Search

This paper draws on diverse psychological, behavioural and numerical literature to understand some of the challenges we all face in making sense of large-scale phenomena and use this to create a road map for HCI responses. This body of knowledge offers tools and principles that can help HCI researchers deliver value now, but also highlights challenges for future HCI research. The paper is framed by looking at patterns and information that highlight some of the common misunderstandings that arise—not just for politicians and the general public but also for many in the academic community. This paper does not have all the answers to this, but we hope it provides some and, perhaps more importantly, raises questions that we need to address as scientific and technical communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relying on a novel dataset covering more than 120,000 firms in 60 countries, this paper contributes to the debate about policies to support businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic. While governments around the world have implemented a wide range of policy support measures, evidence on the reach of these policies, the alignment of measures with firm needs, and their targeting and effectiveness remains scarce. This paper provides the most comprehensive assessment to date of these issues, focusing primarily on developing economies. It shows that policy reach has been limited, especially for more vulnerable firms and countries, and identifies mismatches between policies provided and policies most sought. It also provides some indicative evidence regarding mistargeting of policies and their effectiveness in addressing liquidity constraints and preventing layoffs. This assessment provides some early guidance to policymakers on tailoring their COVID-19 business support packages and points to new directions in data and research efforts needed to guide policy responses to the current pandemic and future crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak and pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 in 2019 has caused a severe public health burden and will challenge global health for the future. The discovery and mechanistic investigation of drugs against Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is in deadly demand. The paper published by Li and colleagues proposed the hypothesis that vitamin C combined with glycyrrhizic acid in treating COVID-19 and its mechanistic investigation was performed by a database-based network pharmacology. In this letter, we present critical comments on the limitations and insufficiencies involved, from both the perspective of network pharmacology and current evidence on COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature on indicators as technology of global governance has shown the power of numbers in shaping knowledge and policy priorities. But not all indicators have powerful effects; some remain invisible. Are such indicators an obverse of powerful indicators? Are the same process of indirect exercise of power to indirectly achieve social and economic effects at work? This paper explores the case of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 3.d.1 for the target to build national capacity for pandemic preparedness (target 3d) as a case study of invisible indicators. This indicator has had little traction, despite its relevance in the context of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The paper explores the reasons that explain this paradox through the framework of epistemic infrastructures. It argues that the indicator--the State Party Self-Assessment Report (SPAR) score--was an inconvenient tool for the powerful actors in the global health community as it turned out to be an extremely poor predictor of COVID-19 response performance. It would have exposed not only the failings of the powerful countries that lead the policy agenda for pandemic preparedness but also the legitimacy of their expertise and the paradigm of global health security as an approach to governing health risks. The analysis highlights the tight relationship between power and the use of indicators in global governance. While indicators are increasingly used by powerful actors to reframe policy narratives, the indicator of pandemic preparedness has been kept invisible to maintain their existing framing. It thus illustrates the resilience of power structures in epistemic infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reserve systems are a tool to allocate scarce resources when stakeholders do not have a single objective. This paper introduces some basic concepts about reserve systems for pandemic medical resource allocation. At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, we proposed that reserve systems can help practitioners arrive at compromises between competing stakeholders. More than a dozen states and local jurisdictions adopted reserve systems in initial phases of vaccine distribution. We highlight several design issues arising in some of these implementations. We also offer suggestions about ways practitioners can take advantage of the flexibility offered by reserve systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pandemics and epidemics pose systemic risks to lives, societies, and to global economic security—and their frequency is expected to increase as rising trade and increased human interaction with animals leads to the emergence of new diseases. The Covid-19 pandemic teaches us that we can and must be better prepared, with scope for much greater global coordination to address the financing, supply-chain, and trade barriers that amplified the pandemic's economic costs and contributed to the emergence of new variants. This paper draws seven early lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic that could inform future policy priorities and help shape a better global response to future crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak due to the novel coronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been classified as a pandemic disease by the World Health Organization on the 12th March 2020. This world-wide crisis created an urgent need to identify effective countermeasures against SARS-CoV-2. In silico methods, artificial intelligence and bioinformatics analysis pipelines provide effective and useful infrastructure for comprehensive interrogation and interpretation of available data, helping to find biomarkers, explainable models and eventually cures. One class of such tools, pathway enrichment analysis (PEA) methods, helps researchers to find possible key targets present in biological pathways of host cells that are targeted by SARS-CoV-2. Since many software tools are available, it is not easy for non-computational users to choose the best one for their needs. In this paper, we highlight how to choose the most suitable PEA method based on the type of