Anti-Asian racism is a public health concern, and it has escalated during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Bystanders—individuals who directly witness or become aware of acts of racism—can help by discouraging perpetrations of discrimination (and other forms of violence), offering help and support to victims, and reinforcing antiracist prosocial norms. Yet, little is known about who engages in antiracist bystander interventions in response to discriminatory events, and who engages in proactive bystander behaviors to discourage future acts of racism. In the current study, 456 US community adults of diverse ethnoracial backgrounds (18-85 years, Mage = 48.8, 52.0% women, 212 Asian Americans) reported on their experiences with discrimination, attitudes about the acceptability of discrimination, and engagement in proactive and reactive bystander behaviors. About 40% of the Asian American participants experienced discrimination during a one-week period in early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among individuals who witnessed anti-Asian discrimination during the study period, 45% of them engaged in antiracist reactive bystander interventions. Controlling for ethnicity, gender, and attitudes about the acceptability of discrimination, individuals who reported more frequent experiences with everyday discrimination prior to the pandemic were more likely to engage in reactive bystander behaviors in response to anti-Asian discrimination. Lifetime experiences with discrimination may contribute to individuals’ active engagement in antiracist bystander behaviors. Future research directions on antiracist bystander actions and allyship are discussed.

10.31234/osf.io/tfsqh

Anti-Asian Discrimination and Antiracist Bystander Behaviors amid the COVID-19 Outbreak

COVID-19 vaccination efforts are underway offering hope for saving lives and eliminating the pandemic. The most promising vaccines require two injections separated 3-4 weeks apart. To achieve heard immunity, 70-90% of the population or perhaps more must be inoculated. Anticipation of adherence challenges has generated commentaries on strategies to enhance adherence including financial incentives. A notable gap in these commentaries is any discussion of the scientific evidence regarding the efficacy of financial incentives for increasing vaccine adherence. This commentary addresses that gap. There is a body of controlled trials on incentivizing vaccine adherence, mostly to the hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine among injection drug users (IDUs). Prevalence of HBV infection is increasing as part of the opioid addiction crisis. The HBV vaccine entails a three-dose regimen (typically 0, 1, and 6 months) which has created adherence challenges among IDUs. Systematic literature reviews document significant benefit of financial incentives. For example, a 2019 meta-analysis (Tressler & Bhandari, 2019) examined 11 controlled trials examining HBV-vaccine adherence strategies, including financial incentives, accelerated dosing schedules, and case-management/enhanced services. Financial incentives were most effective resulting in a 7-fold increase in adherence to the vaccination regimen relative to no financial incentives (OR, 7.01; 95% CI, 2.88-17.06). Additional reviews provide further support for the efficacy of financial incentives for promoting adherence with vaccination (HBV & influenza). Overall, this literature suggests that financial incentives could be helpful in promoting the high levels of adherence to COVID-19 vaccines that experts project will be necessary for herd immunity.

10.1016/j.ypmed.2021.106421

Looking to the empirical literature on the potential for financial incentives to enhance adherence with COVID-19 vaccination

The Australian Labor party has suggested using money to encourage Covid vaccinations, a strategy that is popular around the word

Savings bonds, lotteries and cheap food: do vaccine incentives work?

Spectrum of measures including incentives and hardline laws have met with responses varying from rise in uptake to wave of protests

Leaders tackle global question of how to persuade people to get Covid jab

Researchers in US reveal messaging increased rates across demographic groups, even among most hesitant

Text reminders could boost vaccine uptake by 26%, study finds

10.31234/osf.io/jt3ur

Research on health misinformation has grown rapidly as concerns about the potential harmful effects of health misinformation on individuals and society intensify amid a “post-truth” era. In this chapter, we provide a broad overview of current research and evidence concerning the many facets of health misinformation, including its sources, prevalence, characteristics (both content and diffusion features), impact, and mitigation. We conclude that health misinformation originates from many sources, most notably mass and social media; is fairly prevalent, both in interpersonal and mediated settings; and tends to feature negative sentiments, anecdotal evidence, and anti-science narratives. Although there is no conclusive evidence that health misinformation spreads more broadly than scientific information, health misinformation reliably leads to misperceptions on health issues. Efforts to mitigate the impact of health misinformation show early promise in correcting misperceptions. We offer several directions for future research.

