10.31234/osf.io/rp5nh

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there is a growing need for assessing the psychological costs of social isolation (SI). We examine whether the balcony party can help people cope better with SI during the COVID-19 outbreak. We examined the psychological effects of SI on persons in Israel and Italy between March 23th, 2020 and April 2th, 2020. A total of 303 quarantined persons responded to a Web-based survey. We found that the effect of balcony parties on the psychological costs of SI is dependent on the level of social isolation. Those who experienced high levels of SI perceived the balcony parties as more beneficial in inducing positive affect and reducing negative affect in comparison to those who experienced low levels of SI. The opposite pattern was observed when individuals were asked about their participation in these parties: individuals with high levels of SI experienced balcony parties as less beneficial than similar pre-outbreak gathering events, while individuals with low levels of social isolation showed an opposite pattern. Finally, for those with high SI, balcony parties did not meet the expectation of creating feelings of communal solidarity. However, a discrepancy between high SI expectations and experience was not found for those with low SI. Our findings demonstrate that the balcony parties are beneficial in reducing the emotional cost of social isolation – but only for those who feel low levels of SI. The fact that individuals with high levels of SI expected more out of these parties suggests the need to develop interventions aimed at optimizing their expectations. As society enters a new period in which the costs of social distancing may be higher, our findings are valuable for understanding the psychological battle that individuals face while in social isolation.

The Balcony Party – Mitigation of social isolation during the coronavirus outbreak

10.31234/osf.io/fvnmb

Objective. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the closure of licensed casinos throughout North America in Spring 2020. This study sought to examine how gamblers responded to the COVID-19 lockdown, including migration to online gambling, and changes in substance use and use of other technologies. Method. We conducted an online cross-sectional study of US residents. 424 individuals with past three months gambling involvement were surveyed on 9 April 2020. Self-reported changes in online gambling and other addictive behaviors since the onset of COVID-19, problem gambling severity, and readiness to change were measured. Results. Overall, online gambling decreased following the onset of COVID-19 casino closures, t(220)=-2.87, p=0.003, 95%CI [-0.546, -0.101], d=0.193, while alcohol, p<0.001, tobacco, p=0.001, and cannabis use, p=0.01, increased among gamblers. Among gamblers who reported no online gambling involvement prior to COVID-19, 15% reported migrating to online gambling under lockdown. These migrators had higher levels of problem gambling, F=37.7, p<0.001, 𝜂2=0.152, and lower income, F=5.50, p=0.004, 𝜂2=0.025, than gamblers who had never gambled online. Conclusions. The response to COVID-19 is heterogeneous: in the short-term, the majority of gamblers reported reducing their online gambling, but increasing their substance use. A minority of gamblers appear to have substituted casino gambling with online gambling. As these individuals are characterized by problem gambling symptoms and lower income, they may be considered a vulnerable group.

Substitution behaviors among casino gamblers during COVID-19 precipitated casino closures

10.31234/osf.io/spxtw

The COVID-19 outbreak has caused a great impact in our society. Because of its rapid spread, many countries, including Spain, were forced to impose drastic measures (i.e., restrictive lockdowns) to guarantee social distancing and isolation. In some countries, like Spain, these measures were particularly restrictive for children, who were forced to stay at home for more than 40 days, suffering a drastic change in their daily routines. The present study aimed to examine the effects of the Spanish confinement derived from the COVID-19 crisis on children and their families, accounting for child’s age. A range of child negative (e.g., conduct problems) and positive outcomes (e.g., routine maintenance) were examined, along with a set of parent-related variables, including resilience, perceived distress, emotional problems, parenting distress and specific parenting practices (e.g., structured or avoidant parenting), which were modeled through Path Analysis to better understand child adjustment. Data was collected in April 2020, through parent-reports, on a sample of 1,123 Spanish children (50% girls) aged three to 12 (Mage = 7.26; SD = 2.39). Results suggested that, according to parents’ information, most children did not show important changes in behavior, although some increase rates were observed for both negative and positive outcomes. Child adjustment was influenced by a chain of effects, derived from parents’ perceived distress and emotional response to the COVID-19 crisis, via parenting distress and specific parenting practices. While parenting distress particularly triggered child negative outcomes, specific parenting practices were more closely related to child positive outcomes. These findings may help to better inform, for potential future outbreaks, effective guidelines and prevention programs aimed at promoting child’s well-being in the family.