COVID-19 data to analyze. We aim to provide a comprehensive overview of PEA techniques and the tools that implement them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence shows that infectious disease outbreaks are not gender-neutral, meaning that women, men and gender minorities are differentially affected. This evidence affirms the need to better incorporate a gender lens into infectious disease outbreaks. Despite this evidence, there has been a historic neglect of gender-based analysis in health, including during health crises. Recognizing the lack of available evidence on gender and pandemics in early 2020 the Gender and COVID-19 project set out to use a gender analysis matrix to conduct rapid, real-time analyses while the pandemic was unfolding to examine the gendered effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This paper reports on what a gender analysis matrix is, how it can be used to systematically conduct a gender analysis, how it was implemented within the study, ways in which the findings from the matrix were applied and built upon, and challenges encountered when using the matrix methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Global Commissions of Inquiry" have usually been associated with the multilateral initiatives of governments and international organizations. However, various styles of "global commission" have emerged over time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, global commissions have been a key aspect of the COVID-19 international policy landscape, quickly emerging, in 2020 and 2021, to corral knowledge and evidence. These include "formal" commissions, such as the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response and the Global Commission for Post-Pandemic Policy, and "informal" commissions, including the Reform for Resilience and The Lancet Covid Commissions. This paper considers whether these Commissions have been engines for new ideas and global policy knowledge or whether this "chorus" of COVID Commissions represented a "clutter" of ideas at a time when global policy focus was needed. Global Commissions, in general, deserve greater scholarly attention to their design and the construction of their legitimate authority as hybrid and private commissions enter global policy making alongside official commissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has tested the mettle of governments across the globe and has thrown entrenched fault lines within health systems into sharper relief. In response to the outbreak of the pandemic, governments introduced a range of measures to meet the growth in demand and bridge gaps in health systems. The objective of this paper is to understand the nature and extent of the changes in health systems triggered by the COVID-19 crisis. The paper examines changes in the role of governments in (1) sector coordination, (2) service provision, (3) financing, (4) payment, and (5) regulations. It outlines broad trends and reforms underway prior to the pandemic and highlights likely trajectories in these aspects in the future. The paper argues that while the pandemic has accelerated changes already underway before the crisis, it has made little headway in clearing the path for other or deeper health policy reforms. The reform window that COVID-19 opened has not been wide enough to overcome the entrenched path dependency and structural interests that characterize the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an analysis of the theoretical and empirical challenges the coronavirus pandemic poses for theories of policy change. Critical events like coronavirus disease are potentially powerful destabilizers that can trigger discontinuity in policy trajectories and thus are an opportunity for accentuating path shifts. In this paper, we argue that three dynamic pathways of change are possible and must be considered when analysing post-COVID policymaking: normalization, adaptation, and acceleration. These different pathways need to be explored in order to understand the mid- and longterm policy effects of the pandemic. This introduction contextualizes the articles in this special issue, situating them broadly within two broad categories: (a) assessment of how the coronavirus disease pandemic should be understood as a crisis event, and its role in relationship to mechanisms of policy change; and (b) mapping the future contours of the pandemic's impact on substantive policy areas, including education, health care, public finance, social protection, population ageing, the future of work, and violence against women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unprecedented coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a solemn reminder of the need to accelerate pharmaceutical innovation. The desire for fast access to vaccines triggered discussion of unrestricted access to research findings with the hope of facilitating the drug discovery process to combat COVID-19. Increasingly, abolition of the patent system is being discussed in connection with the fight against the pandemic. This may accelerate discovery of and increase access to medicines. However, society's desire for immediate disclosure of research findings conflicts with the inventor's legitimate interest to protect his or her invention as well as the need to recover investments made to develop the drug. The call for immediate disclosure of research results contradicts the interest of the inventor, whose primary goal is to secure his intellectual property rights, usually by applying for patent protection. In Europe, where patent law is based on the principle of absolute novelty, disclosure of the results reduces novelty and prevents subsequent patenting. Consequently, patenting remains the top priority for pharmaceutical companies in Europe, while disclosure of the results is secondary. The following article looks critically at the idea of using the grace period in European patent law to reconcile the conflicting interests of society and inventors in times of pandemic. In this paper, we investigate whether the implementation of a grace period in European patent law like that known in the USA, Japan, or Korea benefits the disclosure of results and increases the flow of information, ultimately leading to the promotion of innovation and rapid drug discovery. This article questions whether the use of a grace period provides a sufficient incentive to the inventor for rapid disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the different socio-economic determinants of the fatalities associated with the COVID-19 pandemic globally in social determinants of health frameworks. It adapts the Poisson pseudo-maximum-likelihood (PPML) and the quantile regression techniques to effectively exploit the non-linear estimates of the data in order to derive non-biased point estimates at each quantile and make interquantile comparisons. This is particularly