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Introduction: Public health ethics addresses moral dilemmas arising from balancing individual healthcare needs with societal interests. Ethical considerations in public health during pandemics and disasters aim to reduce mortality rates and minimize social injustice through fair principles. Objective: This paper analyzes public health ethics and ethical values in allocating resources during mass casualty incidents. The intersection of public health ethics, applied bioethics, and ethics of social consequences (through non-utilitarian consequentialism) guides addressing serious public health challenges in catastrophic scenarios. The application of the given interaction is significant for professional medical ethics. Methodology: The paper employs inductive, deductive, and normative methods of bioethics and the methodology of ethics of social consequences. Conclusion: The paradigmatic disparity between the bioethics of pandemics and disaster bioethics lies in the fluid application of bioethical principles and the accentuation of utilitarian demands depending on the severity and scale of mass casualty incidents. Applied bioethics in crisis situations respects the approaches of public health ethics and attempts to increase positive social outcomes. The application of (scarce) resource allocation criteria and triage of patients is derived from ethical decisions beneficial to public health and lege artis approaches of medical bioethics. The paper presents professional and ethical criteria for medically inappropriate treatment within the framework of patient triage; we approach crisis ethics from the perspective of maximization of benefit. Age is not an exclusion criterion of acute healthcare provision in crisis situations. Ethics of social consequences as a form of non-utilitarian consequentialism allowing for social consequences bridges public health ethics and applied bioethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, primary care nurses were often redeployed to areas outside of primary care to mitigate staffing shortages. Despite this, there is a scarcity of literature describing their perceptions of and experiences with redeployment during the pandemic. Objectives: This paper aims to: 1) describe the perspectives of primary care nurses with respect to redeployment, 2) discuss the opportunities/challenges associated with redeployment of primary care nurses, and 3) examine the nature (e.g., settings, activities) of redeployment by primary care nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with primary care nurses (i.e., Nurse Practitioners, Registered Nurses, and Licensed/Registered Practical Nurses), from four regions in Canada. These include the Interior, Island, and Vancouver Coastal Health regions in British Columbia; Ontario Health West region in Ontario; the province of Nova Scotia; and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Data related to redeployment were analyzed thematically. Results: Three overarching themes related to redeployment during the COVID-19 pandemic were identified: (1) Call to redeployment, (2) Redeployment as an opportunity/challenge, and (3) Scope of practice during redeployment. Primary care nurses across all regulatory designations reported variation in the process of redeployment within their jurisdiction (e.g., communication, policies/legislation), different opportunities and challenges that resulted from redeployment (e.g., scheduling flexibility, workload implications), and scope of practice implications (e.g., perceived threat to nursing license). The majority of nurses discussed experiences with redeployment being voluntary in nature, rather than mandated. Conclusions: Redeployment is a useful workforce strategy during public health emergencies; however, it requires a structured process and a decision-making approach that explicitly involves healthcare providers affected by redeployment. Primary care nurses ought only to be redeployed after other options are considered and arrangements made for the care of patients in their original practice area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Exclusive breastfeeding until six months of life is the ideal way to feed infants. However, there is a significant number of infants who have never breastfed, despite the beneficial properties of breastfeeding. On the other hand, the coronavirus outbreak had significant effects on people's health, both mentally and physically, and has also impacted the breastfeeding process. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the implication of COVID-19 on breastfeeding through qualitative data from databases. Methods: We searched online databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, PsycINFO) for studies published from 2019 to 2023. 'Out of the 2598 papers we found, only 12 were included in the review'. More specifically, from the 1558 papers remaining from the title and abstract evaluation as well as duplicates, a further 1546 papers belonging to our exclusion criteria were removed (all types of reviews, letters to editors, and quantitative articles). Results: Our results covered three subjects: breastfeeding support during the pandemic, effects of social containment measures on breastfeeding, and additional outcomes regarding breastfeeding. Most voices found the effects of the pandemic on breastfeeding beneficial, with reduced professional support and a high degree of support from the environment. Additional negative factors were observed, as well as consequences of the pandemic in women's lives. Conclusions: COVID-19 was the occasion to understand the power of the supportive environment of the woman, especially the partner, in establishing and maintaining breastfeeding. Therefore, policy makers and health professionals, especially midwives, should implement family-centered breastfeeding strategies that are more supportive of the partner role, providing problem