We are inviting suggestions, comments, resources, or pointers for this hackathon:Target issue: To deal with the complex matter that is COVID-19, researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders need a curated---even if not yet fully vetted---overview over the constantly emerging knowledge and discussions, which are scattered across the internet (e.g., preprints, webseminars, studies in progress, #academictwitter discussions, static and interactive visualizations of results and models, blog posts by researchers, policymakers, and others). To this end, SciBeh has created a living knowledge base using hypothes.is annotations. However, the search interface is designed to search for annotations and not to search the underlying documents.

Workshop hackathon: ReSearch Engine: Search Engine for SciBeh’s knowledge base & beyond

Psychische Belastung: Jungen Menschen schlägt die Pandemie mehr aufs Gemüt als den Alten

Senioren erkranken zwar schwerer an Covid-19, aber sie scheinen resilienter gegenüber Depressionen und Ängsten in der Pandemie zu sein. Ein Erklärungsversuch.

Psychische Belastung: Jungen Menschen schlägt die Pandemie mehr aufs Gemüt als den Alten

Weekly watchlist giving epidemiological coronavirus (COVID-19) data for each lower-tier local authority in England.

Coronavirus cases by local authority: epidemiological data, 27 November 2020

Diese Woche ist weltweit zu lesen, alle Schweizer Intensivbetten seien belegt. Das stimmt zwar nicht, passt aber ins Konzept derer, die seit Wochen «Alarm schlagen». Damit versetzen sie die einen in Panik, während sie die anderen abstumpfen – eine kurzsichtige und gefährliche Strategie.

Fürchtet euch! Warum die ständigen Unkenrufe bezüglich Intensivbetten kontraproduktiv sind

Science is only as trustworthy as the most severe criticism it can withstand. Our mission is to improve science by making it easy for anyone to connect with expert scientists and get rapid, independent criticism on any aspect of research. 

Build trust through criticism

None of the systems talk to each other, so Dr Singer’s admin staff are making appointments with one system, then manually entering them into another, then doing it all again for the second vaccine Lots of potential for mistakes. Lots of wasted time

f you're looking for a reason for the government hasn't been regularly releasing the numbers of people who are vaccinated, this issue is probably it I don’t want to speculate too much but from what I’m told the figures put out today may be *very* provisional

"We’re all getting really frustrated. It’s just not helping to deliver the programme,” he said The practice keeps people outside as much as possible “It's not nice weather and we've got old people standing out in the cold waiting to get their vaccine because of these delays”

As a result, a lot of the data capture is being done by hand, before being entered into the system. Yes, that’s right, in 2020, vaccine data is being coached with pen and paper From a data point of view, this is barbaric. But to Dr Singer, the real cost is the wasted time

The data recording is done by a system called Pinnacle. It arrived last week and there've been problems ever since. There are issues with access. It also keeps crashing One senior health official told me the IT was “failing constantly”

There are numerous software systems involved with vaccination, but two are central. 1. Recording who's had the vaccine (and which vaccine, what batch etc). 2. Inviting and booking patients for appointments - what's known as "call and recall" There are problems with both

This is Dr Elliot Singer, a GP in Waltham Forest. If anyone can be called a community doctor, it’s him. He wasn’t just born locally, he was delivered by the GP who used to have his practice He’s delighted to be delivering the vaccine, but the tech is causing “huge frustration“

Medics complain of communication breakdown between practices and hospitals

Covid vaccines: Fears for double dosing as GPs left without up-to-date data amid NHS IT chaos

An official says the problem may explain why the government struggled to publish vaccination figures until Wednesday.

COVID-19 vaccine rollout may be delayed - with IT system 'failing constantly'

As the coronavirus spread in China, the government stage-managed what appeared on the domestic internet to make the virus look less severe and the authorities more capable, according to thousands of leaked directives and other files.