useful in recommending which societal variables become most significant at catastrophic levels of a pandemic like COVID-19 when existing health systems become overwhelmed. These estimators are applied to panel data for 196 countries over days of infection from the first recorded case. The COVID-19-related data is from Our World in Data, and the socio-economic variables are from the World Bank's World Development Indicators. The results establish that an improved adequate health infrastructure for both testing and treatment is necessary, but not sufficient. Health systems ultimately become overwhelmed and ineffective in managing cases and reducing mortality in the face of the rising pandemic. Complementary social, economic, physical and environmental factors are necessary for curbing deaths. These factors relate to improving the health stock of the population through reductions in both communicable and non-communicable comorbidities; enhancing sanitation and hygiene; and improving the nutrition of the population. Socio-economic and environmental measures are the reduction of household and ambient air pollution; reduction of exposure to alcohol and cigarettes; reduction of poverty and ensuring economic inclusion; and learning from the past to fine-tune governments' control measures in order to minimize harm to the population while effectively curbing mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has clearly shown that major challenges and threats for humankind need to be addressed with global answers and shared decisions. Data and their analytics are crucial components of such decision-making activities. Rather interestingly, one of the most difficult aspects is reusing and sharing of accurate and detailed clinical data collected by Electronic Health Records (EHR), even if these data have a paramount importance. EHR data, in fact, are not only essential for supporting day-by-day activities, but also they can leverage research and support critical decisions about effectiveness of drugs and therapeutic strategies. In this paper, we will concentrate our attention on collaborative data infrastructures to support COVID-19 research and on the open issues of data sharing and data governance that COVID-19 had made emerge. Data interoperability, healthcare processes modelling and representation, shared procedures to deal with different data privacy regulations, and data stewardship and governance are seen as the most important aspects to boost collaborative research. Lessons learned from COVID-19 pandemic can be a strong element to improve international research and our future capability of dealing with fast developing emergencies and needs, which are likely to be more frequent in the future in our connected and intertwined world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the many challenges that has befallen the Infectious Diseases and Graduate Medical Education communities during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the maintenance of continued effective education and training of the future leaders of our field. With the remarkable speed and innovation that has characterized the responses to this pandemic, educators everywhere have adapted existing robust and safe learning environments to meet the needs of our learners. This paper will review distinct aspects of education and training of the Infectious Diseases fellows we believe the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted most, including mentoring, didactics, and wellness. We anticipate that several strategies developed in this context and described herein will help to inform training and best practices during the pandemic and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of clinical supervision, a professional support and clinical governance mechanism, to patients, healthcare workers and organizations has been well documented. Clinical supervision has been shown to support healthcare workers during challenging times, by reducing burnout, enhancing mental health and wellbeing at work, and improving job satisfaction. However, clinical supervision participation and effectiveness are pre-requisites for realising these benefits. During times of stress and increased workloads (e.g. during the Coronavirus pandemic), healthcare workers tend to prioritise clinical duties and responsibilities over clinical supervision. Effective supervision practices can be restored, and healthcare workers can be better supported in their roles during and in the post-pandemic period only if healthcare workers, policy makers, healthcare organizations, clinical supervision trainers and researchers join forces. This paper sheds light on this important topic and offers a number of practical recommendations to reboot effective clinical supervision practices at the point of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that to govern a pandemic, governments require dynamic capabilities and capacity—too often missing. These include capacity to adapt and learn; capacity to align public services and citizen needs; capacity to govern resilient production systems; and capacity to govern data and digital platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 2019, a working group of the European Academy of Microbiology assembled to discuss various aspects of vaccines and vaccinations. The meeting was organised by Jörg Hacker and Eliora Z. Ron and took place in the offices of the Leopoldina (German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina). Several important issues were addressed and a major part of the discussion focused on the need to develop new vaccines, especially to protect against pathogens that constitute a pandemic threat. Following the rapid and unpredicted spread of COVID-19 in the first seven months of 2020, the need to develop vaccines for pandemic viruses rapidly has been clearly established. Thus, this paper will concentrate on points that were highlighted by the recent COVID-19 pandemic and lessons learnt therefrom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The losses from the global Covid-19 pandemic have been staggering—trillions in economic costs, on top of significant losses of life, health, and well-being. The world made significant and successful investments in vaccines to mitigate the pandemic, yet there were missed opportunities, as well. We review what has been learnt about the value of vaccines, the speed at which vaccines can be developed, and the optimal and ethical approaches to vaccine distribution, as well as other issues related to pandemic and emergency preparedness. Surprisingly, spending on vaccines remains far below that which would be justified by the social return. We remain poorly prepared for future pandemics and other emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation The epidemic at the beginning of this year, due to a new virus in the coronavirus family, is causing many deaths