counseling when and where deemed necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The burden of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare systems worldwide has been compromising the progress made in the fight against HIV. This paper aims to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted HIV comprehensive care service delivery globally as well as to consolidate the evidence and recommendations that may be useful in averting future crisis. Methods: This review adheres to PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, DOAJ, Science Direct and other sources like Google Scholar and citations from included studies were searched methodically to locate studies evaluating the effects of COVID on services for HIV care. The NIH and JBI quality assessment tools were used for the quality assessment of individual studies. Results: In the present review 31 eligible studies were included and the impact on HIV care cascade were summarised under six themes: Lab services, Treatment and allied services, Counselling services, Outreach services, Psycho-social impact and Implementation of sustainable strategies. The studies also presented many innovative alternatives which were lucidly highlighted in the present article. Conclusion: Current evidence depicts multiple factors are responsible for the interruption of HIV care service delivery during the pandemic, especially in low resources settings. The prospective, alternative solutions that have been used to circumvent the threat have also been addressed in this review, in addition to the negative aspects that have been observed. Transition with new innovative, sustainable care paradigms may prove to be the building blocks in removing HIV-AIDS as a public health threat. Registration: Open Science Framework (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/74GHM). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chatbots are computer programs that present a conversation-like interface through which people can access information and services. The COVID-19 pandemic has driven a substantial increase in the use of chatbots to support and complement traditional health care systems. However, despite the uptake in their use, evidence to support the development and deployment of chatbots in public health remains limited. Recent reviews have focused on the use of chatbots during the COVID-19 pandemic and the use of conversational agents in health care more generally. This paper complements this research and addresses a gap in the literature by assessing the breadth and scope of research evidence for the use of chatbots across the domain of public health. Objective: This scoping review had 3 main objectives: (1) to identify the application domains in public health in which there is the most evidence for the development and use of chatbots; (2) to identify the types of chatbots that are being deployed in these domains; and (3) to ascertain the methods and methodologies by which chatbots are being evaluated in public health applications. This paper explored the implications for future research on the development and deployment of chatbots in public health in light of the analysis of the evidence for their use. Methods: Following the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines for scoping reviews, relevant studies were identified through searches conducted in the MEDLINE, PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and Open Grey databases from mid-June to August 2021. Studies were included if they used or evaluated chatbots for the purpose of prevention or intervention and for which the evidence showed a demonstrable health impact. Results: Of the 1506 studies identified, 32 were included in the review. The results show a substantial increase in the interest of chatbots in the past few years, shortly before the pandemic. Half (16/32, 50%) of the research evaluated chatbots applied to mental health or COVID-19. The studies suggest promise in the application of chatbots, especially to easily automated and repetitive tasks, but overall, the evidence for the efficacy of chatbots for prevention and intervention across all domains is limited at present. Conclusions: More research is needed to fully understand the effectiveness of using chatbots in public health. Concerns with the clinical, legal, and ethical aspects of the use of chatbots for health care are well founded given the speed with which they have been adopted in practice. Future research on their use should address these concerns through the development of expertise and best practices specific to public health, including a greater focus on user experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, as society struggled with increasing disease burden, economic hardships, and with disease morbidity and mortality, governments and institutions began implementing stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders to help stop the spread of the virus. Although wellintentioned, one unintended adverse consequence was an increase in violence, abuse, and neglect. Methods: We reviewed the literature on the effect the pandemic had on domestic violence, child and elder abuse and neglect, human trafficking, and gun violence. In this paper we explore common themes and causes of this violence and offer suggestions to help mitigate risk during ongoing and future pandemics. Just as these forms of violence primarily target at-risk, vulnerable populations, so did pandemic-related violence target marginalized populations including women, children, Blacks, and those with lower socioeconomic status. This became, and remains, a public health crisis within a crisis. In early 2021, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Public Health and Injury Committee was tasked with reviewing the impact the pandemic had on violence and abuse as the result of a resolution passed at the 2020 ACEP Council meeting. Conclusion: Measures meant to help