Testing the effects of COVID-19 confinement in Spanish children: The role of parents’ distress, emotional problems and specific parenting

This animation shows the factors influencing the impact of #Covid_19 on #BAME communities

I hope the reader will forgive me if I say that my reaction to this is more likely to be spontaneous combustion than spontaneous applause. /10 /end

Aside: A friend who works for a large consumer products company once told me that when they make a 10,000-litre batch of their "herbal extract" shampoo, they add 10 millilitres of actual herbal extract to the vat. That's what this feels like. Semi-homeopathic open science. /9

So the article got the "preregistered" badge (arguably the journal's problem), and the authors themselves used the keyword "preregistered", on the basis of exactly one exploratory analysis, suggested by the reviewers, and written up in the supplement as having unclear effects. /8

Here's the preregistration. It was "preregistered" on June 3, 2019. That's 130 days ***after the manuscript was submitted***. It describes a preregistered analysis of... the possible effect of adding an extra explanatory variable to the models that are already in the paper. /7

Still, there must be plenty of other examples, right? After all, "preregistered" is a keyword. Let's find the next occurrence of "prereg". Oh. It's in the coda. Still, we get a link to this doubtless extensive preregistration. I might start getting excited again. /6

The next three mentions of "prereg" are in the Methods section, where for some reasons the authors seem to have become somewhat lukewarm about preregistration. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ /5

(By the way, that image also contains the date on whiuch the manuscript was received: January 25, 2019. Keep that in your mind.) /4

Let's look for the results of any preregistered analyses in the article. The strings "prereg" and "pre-reg" find only a few hits. Here's the first: a keyword! Strong start there. This article is clearly going to be a feast of open science practices. /3

Clark et al. received Psychological Science's "preregistered" badge. Here are the criteria for awarding that badge, from the journal's web site. /2

Some interesting (to me) details about the retracted Clark et al. article. One thread per detail. This is thread #1: The preregistration. (There may only be one thread, depending on my motivation levels; it's a beautiful day here and the park beckons.) /1

On June 11, 2020, Twitter announced the takedown of a collection of 23,750accounts attributed to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), with technicalindicators linking the operation to the same actor responsible for the networkof 200,000 accounts suspended inAugust 2019. Most of the 23,750 accounts inthis disclosure were caught relatively quickly and thus failed to gain traction onthe platform. Twitter’s assessment of the operation notes that these accountswere themselves part of a larger network, the remainder of which primarilyserved to retweet the core; the amplifiers were not included in the publictakedown data set.This June 2020 PRC-attributed operation had considerable topical overlapwith the August 2019 operation, particularly concerning the pro-democracymovement in Hong Kong andattacks on Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui(nowin exile in the United States). A small portion of the tweets occurred during thesame timeframe as the 2019 operation, involving accounts found after that firsttakedown. However, more significantly, it appears that the PRC simply creatednew accounts to talk about the same topics after losing the first network. Thepersonas are not well-developed and have no biographies or backstories thatclearly articulate who they are supposed to be; the tone of the content createsthe perception that the tweets are the opinions of an average Chinese person.One notable narrative addition in this takedown is content related to the coro-navirus pandemic. Other recent research, such asan analysis by Bellingcat,suggested the emergence of COVID-19 as a topical focus for likely-CCP ac-counts; this takedown offers concrete confirmation. The COVID-19 relatedcontent includes tweets cheerleading for the Chinese government, emphasiz-ing Chinese unity, calling for global unity, and praising doctors and medicalworkers. It also pointedly criticizes the US epidemic response, quibbles overthe international perception that Taiwan’s response was superior to China’s,and attacks Guo Wengui for allegedly spreading false news on the coronavirusand “discrediting China”.

