Researchers in Glasgow find two cases where cats were infected by owners with coronavirus symptoms

UK scientists find evidence of human-to-cat Covid transmission

The EU is yet to decide whether to launch legal action against AstraZeneca over the company’s failure to deliver the contracted doses to the bloc, the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has said. She told a news conference: Where AstraZeneca is concerned no decision have been taken so far so we have to wait for that. AstraZeneca delivered less than 30m of the expected 120m doses to EU member states in the first quarter of this year, and refused to redirect vaccines produced in the UK to make up for the losses. The commission sent a letter to the company on 19 March, described as a “a notice for dispute settlement”.

EU to strike world’s largest vaccine deal with Pfizer – as it happened

Useful framing of current knowledge (not including newest case). Pfizer and Moderna have NO SUCH concern.

‘The hand of God’ — nurses trying to comfort isolated patients in a Brazilian Covid isolation ward. Two disposable gloves tied, full of hot water, simulating impossible human contact. Salute to the front liners and a stark reminder of the grim situation our world is in!@sadiquiz

It's time for the U.S. to become the Arsenal of Immunity for the entire globe.

Who should we export the vaccine to?

One issue we forsaw becoming a concern (though personally, I foresaw nothing like the tsunami that ensued) was the potential problem of disinformation and bad faith actors.We thought at the time that behavioural scientists should distill research on the spread of misinformation and how best to guard against disinformation and disruption into usable guidelines that can be made available to all members of the behavioural science community.How did we, as a community, do on these issues? What did we get right, what did we get wrong? What scope for improvement is there? What else have we learned?

One year on: Disinformation and bad faith actors

In the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic became an unconventional vehicle to advance partisan rhetoric and antagonism. Using data available at the individual- (Study 1; N = 4,220), county- (Study 2; n = 3,046), and state-level (n = 49), we found that partisanship and political orientation was a robust and strong correlate of mask use. Political conservatism and Republican partisanship were related to downplaying the severity of COVID-19 and perceiving masks as being ineffective that, in turn, were related to lower mask use. In contrast, we found that counties with majority Democrat partisanship reported greater mask use, controlling for various socioeconomic and demographic factors. Lastly, states with strong cultural collectivism reported greater mask use while those with strong religiosity reported the opposite. States with greater Democrat partisanship and strong cultural collectivism subsequently reported lower COVID-19 deaths, mediated by greater mask use and lower COVID-19 cases, in the five months following the second wave of COVID-19 in the US during the Summer of 2020. Nonetheless, more than the majority for Democrats (91.58%), Republicans (77.52%), and third-party members (82.48%) reported using masks. Implications for findings are discussed.

10.31234/osf.io/9s58f

The Partisan Mask: Political Orientation, Collectivism, and Religiosity Predict Mask Use During COVID-19

The stories you hold on to will be colored by your own experience—but also by the experiences of those around you.

You Won’t Remember the Pandemic the Way You Think You Will

We are starting to vaccinate our way out of the pandemic, but we shouldn't let that make us complacent about the underlying problems, writes Graham Lawton

We can't let vaccines create bad incentives that make things worse

We need to suppress the level of SARS-CoV-2 in as many humans as possible as quickly as possible

Global Vaccine Equity Is Much More Important Than ‘Vaccine Passports’

The SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7 was first identified in December, 2020, in England. We aimed to investigate whether increases in the proportion of infections with this variant are associated with differences in symptoms or disease course, reinfection rates, or transmissibility.

Changes in symptomatology, reinfection, and transmissibility associated with the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7: an ecological study

10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00055-4

Judgments differ from decisions. Judgments are more abstract, decontextualized and bear fewer consequences for the agent. In pursuit of experimental control, psychological experiments on bias create a simplified, bare-bone representation of social behavior. These experiments resemble conditions in which people judge others, but not how they make real-world decisions.

10.31234/osf.io/y3h7n

Social bias insights concern judgments rather than real-world decisions

The FDA and CDC should worry less about sins of commission and more about sins of omission.

When It Comes to Vaccinations, More Is More

Humans learn about the world by collectively acquiring information, filtering it, and sharing what we know. Misinformation undermines this process. The repercussions are extensive. Without reliable and accurate sources of information, we cannot hope to halt climate change, make reasoned democratic decisions, or control a global pandemic. Most analyses of misinformation focus on popular and social media, but the scientific enterprise faces a parallel set of problems—from hype and hyperbole to publication bias and citation misdirection, predatory publishing, and filter bubbles. In this perspective, we highlight these parallels and discuss future research directions and interventions.

10.1073/pnas.1912444117

Misinformation in and about science

France has told under-55s to abandon the AstraZeneca jab for their second dose and have another vaccine instead.