and is bringing the world economy to its knees. Moreover, situations of this kind are historically cyclical. The symptoms and treatment of infected patients are, for better or worse even for new viruses, always the same: more or less severe flu symptoms, isolation and full hygiene. By now man has learned how to manage epidemic situations, but deaths and negative effects continue to occur. What about technology? What effect has the actual technological progress we have achieved? In this review, we wonder about the role of robotics in the fight against COVID. It presents the analysis of scientific articles, industrial initiatives and project calls for applications from March to now highlighting how much robotics was ready to face this situation, what is expected from robots and what remains to do. Results The analysis was made by focusing on what research groups offer as a means of support for therapies and prevention actions. We then reported some remarks on what we think is the state of maturity of robotics in dealing with situations like COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has required health systems to change much faster than normal. Many staff have experienced training in quality improvement and patient safety methods which can be used to support the design of new systems and to accelerate learning about new and adapted practices. This article sets out the principles of quality improvement and patient safety science, applying them in a selection of approaches, methods and tools, which may be useful in crisis situations such as the current pandemic. The article also makes reference to several resources which may be of use to those keen to advance their knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sweden's strategy to contain the COVID-19 pandemic stands out internationally as more liberal in terms of not ordering a complete lockdown of society. Sweden kept its primary schools, daycare centers and industries largely open. The government financially supported furloughed workers and increased its support to regional and local governments delivering healthcare and elderly care. However, the death toll in Sweden which passed 4000 by late May 2020 stands in stark contrast to those of other, comparable countries, raising questions about the design of the strategy, and its appropriateness. The paper argues that key assumptions sustaining the strategy, for instance that symptom-free people do not carry, and cannot transmit the Coronavirus, or that local and regional government staff had the necessary training and equipment to tackle the pandemic, along with problems associated with coordinating a decentralized healthcare system, may explain the poor performance of the Swedish containment strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social interaction restrictions imposed by COVID-19 required academic researchers to rethink the design of their research projects, especially those that involved human interaction. Considering this scenario, we report here the experience of conducting four studies in Human–Computer Interaction research projects that were adapted to be executed remotely: a focus group study, a communicability evaluation study, a speculative design study and a user observation study. Considering how the studies were planned, executed and analysed, we reflect on the adaptations needed, and lessons related to our experiences. From these lessons, we believe that, even after all the pandemic restrictions are lifted, we may continue conducting at least part of our research studies remotely to increase our geographical reach, reduce costs and facilitate data capture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current literature assumes that non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) reduce COVID-19 infections uniformly, that is, irrespectively of their strength. The role of economic support measures (ESM) in controlling the virus is also overlooked. Using a panel threshold model of COVID-19 cases in the US states, we identify three distinct regimes of 'low', 'medium', and 'high' severity interventions; the latter being more effective towards reducing infections growth. ESM increase the efficacy of NPIs through a behavioural channel that lowers the workplace hours supplied by individuals. Nonetheless, when containment policies are not very stringent ('low' regime) or are too draconian ('high' regime), ESM are less effective towards suppressing the pandemic. Finally, we find that the largest impact towards reducing the growth of infections comes jointly from school closures, workplace closures, cancelation of public events, and restrictions on internal movement, followed by the stay-at-home requirements, and the closure of public transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their recent article, Dimitris et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2022;191(6):980–986) presented a series of challenges modern epidemiology has faced during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, including challenges around the scientific progress, epidemiologic methods, interventions, equity, team science, and training needed to address these issues. Here, 2 social epidemiologists who have been working on COVID-19 inequities reflect on further lessons with an added year of perspective. We focus on 2 key challenges: 1) dominant biomedical individualistic narratives around the production of population health, and 2) the role of profit in policy-making. We articulate a need to consider social epidemiologic approaches, including acknowledging the importance of considering how societal systems lead to health inequities. To address these challenges, future (and current) epidemiologists should be trained in theories of population health distribution and political structures of governance. Last, we close with the need for better investment in public health infrastructure as a crucial step toward achieving population health equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the literature on public health interventions and health outcomes in the context of epidemic and pandemic response has grown immensely. However, relatively few of these studies have situated their findings within the institutional, political, organizational, and governmental (IPOG) context in which interventions and outcomes exist. This conceptual mapping scoping study synthesized the published literature on the impact of IPOG factors on epidemic and pandemic response and critically examined definitions and uses of the terms IPOG in this literature. This research involved a comprehensive search of four databases across the social, health, and biomedical sciences as well as multi-level eligibility screening conducted by two independent reviewers. Data on the temporal, geographic, and topical range of studies were extracted, then descriptive statistics were calculated to summarize