control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic had many unintended consequences and placed people at risk for violence. Emergency departments (ED), although stressed and strained during the pandemic, remain a safety net for survivors of violence. As we move out of this pandemic, hospitals and EDs need to focus on steps that can be taken to ensure they preserve and expand their ability to assist victims should another pandemic or global health crisis develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the subjective realities of female students in higher education as they navigated their well-being and active lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing upon Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological framework, which confronts an often-neglected dimension of our experience—the lived body and the phenomenal world—we aim to inform the development of targeted support and interventions to address the specific needs of female students, in future pandemic times. By exploring how three female students studying sport and recreation in higher education perceived their experiences, this article seeks to shed light on the unique challenges faced by these women in maintaining physical activity, coping with isolation and a change in social networks, and managing their mental health in the context of the pandemic. Understanding these subjective realities (such as isolation, restricted physical activity, and loss of social connections) and interpreting the three students' lived habitats, their bodily responsiveness, and their spontaneity ensures that their experience is heard, and appropriate future support can be given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In its basic thesis, this paper presents medical intelligence (MEDINT) as a specific platform of intelligence work, its historical development, and transfer from the military to the civilian intelligence sector, as well as its transformations from the Cold War period to the present day. It also points out the key features of the application of traditional intelligence methods for the purpose of MEDINT. By setting MEDINT in the context of the current Covid-19 pandemic, we aim to show how the intelligence community contributed to the effective health crisis response by applying certain intelligence tools: epidemiological surveillance, gathering relevant intelligence, targeted counterintelligence and epidemiological contact tracing. The aim of this paper is to anticipate the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis on the future of the global security environment, and to point out new perspectives. It is undeniable that the Covid-19 crisis has imposed the need for medical intelligence to adapt to the new security reality. This process implies not only further development of specific resources (in accordance with MEDINT criteria), but also external connection with professional and academic communities, as well as continuous monitoring of activities that carry a certain risk to public health (dual use research). Eventually, it is especially important for the intelligence sector to build different models of international cooperation that can be crucial in the effective response to global health security threats, such as a pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pandemic has caused several health issues and deaths and numerous severe devastations to the global economy. Due to the extreme impacts of the epidemics, it is crucial to investigate the pandemics and their pessimistically hidden influences to devise proper strategies. However, although this topic gains enormous recognition from scholars and researchers, there is still an inadequacy of a comprehensive literature review on the issues, and in-depth research on individual aspects of the world economy. Accordingly, the objective of this paper is to contribute a literature review that synthesises and evaluates prior research, to examine the current state of the pandemic impacts on the global economy, as well as become the requisite foundation for the practitioners to perceive how to respond to a pandemic in the future. A literature review is conducted, with 254 most relevant articles are analysed and classified based on the proposed framework. Thus, the findings of this study contribute diverse theoretical and practical insights concerning pandemics and the global economy. The results of this paper indicate the current status of the literature review and discover future research directions. Additionally, this paper proposes an integrated framework of the most influenced industries, followed by some emerging solutions to the most suffering sectors. Future research directions are further suggested based on the identified research gaps and the analysis results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented challenges to health systems worldwide, including the control of non-COVID-19 diseases. Malaria cases and deaths may increase due to the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic in malaria-endemic countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This scoping review aims to summarize information on public health-relevant effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the malaria situation in SSA. Methods: Review of publications and manuscripts on preprint servers, in peer-reviewed journals and in grey literature documents from 1 December, 2019 to 9 June, 2021. A structured search was conducted on different databases using predefined eligibility criteria for the selection of articles. Results: A total of 51 papers have been included in the analysis. Modelling papers have predicted a significant increase in malaria cases and malaria deaths in SSA due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many papers provided potential explanations for expected COVID-19 effects on the malaria burden; these ranged from relevant diagnostical and clinical aspects to reduced access to health