Leaked Documents Show How China’s Army of Paid Internet Trolls Helped Censor the Coronavirus

The quality-adjusted life year or quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) is a generic measure of disease burden, including both the quality and the quantity of life lived.[1][2] It is used in economic evaluation to assess the value of medical interventions.[1] One QALY equates to one year in perfect health.[2] QALY scores range from 1 (perfect health) to 0 (dead).[3] QALYs can be used to inform health insurance coverage determinations, treatment decisions, to evaluate programs, and to set priorities for future programs.[3]

Quality-adjusted life year

The effectiveness of a nation’s COVID-19 response in limiting transmission depends on people complying with unfamiliar restrictions. The immediate cost of abiding by these restrictions (e.g., by staying home) to the individual is relatively clear, yet other outcomes are delayed and noisy. It is difficult to infer whether others have fallen ill because of one’s own actions, or whether one has played a part in causing a ‘lockdown’. This uncertainty leads people to take cues from their dynamic environment and social norms on the right course of action. This preregistered study investigates how people cooperate, and how the social context influences their decisions using an iterated multiplayer game (akin to a public goods game), wherein they encounter various levels of compliance of others, variations in disease prevalence, and differences in the costliness of a lockdown. Participants indicate how much they would hypothetically isolate themselves for each level of average self-isolation by others in the group, they predict how much others will self-isolate, and make a decision about their own self-isolation. We show that participants tend to self-isolate more when they predict others will self-isolate more, and when there are more infected players in the group; we show that participants suffer from illusory superiority, underestimating others’ self-isolation compared to their own, and we show that higher perceived cost of lockdown leads to more compliance, but that this effect is stronger when players predict that others will be compliant too.

10.31234/osf.io/mh69r

Staying home so you can keep going out: A multiplayer self-isolation game modelling pandemic behaviour

Currently in psychological science considerable effort is directed towards confirmatory practices. Much less attention has been devoted to how to do exploratory research. In this article, we support researchers in expanding their methodological toolbox by adding one more technique of exploratory research. The majority of this article is a hands-on tutorial that explains how exploration can be done using state-of-the-art statistical methods, ultimately leading to an in-depth demonstration of machine learning techniques. The practical part of this tutorial explores one of our own datasets, the Human Penguin Project (IJzerman, Lindenberg et al., 2018). The reader can follow the tutorial by recreating our analyses in their own RStudio, apply our annotated code to her own data or other secondary data, and repeat our steps. We show how to get familiar with datasets the researcher wants to use for machine learning, inspect it in many useful ways, and make predictions using machine learning algorithms. We close with describing the limitations related to causal inference and clarifying that finding robust patterns does not equate generating a comprehensive theory. Our tutorial requires basic knowledge of statistics and programming language R (R Core Team, 2016), but we provide resources for absolute beginners.

10.31234/osf.io/cy9mz

A Tutorial for Exploratory Research: An Eight-Step Approach

Italian death toll now 34, German cases nearly double, and South Korea and Iran also struggle to contain outbreak

New coronavirus cases jump sharply in Europe, with Italy worst hit

10.31234/osf.io/xzf2c

This commentary provides an overview and rationale for additive screening and prevention of mental health issues in caregivers (e.g. parents, etc.) during the COVID-19 pandemic. While universal screening is recommended, particular emphasis is placed on enhancing screening for caregivers more likely to experience increased or prolonged emotional distress during this extraordinary time, such as those with pre-existent mental health symptoms, those experiencing racism, financial challenges, health difficulties and/or bereavement. Specific recommendations for ways in which medical providers and other specialty care providers working with youth might enhance their screening procedures to be inclusive of caregivers are provided, along with prevention and intervention steps that may be initiated if mental health concerns are detected.

The Parents are Not Alright: A Call for Parental Mental Health Screening During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Six years ago, 193 countries committed to reduce inequalities, including a target to ensure equal opportunity by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies, and practices as part of the sustainable development goals and the pledge to leave no one behind. Despite this pledge, the effects of widespread discrimination continue to play out in real time, harming people’s health and human development. Covid-19 is exposing and deepening existing inequalities, and disproportionately impacting marginalized and vulnerable communities that are, too often, left without access to critical tools and services. Unless this changes, the world will not be free of covid-19 and its devastating consequences. Put simply, this pandemic won’t be over anywhere until it’s over everywhere.