Health Misinformation

10.31234/osf.io/x4unv

We animals have evolved a variety of mechanisms to avoid conspecifics who might be infected. It is currently unclear whether and why this “behavioral immune system” targets unfamiliar individuals more than familiar ones. Here I answer this question in humans, using publicly available data of a recent study on 1969 participants from India and 1615 from the USA. The apparent health of a male stranger, as estimated from his face, and the comfort with contact with him were a direct function of his similarity to the men in the local community. This held true regardless of whether the face carried overt signs of infection. I conclude that our behavioral immune system is finely tuned to degrees of outgroupness—and that cues of outgroupness are partly processed as cues of infectiousness. These findings, which were consistent across the two cultures, support the notion that the pathogens of strangers are perceived as more dangerous.

Strangers look sicker (with implications in times of COVID-19)

Psychological effects of government measures taken to face COVID-19

Several governments have implemented strict measures in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19, such as lockdown measures. However, these measures have brought negative consequences at an individual level by increasing the psychological distress already exacerbated by the pandemic. In the present study, we evaluated the role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies and variables related to social support, hobbies, seeking information related to COVID-19, perceived risk of infection, and age on the levels of anxiety and depression during the lockdown in a sample of 663 Spanish-speaking adults. By using multiple regression analyses with a backward model selection procedure, 26% of the variance in anxiety was predicted by specific cognitive emotion regulation strategies, perceived risk of infection, number of hobbies, and seeking information about COVID-19. A similar procedure was used to build a model predicting depression. The resulting model predicted 38% of the variance in depression, and included specific emotion regulation strategies and age. Significant differences were found in the use of emotion regulation strategies and the experience of anxiety and depression between men and women, with women experiencing higher levels of both anxiety and depression. Based on our results, recommendations are provided for improving coping with stressful events where lockdown measures are taken.

10.31234/osf.io/b8mg3

10.31234/osf.io/ux73h

Background: In May, 2021, U.S. states began implementing “vaccination lotteries” to encourage vaccine-hesitant individuals to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Purpose: Drawing on theories from math cognition and behavioral economics, we tested several monetary lottery structures and their framing to determine which would best motivate unvaccinated individuals. Methods: In two online experiments conducted in May, 2021, U.S. adults were asked to imagine that their state had implemented a vaccination lottery. In Experiment 1, participants (n=589) were randomly assigned to 1 of 12 conditions that varied the monetary amount and number of winners, holding constant the total payout ($5 million). In Experiment 2, participants (n=274) were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions in a 2 (Message Framing: Gain versus Loss) by 2 (Numeric Framing: 5 total winners versus 1 winner for 5 weeks) factorial design; in all four conditions, 5 people would each win $1 million. Following the manipulation, participants rated their COVID-19 vaccination intentions, perceived likelihood of winning, and anticipated regret. Results: Vaccination intentions did not differ across conditions in either experiment, and post-manipulation vaccination intentions were strongly associated with baseline vaccination willingness. When asked to choose from 12 different lottery structures, participants tended to prefer options that awarded less money to more people, with 41.9% of participants across experiments indicated they would not vaccinate for any lottery-based monetary incentive. Conclusion: Findings suggest that multiple lottery structures could be equally motivating for unvaccinated adults, although states could consider structures that distribute incentives across more people.

Experimental Tests of How Hypothetical Monetary Lottery Incentives Influence Vaccine-Hesitant U.S. Adults’ Intentions to Vaccinate

800,000 vaccinations in single day follows announcement that visits to many public venues will require a health pass

France achieves record Covid jabs with Macron’s ‘big stick’ approach

A significant number of patients with COVID-19 experience prolonged symptoms, known as Long COVID. Few systematic studies have investigated this population, particularly in outpatient settings. Hence, relatively little is known about symptom makeup and severity, expected clinical course, impact on daily functioning, and return to baseline health.