Sockpuppets Spin COVID Yarns: An Analysis ofPRC-Attributed June 2020 Twitter takedown

10.31234/osf.io/2y7hu

The spread of the novel coronavirus has led to unprecedented changes in daily living. College students (N = 205) completed a battery of questionnaires in April of 2020, after having completed similar measures 8, 5, and 2 months prior as part of a larger study. A repeated measures ANOVA suggested significantly greater depression and anxiety symptom severity during the pandemic than at any other time during the 2019-2020 academic year. Static and modifiable factors associated with psychological distress and controlling for pre-existing psychological distress were examined. Cognitive and behavioral avoidance was the most consistent predictor of psychological distress during the pandemic. Online social engagement and problematic Internet use also conferred greater risk. Women and Latinx participants were more likely to experience elevated distress during the pandemic, even when controlling for distress prior to the pandemic.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on College Student Mental Health: A Longitudinal Examination of Risk and Protective Factors

10.31234/osf.io/rea57

This study investigated the within- and across-day associations between Corona-related media exposure and Corona-related worries during the COVID-19 crisis in late March to April 2020 in Germany. In a 21-day online diary study based on a convenience sample of parents of school-aged children (N = 561; Mage = 42.79, SDage = 6.12), same-day analyses revealed more Corona-related worries on days with higher exposure to Corona-related media (e.g., TV, print, online). Examining the across-day relations among Corona-related media exposure and worries, we found evidence for a reciprocal cycle, indicating that higher media exposure at one day predicted higher worries the next day and that higher worries at one day predicted higher media exposure the next day. Furthermore, individuals with high trait anxiety reported higher media exposure and more worries during the 21 days of assessment, and individuals high in neuroticism on average reported more worries.

Cyclical Across-Day Dynamics of Corona-Related Media Exposure and Worries in People’s Everyday Lives During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Scholarly publishers are working together to maximize the efficiency of peer review, ensuring that key work related to COVID-19 is reviewed and published as quickly and openly as possible. The group of publishers and scholarly communications organizations — initially comprising eLife, Hindawi, PeerJ, PLOS, Royal Society, F1000 Research, FAIRsharing, Outbreak Science, and PREreview — is working on initiatives and standards to speed up the review process while ensuring rigor and reproducibility remain paramount. The group has issued an Open Letter of Intent and is launching an initiative to ensure a rapid, efficient, yet responsible review of COVID-19 content.

What kinds of research are not eligible for Leverhulme Trust funding? Both because of the substantial funding available from other sources for applied medical research, and the Trust’s priority to support investigations of a fundamental nature, we do not fund studies of disease, illness and disabilities in humans and animals, or research that is intended to inform clinical practice or the development of medical applications Policy-driven research where the principal objective is to assemble an evidence base for immediate policy initiatives Proposals for the following are also ineligible for Leverhulme Trust support: Research where advocacy is an explicit component Research aimed principally at an immediate commercial application Proposals in which the balance between assembling a data bank or database and the related subsequent research is heavily inclined to the former Guidance on eligibility If you are uncertain about the eligibility of your proposal, please contact us before beginning an application.

Research we do not fund

COVID-19 Regional Safety Assessment (200 Regions)

what impact it will have, I guess depends crucially on whether scientists can argue that 'best practice was followed' (see also Victor's comments).The problem is that, as you point out, we arguably don't yet have a consensus around code and data sharing, though there has been a huge push in that direction in recent years.I've personally been a bit lukewarm about some of that in the past, precisely because of the resource issue and the fact that often it seems to me to make more sense in terms of the field's resources to just run a study again.But I'd definitely argue that at the moment, the reverse is true: we need to spot errors more rapidly than in 'normal science'.

What is the impact of retraction of scientific studies reported in news media?

