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The intersection in 2020 of the new COVID-19 pandemic with the ongoing pandemic of anti-black racism exacerbated existing injustices as well as caused and revealed new inequities in US higher education. Because inequities in assessment in particular were intensified by these twin pandemics, faculty at several US colleges revised assessment approaches as part of their pedagogical partnership work over the last year. This paper describes the one-on-one, semester-long, pedagogical partnerships these faculty undertook with undergraduates not enrolled in the faculty members' courses. It reviews the commitments of such partnership work to equity and justice, offers examples of how four faculty-student pairs across the disciplines at three US colleges revised their approaches to assessment, and analyzes how these examples work toward equity and justice. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of such work not only at the intersection of twin pandemics but under all circumstances.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the job requirements of school leaders and has negatively impacted the academic outcomes for students (Kuhfeld et al., 2020). As a result of the ongoing demands and stress caused by this pandemic, school leaders are at an increased risk for physical and mental health problems (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005; Brackett et al., 2018; Murphy, 2011; Sorenson, 2007) and, as a result, are less likely to continue in their profession long-term (Brackett et al., 2018; Farrace, 2020). In an effort to subvert the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as future crises, this paper posits the need for educational leadership preparation programs that focus on interventions that address the emotional intelligence, emotional agility, and crisis-induced stressors of current and emerging school educators. This paper reviews interventions to mitigate and manage work-related stressors through the integration of social-emotional constructs, mindfulness, mindfulness-based programs, and self-regulatory practices to decrease work-related stressors, prevent professional burnout, increase school educator retention, and prepare school leaders for effective crisis management. Recommendations are provided for future leadership preparation programs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the many existing inequalities in education systems across the world. Not all children have easy access to educational online resources or digital technologies, a situation more amplified in rural contexts where access, connectivity and affordability play a significant factor. This qualitative account reveals examples of how rural school leaders were able to find innovative ways early in the COVID-19 pandemic to address the remote learning needs of their students and families. This paper shares in-the-moment experiences of rural principals, and those who supported them, in quickly transitioning to address student needs when school buildings closed. Support actions of regional and state education agencies are also described. Principals' schools are located in rural areas of Kansas, Pennsylvania and Queensland, Australia. Principals' attention to place and teacher capacity enabled students and families to access educational offerings and supports in new ways.

In the Spring 2021 Organic Chemistry Lab class at Penn State Schuylkill, COVID-19 restrictions and uncertainty required a flexible plan. The first 4 weeks of 15 were fully remote, and videos of standard organic techniques were used, followed by an exam. In the next 5 weeks, some students were in the lab and some were remote. A document camera was used to show one of the in-class students carrying out reaction experiments, mistakes and all, and this was broadcast to the remote students. In the final 6 weeks, the in-class students did a research project, report, and short presentation. The remote students were given a new literature project in which they were each assigned a process research chemistry paper from "Organic Process Research and Development." They gave a longer presentation on the process used to prepare a drug. All three parts of the course are discussed in this paper.

This design case documents the reimagination of new faculty orientation for a mid-sized public university due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. This fully virtual iteration was facilitated during the summer of 2020 and is compared both to previous in-person iterations of new faculty orientation as well as a blended modality version of the orientation program offered in 2021. The redesign is explained using language from Puntedura's (2006) Substitution- Augmentation- Modification- Redefinition (SAMR) model of technology application in distributed learning. Such terminology provided a helpful common vocabulary for a design team pressured to determine which elements of orientation needed to be fully reimagined for successful virtual implementation and where simple substitution would suffice. A description of synchronous elements from the fully virtual orientation as well as artifacts from the asynchronous portions is included. A lack of formal evaluation for the reimagined new faculty orientation space is shared as an element of design failure. The informal evaluation uncovered attendee appreciation of both flexibility and recursiveness, feedback our design team used to combat criticism of a lack of attention during virtual events. The paper concludes with a reflection on the need for transparent communication between event attendees, event designers, and other key invested partners (such as university administration) if the benefits of virtual orientation programming are to be adopted for our institution beyond emergency modalities.