care services, impaired availability of curative and preventive commodities and medications, and effects on malaria prevention campaigns. Compared to previous years, fewer country reports provided data on the actual number of malaria cases and deaths in 2020, with mixed results. While highly endemic countries reported evidence of decreased malaria cases in health facilities, low endemic countries reported overall higher numbers of malaria cases and deaths in 2020. Conclusions: The findings from this review provide evidence for a significant but diverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on malaria in SSA. There is the need to further investigate the public health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the malaria burden. Protocol registered on Open Science Framework: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/STQ9D [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many governments in the world reacted to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic by swiftly offering stimulus packages to their populations. While public unpreparedness was dramatic, it was not unexpected: many alarms had been sounded. Strategies by the federal and various provincial governments of Canada in core sectors predisposed the country to the current situation and weakened its capacity to respond adequately. This paper reviews the cumulative effects of these strategic orientations: a deficient investment strategy in fundamental science; disconnect between laboratory work and the country's capacity to produce vaccines and antiviral drugs; the priority of cost efficiency that led to overwhelming dependency on foreign production of medical supplies; and dramatic spending cuts in public health. We will discuss a Mission strategy to exit the crisis that takes a long-term perspective, in which public interest and public health, combined with a strong State leadership, stimulate innovation and collaboration between national and international actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to various inequalities in global societies, highlighting discrepancies in terms of safety, accessibility, and overall health. In particular, sex workers are disproportionately at risk due to the nature of their work and the social stigma that comes alongside it. Objective: This study examines how public social media can be used as a tool of professional and personal expression by sex workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to explore an underresearched topic by focusing on sex workers' experiences with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the social media platform Twitter. In particular, we aimed to find the main issues that sex workers discuss on social media in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A literature review followed by a qualitative analysis of 1458 (re)tweets from 22 sex worker Twitter accounts was used for this study. The tweets were qualitatively coded by theme through the use of intercoder reliability. Empirical, experimental, and observational studies were included in this review to provide context and support for our findings. Results: In total, 5 major categories were identified as a result of the content analysis used for this study: concerns (n=542, 37.2%), solicitation (n=336, 23.0%), herd mentality (n=231, 15.8%), humor (n=190, 13.0%), and blame (n=146, 10.0%). The concerns category was the most prominent category, which could be due to its multifaceted nature of including individual concerns, health issues, concerns for essential workers and businesses, as well as concerns about inequalities or intersectionality. When using gender as a control factor, the majority of the results were not noteworthy, save for the blame category, in which sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) were more likely to post content. Conclusions: Though there has been an increase in the literature related to the experiences of sex workers, this paper recommends that future studies could benefit from further examining these 5 major categories through mixed methods research. Examining this phenomenon could recognize the challenges unique to this working community during the COVID-19 pandemic and potentially reduce the widespread stigma associated with sex work in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns, heightened anti-Roma rhetoric became noticeable across much of Europe. This article focuses on the narrative according to which Roma communities represented a threat to public health and which will be analysed through the lens of the theoretical work on moral panics. The empirical data used in this paper was obtained in the framework of a project investigating the impact of the pandemic on Roma communities in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Ukraine, between March-June 2020. Using the literature on moral panics as a framework of interpretation, this article aims to shed light on the processes leading to high levels of social consensus as to the threat to public health posed by Roma communities in these countries. To do so, it outlines the narratives disseminated in mass media, as well as the subsequent narratives and policy responses employed by public authorities, showing how the latter legitimised the alarming reports publicised by the former, engendering a strong societal response which conformed with the framework of a moral panic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Since COVID-19 first appeared in the United States (US) in January 2020, US states have pursued a wide range of policies to mitigate the spread of the virus and its economic ramifications. Without unified federal guidance, states have been the front lines of the policy response.Main Text: We created the COVID-19 US State Policy (CUSP) database ( https://statepolicies.com/ ) to document the dates and components of economic relief and public health measures issued at the state level