To end covid-19, we must end discrimination and inequality

Limited access to vaccines by African nations as Africa has been side-lined in the race to secure vaccines for COVID-19.Uniform thinking and planning overlook distinct country realities that may imply different COVID-19 responses, including vaccination strategies, and that local stakeholders and communities have a central role in designing and implementing successful public health interventions.The distribution of COVID-19 vaccines should be part of an integrated and broader strategy, both to curb COVID-19 and also to improve life and well-being of the target community.The backdrop of Africa in the COVID-19 vaccine race highlights the urgency for Africans to invest in research to ensure that strategies are adapted to the Africa context and not just imported as the COVID-19 vaccine will be.

10.1136/bmjgh-2021-005306

How to ensure a needs-driven and community-centred vaccination strategy for COVID-19 in Africa

New estimates of life expectancy expose worrisome health trends in the U.S.

Covid-19 Isn’t the Only Thing Shortening American Lives

Americans of all ages, education levels, genders, races and political parties say they're more likely than not to get the coronavirus vaccine — except Republicans.

Republicans are least likely to want the coronavirus vaccine

MultiNet Webinar Series: Manlio De Domenico

In this AccelNet-MultiNet webinar from Nov. 10, Manlio De Domenico presented his talk, "Multilayer modeling of complex systems: from systems medicine to infodemiology (of COVID-19)." You can find the event information here.

These guides are for national and local government and partners, such as the NHS, emergency services and third sector, to support people to have healthier behaviours.

Behaviour change: guides for national and local government and partners

The Behavioural Science of Managing COVID-19: Lessons From the Global South: Africa FocusPerspectives from Africa:Join us for a dynamic discussion on how behavioural insights can help manage COVID-19’s impact in Africa.Invited Expert: Anisha SinghModerator: Sakshi GhaiAbout Anisha SinghAnisha is the Director for Research and Innovation at Busara and is interested in all things research methods and data. She leads the portfolio of experimental research at Busara which is the bridge between academia and consulting, as well as, focuses on developing a network of decision labs to contribute to evidence based approaches in the Global South. She also leads development and implementation of creative and innovative research products - at the core of this is exploring how to go beyond traditional research methods and processes, using technology for research, and what it means for data to be inclusive. She is passionate about taking research beyond a 'cultural and gender lens' and bringing context, cultures and gender to the forefront of research designs.Hosted by Cambridge University Behavioural Insights Team (CUBIT). Live event, not recorded. Sign up to the CUBIT mailing list here.

Behavioural Insights & COVID-19: Lessons From the Global South: Africa

10.1007/s11229-019-02444-x

In this paper I develop and present a unified account of information, misinformation, and disinformation and their interconnections. The unified account is rooted in Paul Grice’s notions of natural and non-natural meaning (in: Grice (ed) Studies in the way of words. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, pp 213–223, 1957) and a corresponding distinction between natural and non-natural information (Scarantino and Piccinini in Metaphilosophy 41(3):313–330, 2010). I argue that we can specify at least three specific kinds of non-natural information. Thus, as varieties of non-natural information there is intentionally non-misleading information, unintentionally misleading information—i.e. misinformation—and intentionally misleading information—i.e. disinformation. By shifting the focus from the truth-values of content to the intention/intentionality and misleadingness/non-misleadingness of that content I obtain a unified account that makes room for the potential misleadingness of true content (true disinformation), the potential non-misleadingness of false content (irony), and everything in between.

A unified account of information, misinformation, and disinformation

DANMASK-19, the first trial of mask use during covid-19, was “negative.” Masks didn’t work. We knew this before the trial was published because we were told so on social media. The authors were reported by the media to be struggling to find a major journal for their trial.1 Journals weren’t proving brave enough to publish the study, said the authors, and they didn’t make a preprint available.