This paper presents the results of a nationwide survey of educators for grades 6-12 who specialize in family and consumer sciences education (N=380). The paper examines teacher reports about their self-efficacy in online learning during the switch to off-campus instruction. Data revealed that district communication to teachers indicating that they were doing a good job and teachers having had prior online interactions with students were significantly related to the teachers' positive perceptions of self-efficacy.

In March 2020, many academic librarians were abruptly forced into an online service environment due to the global COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Although some librarians had been providing synchronous video reference consultations prior to the pandemic, evidence of the practice in Library Science literature is scant. This paper presents scenarios sourced from anonymized student responses to a digital badge on the library's chat reference service to illustrate when a video consultation may be the appropriate modality to address an information need.

In this paper we examine the relationship between vaccination against COVID-19 and both the death rate from COVID-19 and the rate of COVID-19 spread. Our goal is determine if vaccination is associated with reduced death and/or spread of disease at the local level. This analysis was conducted at the county level in the state of Pennsylvania, United States of America, with data that were collected during the first half of 2022 from the state of Pennsylvania's Covid Dashboard (COVID-19 Data for Pennsylvania (pa.gov). This study finds the vaccines to be highly effective in preventing death from Corona virus, even at a time when there was a mismatch between the vaccines and the prevalent variants. Specifically, a 1% increase in vaccination rate was found to correspond to a 0.751% decrease in death rate (95% confidence interval [0.236%, 1.266%]). Given that, during this time period, the vaccines being used were not geared specifically toward the common variants at that time, we found no statistically significant relationship between disease spread and vaccination rate at the county level. These results support previous findings from across the world that Covid vaccination is highly efficacious in preventing death from the disease. Even during a time when vaccine design was not optimally matched with the prevailing strains, vaccination was found to reduce death rate. Hence, improving global vaccine availability is vitally important, to achieve necessary outcomes., (© 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: Influenza (flu) and COVID-19 vaccination rates are subpar across the US, especially in racial and/or socioeconomic minority groups who are understudied in public health literature. Objective: The objective of this mixed-methods study was to elucidate attitudes of patients at the Turtle Creek Primary Care Center, a clinic that cares for ∼70% non-white patients, towards flu and COVID-19 vaccines, with the goal of establishing vaccine education gaps and increasing vaccine uptake in minority communities. Design/Patients: This study was conducted as a cross-sectional analysis. Authors completed 123 patient phone surveys of patients cared for at the Turtle Creek clinic inquiring about flu and COVID-19 infection status and vaccination uptake (August 26–October 10, 2021). Approach/Key Results: We found that rates of vaccination were subpar in the Turtle Creek community, with only 54% having received the COVID-19 vaccine and only 44% receiving the flu vaccine regularly. There was a strong association between COVID-19 and flu vaccine acceptance and a notable correlation between vaccine acceptance and age. When assessing how vaccine acceptance was influenced by trusted sources of information, those who cited trusting "medical professionals" and "word of mouth" had higher odds of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance but those who cited trusting "social media" had decreased odds of acceptance. Finally, we uncovered 14 common factors for either vaccine acceptance or refusal that clustered into four overarching themes of trust, need, safety, and availability. Conclusion: These data highlight the necessity of improved vaccine education and reveal targetable populations and approaches for disseminating vaccine information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted court operations across the country. In March and April of 2020 "business-as-usual" was upended and the entire court system was forced to respond in an unprecedented way. Using Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing data, we explore the impact that COVID-19 had on sentencing outcomes. Three distinct periods: pre-COVID-19, the onset of COVID-19 during which an emergency judicial order limited court operations, and a period after the order was lifted are defined to compare trends and assess differences. Utilizing the natural experiment created by the pandemic we present a descriptive and multivariate analysis of sentencing practices focused on racial disparities. The paper employs two theoretical frameworks (focal concerns and the liberation hypothesis) to motivate competing expectations regarding sentencing behavior and disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This investigation sought to determine whether early season rates of pediatric influenza vaccination changed in a