Coronavirus latest news: France tells under-55s to abandon AstraZeneca jab for second dose

We must act now to prevent a further widening in wellbeing between poor and rich

Christina Pagel: A very real danger that covid-19 will become entrenched as a disease of poverty 

No really. Just look at the numbers.

Europe’s vaccination program is a success story

We are living in extraordinary times. 2021 brings the covid-19 mortality to >2 million deaths worldwide and to >100,000 deaths in the UK. Steely eyed scientists are finding themselves the topic of political debate, independent government advisors are accused of succumbing to political pressures, and academics (particularly women) are subjected to vitriolic abuse on Twitter. 

You cannot practice public health without engaging in politics

10.1038/s43588-021-00048-5

Research software infrastructure is critical for accelerating science, and yet, these digital public goods are often unsustainably funded. Solving this problem requires an appreciation of the intrinsic value of research software outputs, and greater investment of time and effort into effectively funding maintenance of software at scale.

We need to talk about the lack of investment in digital research infrastructure

10.1038/s41598-021-85987-9

Although acute respiratory infections are a leading cause of mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, surveillance of diseases such as influenza is mostly neglected. Evaluating the usefulness of influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance systems and developing approaches for forecasting future trends is important for pandemic preparedness. We applied and compared a range of robust statistical and machine learning models including random forest (RF) regression, support vector machines (SVM) regression, multivariable linear regression and ARIMA models to forecast 2012 to 2018 trends of reported ILI cases in Cameroon, using Google searches for influenza symptoms, treatments, natural or traditional remedies as well as, infectious diseases with a high burden (i.e., AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis). The R2 and RMSE (Root Mean Squared Error) were statistically similar across most of the methods, however, RF and SVM had the highest average R2 (0.78 and 0.88, respectively) for predicting ILI per 100,000 persons at the country level. This study demonstrates the need for developing contextualized approaches when using digital data for disease surveillance and the usefulness of search data for monitoring ILI in sub-Saharan African countries.

Forecasting influenza-like illness trends in Cameroon using Google Search Data

The ongoing responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in diverse vaccine-based solutions that are advancing our understanding of medical science.1WHODraft landscape and tracker of COVID-19 candidate vaccines.https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccinesDate: March 1, 2021Date accessed: March 2, 2021Google Scholar Randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trials are providing a unique opportunity to compare the safety and immunogenicity of several different vaccine platforms, including vectored, DNA, inactivated virus, mRNA, and protein subunit vaccines. Strategic differences within each vaccine platform, such as dimer versus trimer protein subunits or modifications in protein design based on dynamic structural modelling, are providing deeper insights into the optimal vaccines of the future—a silver lining to the dark cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic.

10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00149-3

Is there space for a three-dose vaccine to fight the spread of SARS-CoV-2?

WHEN Margaret Keenan became the first person to receive a covid-19 vaccine outside a trial last December, she was among the 7 in 10 people surveyed globally who said they would be willing to receive a dose. But the significant minority unwilling to have a vaccine led public health experts to worry about how such hesitancy might hamper efforts to achieve herd immunity.

Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy is declining as global roll-out ramps up

If the huge challenge of getting covid-19 vaccines to low-income countries can be overcome, will people even want them? The first study to explore the question suggests the answer is an overwhelming yes.

Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy in poorest countries is lower than in US

10.31222/osf.io/cd5j9

Findings from 162 researchers in 73 teams testing the same hypothesis with the same data reveal a universe of unique analytical possibilities leading to a broad range of results and conclusions. Surprisingly, the outcome variance mostly cannot be explained by variations in researchers’ modeling decisions or prior beliefs. Each of the 1,261 test models submitted by the teams was ultimately a unique combination of data-analytical steps. Because the noise generated in this crowdsourced research mostly cannot be explained using myriad meta-analytic methods, we conclude that idiosyncratic researcher variability is a threat to the reliability of scientific findings. This highlights the complexity and ambiguity inherent in the scientific data analysis process that needs to be taken into account in future efforts to assess and improve the credibility of scientific work.

Observing Many Researchers using the Same Data and Hypothesis Reveals a Hidden Universe of Data Analysis

Colleges turn arenas into vaccine centersWhen it comes to vaccinating hundreds of millions of Americans, consider the rather low-tech question of venue. You need a facility that’s both accessible and big enough to allow for social distancing. And you need owners willing to let their buildings be turned into sites for mass inoculations.

Colleges Turn Arenas Into Vaccination Centers

10.1038/s42256-021-00307-0

Systematic review finds that machine learning models for detecting and diagnosing COVID-19 from medical images have major flaws and biases, making them unsuitable for use in patients. However, researchers have suggested ways to remedy the problem.