This pre-print endeavours to further the current understanding of how to communicate health information to the global public effectively. The study also aims to test competing theories about risk communication. The experimenters aim to test competing hypotheses in the context of framing messages in terms of losses versus gains. A gain-frame describes the process of framing a message focused on the positive outcome. A loss-frame describes the process of framing a message on the costs or the loss, such as opportunity cost. The present study aims to examine the effects on four primary outcomes. These outcomes are intentions to adhere to policies designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, opinions about such policies, the likelihood that participants seek additional policy information, and experience anxiety. The researchers on the project suggest that results could be of particular interest to health organisations, policymakers, and news outlets. Results pending.

A global test of message framing on behavioural intentions, policy support, information seeking, and experienced anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic https://t.co/oIBXORAWwM

10.1038/d41586-020-01788-6

Universities are facing a severe financial crisis and some contract staff are hanging by a thread. Senior colleagues need to speak up now.

Boosting research without supporting universities is wrong-headed

You might try to defend a uni-disciplinary approach by arguing a decision-maker will mainly be fed other, biased uni-disciplinary approaches, and you have to get your discipline into the mix to avoid obliteration of its viewpoint.  But let’s be clear what is going on here: you are deliberately manipulating with a deliberately non-truthy approach (I intend those words as a description, not a condemnation).  If that’s what it is, I wish to describe it that way!  I’ll also note I’ve never done that deliberately myself, and that is along many years of advising at a variety of levels.  I’d rather give the best truthful account as I see it.

How to think about uni-disciplinary advice

Interesting webinar opportunity from @LGAcomms

Tracking states as they make progress towards a new normal

How We Reopen Safely

I am here to help.

BackgroundThe isolation of symptomatic cases and tracing of contacts has been used as an early COVID-19 containment measure in many countries, with additional physical distancing measures also introduced as outbreaks have grown. To maintain control of infection while also reducing disruption to populations, there is a need to understand what combination of measures—including novel digital tracing approaches and less intensive physical distancing—might be required to reduce transmission. We aimed to estimate the reduction in transmission under different control measures across settings and how many contacts would be quarantined per day in different strategies for a given level of symptomatic case incidence.MethodsFor this mathematical modelling study, we used a model of individual-level transmission stratified by setting (household, work, school, or other) based on BBC Pandemic data from 40 162 UK participants. We simulated the effect of a range of different testing, isolation, tracing, and physical distancing scenarios. Under optimistic but plausible assumptions, we estimated reduction in the effective reproduction number and the number of contacts that would be newly quarantined each day under different strategies.ResultsWe estimated that combined isolation and tracing strategies would reduce transmission more than mass testing or self-isolation alone: mean transmission reduction of 2% for mass random testing of 5% of the population each week, 29% for self-isolation alone of symptomatic cases within the household, 35% for self-isolation alone outside the household, 37% for self-isolation plus household quarantine, 64% for self-isolation and household quarantine with the addition of manual contact tracing of all contacts, 57% with the addition of manual tracing of acquaintances only, and 47% with the addition of app-based tracing only. If limits were placed on gatherings outside of home, school, or work, then manual contact tracing of acquaintances alone could have an effect on transmission reduction similar to that of detailed contact tracing. In a scenario where 1000 new symptomatic cases that met the definition to trigger contact tracing occurred per day, we estimated that, in most contact tracing strategies, 15 000–41 000 contacts would be newly quarantined each day.InterpretationConsistent with previous modelling studies and country-specific COVID-19 responses to date, our analysis estimated that a high proportion of cases would need to self-isolate and a high proportion of their contacts to be successfully traced to ensure an effective reproduction number lower than 1 in the absence of other measures. If combined with moderate physical distancing measures, self-isolation and contact tracing would be more likely to achieve control of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 transmission.FundingWellcome Trust, UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, European Commission, Royal Society, Medical Research Council.