season when there was a concurrent COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: This study used cohort and cross sectional data from an academic primary care division in Southcentral Pennsylvania that serves approximately 17,500 patients across 4 practice sites. Early season (prior to November 1) vaccination rates in 2018, 2019 and 2020 were recorded for children, age 6 months to 17 years. To explore the impact of COVID-19 on vaccination, we fit a model with a logit link (estimated via generalized estimating equations to account for clustering by patient over time) on calendar year, adjusted for race, ethnicity, age, and insurance type. We examined interaction effects of demographic covariates with calendar year., Results: Early vaccination rates were lower in 2020 (29.7%) compared with 2018 and 2019 (34.2% and 33.3%). After adjusting for covariates and accounting for clustering over time, the odds of early vaccination in 2020 were 19% lower compared to 2018 (OR 0.81, 95% CI: 0.78-0.85). In 2020, children with private insurance were more likely to receive early vaccination than in 2018 (OR 1.51, 95% CI: 1.04-1.15), whereas children with public insurance were less likely to receive early vaccination in 2020 than in 2018 (OR 0.62, 95% CI: 1.38-1.65)., Conclusions: Early influenza vaccination rates declined in a year with a concurrent COVID-19 pandemic. Modeling that accounts for individual trends and demographic variables identified specific populations with lower odds of early vaccination in 2020. Additional research is needed to investigate whether the COVID-19 pandemic impacted parental intent to obtain the influenza vaccine, or introduced barriers to healthcare access., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The Nepali-speaking Bhutanese (NSB) community living in Central Pennsylvania has been significantly affected by COVID-19 due to various biopsychosocial determinants of health. In this paper, we discuss interventions developed by a tertiary care health system in Central Pennsylvania to provide immediate support to the NSB community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National ID cards have been debated for some time, especially with the recent Covid-19 global pandemic and increases in technological capabilities, coupled with the need for higher national security. This paper is an empirical extension of Smith's work but in light of the current economic and political turmoil. These differences were inspected from a gender perspective, but the distrust was generally universal. As the beneficial reasons why National ID cards should be implemented (e.g., enhanced security, convenience, and enhancing CRM concepts), still many professionals exhibit numerous fears and are concerned with the risks involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Influenza and COVID-19 vaccination rates remain suboptimal, demanding new community-centric approaches that improve targeted counseling and increase vaccine uptake. Notably, racially diverse communities show high vaccine hesitancy, yet most existing vaccine studies focus on white, college-educated cohorts. Objective: Here, we identify factors influencing vaccination decisions of patients at Turtle Creek Primary Care clinic in Turtle Creek, PA, a racially-diverse borough. Design: A retrospective mixed-methods study of the predominantly non-white patient population at Turtle Creek Primary Care clinic, a clinic caring for >70% minority patients. Results: Fourteen factors emerged that patients reported were crucial to vaccine decision-making. Of these factors, top reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy were trust in vaccines, vaccine side effects, perceived vaccine knowledge, and faith/religion. Top reasons for influenza vaccine hesitancy were perceived need, vaccine side effects, trust in vaccines, and habitual behaviors. We also uncovered correlations between vaccine decision factors and sociodemographic factors. Participants > 65-years-old were more likely to cite personal safety in choosing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, while non-white participants were more likely to cite others' safety. Participants > 65-years-old were also more likely to cite personal safety in influenza vaccine decision-making, and non-female participants were more likely to cite perceived need for influenza vaccines. Conclusions: These data uncover targetable factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy and aid in developing community-centered, personalized vaccine education approaches in Turtle Creek and analogous minority communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unprecedented changes in human mobility in the United States during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic provided a unique opportunity to relate changes in urban stream water quality to the intensity of human activity on six types of land use. This study evaluated the baseflow-dominated stream response of pH, total nitrogen (TN), and nitrate-nitrogen between five in-stream sampling sites located in four watersheds with different types and degrees of development in Delaware County, Pennsylvania before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2018 to 2021). This investigation found that significant water quality changes coincided with dramatic declines in human mobility during the pandemic. Human mobility was quantified using county-level volunteer