10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101019

Characterizing long COVID in an international cohort: 7 months of symptoms and their impact

10.1038/s41586-021-03553-9

The acute clinical manifestations of COVID-19 have been well characterized1,2, but the post-acute sequelae of this disease have not been comprehensively described. Here we use the national healthcare databases of the US Department of Veterans Affairs to systematically and comprehensively identify 6-month incident sequelae—including diagnoses, medication use and laboratory abnormalities—in patients with COVID-19 who survived for at least 30 days after diagnosis. We show that beyond the first 30 days of illness, people with COVID-19 exhibit a higher risk of death and use of health resources. Our high-dimensional approach identifies incident sequelae in the respiratory system, as well as several other sequelae that include nervous system and neurocognitive disorders, mental health disorders, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, malaise, fatigue, musculoskeletal pain and anaemia. We show increased incident use of several therapeutic agents—including pain medications (opioids and non-opioids) as well as antidepressant, anxiolytic, antihypertensive and oral hypoglycaemic agents—as well as evidence of laboratory abnormalities in several organ systems. Our analysis of an array of prespecified outcomes reveals a risk gradient that increases according to the severity of the acute COVID-19 infection (that is, whether patients were not hospitalized, hospitalized or admitted to intensive care). Our findings show that a substantial burden of health loss that spans pulmonary and several extrapulmonary organ systems is experienced by patients who survive after the acute phase of COVID-19. These results will help to inform health system planning and the development of multidisciplinary care strategies to reduce chronic health loss among individuals with COVID-19.

High-dimensional characterization of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19

Background: As mass vaccination campaigns against COVID-19 accelerate worldwide, there remains only limited evidence regarding vaccine effectiveness (VE) among pregnant women. Pregnant women have been shown to be at risk for severe COVID-19, resulting in adverse obstetrics outcomes, and their immune system is known to undergo alterations during pregnancy. Phase III clinical trials of the approved mRNA COVID-19 vaccines excluded pregnant women, yet current guidelines encourage offering the vaccine to pregnant women. In this study, we examine data from Israel’s largest healthcare organization to evaluate the effectiveness of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine among pregnant women. 

10.21203/rs.3.rs-665725/v1

Effectiveness of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in Pregnancy

Vaccination is one of the most effective public health interventions. We investigate the impact of vaccination activities for Haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis B, human papillomavirus, Japanese encephalitis, measles, Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A, rotavirus, rubella, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and yellow fever over the years 2000–2030 across 112 countries.

Lives saved with vaccination for 10 pathogens across 112 countries in a pre-COVID-19 world

10.1038/d41586-021-01813-2

Russia's vaccine is in use in nearly 70 nations, but its adoption has been slowed by controversies and questions over rare side effects, and it has yet to garner World Health Organization approval.

Mounting evidence suggests Sputnik COVID vaccine is safe and effective

We tested the link between COVID-19 conspiracy theories and health protective behaviours in three studies: one at the onset of the pandemic in the United Kingdom (UK), a second just before the first national lockdown, and a third during that lockdown (N = 302, 404 and 399). We focused on conspiracy theories that did not deny the existence of COVID-19 and evaluated the extent to which they predicted a range of health protective behaviours, before and after controlling for psychological and sociodemographic characteristics associated with conspiracy theory belief. COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs were positively correlated with beliefs in other unrelated conspiracies and a general conspiracy mind-set, and negatively correlated with trust in government and a tendency towards analytical thinking (vs. intuitive thinking). Unexpectedly, COVID-19 conspiracy believers adhered to basic health guidelines and advanced health protective measures as strictly as non-believers. Conspiracy believers were, however, less willing to install the contact-tracing app, get tested for and vaccinated against COVID-19, and were more likely to share COVID-19 misinformation – all of which might undermine public health initiatives. Study 3 showed conspiracy theory believers were less willing to undertake health protective behaviours that were outside of their personal control, perceiving these as having a negative balance of risks and benefits. We discuss models explaining conspiracy beliefs and health protective behaviours, and suggest practical recommendations for public health initiatives.

10.1002/ejsp.2796

Are COVID-19 conspiracies a threat to public health? Psychological characteristics and health protective behaviours of believers

A third of county’s residents still not inoculated against COVID-19

Misinformation remains the biggest hurdle as vaccination effort turns to cash incentives

10.1038/d41586-021-01805-2

A slew of studies suggests that mixing vaccines provokes potent immune responses, but scientists still want answers on real-world efficacy and rare side effects.

