Antenatal Depression and the Impact of COVID-19 Mitigation Efforts in Australia

10.31234/osf.io/w4ez7

Prior research using economic games has shown that personality drives cooperation in social dilemmas. In this study, we tested the generalizability of these findings in a real-life social di-lemma during the COVID-19 pandemic, namely stockpiling in the presence of low versus high resource scarcity. Honesty-Humility was negatively related to stockpiling intentions and justi-fiability of stockpiling. Moreover, we found a positive albeit weaker effect of Emotionality on stockpiling intentions. Victim Sensitivity was mostly positively associated with stockpiling intentions. None of the personality traits interacted with resource scarcity to predict stockpil-ing. Our findings replicate established associations between personality and cooperation in a real-life social dilemma, and suggest that the characteristics of interdependent situations during a pandemic additionally afford the expression of Emotionality.

Stockpiling during the COVID-19 pandemic as a real-life social dilemma: A person-situation perspective

10.31234/osf.io/fygjq

Face perception is considered a remarkable visual ability in humans, which is subject to a prolonged developmental trajectory. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, mask-wearing has become mandatory for adults and children alike. However, previous research indicates its adverse effects on face recognition abilities in adults. The current study sought to explore the effect of masks on face processing abilities in school-age children given that face perception is not fully developed in this population. To this end, children (n = 72, ages 6-14 years old) completed the Cambridge Face Memory Test – Kids (CFMT-K), a validated measure of face perception performance. Faces were presented with or without masks and across two orientations (upright/inverted). The inclusion of face masks led to a profound deficit in face perception abilities. This decrement was more pronounced in children compared to adults, despite adjustment of task difficulty across the two age groups. Additionally, children exhibited reliable correlations between age and the CFMT score for upright faces for both the mask and no-mask conditions. Finally, as previously observed in adults, children also showed qualitative changes in the processing of masked faces. Specifically, holistic processing, a hallmark of face perception, was disrupted for masked faces, as suggested by a reduced face-inversion effect. Together, these findings provide evidence for substantial quantitative and qualitative alterations in the processing of masked faces in school-age children.

Face Masks Disrupt Holistic Processing and Face Perception in School-Age Children

10.31234/osf.io/suwnp

Objective: There is limited existing research on the structure of routine and mental wellbeing. During March 2020, the UK entered a national lockdown, causing a sudden change in undergraduate students’ routines. This study uses this event to investigate the impact routine change had on students’ mental wellbeing; in particular looking at depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and eating behaviours. Method: Participants reported their daily routine timings (waking, breakfast, lunch, evening meal and bedtime) and activities (e.g. exercise amount, time with friends, time studying, etc) on a typical Monday, Wednesday and Saturday during term time and lockdown. Additionally they completed the PROMIS measures of anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbance, and the Eating Pathology Symptom Inventory. Results: Lockdown saw small but significant shifts in routine timing (on average 1.5 hours) However, there was no clear overall pattern of relationships between mental wellbeing and routine structure or magnitude of routine change. There was some evidence of changes in amount of exercise relating to reported anxiety. Discussion: These findings are consistent with the current literature reporting lockdown effects on behaviour. Routine timings shifted but this change was small and there was minimal impact of routine change on mental wellbeing reported by undergraduate students. The change in amount of exercise posed by lockdown did appear to be an important factor in wellbeing, and more research should focus on the wellbeing implications of closing places for exercise.

The effect of change in routine on student mental wellbeing during a nationwide lockdown

2021 Edelman Trust Barometer

After a year of unprecedented disaster and turbulence – the Covid-19 pandemic and economic crisis, the global outcry over systemic racism and political instability – the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals an epidemic of misinformation and widespread mistrust of societal institutions and leaders around the world. Adding to this is a failing trust ecosystem unable to confront the rampant infodemic, leaving the four institutions – business, government, NGOs and media – in an environment of information bankruptcy and a mandate to rebuild trust and chart a new path forward.

The global infodemic has driven trust in all news sources to record lows with social media (35%) and owned media (41% the least trusted; traditional media (53%) saw largest drop in trust at 8 points globally.

Almost 1 year ago, Feb 26, 2020, authors wrote in a top journal that the coronavirus posed “limited threat outside of China” & “wearing mask in public does not prevent people from getting” #COVID19 We should have listened to the actual aerosol scientists instead on masks!

I am disturbed by the hundreds of thousands of covid deaths...and counting. But what's most disturbing to me now is the general reaction to it, the inexplicable lack of urgency or even interest in doing much to stop it in the short term. Its so far beyond what I had imagined.

Interesting initiative in Canada, could benefit from the COVID-19 vaccine handbook https://sks.to/c19vax @SciBeh @STWorg

Covid-19 misinformation? We’re over it. Pseudoscience? Over it. Conspiracies? Over it. Want to do your part to amplify scientific expertise and evidence-based health information? Join us. Follow us @ScienceUpFirst. #ScienceUpFirst https://scienceupfirst.com.

