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Background: The levels of resource losses due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and mental distress may change during the pandemic period. Based on the Conservation of Resource (COR) Theory, this study investigated such changes and the mediation between survey time (Round 2 versus Round 1) and depression via resource losses. Methods: Two serial random population-based telephone surveys interviewed 209 and 458 Hong Kong Chinese adults in April 2020 and May 2021, respectively. Probable depression was defined as 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) score ≥ 10. The validated Conservation of Resources Scale for COVID-19 (CORS-COVID-19) scale was used to assess resource losses due to COVID-19. Multivariable logistic regression analysis, hierarchical logistic regression analysis, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to test the association, interaction, and mediation hypotheses, respectively. Results: The prevalence of probable depression declined from 8.6% to 1.0% over time, together with reductions in losses of financial resource (Cohen's d = 0.88), future control (Cohen's d = 0.39), social resource (Cohen's d = 0.60), and family resource (Cohen's d = 0.36) due to COVID-19. All the overall scale/subscales of the CORS-COVID-19 were positively and associated with probable depression [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) ranged from 2.72 to 42.30]. In SEM, the survey time was negatively associated with the latent variable of resource loss (β = − 0.46), which in turn was positively associated with probable depression (β = 0.73). In addition, the direct effect of survey time on probable depression was statistically non-significant (β = − 0.08), indicating a full mediation effect of resource losses. Conclusions: The lessening of the resource losses might have fully accounted for the significant decline in probable depression from Month 3 to 15 since the first COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong, China. The level of depression might have increased during the first phase of the pandemic, but might decline in the later phases if resources losses could be lessened. All stakeholders should hence work together to minimize individuals' COVID-19-related resource losses to prevent depression in the general population, as COVID-19 might be lasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We trace the crafting of expert narratives during the initial months of the COVID‐19 pandemic in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and the United States. By expert narratives, we refer to how experts drew different lessons from past disease experiences to guide policymakers and the public amidst uncertainty. These expert narratives were mobilized in different sociopolitical contexts, resulting in varying configurations of expertise networks and allies that helped contain and mitigate COVID‐19. In Mainland China, experts carefully advanced a managed narrative, emphasizing the new pandemic akin to the 2003 SARS outbreak can be managed while destressing the similar mistakes the government made during the two crises. In Hong Kong, experts invoked a distrust narrative, pointing to a potential coverup of COVID‐19 similar to SARS, activating allies in civil society to pressure policymakers to act. In the United States, experts were mired in a contested narrative and COVID‐19 was compared to different diseases; varying interpretations of COVID‐19's consequences was exacerbated by political polarization. In expert narratives, the resonance of the past is emergent: the past becomes a site of struggle and a cultural object that is presented as potentially useful in solving problems of the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study investigated the associations between some factors related to working from home status (WFHS) and positive/negative experiences due to social distancing and their interactions effects on depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A random population-based telephone survey interviewed income-earning adults in the Hong Kong general population during April 21–28, 2020 (n = 200). Results: Mild to severe depression (according to PHQ-9) was reported by 12% of the participants. The prevalence of WFHS categories was 14% for 3–7 days and 13% for ≥ 8 days (past 2 weeks). The multivariable regression analysis showed that, social isolation (β = 0.36; p < 0.001), relaxation feeling in daily life (β = − 0.22; p = 0.002), and WFHS ≥ 8 days (β = 0.15; p = 0.027), but not perceived huge inconvenience and improved family relationship, were associated with depressive symptoms. Statistically significant interaction effects were found. Some positive experiences buffered the potential harms of some negative experiences of social distancing on depressive symptoms; WFHS ≥ 8 days significantly moderated the risk/protective effects of social isolation, improved family relationship, and relaxation feeling on depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Social distancing is double-edged. Positive experiences should be maximized while negative experiences be minimized, as both were directly and interactively associated with depression. Intensive but not mild to moderate (< 80%) WFHS may impact depressive symptoms negatively via its direct association with depression; it also moderated the associations between positive/negative experiences due to social distancing and depression. Further research is required to discern the inter-relationships among WFHS, positive/negative experiences of social distancing, and depression to better cope with the stressful pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic, an exceptional crisis, sparked the introduction of new digital infrastructure to halt the novel coronavirus's spread. This paper explores how such digital infrastructure's impact might reverberate over the long term, by comparing Singapore, Hong Kong, and mainland China's utilization of digital technology in response to the 2003 SARS outbreak, and their responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. We find that advancements in digital technology since 2003 have boosted governments' surveillance and segregation abilities substantially—most dramatically so in China. Even though some of these new digital interventions are ostensibly designed to be temporary ones to address the needs of the immediate crisis, we argue that the resultant extensions of state power experienced during COVID-19 are likely to have profound long-term effects because they fundamentally affect sociopolitical contexts, institutional capabilities, and digital cultures. We also find that the extent to which governments can extend digital surveillance and segregation abilities during the pandemic is contingent on their respective sociopolitical, institutional, and digital cultural contexts. • COVID-19 pandemic sparked calls for a new digital infrastructure. • We compare 2003 SARS outbreak to COVID-19 pandemic. • New digital technologies increased governments' ability to surveil and segregate. • Their impact on surveillance and segregation will persist post COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]