplinar e o biopoder funcionam na atual pandemia num contexto inédito, marcado pelo avanço tecnológico. (shrink)

Civil Protection and disaster risk specific agencies legally responsible to enhance individual and community resilience, still utilize in their risk and crisis communication efforts, the “deficit model” even though its basic assumption and approach have been criticized. Recent studies indicate that information seeking behavior is not necessarily a measure of enhanced individual preparedness. A qualitative change from “blindly” following directions to practicing emergency planning and becoming your own disaster risk manager is required. For pandemics, the challenge is even more complicated (...) due to their unique characteristics. Community based exercises, a framework concept encompassing a variety of interactive activities, have recently started being utilized to develop resilience amongst citizens. Existing models of resilience can pinpoint to the required knowledge, skills and attitude. Research in the factors influencing behavioral change could offer new understanding of the interplay between cognitive and demographic drivers/factors of resilience. Such knowledge could be utilized for setting targeted objectives, developing appropriate activities and the corresponding training for the CBEx facilitators. Despite the importance of preparation, the current covid-19 crisis indicates that high levels of adaptive resilience can be displayed even in the absence of any risk communication effort beforehand by utilizing a pre-existing collective understanding of the system situation. (shrink)

BackgroundIt is becoming increasingly apparent that the COVID-19 pandemic not only poses risks to physical health, but that it also might lead to a global mental health crisis, making the exploration of protective factors for mental well-being highly relevant. The present study seeks to investigate religious/spiritual well-being as a potential protective factor with regard to psychiatric symptom burden and addictive behavior.Materials and MethodsThe data was collected by conducting an online survey in the interim period between two national lockdowns with (...) young adults in Austria. The primary study variables were assessed through the Brief Symptom Inventory 18, the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test and the Multidimensional Inventory for Religious/Spiritual Well-Being short version, with its sub-dimensions Hope, Forgiveness, General Religiosity, and Connectedness.ResultsWe observed HO and FO as substantial negative predictors of psychiatric symptom burden. With regard to addictive behavior, HO in particular but also GR seem to have a protective function. Furthermore, we found positive connections between CO, psychiatric symptom burden, and addictive behavior.ConclusionIn line with our assumptions, HO, FO and to a minor extent GR were confirmed as negative predictors regarding psychiatric symptom burden or addictive behavior in young adults, coping with the psychological threat of COVID-19 pandemic. These dimensions might be further considered as potential resources in clinical treatment. However, the positive prediction of mental illness parameters by increased feelings of CO could also be interpreted as an expression of exhaustion and alienation from the real world. (shrink)

We present the first systematic literature review on stress and burnout in K−12 teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a systematic literature search, we identified 17 studies that included 9,874 K−12 teachers from around the world. These studies showed some indication that burnout did increase during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were, however, almost no differences in the levels of stress and burnout experienced by K−12 teachers compared to individuals employed in other occupational fields. School principals' leadership styles (...) emerged as an organizational characteristic that is highly relevant for K−12 teachers' levels of stress and burnout. Individual teacher characteristics associated with burnout were K−12 teachers' personality, self-efficacy in online teaching, and perceived vulnerability to COVID-19. In order to reduce stress, there was an indication that stress-management training in combination with training in technology use for teaching may be superior to stress-management training alone. Future research needs to adopt more longitudinal designs and examine the interplay between individual and organizational characteristics in the development of teacher stress and burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. (shrink)

This study empirically analyzed how attitudes toward the introduction of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) in South Korean society evolved before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, it examined how attitudes toward the introduction of a UBI changed under the assumption of tax increases, using data from. The results of the analysis indicate a tendency for attitudes towards UBI to become more cautious, despite the experience of a system with UBI characteristics. Factors that significantly influence attitudes towards the (...) introduction of UBI based on the 2021 data include income, gender, marital status, age group and political ideology. In addition, the “Not Out Of My Pocket” (Noomp) phenomenon is evident in the context of the introduction of a UBI with the presumption of a tax burden. It is therefore clear that social consensus on tax increases is of paramount importance in the development of welfare systems, including UBI. (shrink)

Introduction: After the outbreak of COVID-19, psychological hotlines functioned as a main channel of psychological assistance and required a large number of professionals to provide services. These hotlines mostly offered a single-use service with short session times and allowed callers to retain anonymity. They functioned as a psychological counseling service for stress experienced in the COVID-19 public health emergency. Hotline psychological counselors must meet special competency requirements. The selection and evaluation tools for recruiting hotline counselors need to be (...) developed.Materials and Methods: The initial scale of competence for psychological hotline counselors was formed by expert evaluation based on theoretical constructs and by using the Delphi method. A link to the questionnaire was sent to a WeChat group of counselors from 36 major psychological hotlines in China in two stages. The questionnaire consisted of questions to elicit basic demographic information and the initial competence scale. In the first phase, 343 valid samples were used to perform exploratory factor analysis. In the second phase, 334 valid samples were used to perform confirmatory factor analysis. The status of the competence of psychological hotline counselors was also analyzed.Results: The factor structure of the Psychological Hotline Counselor Competence Scale was verified and defined in terms of skills, attitude, and knowledge. The results of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis showed that the scale has good reliability and validity. The McDonald’s omega for each factor was calculated. Meanwhile, it was found that the psychological hotline counselors’ self-assessed competence had a high average score.Conclusion: The Competence Scale for Psychological Hotline Counselors for Major Public Emergencies developed in this study has good reliability and validity, and can be a reliable tool for organizing psychological assistance and screening hotline psychological counselors during public emergencies in the future. (shrink)