Scientific Advice at a Time of Emergency. SAGE and Covid-19

The challenge for experts in government is often described as one of speaking unwelcome truths to a resistant power. Yet, just as problematic can be instances where the advice is welcome and so left unchallenged. Two such cases in which the UK government followed flawed expert advice are considered: intelligence assessments and military advice leading up to the 2003 Iraq War and the role of SAGE (the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) during the first stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Governments need to interrogate advice and make sure that they understand its underlying assumptions and implications. It remains vital to protect the independence of the experts, but to get the best out of their advice early and active political engagement is required rather than an arms-length relationship.     

The effect of COVID-19 lockdowns on political support: Some good news for democracy?

Major crises can act as critical junctures or reinforce the political status quo, depending on how citizens view the performance of central institutions. We use an interrupted time series to study the political effect of the enforcement of a strict confinement policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we take advantage of a unique representative web-based survey that was fielded in March and April 2020 in Western Europe to compare the political support of those who took the survey right before and right after the start of the lockdown in their country. We find that lockdowns have increased vote intentions for the party of the Prime Minister/President, trust in government and satisfaction with democracy. Furthermore, we find that, while rallying individuals around current leaders and institutions, they have had no effect on traditional left–right attitudes.     

中国北方汉族人DYS19基因座多态性及应用

调查了DYS19基因在中国北方汉人群体中的基因频率分布(0.013～0.516),观察到6个等位基因,各等位基因分布存在明显的地域性差异,并对陈旧、微量、降解的生物检材具有良好的适用性.     

Pandemic Disease: A Past and Future Challenge to Governance in the United States

Throughout history, pandemics have posed significant challenges to governments. Examination of the ways that governments have responded to pandemics can contribute to the U.S. government's ability to react in the future. We utilize past cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and multiple forms of influenza to identify specific challenges governments have faced. Based on that knowledge, we discuss the major issues that the United States will have to address in the event of a future pandemic.     

Authoritarian populism and response to COVID-19: A comparative study of the United States,India, and Brazil

As the phenomenon of populism is in the preliminary stages of exploratory research, the present study involves an empirical investigation involving a case study of the United States, India, and Brazil to examine whether a correlation exists between populism and management of COVID-19. The study adopts the ideational approach of populism as a set of ideas or discourse to review how core conceptual features of populism have impacted on management of COVID-19. The study has two main objectives: (1) to examine whether populism in the United States, India, and Brazil has determined “a populist response” to the pandemic in dealing with the health crises and (2) to explore the management of COVID-19 in the states led by right-wing populism and the commonality of populist approaches adopted in handling the health crisis. Comparing the three states' statistical data of management models, the study has argued that common populist mechanisms such as distrust for experts, contempt for institutions, and suspicion of “others” have guided the US, India, and Brazilian leadership response to COVID-19. It further argues that leadership in the United States, India, and Brazil has prevented effective management by politicizing the crisis, aggravating social polarization, and contradicting expert advice. Moreover, populist and nationalist orientation of the leadership has evaded responsibility in these states with the leadership blaming ethnicities for spreading the virus and by weakening societal solidarity.     

Covid-19 communication in emerging markets—Not viral enough?

Public health communication acts as a social vaccine in case of pandemics. Prior research has identified that such initiatives often fail to reach vulnerable sections of society. In India, while the first wave of infections mainly hit the urban areas, rural areas witnessed a surge in the second wave. Using the World Bank data, we attempt to understand the effectiveness of public awareness campaigns in rural areas. We use the Ecological Model for public health and find how the various factors relate to public health outcomes. The ecological factors are found to be related to awareness of Covid-19. We find inadequate awareness about the symptoms and preventive measures associated with Covid-19 among the rural population. We also find significant differences in communication and awareness along dimensions such as education and access to media. The role played by SHGs and hospitals in dealing with pandemics is also evident in this study. We conclude that the disparity in public health communication needs to be bridged to ensure equitable access to health information in society during public health crises.     

大数据下政府应对新型冠状病毒肺炎突发公共卫生事件的思考

当下新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情范围不断扩大,构成全球性突发公共卫生事件,世界多国受到新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情肆虐的严重影响.我国政府科学组织有效应对,新型冠状病毒肺炎引发的公共卫生危机基本得以化解.而大数据技术在新型冠状病毒肺炎公共卫生危机应对与化解过程中发挥着技术支撑的关键作用,充分彰显工具理性在公共行政实践中的不可或缺性.大...     

Attempted altruistic infanticide in a context of psychotic decompensation induced by stress linked to the COVID-19 pandemic:a case report

The mediatization of the COVID-19 pandemic has created a lot of stress leading sometimes to mental health issues. We present a case of a thirty-year-old woman with no history of psychotic disease but some vulnerabilities and no criminal record, who attempted to kill her seven-year-old son during a brief delusional episode in the context of fear of the coronavirus. She was successfully treated by pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. She was examined by forensic psychiatrists leading to the conclusion that her responsibility was highly diminished, and her reoffending risk was low. We add to the literature that the COVID-19 pandemic has been such a stressor for mentally vulnerable people that it could lead to severe psychiatric decompensation and even criminal acts.     

Reputational impact of Covid-19 pandemic management on World Health Organization among Indian public health professionals

Organizational reputation is critical for successful stakeholder engagement. A crisis can affect the organizational reputation and alter stakeholder perception about organizations. The current study investigates the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and its management on the World Health Organization's (WHO's) reputation among Indian public health professionals (PHPs). The study applies the situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) model to investigate the reputational impact of the pandemic on WHO among the study subjects. The study results indicate that most Indian PHPs attribute the current Pandemic to WHO. Their current reputation has dropped compared to their earlier reputation among Indian PHPs. The same is reflected in their behavioral intent, with the PHP's willingness to follow WHO guidelines on public health issues significantly reduced. The study also finds empirical support for the SCCT Model.     

COVID-19 Infodemic: A study on the Fragile Five countries

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many rumors and conspiracy theories spread in various media outlets. The purpose of this study is to reveal the nature of the misinformation detected by fact check platforms that spread in the Fragile Five countries. To determine the themes of misinformation about COVID-19 and from which media it is disseminated are a possible way to prevent it. The data of the study were obtained from International Fact-checking Network's CoronaVirusFacts database. One thousand seven hundred thirty-four piece of misinformation collected by web scraping method during the period January 24, 2020 to November 14, 2020 and analyzed with MAXQDA Analytics Pro 2020. As a result of the research, it was found that rumors (96.3%) spread more in the Fragile Five countries than conspiracy theories (3.7%). While the main theme of the rumors is about illness (26.9%) and diagnosis-treatment (25%), conspiracy theories are mostly related to the cause of the disease (68.8%). 53.06% of misinformation was spread through the Facebook platform. 15.32% on Twitter; 13.34% on WhatsApp. Misinformation has been heavily false (85.12%) in both rumor and conspiracy theories. In the second place, misleading (10.09%) news spread.