Countering misinformation can reduce belief in the moment, but corrective messages quickly fade from memory. We tested whether the longer-term impact of fact-checks depends on when people receive them. In two experiments (total N = 2,683), participants read true and false headlines taken from social media. In the treatment conditions, “true” and “false” tags appeared before, during, or after participants read each headline. Participants in a control condition received no information about veracity. One week later, participants in all conditions rated the same headlines’ accuracy. Providing fact-checks after headlines (debunking) improved subsequent truth discernment more than providing the same information during (labeling) or before (prebunking) exposure. This finding informs the cognitive science of belief revision and has practical implications for social media platform designers.

Timing matters when correcting fake news

Data showed 94% fewer symptomatic coronavirus cases and 92% fewer cases of serious illness among those vaccinated.

94% drop in symptomatic COVID cases among Israel's vaccinated - study

10.1371/journal.pone.0246961

The Susceptible–Infectious–Recovered (SIR) model is the canonical model of epidemics of infections that make people immune upon recovery. Many of the open questions in computational epidemiology concern the underlying contact structure’s impact on models like the SIR model. Temporal networks constitute a theoretical framework capable of encoding structures both in the networks of who could infect whom and when these contacts happen. In this article, we discuss the detailed assumptions behind such simulations—how to make them comparable with analytically tractable formulations of the SIR model, and at the same time, as realistic as possible. We also present a highly optimized, open-source code for this purpose and discuss all steps needed to make the program as fast as possible.

Fast and principled simulations of the SIR model on temporal networks

We must measure the impacts of long covid by establishing patient registers, says Nisreen Alwan

Nisreen Alwan: We must pay more attention to covid-19 morbidity in the second year of the pandemic

10.1016/j.vaccine.2017.04.037

Case-control studies are commonly used to evaluate effectiveness of licensed vaccines after deployment in public health programs. Such studies can provide policy-relevant data on vaccine performance under ‘real world’ conditions, contributing to the evidence base to support and sustain introduction of new vaccines. However, case-control studies do not measure the impact of vaccine introduction on disease at a population level, and are subject to bias and confounding, which may lead to inaccurate results that can misinform policy decisions. In 2012, a group of experts met to review recent experience with case-control studies evaluating the effectiveness of several vaccines; here we summarize the recommendations of that group regarding best practices for planning, design and enrollment of cases and controls. Rigorous planning and preparation should focus on understanding the study context including healthcare-seeking and vaccination practices. Case-control vaccine effectiveness studies are best carried out soon after vaccine introduction because high coverage creates strong potential for confounding. Endpoints specific to the vaccine target are preferable to non-specific clinical syndromes since the proportion of non-specific outcomes preventable through vaccination may vary over time and place, leading to potentially confusing results. Controls should be representative of the source population from which cases arise, and are generally recruited from the community or health facilities where cases are enrolled. Matching of controls to cases for potential confounding factors is commonly used, although should be reserved for a limited number of key variables believed to be linked to both vaccination and disease. Case-control vaccine effectiveness studies can provide information useful to guide policy decisions and vaccine development, however rigorous preparation and design is essential.

Case-control vaccine effectiveness studies: Preparation, design, and enrollment of cases and controls

The Dahlem Workshop discussed the hierarchy of possible public health interventions in dealing with infectious diseases, which were deflned as control, elimination of disease, elimination of infections, eradication, and extinction. The indicators of eradicability were the availability of effective interventions and practical diagnostic tools and the essential need for humans in the life-cycle of the agent. Since health resources are limited, decisions have to be made as to whether their use for an elimination or eradication programme is preferable to their use elsewhere. The costs and beneflts of global eradication programmes concern direct effects on morbidity and mortality and consequent effects on the health care system. The success of any disease eradication initiative depends strongly on the level of societal and political commitment, with a key role for the World Health Assembly. Eradication and ongoing programmes constitute potentially complementary approaches to public health. Elimination and eradication are the ultimate goals of public health, evolving naturally from disease control. The basic question is whether these goals are to be achieved in the present or some future generation.

The Principles of Disease Elimination and Eradication

Did the virus that caused a worldwide pandemic make the jump to humans via frozen food? That was one hypothesis put forward on 9 February by a joint World Health Organization and Chinese investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2.

Did the coronavirus really come from frozen food, as the WHO suggests?

The Science Media Centre (SMC) was formed in 2002 after a Select Committee report found confidence and public trust in science were being eroded by sensationalised and inaccurate press coverage. The centre helps journalists access leading experts and encourages scientists to engage with the media, and in 2020 had its busiest ever year, organising hundreds of briefings and round-ups of expert opinion on COVID-19. Its director, Fiona Fox, talks to Tom Ireland about how the press have handled the extraordinary deluge of scientific information and public health messages produced during the pandemic.