Mix-and-match COVID vaccines: the case is growing, but questions remain

Prime minister’s comments come after border worker diagnosed last week said to have missed two vaccine appointments

Ardern tells New Zealand border staff: get Covid vaccine now or be redeployed

Using refutation-based learning to enhance vaccine uptake and knowledge among healthcare professionals and the public.

JIU JITSU WITH MISINFORMATION IN THE AGE OF COVID

The interval between the first and second doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine can be extended up to 10 months and a third dose of the vaccine provides a strong boost to the immune response, according to preliminary results.

10.1136/bmj.n1659

Covid-19: Third vaccine dose boosts immune response but may not be needed, say researchers

Many questions remain about both natural and vaccine induced immunity to SARS-CoV-2. Chris Baraniuk reviews what we know so far

10.1136/bmj.n1605

How long does covid-19 immunity last?

Almost a year and a half into the pandemic, the best and worst places to be in the Covid-19 era are increasingly defined by one thing: normalization.

The Best And Worst Places to Be as The World Finally Reopens

Each week, we answer frequently asked questions about life during the coronavirus crisis. If you have a question you'd like us to consider for a future post, email us at goatsandsoda@npr.org with the subject line: "Weekly Coronavirus Questions." See an archive of our FAQs here.

Coronavirus FAQ: I'm Vaccinated And Confused. Do I Need To Mask Up Or Not?

A study published last week that quickly became another flashpoint for those arguing that COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe has earned an expression of concern.

Paper claiming two deaths from COVID-19 vaccination for every three prevented cases earns expression of concern

More than half of people polled in Germany, France and Spain now believe the shot is unsafe.

Trust in AstraZeneca vaccine wanes across EU, survey finds

Who are the people who have come to follow wild conspiracy theories about Covid-19?

Among the Covid sceptics: ‘We are being manipulated, without a shadow of a doubt’

A briefing by the authors of DFRLab’s report “Weaponized: How rumors about COVID-19’s origins led to a narrative arms race.”

Weaponized: Understanding the COVID-19 narrative arms race

What determines the pecking order in a flock of birds? Or the page rank of a website in a Google search? Or which academics land the most prestigious jobs? Hierarchies are everywhere, and new research continues to advance our understanding of how and why some end up high and others low. As it turns out, if we look at the general patterns that emerge when hierarchies form, we can offer a single answer to each of these questions.

Simon DeDeo and Elizabeth Hobson on equality and hierarchy

Neuropsychiatric symptoms caused by COVID-19

10.31234/osf.io/38c7u

Mental correlates of post-COVID syndrome

Immunity to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is a vital issue for global society. Determining the quality and duration of that immunity is therefore key. But the adaptive immune system is complex, and these factors may differ between natural immunity (obtained by infection) and vaccine-generated immunity (1). Additionally, there is the question of the combination: What kind of immunity develops in people with natural immunity who are subsequently vaccinated? Such “hybrid immunity” is particularly interesting because of the notable finding that people with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection mount unusually potent immune responses to COVID-19 vaccines (2). This is exemplified in two studies in this issue on pages 1413 and 1418 by Stamatatos et al. (3) and Reynolds et al. (4), respectively, which also highlight natural and vaccine-induced immune responses to variants.