10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30457-6

Effectiveness of isolation, testing, contact tracing, and physical distancing on reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in different settings: a mathematical modelling study

The COVID-19 global health emergency and its economic and social impacts have disrupted nearly all aspects of life for all groups in society. People of different ages, however, are experiencing its effects in different ways.For young people, and especially for vulnerable youth, the COVID-19 crisis poses considerable risks in the fields of education, employment, mental health and disposable income. Moreover, while youth and future generations will shoulder much of the long-term economic and social consequences of the crisis, their well-being may be superseded by short-term economic and equity considerations. To avoid exacerbating intergenerational inequalities and to involve young people in building societal resilience, governmentsneed to anticipate the impact of mitigation and recovery measures across different age groups, by applying effective governance mechanisms.Based on survey findings from 90 youth organisations from 48 countries, this policy brief outlines practical measures governments can take to design inclusive and fair recovery measures that leave no one behind

Youth and COVID-19: Response, Recovery and Resilience

A paper published last week claiming mask usage prevented 66,000 infections in NYC has received widespread media coverage. It has also been heavily criticized for, among other things, a tenuous analysis of a regression discontinuity. Fitting lines to the number of new cases each day in New York City before and after face masks were mandatory, the authors attribute the steeper decline in cases to face masks: new cases were falling by 39 per day before the order and 106 after, so face masks probably sped up the rate of decrease by about 67 cases a day.

You Regress It: Have Masks Prevented 66,000 Infections in New York City?

Die Planungen der Europäischen Union und aller ihrer Mitgliedstaaten für eine sichere Wiederaufnahme des Reiseverkehrs in Europa laufen. Der Schutz der öffentlichen Gesundheit hat zwar nach wie vor Priorität, aber jeder soll seinen Urlaub genießen, Familie und Freunde besuchen und zu jedem anderen Zweck reisen können. Mit dieser interaktiven Plattform erhalten Sie die Informationen, die Sie benötigen, um Ihre Reisen und Ihren Urlaub in Europa mit Rücksicht auf Ihre Gesundheit sicher zu planen. Die Informationen werden häufig aktualisiert und stehen Ihnen in 24 Sprachen zur Verfügung.

Re-open EU

In this page you will find reports and analysis on ICT skills provided by the European Commission as well as external studies conducted at the request of the Commission.

Human Capital and Digital Skills

We've stopped deadly outbreaks in the past. And we can do it again, says epidemiologist Adam Kucharski

The pandemic playbook: A step-by-step guide to containing an outbreak

Oben rechts auf dieser Seite können Sie die gewünschte Sprache (Englisch, Französisch, Deutsch oder Italienisch) auswählen. Vielen Dank für Ihre Teilnahme an dieser Studie. Sie befasst sich mit SARS-CoV-2. Wie Sie wahrscheinlich wissen, ist das neuartige Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 das Virus, das mit der aktuellen Pandemie und der COVID-19-Krankheit assoziiert ist. Unsere Umfrage dauert ungefähr 5 Minuten: Wir bitten Sie, zwei Fragen zu SARS-CoV-2 zu beantworten, gefolgt von einigen demografischen Fragen.   Die Teilnahme an dieser Studie ist anonym. Die Ergebnisse werden nur in aggregierter Form veröffentlicht und erlauben keine Identifizierung der Teilnehmer. Bitte beachten Sie, dass Ihre Teilnahme an dieser Studie vollkommen freiwillig ist und dass Sie für Ihre Teilnahme nicht vergütet werden.   Indem Sie fortfahren, bestätigen Sie, dass Sie diese Informationen gelesen haben und stimmen zu, unter den oben genannten Bedingungen an dieser Studie teilzunehmen. Für weitere Informationen können Sie den Organisator der Studie, Jérémy Orsat, unter jeremy.orsat@unil.ch kontaktieren.

10.31234/osf.io/wtcqy

Finding mechanisms to promote the use of face masks is fundamental during the second phase of the COVID-19 pandemic response, when shelter-in-place rules are relaxed and some segments of the population are allowed to circulate more freely. Here we report three pre-registered studies (total N = 1,920), using an heterogenous sample of people living in the USA, showing that priming people to “rely on their reasoning” rather than to “rely on their emotions” significantly increases their intentions to wear a face covering. Compared to the baseline, priming reasoning promotes intentions to wear a face covering, whereas priming emotion has no significant effect. These findings have theoretical and practical implications. Practically, they offer a simple and scalable intervention to promote intentions to wear a face mask. Theoretically, they shed light on the cognitive basis of intentions to wear a face covering.