10.1136/bmj.m4586

The curious case of the Danish mask study

Findings from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Keywords: coronavirus, corona virus, COVID 19, COVID19, Covid-19, community infections, infections in households

All data related to Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, UK: 24 December 2020

The ONS infection survey has come out and there has been a lot of discussion on the apparent decrease in proportion of “new variant compatible” cases.

New-variant compatibility in the ONS infection survey

Countries need to up their game to inoculate 70 percent of adults by the end of September.

To hit Commission target, EU vaccine rollout should be 5 times faster

Liebe Wisskomm- und #BSWK-Freunde,das Jahr 2021 startet mit neuen Herausforderungen für die Wissenschaftskommunikation: Nicht nur die deutsche Impfstrategie, sondern auch die Kommunikation über Impfungen ist von einem "Evergreen" der Wissenschaftskommunikation zu einem drängenden, tagesaktuellen Thema geworden. Wer kommuniziert wie über Impfungen? Und wie können wir mit Desinformationen umgehen? Wir freuen uns auf eine spannende Diskussion mit:Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol, Autor "The Debunking Handbook"Julia Neufeind, Robert-Koch-Institut, Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin im Fachgebiet ImpfpräventionWir treffen uns am Dienstag, 26. Januar um 19 Uhr zum Videochat über Zoom.PS. Neues Jahr, neues BSWK-Team: Der Stammtisch wird ab sofort von Anne Weißschädel und Michael Siegel von Wissenschaft im Dialog organisiert. Wir danken Rebecca Winkels und Jörg Weiß für ihr Engagement!Wir freuen uns auf EuchAnne & Michael// Über den BSWKBeim offenen Berliner Stammtisch Wissenschaftskommunikation (BSWK) treffen sich Wissenschaftsjournalist*innen, Wissenschaftskommunikator*innen und an Wissenschaftskommunikation Interessierte (z.B. Forschende) am letzten Dienstag des Monats in Berlin, um sich über aktuelle Entwicklungen der Wissenschaftskommunikation auszutauschen. Es gibt sowohl Themen-Abende als auch eine spontane Abfrage zu Beginn, wen gerade was beschäftigt und worüber jeder gerne reden würde. Über Termine und Treffpunkte informieren Anne Weißschädel und Michael Siegel über Mailingliste, Meetup, Facebook und Twitter.// On the BSWKOn the last Tuesday of every month, science journalists, science outreach professionals, and anyone interested in science communication meet to discuss developments in the field of science communication at the public Berlin Science Communication Stammtisch (#BSWK). There are both themed as well as spontaneous discussion to start off, based on what people are working on or what everyone would most like to talk about. The Stammtisch is organized each week by Anne Weißschädel and Michael Siegel.

Online-BSWK: Impfkommunikation / Vaccine Communication

Covid-19 transmission

The ideas in public circulation about preventing transmission of coronavirus are now quite adrift from the evidence that has accumulated in the past 6 months. As part of tackling this – and the absence of attention to ventilation in particular – we have created this snapshot. Please share this widely amongst your networks.

This coronavirus is here for the long haul — here’s what scientists predict for the next months and years.

10.1038/d41586-020-02278-5

How the pandemic might play out in 2021 and beyond

One year ago today: Korea reports 230 new confirmed cases for a new total of 833, now the largest outbreak outside mainland China. 5 days ago, it was only 31 cases. While the majority of the cases are still linked to the Shincheonji church, they are now spread across South Korea.

10.1126/sciadv.abd1996

Across academia, men and women tend to publish at unequal rates. Existing explanations include the potentially unequal impact of parenthood on scholarship, but a lack of appropriate data has prevented its clear assessment. Here, we quantify the impact of parenthood on scholarship using an extensive survey of the timing of parenthood events, longitudinal publication data, and perceptions of research expectations among 3064 tenure-track faculty at 450 Ph.D.-granting computer science, history, and business departments across the United States and Canada, along with data on institution-specific parental leave policies. Parenthood explains most of the gender productivity gap by lowering the average short-term productivity of mothers, even as parents tend to be slightly more productive on average than nonparents. However, the size of productivity penalty for mothers appears to have shrunk over time. Women report that paid parental leave and adequate childcare are important factors in their recruitment and retention. These results have broad implications for efforts to improve the inclusiveness of scholarship.

