Objective: Estimate the prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) from April to June 2020. Methods: Repeated cross-sections design based in the ENCOVID-19 –a series of monthly mobile surveys with representative samples of Mexico (N= 833-1,674). The questionnaire includes the GAD-2 scale, and, in July, the GAD-7 scale was added; we examined its internal validity with confirmatory factor analysis and its concurrent validity with sociodemographic variables. Using GAD-7 as criterion, we analyzed the predictive validity of the GAD-2. We estimated the monthly prevalence with the GAD-2. Results: The GAD-7 and the GAD-2 are reliable and valid. The GAD-2 has a sensitivity of 0.87 and a specificity of 0.90. The monthly prevalence remains high and stable, between 30.7 and 32.6%. GAD concentrated in women, unemployed and persons with low socioeconomic status. Conclusions: GAD is a public health problem that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

10.31234/osf.io/t9n7k

Monthly prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico

10.31234/osf.io/udcrx

Objective. The outbreak of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was an unprecedented global public health emergency with a significant psychological toll. This study aimed to understand how specific COVID-19 related stressors contributed to Chinese parents’ fear induction practices, and how these practices, in turn, contributed to their children’s disease prevention practices during the outbreak and depressive symptoms after the outbreak. Method. Parents (N=240, Mage=38.50 years, 75% mothers) with elementary-school-aged children (Mage=9.48 years, 46% girls) in Wenzhou, one of the most impacted cities in China, reported on the presence of confirmed or suspected cases in their communities, their frequencies of consuming COVID-19-related information, fear induction practices, and their children’s trait anxiety and disease prevention practices during the outbreak (January 28 to 30, 2020). Child-reported depressive symptoms were collected between March 7 and 11, 2020, during which there were very few remaining cases and no new confirmed cases or deaths. Results. Parents’ higher frequency of virus-related information consumption but not the presence of community infection was associated with their engagement in more fear induction practices, which was in turn associated with children’s greater engagement in prevention practices during the outbreak, but more post-quarantine depressive symptoms. Child trait anxiety exacerbated the association between parent fear induction and child depressive symptoms. Conclusion. Using fear induction parenting may promote children’s willingness to cooperate and participate in disease prevention practices during the crisis but at the cost of children’s long-term mental health.

The Cost and Benefit of Fear Induction Parenting on Children’s Health during theCOVID-19 Outbreak

Background. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the social distancing protocols used to impede the spread of the virus may have severe mental health consequences. The purpose of this study was to investigate the network of components of pandemic-related negative psychological states (i.e., fear of infection, financial worries, loneliness) and symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Methods. Data from 10,061 Norwegian adults recruited through an online survey during a period of strict social distancing protocols were analyzed employing a cross-sectional Gaussian Graphical Model. Results. Of the infection fears, fear of being infected, fear of dying from the coronavirus and fear of significant others dying from it had notable connections to the GAD symptoms anxiety and/or fear of awful events. The financial worry component worry about personal economy was connected to the MDD symptom sleep problems and to the GAD symptom generalized worry. Each of the loneliness components was connected to a specific MDD symptom. Anhedonia, depressed mood and worthlessness had the highest strength centrality among the MDD symptoms; generalized worry, uncontrollability of worry, and trouble relaxing among the GAD symptoms; fear of dying from the virus among the fear of infection components; and feeling isolated among the loneliness components. A community analysis identified separate clusters for MDD and GAD as well as a cluster cutting across the two disorders. Conclusions. Particular components of the pandemic-related distressing states of fear of infection and loneliness seem to be associated with specific symptoms of MDD and GAD.

10.31234/osf.io/xa8qk

The network structure ofstress-related states, depression,and anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 lockdown

Why proposals to largely let the virus run its course—embraced by Donald Trump’s administration and others—are a false promise

COVID-19 Herd Immunity Strategies Could Bring ‘Untold Death and Suffering’

Minority ethnic people in UK were ‘overexposed, under protected, stigmatised and overlooked’, review finds

Structural racism led to worse Covid impact on BAME groups – report

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport last February. America’s first known coronavirus patient had passed through the previous month, on his way home from Wuhan, China.Credit...

A year after the U.S. recorded its first virus case, the outbreak has ravaged the nation and deaths remain high.

Science has been invaluable in combating the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences. However, science is not flawless: especially research that is performed and written up under high time pressure may be susceptible to errors. Luckily, one of the core principles of science is its ability to self-correct. Traditionally, scientific self-correction is achieved through replication, but this takes time and resources; both of which are scarce. In this chapter, I argue for an additional, more efficient self-correction mechanism: analytical reproducibility checks.

10.31234/osf.io/9hc8z

Efficient Scientific Self-Correction in Times of Crisis

10.1038/d41586-020-03554-0

Records of past pandemics are patchy. This one has seen a global frenzy of collecting.

What are COVID archivists keeping for tomorrow’s historians?

978-1-907384-85-1

This report summarises some of what is known and unknown about trust in news, what is contributing to changing attitudes about news worldwide, and how media organisations are responding to increased digital competition. The report combines an extensive review of existing research on the subject along with findings from 82 in-depth interviews with journalists and other practitioners across Brazil, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States – four countries with varying media and political systems. The report argues that there is no single ‘trust in news’ problem but rather multiple challenges involving both the supply of news and the public’s demand for information. Empirical evidence about what works, with whom, and under what circumstances, remains lacking, especially around the role played by platform companies. The report emphasises the need to grapple with trade-offs. Some efforts to regain or retain trust in accurate and reliable news are likely to alienate some audiences over others.

What we think we know and what we want to know: Perspectives on trust in news in a changing world

10.1038/d41586-020-03518-4

Rich nations have struggled with one of the most basic and important methods for controlling infectious diseases.

Why many countries failed at COVID contact-tracing — but some got it right