Priming reasoning increases intentions to wear a face covering to slow down COVID-19 transmission

10.31234/osf.io/xb954

Background The measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the lockdown in Italy, do impact psychological health; yet, less is known about their effect on cognitive functioning. The transactional theory of stress predicts reciprocal influences between perceived stress and cognitive performance. However, the effects of a period of stress due to social isolation on spatial cognition and exploration have been little examined. The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible effects and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on spatial cognition tasks, particularly those concerning spatial exploration, and the physiological leftward bias known as pseudoneglect. A right-hemisphere asymmetry for spatial attention processes crucially contributes to pseudoneglect. Other evidence indicates a predominantly right-hemisphere activity in stressful situations. We also analyzed the effects of lockdown on coping strategies, which typically show an opposite pattern of hemispheric asymmetry, favoring the left hemisphere. If so, then pseudoneglect should increase during the lockdown and be negatively correlated with the efficacy of coping strategies. Methods One week before the start of the lockdown due to Covid-19 in Italy (T1), we had collected data from a battery of behavioral tests including tasks of peri-personal spatial cognition. During the quarantine period, from late April to early May 2020 (T2), we repeated the testing sessions with a subgroup of the same participants (47 right-handed students, mean age = 20, SD = 1.33). At both testing sessions, participants performed digitized neuropsychological tests, including a cancellation task, radial arm maze task and Raven’s advanced progressive matrices. Participants also completed a newly developed COVID-19 Student Stress Scale, based on transactional models of stress, and the COPE-NIV to assess coping orientation. Results The tendency to start cancellation from a left-sided item, to explore first a left-sided arm of the maze, and to choose erroneous response items on the left side of the page on Raven’s matrices, increased from T1 to T2. The degree of pseudoneglect increment positively correlated with perceived stress, and negatively correlated with Positive Attitude and Problem-Solving COPE-NIV subscales. Conclusions Lockdown-related stress may have contributed to increase leftward bias during quarantine through a greater activation of the right hemisphere. On the other hand, pseudoneglect was decreased for better coping participants, perhaps as a consequence of a more balanced hemispheric activity in these individuals.

Further to the left. Stress-induced increase of spatial pseudoneglect during the COVID-19 lockdown

In epidemiology, the terms ratio, rate, and risk have clear definitions.1Kelly H Cowling BJ Case fatality: rate, ratio, or risk?.Epidemiology. 2013; 24: 622-623Crossref PubMed Scopus (12) Google Scholar In the emerging publications related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the phrase case fatality rate is being used instead of case fatality ratio.2Guan WJ Ni ZY Hu Y et al.Clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 in China.N Engl J Med. 2020; (published online Feb 28.)DOI:10.1056/NEJMoa2002032Crossref Google Scholar,  3Rajgor DD Lee MH Archuleta S Bagdasarian N Quek SC The many estimates of the COVID-19 case fatality rate.Lancet Infect Dis. 2020; (published online March 27.)https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30244-9Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (9) Google Scholar A ratio is a comparison of two similar quantities. Ratios have no dimensions and can take any value; a ratio of 1 means the two quantities being compared are equal to each other. The case fatality ratio is the ratio of deaths (numerator) to identified cases (denominator), and is usually expressed as percentage.2Guan WJ Ni ZY Hu Y et al.Clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 in China.N Engl J Med. 2020; (published online Feb 28.)DOI:10.1056/NEJMoa2002032Crossref Google Scholar,  3Rajgor DD Lee MH Archuleta S Bagdasarian N Quek SC The many estimates of the COVID-19 case fatality rate.Lancet Infect Dis. 2020; (published online March 27.)https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30244-9Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (9) Google Scholar As clearly described by Kelly and Cowling,1Kelly H Cowling BJ Case fatality: rate, ratio, or risk?.Epidemiology. 2013; 24: 622-623Crossref PubMed Scopus (12) Google Scholar a rate has a time dimension (ie, time−1); it expresses changes in one quantity over a time period. Risk, however, is the probability associated with an adverse outcome that is likely to occur in the future during follow-up. Like ratios, risk has no dimensions but, unlike ratios, risk is confined to values between 0 and 1.