Machine learning models for diagnosing COVID-19 are not yet suitable for clinical use

Monitoring the reasons why a considerable number of people do not receive recommended vaccinations allows identification of important trends over time, and designing and evaluating strategies to address vaccine hesitancy and increase vaccine uptake. Existing validated measures assessing vaccine hesitancy focus primarily on confidence in vaccines and the system that delivers them. However, empirical and theoretical work has stated that complacency (not perceiving diseases as high risk), constraints (structural and psychological barriers), calculation (engagement in extensive information searching), and aspects pertaining to collective responsibility (willingness to protect others) also play a role in explaining vaccination behavior. The objective was therefore to develop a validated measure of these 5C psychological antecedents of vaccination.

10.1371/journal.pone.0208601

Beyond confidence: Development of a measure assessing the 5C psychological antecedents of vaccination

Second session now underway at the SciBeh workshop: Session 2: Interfacing with Policy How can the wider science community be policy-relevant? speaking now: Alison Wright from UCL

Sharp declines in babies being born 9 months or more on from lockdowns in France, Italy and Spain

Pandemic blamed for falling birth rates across much of Europe

Great talk by Chiara Varazzani from the OECD on the two speed systems of policy and "normal" research and the challenge that poses to pandemic response

videos and summary docs will be posted online to help those who missed the session get up to speed join us now for hackathon sessions (underway), and tomorrow, Day 2

final speaker in our "Open science and crisis knowledge management" session: Michele Starnini on radically redesigning the peer review system

now underway at SciBeh workshop are our 3 hackathons: 1. Combatting COVID-19 misinformation with lessons from climate change denial 2. Optimising research dissemination and curation 3. ReSearch Engine: Search Engine for SciBeh’s knowledge base & beyond

A lot of research articles concerning SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 are published every day. Many of them, so-called pre-prints, are not reviewed in a professional reviewing process at the time of publication. Others are already reviewed and published in well-known journals. Collabovid helps researchers to identify the most relevant information by using Natural Language Processing. You can search for any topic you want below. Visit search to review all articles or browse a list of predefined categories. For additional help visit the frequently asked questions.

Explore COVID-19 Publications

A project to develop a new postgraduate certificate, Computing for Cultural Heritage, with The National Archives and Birkbeck University

Computing for Cultural Heritage

RR:C19 relies on student-powered engine of graduate and undergraduate students, post-docs and fellows. A core team of Assistant Editors and specialists spearhead review teams across 5 subject domains. On a daily basis, teams search, screen and assess preprints across the domains: Biological and Chemical Sciences; Physical Sciences and Engineering; Social Sciences & Humanities; Public Health; and, Medical/Clinical Sciences. AI tools also support this work. Assistant Editors are also closely involved with outreach to the Editorial Board and peer review networks in subsequent stages of the RR:C19 process. See a list of students and early career researchers supporting each of our domains here.

Editorial Team

The Oxford Internet Institute hosts Lisa Nakamura, lisanakamura.net, Director, Digital Studies Institute, Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor, Department of American Culture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Professor Nakamura is the founding Director of the Digital Studies Institute at the University of Michigan, and a writer focusing on digital media, race, and gender.We are living in an open-ended crisis with two faces: unexpected accelerated digital adoption and an impassioned and invigorated racial justice movement. These two vast and overlapping cultural transitions require new inquiry into the entangled and intensified dialogue between race and digital technology after COVID. My project analyzes digital racial practices on Facebook, Twitter, Zoom, and TikTok while we are in the midst of a technological and racialized cultural breaking point, both to speak from within the crisis and to leave a record for those who come after us. How to Understand Digital Racism After COVID-19 contains three parts: Methods, Objects, and Making, designed to provide humanists and critical social scientists from diverse disciplines or experience levels with pragmatic and easy to use tools and methods for accelerated critical analyses of the digital racial pandemic.

'Understanding Digital Racism After COVID-19' with Professor Lisa Nakamura

PRINCIPIA is a transparent blockchain-powered ecosystem for peer-review of scientific outputs (ie, papers, patents, ...). The platform allows users, including existing publishing groups, to create and manage peer-reviewed journals.

Decentralize peer review

Session 1: "Open Science and Crisis Knowledge Management now underway with Chiara Varazzani from the OECD" How can we adapt tools, policies, and strategies for open science to provide what is needed for policy response to COVID-19?

10.1038/d41586-020-03017-6

The shift to virtual conferences needs to be accompanied by a sensitivity to people in different time zones.

Spare a thought for longitudinal diversity

Today I’ll be contributing to a session on Managing Online Discourse which is part of the SciBeh 2020 Virtual Workshop on Building an online information environment for policy relevant science. I have to come up with 10 minutes of “insights” about scientific discourse on Twitter, but I have no idea what I’m going to say yet, and this thing starts in a few hours. In a panic, I’ve decided to do a shit-ton of illegal drugs and then look at the session questions and write down whatever comes to mind.

Managing scientific discourse on Twitter.