reports of the use of Google apps on electronic devices. A two-way analysis of variance identified significant changes in pH, TN, and nitrate-nitrogen at all four sampling locations during monthly baseflow-dominated stream flow sampling before and during the pandemic to the decline in human movement and activity. However, the limited pre-pandemic sampling design did not observe overall significant water quality trends for the interaction of water quality between locations before and during the pandemic. The lack of significant interaction could suggest that changes in human mobility due to COVID-19 restrictions impacted stream water quality across sites at least in a similar fashion. This study provided definitive evidence that cell phone tracking can identify some of the impact of urban nonpoint sources spatially and dynamically, highlighting the role of political and socio-economic factors on the intensity of human activities that might be reflected on stream water quality changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the onset of the pandemic in the United States, racial disparities in COVID-19 outcomes have been evident. In April 2020, several events prompted a concerned group of colleagues to form the Black Equity Coalition (BEC), a Black-led coalition in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, which brings together professionals from multiple sectors who aim to ensure an equitable response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Several significant milestones have been achieved, and this article describes the development, functioning, and outcomes of the Coalition in the first 15 months of operation (April 2020–June 2021). COVID-19 was the reason for such an unprecedented effort, but this BEC infrastructure will be needed long after COVID-19 is controlled. In addition to short-term activities and reactive measures to prevent and mitigate COVID-19 in Black populations, the BEC is serving as a crucial link between government, health care stakeholders, and communities to produce long-term systemic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts by universities to reduce the spread of COVID-19 include health campaigns intended to encourage students to wear masks. While well-intended, these efforts may produce counter-persuasion (e.g., decrease masking) if they are seen as threatening individuals' freedom to choose. In a rolling cross-sectional study of one university campaign (n = 681), we found that the presence of the campaign did instigate a form of resistance known as reactance and that reactance was negatively associated with masking behavior. Masking was also diminished by the frequency with which respondents observed others not wearing a mask (anti-masking descriptive norm) and the frequency with which respondents observed others expressing disdain for masking (anti-masking injunctive norm). Most of these findings were magnified among students who identified as politically conservative. There was no evidence that the frequency of seeing others speak in favor of masks (pro-masking injunctive norm) produced an increase in masking. The results provide valuable theoretical insights into the causes of reactance and empirical evidence of the risks associated with student-oriented COVID safety campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many parts of the world nursing home residents have experienced a disproportionate risk of exposure to COVID-19 and have died at much higher rates than other groups. There is a critical need to identify the factors driving COVID-19 risk in nursing homes to better understand and address the conditions contributing to their vulnerability during public health crises. This study investigates the characteristics associated with COVID-19 cases and deaths among residents in U.S. nursing homes from 2020 to 2021, with a focus on geospatial and racial inequalities. Using data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and LTCFocus, this paper uses zero-inflated negative binomial regression models, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and Local Moran's I to generate statistical and geospatial results. Our analysis reveals that majority Hispanic facilities have alarmingly high COVID-19 cases and deaths, suggesting that these facilities have the greatest need for policy improvements in staffing and financing to reduce racial inequalities in nursing home care. At the same time we also detect COVID-19 hot spots in rural areas with predominately White residents, indicating a need to rethink public messaging strategies in these areas. The top states with COVID-19 hot spots are Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Oklahoma. This research provides new insights into the socio-spatial contexts and inequities that contribute to the vulnerability of nursing home residents during a pandemic. • Geographic and racial inequalities are important indicators of covid-19 risk. • Covid-19 cases & deaths are high among facilities with majority Hispanic residents. • Facilities with majority Hispanic residents have high covid-19 vaccination rates. • Most covid-19 hot spots of cases & deaths are in predominantly White, rural areas. • The top states with covid-19 hot spots of cases & deaths are KY, PA, IL, and OK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the findings of a multimethod study of the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Pennsylvania (PA) farmers