The controversial lockdown imposed on Roma settlements in Slovakia to prevent community transmission of COVID-19 sparks accusations of discrimination. Ed Holt reports.

Even before COVID-19 hit, there was a mental health crisis in academia. A 2018 study, for instance, found that rates of anxiety and depression in graduate students were nearly six times greater than what’s seen in the general population. Now, the pressures that may lead to mental health challenges in academia are even more extreme. Many scientists are worried about their own health as well as that of their families. Some are anxious about their future job prospects. And nearly everyone has been adjusting to a new work situation—one that revolves around digital communication rather than face-to-face contact.

To prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the world have taken a variety of restrictive measures. March 2020 figures already show their significant impact on international trade in goods. In March 2020, total seasonally adjusted extra-EU trade (imports + exports) fell from €252 billion to €228 billion compared with January 2020. However, the impact varied for different product groups.

Conspiracy theorists are using a new chat app to ‘gamify’ the spread of dangerous misinformation including coronavirus conspiracies, Holocaust denial and far right racism. Thousands of users frequent ‘servers’ on Discord, a voice and text chat platform for gamers, where participants can rack up points for posting conspiracy theories and cash them in for rewards.

‘The thing I find the saddest is we knew the entire story of what’s unfolded in Britain in the last 4 months by January 31.’ Editor of @theLancet, @richardhorton1 answers @Piersmorgan's question on why he thinks the UK has handled the coronavirus pandemic so badly.

10.31234/osf.io/gwqvx

When I started my PhD with my thesis entitled ‘‘Correlation of Quantitative CT with selective alveolobronchogram and pulmonary function tests in emphysema’’ [1], the research performed in our dept was mainly focused on the pathogenesis and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Following my PhD, my further research focused on control of breathing in patients with COPD [2, 3]. Part of my scientific work is the long-term observation of patients with chronic respiratory tract infection. In particular, I have investigated the antibiotic resistance according to genotype of penicillin-binding protein and macrolide resistance genes of Streptococcus peumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae isolated from the patients with chronic respiratory diseases. I identified the relationship between the emergence of resistant genes and the risk factors of the patients. The pneumococcal vaccine includes 23 purified capsular antigens, which covers 95% of STATEMENT OF INTEREST: None declared. the penicillin-nonsusceptible serotypes, and is expected to Eur Respir Rev 2008; 17: 107, 43–45 DOI: 10.1183/09059180.00010717 Copyright?ERSJ Ltd 2008 c EUROPEAN RESPIRATORY REVIEW VOLUME 17 NUMBER 107 43 reduce the incidence of drug-resistant strains [4]. I then focused on the usefulness of the pneumococcal vaccine in preventing either pneumonia or death in adults with chronic respiratory disease and reducing penicillin-nonsusceptible strains. The percentage of respiratory tract infections caused by pneumococcus is particularly high among elderly patients. The currently available pneumococcal vaccine stimulates the formation of specific antibodies in vivo, resulting in the prevention of pneumococcal infection; the antibody specific to pneumococci is produced within 1 month of vaccination and is retained in vivo for ,5 yrs. Among the studies conducted to date to evaluate the effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccines, a placebo-controlled study involving mine workers (known to have a high incidence of pneumococcal pneumonia, i.e. several percent or higher per year) and some other groups was performed in the 1970s. The study demonstrated the effectiveness of vaccines against pneumonia and sepsis. In developed countries, however, it is very difficult to demonstrate the effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccines with this type of study because the incidence of pneumococcal pneumonia is very low and .20,000 subjects need to be assigned to both the vaccinated group and the control (nonvaccinated group) for evaluation of effectiveness. In recent years, the effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccines was studied primarily using case–control or indirect cohort study designs, demonstrating that vaccines are not useful in preventing the onset of nonbacteraemic pneumonia, but are for pneumococcal bacteraemia [5, 6]. In Japan, the percentage of people vaccinated against pneumococcal infection is very low (2%), and it is difficult to perform a case–control study involving subjects with pneumococcal infection, as is often done in developed countries. In our cohort study, we were able to demonstrate the usefulness of vaccination despite the relatively small size of the population studied. This probably owes much to the study design, i.e. the adoption of bacterial respiratory infection (which often complicates chronic respiratory disease) as an indicator of the effectiveness of vaccination and the technique of repeated measures analysis of variance, to compare the change in the incidence of infection from the pre-vaccination to the post-vaccination period between the vaccinated and nonvaccinated groups (fig. 1, table 1).