these data. Hybrid inductive and deductive qualitative analysis of the full-text articles was conducted to critically analyze the definitions and uses of these terms in the literature. The searches retrieved 4,918 distinct articles; 65 met the inclusion criteria and were thus reviewed. These articles were published from 2004 to 2022, were mostly written about COVID-19 (61.5%), and most frequently engaged with the concept of governance (36.9%) in relation to epidemic and pandemic response. Emergent themes related to the variable use of the investigated terms, the significant increase in relevant literature published amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a lack of consistent definitions used across all four terms: institutions, politics, organizations, and governance. This study revealed opportunities for health systems researchers to further engage in interdisciplinary work with fields such as law and political science, to become more forthright in defining factors which shape responses to epidemics and pandemics, and to develop greater consistency in using these IPOG terms in order to lessen confusion among a rapidly growing body of literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the vulnerability of patients with chronic kidney disease to infectious diseases, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been particularly devastating for the nephrology community. Unfortunately, the possibility of future COVID-19 waves or outbreaks of other infectious diseases with pandemic potential cannot be ruled out. The nephrology community made tremendous efforts to contain the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted several shortcomings in our response to the pandemic and has taught us important lessons that can be utilized to improve our preparedness for any future health crises of a similar nature. In this article we draw lessons from the European Renal Association COVID-19 Database (ERACODA) project, a pan-European collaboration initiated in March 2020 to understand the prognosis of COVID-19 in patients on kidney function replacement therapy. We discuss the challenges faced in generating timely and robust evidence for informed management of patients with kidney disease and give recommendations for our preparedness for the next pandemic in Europe. Limited collaboration, the absence of common data architecture and the sub-optimal quality of available data posed challenges in our response to COVID-19. Aligning different research initiatives, strengthening electronic health records, and involving experts in study design and data analysis will be important in our response to the next pandemic. The European Renal Association may take a leading role in aligning research initiatives via its engagement with other scientific societies, national registries, administrators and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coronavirus pandemic and the consequent situation of social isolation have affected research design, especially in fields working directly with people. While online tools enable communication and collaboration, some specific domains involving contemporary technology-based systems, such as socioenactive systems, demand a deeper understanding of human-embodied action in real-world scenarios with ubiquitous technology. This work addresses this issue by presenting a study in which a research team used the OpenDesign Platform (ODP) to conduct a process of ideation and consolidation of a socioenactive-based system solution during pandemics and physical presence limitations. The contributions are twofold: addressing the demands of the research team working remotely and envisaging an interaction scenario for people in a socioenactive system, even without their copresence in the same physical space. Results have shown the strengths and weaknesses of the ODP and lessons learned towards supporting systems for teamwork in such systems' ideation context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How effective were investments in pandemic preparation? We use a comprehensive and detailed measure of pandemic preparedness, the Global Health Security (GHS) Index produced by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHU), to measure which investments in pandemic preparedness reduced infections, deaths, excess deaths, or otherwise ameliorated or shortened the pandemic. We also look at whether values or attitudinal factors such as individualism, willingness to sacrifice, or trust in government—which might be considered a form of cultural pandemic preparedness—influenced the course of the pandemic. Our primary finding is that almost no form of pandemic preparedness helped to ameliorate or shorten the pandemic. Compared to other countries, the United States did not perform poorly because of cultural values such as individualism, collectivism, selfishness, or lack of trust. General state capacity, as opposed to specific pandemic investments, is one of the few factors which appears to improve pandemic performance. Understanding the most effective forms of pandemic preparedness can help guide future investments. Our results may also suggest that either we aren't measuring what is important or that pandemic preparedness is a global public good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide a short overview of clinical trials of vaccines, with particular focus on (i) adaptive and platform trials, (ii) human challenge trials, and (iii) vaccine use optimization, especially fractional dosing. We describe their relationship with regulatory approval and review main developments during Covid-19. We review the literature on risk–benefit analyses of alternative testing approaches but find few results, suggesting need for further quantitative research. We conclude by discussing some lessons for the next pandemic, such as the need for pre-pandemic R&D and clear guidelines; improving capability to use new trial approaches; arguments for diversifying research methods; research incentives and disincentives; and the need to use risk–benefit in approving new vaccines and targeting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living in an increasingly interconnected world, epidemics and pandemics are increasingly likely to be a vista for the future. This, coupled with the likely devastating effects of climate change, means that humanitarian crises are likely to increase. Now, more than ever before, is the time to scale up investment in prevention and preparedness strategies, and to review our current approaches to delivering health services, including those that address neglected tropical diseases. The Ascend West and Central Africa programme has illustrated the importance of innovation, multisector partnerships, resilience and the opportunity for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Variations in the age patterns and magnitudes of excess deaths, as well