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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a significant increase in academic research in the realm of social sciences. As such, there is an increasing need for the scientific community to adopt effective and efficient methods to examine the potential role and contribution of social sciences in the fight against COVID-19. Objectives: This study aims to identify the key topics and explore publishing trends in social science research pertaining to COVID-19 via automated literature analysis. Methods: The automated literature analysis employed utilizes keyword analysis and topic modelling technique, specifically Latent Dirichlet Allocation, to highlight the most relevant research terms, overarching research themes and research trends within the realm of social science research on COVID-19. Results: The focus of research and topics were derived from 9733 full-text academic papers. The bulk of social science research on COVID-19 centres on the following themes: 'Clinical Treatment', 'Epidemic Crisis', 'Mental Influence', 'Impact on Students', 'Lockdown Influence' and 'Impact on Children'. Conclusion: This study adds to our understanding of key topics in social science research on COVID-19. The automated literature analysis presented is particularly useful for librarians and information specialists keen to explore the role and contributions of social science topics in the context of pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic led to major changes in public policies to address supply chain disruption and escalated the price of consumer disinfectant products. To address market demands on alcohol‐based hand rubs and disinfectants, Health Canada implemented major changes to the regulations regarding composition, handling, transportation, and packaging to insure product availability. Furthermore, accelerated licensing of ingredients and packaging did not meet standard medical quality guidelines yet were authorized for manufacturing and packaging of alcohol‐based hand rubs and disinfectants. The accountability associated with these policy changes were reactive, including industry self‐reporting, consumer reporting, and Health Canada advisories and recalls that were responsive to products after they were available in the market. Nonetheless, Canadian public health policy increased hand sanitizers availability. However, some of the interim policies have raised major public health concerns associated with ethanol quality, packaging, and labeling, and enforcement of regulations. In this paper, we review the changes in the Canadian regulations amid the current pandemic and we evaluate the unintended health risks that might arise from these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the COVID‐19 virus first arrived in the United States in early 2020, many epidemiologists and public health officers counseled for shutdowns and advised policymakers to prepare for a major pandemic. In 2020, though, US society was rife with major political and cultural divides. Some elected leaders promoted policies at odds with the experts, and many people refused to heed the public health‐based communications about the coming pandemic. Additionally, the capacity to respond to a pandemic was distributed in the country in a highly unequal fashion. This paper analyzes the noteworthy geopolitical patterns of COVID‐19 illnesses, subsequent demands on hospitals, and resulting deaths. This description is based on a snapshot of archival data gathered in the midst of the pandemic during late January and early February of 2021. Demographic data, indicators of political party support, indicators of citizen attitudes, and public health compliance behaviors are combined in a multivariate analysis to explain COVID‐19 outcomes at the local government (county) level. The analysis suggests strongly that regional political culture and local demographics played a substantial role in determining the severity of the public health impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Key points: During the early stages of the COVID Pandemic, regional political culture and local demographics played a substantial role in determining the severity of the public health impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic.Race, as measured by the percent white of a county, was the single strongest predictor of COVID outcomes.Preparing for future pandemics requires us to address social and economic inequality in our society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence is accumulating of the negative impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic and related public health measures on mental health. In this emergent field, there has been little research into the role of risk perception on depressive symptoms and the contribution of health‐care resources to model risk perception and mental health. The aim of this paper is to describe the relationship between individual‐level perception of risk and depression, controlling for a set of confounders and for country‐level heterogeneity. A cross‐sectional and observational online survey was conducted using a non‐probability snowball sampling technique. We use data on 11,340 respondents, living in six European countries (Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom, France, Poland, Czech Republic) who completed survey questionnaires during the first months of the pandemic. We used a fixed‐effect approach, which included individual and macro‐level variables. The findings suggest that a high proportion of people suffering from depression and heightened risk perception is positively associated with reporting depressive symptoms, even if this relationship varies significantly between countries. Moreover, the association is moderated by contextual factors including health‐care expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, hospital beds for acute care, and number of medical specialists per head of population. Investment in health care offers a concrete means of protecting the mental health of a population living under pandemic restrictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]