during the 2020 growing season. Previous research on resiliency and the food system has encouraged exploring ways to describe the agency and adaptability of farmers as they respond to changing conditions. Further, the research has documented the ways that governments intervene to maintain the overall structure of the food system. This study utilized a three-part framework that focused on (a) understanding the impact of the pandemic on PA farmers, (b) describing farmer adaptation strategies and direct-to-consumer marketing practices, and (c) documenting federal relief program participation. The project included an anonymous survey of more than 300 farmers and semi-structured inter views with a subset of 16 farmers. Based on the findings from the survey, under half (42%) of farmers reported a loss of revenue, while over half reported either no change or an increase in revenue in 2020. We also found that vegetable farmers fared slightly better than livestock/dairy farmers; those with a higher pre-COVID revenue did better than those with a lower pre-COVID revenue; and farms that were able to increase direct-to-consumer sales maintained or increased their total revenues. About half of the farmers surveyed participated in federal aid programs, yet a portion of small farms indicated they did not know whether they qualified for this funding. We discuss the unprecedented scale of federal aid to farmers in 2020 and the remaining access gaps for smaller farmers. Additionally, we discuss the potentially protective role of direct-to-consumer sales for enhancing the resilience of regional food systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vaccination remains key to reducing the risk of COVID-19–related severe illness and death. Because of historic medical exclusion and barriers to access, Black communities have had lower rates of COVID-19 vaccination than White communities. We describe the efforts of an academic medical institution to implement community-based COVID-19 vaccine clinics in medically underserved neighborhoods in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Over a 13-month period (April 2021–April 2022), the initiative delivered 9038 vaccine doses to community members, a majority of whom (57%) identified as Black. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(12):1721–1725. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.307030) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Syringe services programmes face operational challenges to provide life‐sustaining services to people who use substances and those who have substance use disorders. COVID‐19 has disrupted operations at these programmes and is a threat to people with substance use disorder because of severe poverty, de‐prioritisation of COVID‐19 safety and high prevalence of comorbidities. This phenomenological qualitative study describes 16 in‐depth interviews with staff of one of the largest syringe services programme in North America—Prevention Point Philadelphia, located in the Kensington neighbourhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Interviews were conducted from December 2020 to February 2021, audio‐recorded, transcribed and coded to develop a thematic framework. Participants were mostly white (71.4%) and female (68.8%) with a median age of 31.5. Three main and four sub‐themes related to the impact of COVID‐19 on the syringe services programme were identified: (1) COVID‐19 altered services provision (sub‐theme: select service changes should be retained); (2) unclear or absent COVID‐19 response guidance which compromised mitigation (sub‐themes: COVID‐19 messaging was difficult to translate to practice, learn‐as‐we‐go); and (3) staff and clients experienced elevated mental anguish during the pandemic (sub‐theme: already limited resources were further strained). COVID‐19 presented complex challenges to an organisation normally strained in pre‐pandemic times. A staff culture of resourcefulness and resiliency aided the syringe services programme to balance client needs and staff safety. However, staff experienced a serious psychological impact, largely attributable to being unable to find reprieve from the stressors of COVID‐19 and the difficulties associated with navigating and acting‐on contradictory public health messaging. Staff also shared a belief that the relaxing of some pre‐pandemic barriers allowed staff to link clients more readily with services. Syringe services programmes should embrace the potential for lasting changes to health services delivery brought about by wide‐scale changes in service provisions because of COVID‐19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic brought significant economic challenges to state and local governments, resulting in funding cuts for many government services, including parks and recreation (Young, 2020). As park and recreation agencies work to sustain and increase funding during and beyond the pandemic, it is important to understand the perceptions of key decision-making stakeholders and document the contributions of parks and recreation during the pandemic. Local residents are a primary stakeholder for municipal parks and recreation who have the potential to influence funding and policy through their participation, voting, and advocacy. Research has suggested that individuals are more likely to support parks and recreation and view them as essential when they perceive they provide benefits that address