as differences in population sizes and age structures, make cross-national comparisons of the cumulative mortality impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic challenging. Life expectancy is a widely used indicator that provides a clear and cross-nationally comparable picture of the population-level impacts of the pandemic on mortality.Methods: Life tables by sex were calculated for 29 countries, including most European countries, Chile and the USA, for 2015-2020. Life expectancy at birth and at age 60 years for 2020 were contextualized against recent trends between 2015 and 2019. Using decomposition techniques, we examined which specific age groups contributed to reductions in life expectancy in 2020 and to what extent reductions were attributable to official COVID-19 deaths.Results: Life expectancy at birth declined from 2019 to 2020 in 27 out of 29 countries. Males in the USA and Lithuania experienced the largest losses in life expectancy at birth during 2020 (2.2 and 1.7 years, respectively), but reductions of more than an entire year were documented in 11 countries for males and 8 among females. Reductions were mostly attributable to increased mortality above age 60 years and to official COVID-19 deaths.Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic triggered significant mortality increases in 2020 of a magnitude not witnessed since World War II in Western Europe or the breakup of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe. Females from 15 countries and males from 10 ended up with lower life expectancy at birth in 2020 than in 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to investigate overall and sex-specific excess all-cause mortality since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic until August 2020 among 22 countries.Methods: Countries reported weekly or monthly all-cause mortality from January 2015 until the end of June or August 2020. Weekly or monthly COVID-19 deaths were reported for 2020. Excess mortality for 2020 was calculated by comparing weekly or monthly 2020 mortality (observed deaths) against a baseline mortality obtained from 2015-2019 data for the same week or month using two methods: (i) difference in observed mortality rates between 2020 and the 2015-2019 average and (ii) difference between observed and expected 2020 deaths.Results: Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the UK (England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland) and the USA demonstrated excess all-cause mortality, whereas Australia, Denmark and Georgia experienced a decrease in all-cause mortality. Israel, Ukraine and Ireland demonstrated sex-specific changes in all-cause mortality.Conclusions: All-cause mortality up to August 2020 was higher than in previous years in some, but not all, participating countries. Geographical location and seasonality of each country, as well as the prompt application of high-stringency control measures, may explain the observed variability in mortality changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In Germany, general practitioners (GPs) provide basic and primary care in the ambulatory sector and refer patients to other specialists when necessary. Often, GPs present the first point of contact for patients in the German healthcare system. During the COVID-19 pandemic, GPs and other medical specialists in the ambulatory setting suddenly were confronted with unprecedented challenges.Objective: To answer the following research questions: How did COVID-19-related challenges affect the work climate? Do physicians with deteriorated work climate simultaneously report a worsened provision of patient care? Which challenges were the most burdening?Methods: In the course of the project COVID-GAMS more than 18 000 physicians of various specialties had been invited to a quantitative cross-sectional online survey (in Summer 2020). Analyses were conducted separately for the groups of GPs and other medical specialists. Group differences were analysed statistically and burdening factors were identified.Results: 1703 participants were included in the analysis. 22.2% of GPs (other medical specialists: 19.9%) stated, their work climate had deteriorated. Physicians with a deteriorated work climate showed a tendency towards poorer personal provision of patient care (M = 3.75, SD = 0.98 versus M = 3.93, SD = 0.99) compared to unchanged or improved work climate. The lack of protective material in March/April 2020, changes in practice management and possible economic impacts on the practice were the most burdening factors reported by GPs.Conclusion: GPs who reported a negative impact on the work climate in the course of the first pandemic lockdown also tend to see own deficits in the provision of patient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In early 2020, unprecedented lockdowns and travel bans were implemented in Chinese mainland to fight COVID-19, which led to a large reduction in anthropogenic emissions. This provided a unique opportunity to isolate the effects from emission and meteorology on tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Comparing the atmospheric NO2 in 2020 with that in 2017, we found the changes of emission have led to a 49.3 ± 23.5% reduction, which was ∼12% more than satellite-observed reduction of 37.8 ± 16.3%. The discrepancy was mainly a result of changes of meteorology, which have contributed to an 8.1 ± 14.2% increase of NO2. We also revealed that the emission-induced reduction of NO2 has significantly negative correlations to human mobility, particularly that inside the city. The intra-city migration index derived from Baidu Location-Based-Service can explain 40.4% ± 17.7% variance of the emission-induced reduction of NO2 in 29 megacities, each of which has a population of over 8 million in Chinese mainland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the impact of coronavirus disease (COVID) mitigation, supply and distribution interruptions on the delivery of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) in Western Kenya. The median monthly distribution of LLINs declined during COVID mitigation strategies (March–July 2020) and during the health worker strikes (December 2020–February 2021). Recovery periods followed initial declines, indicative of a 'catching up' on missed routine distribution. Mass community campaigns were delayed by 10 months. These observations offer encouragement for routine net distribution resilience, but complete interruptions of planned mass distributions require alternate strategies during pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compare the importance of market factors against that of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) dynamics and policy responses in explaining Eurozone sovereign spreads. First, we estimate a multifactor model for changes in credit default swap (CDS) spreads over 2014 to June 