10.1126/science.abj2258

Hybrid immunity

10.31234/osf.io/k4efw

Hintergrund: Mit Beginn der SARS-CoV-2 Pandemie und der nachfolgenden Maßnahmen zu ihrer Eindämmung im Frühjahr 2020, ist rasch die Frage nach Auswirkungen einer Beschränkung sozialer Kontakte auf die psychische Gesundheit der Bevölkerung aufgekommen. Einsamkeit beschreibt die wahrgenommene Qualität der eigenen Kontakte und Beziehungen zu anderen Menschen. Zahlreiche Studien haben einen Zusammenhang von Einsamkeit mit somatischen und psychischen Erkrankungen aufgezeigt. Ziel: Auswertung der Häufigkeit von Einsamkeit und ihrer Beziehung zu Angst- und Depressionssymptomen in der ersten Welle der Pandemie im Mai 2020. Methoden: Die NAKO-Gesundheitsstudie (NAKO) hat zwischen 2014 und 2019 205.000 Personen im Alter zwischen 20 und 69 Jahren in 18 Studienzentren in Deutschland rekrutiert und untersucht. Die nachfolgende Zweituntersuchung musste auf Grund der Pandemie im Frühjahr 2020 unterbrochen werden. In dieser Zeit wurde ein COVID-19 bezogener Fragebogen entwickelt und an alle Teilnehmenden verschickt. Ausgewertet wurden die 113.928 Fragebögen, die innerhalb der ersten 30 Tage zurückgeschickt wurden. Einsamkeit wurde mit der 3-Item UCLA-Loneliness-Scale, Angst und Depression mit den PHQ-9 und GAD-7 Skalen des Patient Health Questionnaire erhoben. Ergebnisse: Im Mai 2020 nahmen sich 31,7 % der NAKO-Teilnehmenden als einsam wahr. Frauen und junge Menschen waren häufiger als Männer und ältere Personen betroffen. Mit steigender Wahrnehmung von Einsamkeit nahm der Schweregrad von Depressions- und Angstsymptomen stetig zu. Einsame Personen während der Pandemie gaben bereits zur NAKO-Basisuntersuchung mehr depressive und Angstsymptome an als NAKOTeilnehmende, die in der Pandemie nicht einsam waren. Schlussfolgerung: In der NAKO-Gesundheitsstudie zeigte sich während der ersten Phase der Pandemie ein Zuwachs an Einsamkeit und ihr deutlicher Zusammenhang mit schlechterer, psychischer Gesundheit. See less

Einsamkeit während der ersten Welle der SARS-CoV-2 Pandemie - Ergebnisse der NAKO-Gesundheitsstudie

In registered reports (RRs), initial peer review and in-principle acceptance occur before knowing the research outcomes. This combats publication bias and distinguishes planned from unplanned research. How RRs could improve the credibility of research findings is straightforward, but there is little empirical evidence. Also, there could be unintended costs such as reducing novelty. Here, 353 researchers peer reviewed a pair of papers from 29 published RRs from psychology and neuroscience and 57 non-RR comparison papers. RRs numerically outperformed comparison papers on all 19 criteria (mean difference 0.46, scale range −4 to +4) with effects ranging from RRs being statistically indistinguishable from comparison papers in novelty (0.13, 95% credible interval [−0.24, 0.49]) and creativity (0.22, [−0.14, 0.58]) to sizeable improvements in rigour of methodology (0.99, [0.62, 1.35]) and analysis (0.97, [0.60, 1.34]) and overall paper quality (0.66, [0.30, 1.02]). RRs could improve research quality while reducing publication bias and ultimately improve the credibility of the published literature.

10.1038/s41562-021-01142-4

Initial evidence of research quality of registered reports compared with the standard publishing model

On May 5, 2021, Canada became the first country in the world to approve COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in children aged 12–15 years; later the same month, the US Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency also gave the green light to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents.1Centers for Disease Control and PreventionCOVID-19 vaccines for children and teens.https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/adolescents.htmlDate: 2021Date accessed: June 6, 2021Google Scholar Children younger than 12 years are the next population who need a safe and efficient COVID-19 vaccine. In The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Bihua Han and colleagues reported the results of a double-blind, randomised, controlled, phase 1/2 clinical trial, which showed that the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine (CoronaVac) had good safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity in youths aged 3–17 years.2Han B Song Y Li C et al.Safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (CoronaVac) in healthy children and adolescents: a double-blind, randomised, controlled, phase 1/2 clinical trial.Lancet Infect Dis. 2021; (published online June 28.)https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00319-4Summary Full Text Full Text PDF Google Scholar This promising result should inspire the ongoing trial of other COVID-19 vaccines in children younger than 12 years.

10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00384-4

COVID-19 vaccines for children younger than 12 years: are we ready?

NSW Outbreak Map - 27th June 2021 #COVID19nsw #COVID19NSWData

How a bad “fact” helped the lab-leak hypothesis go viral.

When a Good Scientist Is the Wrong Source