their own as well as broader community needs. Parks and recreation have previously been identified as valuable contributors to health, and as such, these services may have provided essential benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. This panel study investigated Pennsylvania residents and the extent they considered parks and recreation an essential community service during the COVID-19 pandemic. It further assessed the rationale for why parks and recreation were considered either essential or non-essential during this time period. A majority of respondents (54%) felt local parks and recreation were an essential service in their community during the pandemic. People who recently used parks and people with higher incomes and levels of education perceived parks and recreation to be more essential during COVID-19. When asked why they considered parks and recreation to be essential, respondents discussed contributions to physical health, mental health and well-being, the safe provision of recreation opportunities, and social and community connectedness. Conversely, parks and recreation were considered non-essential when they had been closed, when individuals were unsure of what services were actually provided during the pandemic, or they were perceived as unsafe or unsanitary given the presence of COVID-19. Findings provide evidence of the contributions provided by local parks and recreation during the COVID-19 pandemic and suggest influenceable factors associated with perceptions of whether parks and recreation are an essential community service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Objective: We presented a machine learning approach leveraging passive sensor data from smartphones and fitness trackers of people with MS to predict their health outcomes in a natural experiment during a state-mandated stay-at-home period due to a global pandemic. Methods: First, we extracted features that capture behavior changes due to the stay-at-home order. Then, we adapted and applied an existing algorithm to these behavior-change features to predict the presence of depression, high global MS symptom burden, severe fatigue, and poor sleep quality during the stay-at-home period. Results: Using data collected between November 2019 and May 2020, the algorithm detected depression with an accuracy of 82.5% (65% improvement over baseline; F1-score: 0.84), high global MS symptom burden with an accuracy of 90% (39% improvement over baseline; F1-score: 0.93), severe fatigue with an accuracy of 75.5% (22% improvement over baseline; F1-score: 0.80), and poor sleep quality with an accuracy of 84% (28% improvement over baseline; F1-score: 0.84). Conclusions: Our approach could help clinicians better triage patients with MS and potentially other chronic neurological disorders for interventions and aid patient self-monitoring in their own environment, particularly during extraordinarily stressful circumstances such as pandemics, which would cause drastic behavior changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To assess the feasibility, acceptability, and effects of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) live online during the COVID-19 shutdown. Design: Mixed-methods study using a sequential explanatory design. Settings/location: Cohorts 1-4 took place in-person and Cohorts 5-6 took place over Zoom following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Subjects: Participants were paying members of the general public enrolled in one of six live MBSR courses. Interventions: All MBSR courses followed the standard 8-week MBSR curriculum, led by experienced instructors. Outcome measures: Feasibility measured via class attendance, acceptability measured via the adapted Treatment Satisfaction Survey, and MBSR course effects measured by a focus group with Cohort 5, and the following assessments completed by all cohorts: Perceived Stress Scale-10, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and the 36-item Short Form Survey. Results: 73 adults participated in six live MBSR courses (48 in the four in-person courses; 25 in the two online courses). Most of the participants identified as white, non-Hispanic, middle-aged females, with annual household income >$100,000. Course completion, defined as at least 6/8 classes attended, did not differ between in-person and online cohorts (84.1% versus 67.6%, respectively, p = 0.327). Participants in Cohort 5 who completed the course (n = 10) rated it as very important and useful for stress coping, and reported high likelihood of continuing their mindfulness practice (all ratings: between 8 and 10 on a 1-10 Likert scale), with open-ended responses corroborating their numerical ratings. Focus group (n = 6) responses indicated that online MBSR was positively received, reduced perceived loss of control, and improved quality of life and morale during the pandemic. Conclusions: Delivering MBSR live online can be feasible and acceptable for the general public, and is potentially beneficial, including during the social upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic. Online delivery could help expand access to MBSR and address health inequities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large US colleges and universities that re-opened campuses in the fall of 2020 and the spring of 2021 experienced high per capita rates of COVID-19. Returns to campus were controversial because they posed a