in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Documented interventions included school and business closures, face mask mandates, directives on vaccine eligibility, eviction moratoria, and expanded unemployment insurance benefits. By providing continually updated information, CUSP was designed to inform rapid-response, policy-relevant research in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and has been widely used to investigate the impact of state policies on population health and health equity. This paper introduces the CUSP database and highlights how it is already informing the COVID-19 pandemic response in the US.Conclusion: CUSP is the most comprehensive publicly available policy database of health, social, and economic policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. CUSP documents widespread variation in state policy decisions and implementation dates across the US and serves as a freely available and valuable resource to policymakers and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Polish government has repeatedly imposed restrictions or a total ban on the freedom of assembly. A total of five different restrictions to this right were announced during this period, from a total ban on organizing and participating in assemblies to allowing assemblies in limited groups (150, 50, 5 and 2 persons). The restrictions were introduced each time by an ordinance, a legal act of a lower rank than the law. The government, wrongly, justified the authority to introduce such restrictions with the provisions of the act on preventing and combating infections and infectious diseases among people. In this paper, the author demonstrates that the ban on the organization of and participation in assemblies was introduced without a proper legal basis - by means of an ordinance instead of a statute - and contrary to the provisions of Article 57 and Article 31(3) of the Polish Constitution. The author also points out that as a result of the defective regulation, citizens have the right to refuse to accept criminal fines imposed by the police, pursuant to Article 54 of the Petty Offence Code, during assemblies. In the author's opinion, no circumstances, not even extraordinary ones, can justify the failure of authorities to observe the provisions of the Polish Constitution. Such a failure leads to a violation of the principle of individual trust in the state, legal certainty and security, and consequently the clause of a democratic legal state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted limitations in the current public health data infrastructure, and the need for a comprehensive, real-time, centralized, user-friendly data management system suitable for both disease surveillance and outbreak management. To address these issues, the Canadian Forces Health Services Group developed the webbased Canadian Armed Forces Surveillance and Outbreak Management System (CAF SOMS). This paper details the development of the CAF SOMS, provides formative evaluation results and includes a discussion of the lessons learned and intent to use the CAF SOMS in future to enhance the CAF's disease surveillance and outbreak management capability beyond COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, bioethicist Arthur L. Caplan, along with three colleagues, stated in a paper published in the PennLive Patriot-News in May 2020 that anyone with COVID-19 who has not followed public health guidelines regarding mask use or social distancing, or who is responsible for a COVID-19 outbreak, should volunteer to be treated last. They do this based on the principle of the philosopher John Stuart Mill that the expression of freedom cannot cause harm to others. While one can understand the arguments raised by Caplan and his colleagues, this position cannot be applied in the Quebec context, for philosophical (ethical) and public health reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a range of responses from countries across the globe in managing and containing infections. Considerable research has highlighted the importance of trust in ethically and effectively managing infectious diseases in the population; however, considerations of reciprocal trust remain limited in debates on pandemic response. This paper aims to broaden the perspective of good ethical practices in managing an infectious disease outbreak by including the role of reciprocal trust. A synthesis of the approaches drawn from South Korea and Taiwan reveals reciprocal trust as an important ethical response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reciprocal trust offers the opportunity to reconcile the difficulties arising from restrictive measures for protecting population health and individual rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Corona viruses cause a wide range of diseases in humans and animals and generally fall into two categories, with respiratory or intestinal tropisms. Aim: the purpose of this discussion paper is to provide an overview of the current pandemic with a solid explanation of the disease for nurses and allied health care professionals. Discussion: Covid-19 is caused by a new corona virus (severe acute respiratory syndrome -- corona virus 2 that first appeared in December 2019 and is responsible for the current pandemic, a state of international urgency concerning public health. The full clinical manifestation has been reported to range from asymptomatic cases, to mild or severe symptoms and in many cases leading to death. Moreover, different strains of the virus have evolved and now vary in transmissibility and overall death toll. Conclusions: The primary objective of the International Health Organizations is to limit the international spread of the pandemic and prevent the spread of new added outbreaks. Due to the initial lack of effective vaccines and treatments, the main readily available method to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission is to identify and isolate