Effects of pneumococcal vaccine in patients with chronic respiratory disease

10.31234/osf.io/uarwz

BACKGROUND: The Coronavirus disease has quickly spread to all corners across Latin-American countries. Its exponential capacity has overwhelmed even the most resilient health systems (1). The already significant impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) on the global scale is worsened by psychological responses that may aggravate the health crisis. OBJECTIVE: This study is aimed at collecting demographic information, prevalence of psychological morbidities and associated coping styles during the COVID-19 pandemic on Peruvian population. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted through online survey using snowball sampling techniques after the state of emergency was declared in Perú. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ -28) identify somatic symptom, anxiety/ insomnia, social misfunctioning and depression prevalence and the Coping Strategy Questionnaire (COPE-28) maps strategies addressing recent stress. RESULTS: We collected data from 434 self-selected participants within 18-68 years old (ME =33.87), by analysing the socio-economic information in which the majority of the respondents were women (61.3%), aged between 18 and 28 (41.7%), from well-educated groups (>=85.0 %), Peruvian (94.2%), working citizen (57.4%) and single (71.20 %). Nearly 40.8% rated psychological problems, expressing fear of being infected by coronavirus (71.43%). Regression analysis shows that female gender is associated to higher somatic (p<0.001*, C.I: -2.75 to -.99) and anxiety/insomnia symptoms (p=0.00*, C.I: -2.98 to 0.84). Depression and social dysfunction are experienced at any age. Educational status is protective against developing psychological disorders (p<0.05). While active responses (Acceptance and Social support) are scarcely used by individuals with psychological problems; Passive strategies are commonly reported (Denial, Self-Distraction, Self-Blame, Disconnection, and Emotional discharge). CONCLUSION: These findings provide a better understanding of psychological disorders resulting from the current pandemic in Peruvian population. This evidence informs the need to strengthen mental health programs, especially in less privileged groups after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Psychological problems associated with coping strategies: a web-based study in Peruvian population during the COVID-19 pandemic

10.31234/osf.io/ykvzn

In the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to public mental health stress, anxiety, panic, and behavioral disorders. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether meaning in life mediated the relationship between coronavirus stress and depressive symptoms and whether the mediating effect of meaning in life on depressive symptoms was moderated by optimism. The sample of the study included 475 undergraduate students attending a public university in an urban city of Turkey. They were 69.2% female, ranged in age between 18 and 34 years (M = 20.63, SD = 1.99). Results showed that meaning in life and optimism–pessimism mediated the relationship between coronavirus stress and depressive symptoms. Optimism also mediated the relationship between meaning in life and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, optimism moderated the mediating effect of meaning in life in the relationship between coronavirus stress and depressive symptoms. These results indicated that the relationship between coronavirus stress and depressive symptoms can be better understood by meaning in life and optimism. Optimism may play a protective factor to mitigate the impact of stress on depressive symptoms

Coronavirus Stress, Meaningful Living, Optimism, and Depressive Symptoms: A Study of Moderated Mediation Model