potential risk to surrounding communities. A large university in Pennsylvania that returned to in-person instruction for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters reported high incidence of COVID-19 among students. However, the co-located non-student resident population in the county experienced fewer COVID-19 cases per capita than reported in neighboring counties. Activity patterns from mobile devices indicate that the non-student resident population near the university restricted their movements during the pandemic more than residents of neighboring counties. Respiratory virus prevention and management in student and non-student populations requires different, specifically targeted strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initial forecasts predicted severe financial losses for small and midsized farmers as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted usual market channels nationwide. Early reports both confirmed and challenged these fears, as some farmers could not find new markets while others established or expanded their direct-to-consumer sales to replace their lost outlets. To understand the impact of the pandemic on Pennsylvania farmers across the entire 2020 growing season, Chatham University and Pasa Sustainable Agriculture1 surveyed farmers and performed interviews with a subset of these farmers. The anonymous survey was distributed by Pennsylvania-based farm organizations to their constituents, predominantly through email. Just under half the farmers (42%) reported a loss of revenue, while over half (58%) reported either no change or an increase in revenue in 2020. The scale of these changes varied greatly. We also found that vegetable farmers fared slightly better than livestock/eggs/dairy farmers; those with a higher pre-COVID revenue did better than those with a lower pre-COVID revenue; and farms that were able to increase direct-to-consumer sales maintained or increased their total revenues. Participation in state and federal relief programs varied and appeared to have no significant effect on farmers' final 2020 revenue. Farmers' responses to the open-ended survey questions demonstrated that the weather, a lack of infrastructure to support small and midsized producers, and consumers' lack of support for a regional food system were major challenges before COVID. Without meaningful policy changes, these challenges will persist beyond the pandemic's resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pennsylvania responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by closing schools and moving to online instruction in March 2020. We surveyed Pennsylvania school nurses (N = 350) in May 2020 to assess the impact of COVID-19 on nurses' concerns about returning to school and impact on practice. Data were analyzed using χ2 tests and regression analyses. Urban school nurses were more concerned about returning to the school building without a COVID-19 vaccine than rural nurses (OR = 1.58, 95% CI [1.05, 2.38]). Nurses in urban locales were more likely to report being asked for guidance on COVID-19 (OR = 1.69, 95% CI [1.06, 2.68]), modify communication practices (OR = 2.33, 95% CI [1.42, 3.82]), and be "very/extremely concerned" about their safety (OR = 2.16, 95% CI [1.35, 3.44]). Locale and student density are important factors to consider when resuming in-person instruction; however, schools should recognize school nurses for their vital role in health communication to assist in pandemic preparedness and response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: In the first six months of the pandemic, information on race and ethnicity was missing for half of the US COVID-19 cases. Combining case ascertainment with census-based zip code indicators may identify COVID-19 race-ethnicity disparities in the absence of individual-level data.Design: Ecological retrospective study for the period March-July 2020.Setting: Population-based investigation, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.Participants: All COVID-19 cases, adjusted for zip code area population, in the early period of the pandemic.Main Outcome Measures: Monthly COVID-19 incidence and requests for human services by zip code level indicators of race-ethnicity and poverty.Results: In the early period of the pandemic, COVID-19 incidence was higher in zip codes with a greater proportion of racial and ethnic minorities. Zip codes with the highest quartile of minority residents (>25.1% of population) had a COVID-19 incidence of 60.1 (95% CI: 51.7-68.5) per 10,000 in this period; zip codes with the lowest quartile of minority residents (<6.3%) had an incidence of 31.3 (95% CI: 14.4-48.2). Requests for human services during this period (volume of 211 calls and county services) confirm these disparities.Conclusion: Use of census-defined race-ethnicity proportions by zip code offers a way to identify disparities when individual race-ethnicity data are unavailable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on return hospital admissions among 1419 COVID-19 patients discharged from Five U.S. Emergency Departments (ED). It mentions patient characteristics associated with return hospital admission and study cohort if they tested positive for COVID-19 within 7 days before or after the ED encounter. It also mentions selection of covariates occurred prior to analysis and was based on previous literature on risk factors for severe COVID-19 illness.