infected patients as quickly and effectively as possible especially if a new strain of the virus is suspected or identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A severe pneumonia of an unknown origin was reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The disease, now known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has evolved into a public health emergency of international concern and wreaked worldwide havoc. An unprecedented and vigorous scientific response has allowed the accelerated discovery of the virus and reliable diagnostic methods; a rapid characterization of the disease and its impacts so as to better apply precautionary and public health measures; and resulted in remarkable progress in the development of mitigation strategies, including the development of vaccines at breakneck speed. This paper provides a health perspective of the virus and the pandemic it caused, based on available best evidence. Controversies surrounding the origin of the virus, its incubation period and infectivity, presentation and course of the disease, testing, as well as treatments and vaccinations are highlighted. The pandemic response, including infection control measures, and considerations on mental and economic health, alongside physical health is discussed. Moving forward, it is important that the global community is aware and better informed. More resources are needed to strengthen public health systems and healthcare infrastructure and delivery. This virus has the potential to persist and become endemic and seasonal in communities. Thus, non-pharmaceutical interventions (e.g. wearing masks, frequent hand washing, etc.) might become the new normal in a post-pandemic world. The silver lining in the COVID-19 cloud may be the lessons it provides, so that we may be better prepared to respond to an inevitable next pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the measures taken to lessen its impact have had side effects affecting timely care of other diseases. The aim of this paper is to quantify the impact of the pandemic on the cancer care line in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. Method: It is an observational cross-sectional study comparing the impact on selected variables of the pre-pandemic and intra-pandemic periods. The formula of percentage variation was used to show the differences. The positivity index was calculated and expressed as a percentage. The proportions of both periods were compared through the chi-squared test and its p-value. Results: Reductions were observed in all the variables under study. However, the deeper impact was evident in screening, with 56%-87% decreases in the number of procedures carried out. A 26% reduction was seen in diagnosis. Treatment was the variable with the least impact, with a 3% decrease. Discussion: COVID-19 as well as the measures taken to reduce its impact caused alterations in the cancer care line in the province, with clear differences according to the variable under study. Measures related to cancer screening were displaced, prioritising the care of patients already diagnosed and treated. Conclusion: Considering the new increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, it is essential to adapt the healthcare system, and design new innovative strategies to reduce longterm consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students' learning experiences and perceptions are markedly influenced by the use of digital technology during the COVID-19 pandemic. Exploring students' perception of blended online learning, amid the adaptations of the higher education sector in the wake of uncertainty, has become more critical than ever. This paper reflects on the experience of learning and teaching the Research Methods and Techniques subject in the postgraduate programme of MA Urban Design at Cardiff University during COVID-19 in the UK. To do so, we designed and carried out an online survey to explore students' perception of online teaching and learning activities, feedback and assessment, and digital platforms based on their experience during the subject delivery period in the 2020–2021 academic year. One of the significant findings of this paper was that students agreed with the impact of eye contact on their virtual learning experience but as long as this was aligned with their rights to see others, including their peers and instructors, rather than reciprocal rights to be seen. In addition, students felt that facilitating synchronous communication through effective interaction among diverse peers has been quite challenging in small-group online reading seminars. The majority of respondents also reported that attending live online lectures was more helpful than watching pre-recorded lectures. Online formative feedback and synchronous interim reviews also allowed students to reflect on their progress and develop their projects further before their summative assessment. The outcomes of this paper can effectively assist educators who consider delivering programmes, adopting a blended online learning environment design model, in the post COVID-19 era. The findings of this study can also provide guidance for further developments and improvements in using digital technology and blended online learning in urban design education and pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Court of Human Rights has already addressed certain issues caused by or connected to COVID-19 pandemic situation and numerous restrictions introduced by states to counteract virus propagation. It is necessary to mention that there are many applications pending judgments or declared inadmissible. Herewith we are going to comment on recently decided cases on the topic of COVID-19 health crisis and human rights protection. Meanwhile, there are more cases expected to be decided as many applications are pending examination by the European Court in Strasbourg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]