‘I’m ridiculously positive about the media’s coverage of COVID-19’

It’s flattering being asked for your opinion by the media (especially if you have lots of them) but I do think it’s important to defer to others if you’re being asked on as a ‘scientific expert’ and the subject of the interview falls outside your area of research/expertise.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)vaccine shortages have led some experts and countries to consider untested dosing regimens. We studied antibody responses to a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines in healthcare workers (HCW) with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection and compared to them to antibodyresponses of HCW who were IgG negative to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.HCW with prior COVID-19showed clear secondary antibody responses to vaccination with IgG spike binding titers rapidly increasing by 7 days and peaking by days 10 and 14 post-vaccination. At all time points tested, HCW with prior COVID-19 infection showed statistically significant higher antibody titers of binding and functional antibodycompared to HCW without prior COVID-19 infection (p<.0001for each of the time points tested). In times of vaccine shortage, and until correlates of protection are identified, our findings preliminarily suggest the following strategy as more evidence-based: a) a single doseof vaccine for patients already having had laboratory-confirmed COVID-19; and b) patients who have had laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 can be placed lower on the vaccination priority list.

10.1101/2021.01.30.21250843

Single Dose Vaccinationin Healthcare Workers Previously Infected with SARS-CoV-2

Today is a good day In terms of one less source of misinformation

10.1111/bjop.12491

Why do we adopt new rules, such as social distancing? Although human sciences research stresses the key role of social influence in behaviour change, most COVID‐19 campaigns emphasize the disease’s medical threat. In a global data set (n = 6,674), we investigated how social influences predict people’s adherence to distancing rules during the pandemic. Bayesian regression analyses controlling for stringency of local measures showed that people distanced most when they thought their close social circle did. Such social influence mattered more than people thinking distancing was the right thing to do. People’s adherence also aligned with their fellow citizens, but only if they felt deeply bonded with their country. Self‐vulnerability to the disease predicted distancing more for people with larger social circles. Collective efficacy and collectivism also significantly predicted distancing. To achieve behavioural change during crises, policymakers must emphasize shared values and harness the social influence of close friends and family.

Social influence matters: We follow pandemic guidelines most when our close circle does

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic we've calculated Rt, which has been a useful measure of how quickly the virus is spreading. However, we believe other metrics are now a better way to track the virus. With that, we suggest you visit the following organizations which have alternative metrics:

Changing Metrics and Additional Resources

COVID outlasts another dashboard... https://rt.live Illustrates the importance of incentivising sustainable outbreak analytics - if a tool is useful, people will come to rely on it, which creates a dilemma if it can't be maintained.

Scopus has stopped adding content from most of the flagged titles, but the analysis highlights how poor-quality science is infiltrating literature.

Hundreds of ‘predatory’ journals indexed on leading scholarly database

Researchers don’t understand exactly how the disease might trigger Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, or whether the cases are temporary or permanent. But 14 percent of those with severe covid-19 developed a form of the disorder, one analysis found.

New diabetes cases linked to covid-19

In the fight against COVID-19, disease modelers have struggled with misunderstanding and misuse of their work. They have also come to realize how unready the state of modeling was for this pandemic.

The Hard Lessons of Modeling the Coronavirus Pandemic

10.31234/osf.io/mhqbv

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated “Stay-Home” restrictions in the United States have disrupted employees’ lives. We leverage the change brought on by the Stay-Home restrictions to examine corresponding changes in employees’ commitment to their workgroup. Specifically, we advance and test a model predicting that the Stay-Home restrictions prevented workgroups from engaging in rigidly performed, meaningful workplace activities (i.e., ritualistic workplace activities), which subsequently made members feel that the group was less cohesive and ultimately reduced members’ workgroup commitment. We also compare changes in workgroup commitment to changes in workgroup identification, hypothesizing that commitment to one’s group erodes more than identification when workgroups are perceived to be less cohesive. We test our model in a four-wave panel survey of 772 U.S. employees at the onset of the Stay-Home restrictions, which allows us to examine within-person changes to commitment over time. Consistent with our hypotheses, commitment decreased as the duration of Stay-Home restrictions increased, which was mediated by corresponding declines in engaging in ritualistic workplace activities and perceptions of the workgroup’s cohesiveness. Further, commitment to one’s workgroup declined more than did identification with the workgroup, due to the stronger relationship between perceived group cohesion and commitment (vs. identification). We replicated these results in a separate, preregistered cross-sectional survey. Our findings shed light on the mechanisms underlying workgroup commitment, demonstrating that engagement in ritualistic activities, which enhance workgroup cohesion, is linked to stronger commitment— more so than identification—over time.

Is Commitment Getting Infected Too? How COVID-19 Stay-Home Orders Influence Workgroup Commitment

Until very recently, I was a fit, healthy ex-rower with no past medical history. I was a highly active scientist in pathogen genomics. But then I developed COVID-19, which progressed to Long-COVID. Here, I give an account of my experience to raise awareness of this debilitating illness.

Long-COVID – the nightmare that won’t end – a researcher’s first hand perspective

I love dogs but... There's growing awareness of the dog mess problem around town.

BehSci vs Dog Mess