2019. Then, we apply a synthetic control-type procedure to extrapolate model-implied changes in CDS. The factor model does very well over the rest of 2019 but breaks down during the pandemic, especially during March 2020. We find that the March 2020 divergence is well accounted for by COVID-specific risks and associated policies, mortality outcomes, and policy announcements, rather than traditional determinants. Daily CDS widening ceased almost immediately after the European Central Bank announced the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme, but the divergence between actual and model-implied changes persisted. This points to COVID-19 Dominance —widening spreads during the pandemic has led to unconventional monetary policies that primarily aim to mitigate short-run fears, temporarily pushing away concerns over fiscal risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines have recently emerged as a new type of vaccine technology, showing strong potential to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to SARS-CoV-2 which caused the pandemic, mRNA vaccines have been developed and tested to prevent infectious diseases caused by other viruses such as Zika virus, the dengue virus, the respiratory syncytial virus, influenza H7N9 and Flavivirus. Interestingly, mRNA vaccines may also be useful for preventing non-infectious diseases such as diabetes and cancer. This review summarises the current progresses of mRNA vaccines designed for a range of diseases including COVID-19. As epitope study is a primary component in the in silico design of mRNA vaccines, we also survey on advanced bioinformatics and machine learning algorithms which have been used for epitope prediction, and review on user-friendly software tools available for this purpose. Finally, we discuss some of the unanswered concerns about mRNA vaccines, such as unknown long-term side effects, and present with our perspectives on future developments in this exciting area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lancet COVID-19 Commission Task Force for Public Health Measures to Suppress the Pandemic was launched to identify critical points for consideration by governments on public health interventions to control coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Drawing on our review of published studies of data analytics and modelling, evidence synthesis and contextualisation, and behavioural science evidence and theory on public health interventions from a range of sources, we outline evidence for a range of institutional measures and behaviour-change measures. We cite examples of measures adopted by a range of countries, but especially jurisdictions that have, thus far, achieved low numbers of COVID-19 deaths and limited community transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Finally, we highlight gaps in knowledge where research should be undertaken. As countries consider long-term measures, there is an opportunity to learn, improve the response and prepare for future pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence, personal- and work-related exposures, and signs and symptoms among physical therapists during the first wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Italy. Methods This cross-sectional, survey-based study collected demographic and exposure data from physical therapists from April to May 2020. All physical therapists working in inpatient and outpatient care in Italy were eligible. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed among all eligible physical therapists to collect (1) demographic characteristics, (2–3) personal- and work-related exposures, and (4) signs and symptoms of COVID-19. Factors associated with a COVID-19–positive nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) were explored through logistic regression models and multivariate methods. Results A total of 15,566 respondents completed the survey, with a response rate of 43.3%, achieving high statistical precision (99% CI, 1% type I error). Among physical therapists who received NPS testing, 13.1% (95% CI = 12.1–14.1%) had a positive result, with a peak reached in March 2020 (36%). The top 5 symptoms were fatigue and tiredness (69.1%), loss of smell (64.5%), aches and pains (60.8%), loss of taste (58.3%), and headache (51.1%). No symptoms were reported by 8.9%. Working in a health care institution (odds ratio [OR] = 12.0; 95% CI = 7.8–18.4), being reallocated to a different unit (OR = 1.9; 95% CI = 1.3–2.7), and changing job tasks (OR = 1.6; 95% CI = 1.2–2.3) increased the risk of being COVID-19 positive. In therapists with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19, comorbidities were associated with male sex and age older than 51 years. Conclusion During the first wave in Italy, almost 1 out of 7 physical therapists tested positive on the COVID-19 NPS test. Considering personal- and work-related exposures, health care organizations should adopt prevention measures and adequate preparedness to prevent high rate of infections during future pandemics. Impact This is the largest investigation about the spread of and main risk factors for COVID-19 in the physical therapy field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compared 90–90–90 targets in 2020, during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, with the targets across the period 2017–2019 in people with HIV. We observed a significant loss in the 90–90–90 objectives in 2020 when compared with 2017–2019 that might be attributable to the COVID-19 crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergency authorized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)–neutralizing monoclonal antibodies can aid outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19 infection. Many report barriers to adequate distribution and uptake. We present our model for distribution in a large health system as well as early lessons learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Prolonged home isolation may lead to long-term negative consequences for both children and caregivers' psychological wellbeing, especially in families with children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Therefore, a scoping review was conducted to identify challenges faced by caregivers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and to consolidate parenting interventions and guidelines.Methods: A systematic search was conducted on Embase, PsycInfo, PubMed, Scopus, and LitCovid. All article types published between December 2019 and November 2020 which reported on intervention guidelines and experiences of families with children with neurodevelopmental disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic were included. Qualitative themes, quantitative data, and article summaries were charted, and a thematic analysis was conducted.Results: Twenty-nine articles were included in the review. Three themes were generated: (a) behavioral issues and health concerns, (b) disruptions of lifelines and daily routines, and (c) existing programs, models, and guidelines to support families. Additionally, a list of caregiver strategies such as scheduling regular online consultations, maintaining online therapy, educating a child on COVID-19, and preventive behaviors, creating a structured daily schedule and reinforcement system, and selecting child-appropriate activities was consolidated.Conclusion: This review revealed a lack of evidence-based studies and articles on children with other neurodevelopmental disorders apart from autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. It also places emphasis on the importance of telehealth services as major lifelines to parents during this pandemic and urges healthcare organizations to provide funding to increase telehealth services to afflicted families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed enormous strain on intensive care units (ICUs) in Europe. Ensuring access to care, irrespective of COVID-19 status, in winter 2020-2021 is essential.Methods: An integrated model of hospital capacity planning and epidemiological projections of COVID-19 patients is used to estimate the demand for and resultant spare capacity of ICU beds, staff and ventilators under different epidemic scenarios in France, Germany and Italy across the 2020-2021 winter period. The effect of implementing lockdowns triggered by different numbers of COVID-19 patients in ICUs under varying levels of effectiveness is examined, using a 'dual-demand' (COVID-19 and non-COVID-19) patient model.Results: Without sufficient mitigation, we estimate that COVID-19 ICU patient numbers will exceed those seen in the first peak, resulting in substantial capacity deficits, with beds being consistently found to be the most constrained resource. Reactive lockdowns could lead to large improvements in ICU capacity during the winter season, with pressure being most effectively alleviated when lockdown is triggered early and sustained under a higher level of suppression. The success of such interventions also depends on baseline bed numbers and average non-COVID-19 patient occupancy.Conclusion: Reductions in capacity deficits under different scenarios must be weighed against the feasibility and drawbacks of further lockdowns. Careful, continuous decision-making by national policymakers will be required across the winter period 2020-2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapidly evolving science about the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic created unprecedented health information needs and dramatic changes in policies globally. We describe a platform, Watson Assistant (WA), which has been used to develop conversational agents to deliver COVID-19 related information. We characterized the diverse use cases and implementations during the early pandemic and measured adoption through a number of users, messages sent, and conversational turns (ie, pairs of interactions between users and agents). Thirty-seven institutions in 9 countries deployed COVID-19 conversational agents with WA between March 30 and August 10, 2020, including 24 governmental agencies, 7 employers, 5 provider organizations, and 1 health plan. Over 6.8 million messages were delivered through the platform. The mean number of conversational turns per session ranged between 1.9 and 3.5. Our experience demonstrates that conversational technologies can be rapidly deployed for pandemic response and are adopted globally by a wide range of users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation The outbreak of novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2, also known as COVID-19) in Wuhan has attracted worldwide attention. SARS-CoV-2 causes severe inflammation, which can be fatal. Consequently, there has been a massive and rapid growth in research aimed at throwing light on the mechanisms of infection and the progression of the disease. With regard to this data science is playing a pivotal role in in silico analysis to gain insights into SARS-CoV-2 and the outbreak of COVID-19 in order to forecast, diagnose and come up with a drug to tackle the virus. The availability of large multiomics, radiological, bio-molecular and medical datasets requires the development of novel exploratory and predictive models, or the customisation of existing ones in order to fit the current problem. The high number of approaches generates the need for surveys to guide data scientists and medical practitioners in selecting the right tools to manage their clinical data. Results Focusing on data science methodologies, we conduct a detailed study on the state-of-the-art of works tackling the current pandemic scenario. We consider various current COVID-19 data analytic domains such as phylogenetic analysis, SARS-CoV-2 genome identification, protein structure prediction, host–viral protein interactomics, clinical imaging, epidemiological research and drug discovery. We highlight data types and instances, their generation pipelines and the data science models currently in use. The current study should give a detailed sketch of the road map towards handling COVID-19 like situations by leveraging data science experts in choosing the right tools. We also summarise our review focusing on prime challenges and possible future research directions. Contact hguzzi@unicz.it , sroy01@cus.ac.in [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 disease, the research community is producing unprecedented efforts dedicated to better understand and mitigate the effects of the pandemic. In this context, we review the data integration efforts required for accessing and searching genome sequences and metadata of SARS-CoV2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 disease, which have been deposited into the most important repositories of viral sequences. Organizations that were already present in the virus domain are now dedicating special interest to the emergence of COVID-19 pandemics, by emphasizing specific SARS-CoV2 data and services. At the same time, novel organizations and resources were born in this critical period to serve specifically the purposes of COVID-19 mitigation while setting the research ground for contrasting possible future pandemics. Accessibility and integration of viral sequence data, possibly in conjunction with the human host genotype and clinical data, are paramount to better understand the COVID-19 disease and mitigate its effects. Few examples of host-pathogen integrated datasets exist so far, but we expect them to grow together with the knowledge of COVID-19 disease; once such datasets will be available, useful integrative surveillance mechanisms can be put in place by observing how common variants distribute in time and space, relating them to the phenotypic impact evidenced in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]