The unequal impact of parenthood in academia

The reopening of Scotland's economy - including shops, bars, restaurants, gyms and hairdressers - is expected to start from 26 April, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced.

Covid in Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon unveils 'cautious' route out of lockdown

Struggling with low pay and high stress, New York paramedics and emergency medical technicians are reaching a breaking point

It doesn't feel worth it': Covid-19 is pushing New York's EMTs to the brink

Moderna Inc. is planning to study multiple approaches to vaccine booster shots that could protect against emerging coronavirus variants, while gearing up to produce more doses of its shots this year and next.

Moderna Plans Multi-Pronged Approach on Virus Variants

As evidence mounts that patients with severe mental illness are at increased risk of severe COVID-19, some countries are reassessing their vaccine priority strategies. Nayanah Siva reports.

10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00429-3

Severe mental illness: reassessing COVID-19 vaccine priorities

A coronavirus variant that probably emerged in May and surged to become the dominant strain in California not only spreads more readily than its predecessors but also evades antibodies generated by COVID-19 vaccines or prior infection and is associated with severe illness and death, researchers said.

California’s coronavirus strain looks increasingly dangerous: ‘The devil is already here’

10.1101/2021.02.22.21252235

We develop a two strain, age-structured, compartmental model to assess the spreading potential of the B.1.1.7 variant across several European metropolitan areas and countries. The model accounts for B.1.1.7 introductions from the UK and different locations, as well as local mitigation policies in the time period 2020/09-2021/02. In the case of an increase of transmissibility of 50%, the B.1.1.7 variant has the potential to become dominant in all investigated areas by the end of March 2021

Estimating the spreading and dominance of SARS-CoV-2 VOC 202012/01 (lineage B.1.1.7) across Europe

10.1073/pnas.2101345118

Human behaviors determine outbreak trajectories of infectious diseases. This fundamental relationship underlies why broad behavioral interventions (BIs) are effective tools in outbreak management. BIs target an overall reduction in contacts and behaviors that enable pathogen transmission as a nonspecific solution for preventing new infections. Despite that, there is a lot that remains unknown about the interactions between human behavior and infectious diseases. These gaps limit targeted outbreak management and prevention. In PNAS, Vigfusson et al. (1) narrow this gap by exploring multiple ways to assess behavioral changes in infectious hosts using existing data sources. By linking mobile-phone call detail records (CDRs) with health records of clinically confirmed influenza, they measure deviations in routine behaviors during illness compared to pre- and postillness behaviors.

Linking human behaviors and infectious diseases

This project tracks behavioural science evidence and advice about COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

The COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Handbook

This short, online course builds on a similar course offered to Indian & African health journalists, will introduce epidemiologic concepts to health/science journalists. The course will use topical examples from COVID-19, to cover issues such as types of epidemiologic studies, how to measure disease frequency and risk, importance of bias and confounding, and review various common study designs, including observational studies and randomized trials. The main emphasis would be on how to critically read literature and how to report accurately.

EPIB-641 Epidemiology 101 for Journalists

Report from by the INI Higher Education Working Group on COVID-19 and universities. It was considered at SAGE 76 on 14 January 2021. The paper is the assessment of the evidence at the time of writing. As new evidence or data emerges, SAGE updates its advice accordingly. See further information on the new SARS-CoV-2 variant. This paper should be read alongside ‘SPI-B: Return to campus for Spring term: risk of increased transmission from student migration’ from SAGE 76 on 14 January 2021. More details and an updated version of this analysis is available as a preprint on the Isaac Newton Institute website (PDF). These documents are released as pre-print publications that have provided the government with rapid evidence during an emergency. These documents have not been peer-reviewed and there is no restriction on authors submitting and publishing this evidence in peer-reviewed journals. Redactions have been made to remove figures containing statistically disclosive or identifiable data.

Isaac Newton Institute: COVID-19 and universities, 13 January 2021