国内新冠肺炎疫情下的工作、家庭关系及其对负面情绪影响的性别差异

本文旨在探讨两性面对新冠肺炎疫情时害怕、焦虑、担忧这些典型负面情绪的变化,以及疫情期间工作、家庭关系的变化对负面情绪影响的性别差异。借助2020年1月至3月在国内疫情上升期和下降期对同一批受访者的网络追踪调查,本文发现,虽然在疫情初期女性比男性表现出更多的负面情绪,但随着国内疫情趋于好转,女性负面情绪已降至与男性同一水平。疫情给女性工作带来的消极影响比男性大,这不利于女性负面情绪的改善;较之男性,女性负面情绪的改善更多受到家庭关系的影响,尤其是对于工作出现消极变化的女性,家庭关系的改善能够缓和工作损失对她们情绪的不利影响。     

劳动给付不能时工资支付风险负担规则的反思 ——以新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情防控常态化为背景

疫情防控常态化背景下，企业可能会随时面临因防控措施导致的停工停产。这种劳动合同履行过程中既不可归责于劳动者也不可归责于企业的劳动给付不能，构成劳动合同的履行不能。研究认为，依据传统私法和劳动法的规则和理念，企业相较于劳动者具有较强的风险承担能力，应当承担继续支付工资的风险。但从宏观经济发展的角度来看，对于停工停产的企业来说，持续支付工资无疑是雪上加霜。全球疫情防控背景下，大部分国家通过社会保险制度的功能来分担企业的风险，通过社会保险补足劳动者的物质需求以达到保障就业的最终目的。研究的结论如下：我国应反思劳动法在应对疫情时的制度短板，在疫情防控常态化的背景之下，从劳资协商、劳动关系履行和稳岗就业三个层面来应对疫情带来的持续危机。     

COVID-19 Has Exposed How ‘The Other Half’ (Still) Lives

Socioeconomic factors are heavily shaping the COVID-19 pandemic in South America. Consequently, societies are now facing the stark effects of lockdown, while largely failing to stop the epidemic. In Chile, this has been amplified by decision-makers who have overlooked critical socio-spatial aspects of the epidemic. Precarious living conditions, together with spatial segregation and unstable domestic economies, help explain why mitigation strategies remain unsuccessful. The article also explores how political frameworks for approaching these issues may change because of the pandemic.     

An unusual case of a triple suicide pact at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic

In December 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared SARS-CoV2 a global pandemic. Home confinement, low social contacts, and fear of virus transmission played a major role as risk factors for suicides during the following period. Suicide pacts, in particular, showed a different pattern. A rare case of a triple suicide pact among members of the same family nucleus is presented. The victims were an elderly, severely ill woman and her adult children (a son and daughter), linked by a morbid relationship. The last time the family was seen alive was 40 days before the discovery. All corpses presented decompositional changes. After a full autopsy, the cause of death was determined to be a lethal intake of morphine for the mother and acute blood loss due to self-stabbing at the neck for the siblings. The younger woman was under the effects of a large amount of heparin. Toxicological analysis was positive for opioids and alcohol in both siblings. Suicide pacts have rarely been described during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the few cases reported, the victims were more often relatives than people in a romantic relationship. The involvement of three people is unusual, as is the use of different suicide methods among the victims. In the presented case, the elderly mother's imminent death from terminal cancer, her concern over dying in a nondomestic environment, and the siblings' fear of being alone likely led to the conception of the suicide pact. Social isolation and economic difficulties also played a contributing role.     

The Human Side of COVID‐19

The COVID‐19 pandemic has had, and continues to have, a broad, deep, and pervasive impact on our lives, our work, and how our justice system functions. While it is easy to contemplate the “system” as a massive behemoth that is impervious, impersonal, and impenetrable, the truth is that the “system” is made up of people. The men and women whose work is the building blocks of the justice system are individuals, each with their own narrative, experience, perspective, and role in the administration of justice. To understand the system and the impact of COVID‐19, it is essential to understand the stories of those who work in the system. This article presents the individual and human stories of four professionals whose professional lives are a part of the justice system. Each of these professionals tells their personal story of COVID‐19 and reflects on how the pandemic affected them and their approach to the work that they do.     

Accelerating COVID-19 testing: An experimental approach

The COVID-19 pandemic, ever since its global outbreak in 2020, has continued to wreak havoc. Governments across the world were compelled to enforce strict nation-wide lockdowns, while emphasising on social distancing and quarantining suspected people in order to slow down the spread of the virus. During this time, there was a massive increase in demand for COVID-19 test kits. However, given the limited supply, countries were finding it hard to test enough people. This study proposes an approach called Encoded Blending (EB) to increase the number of tests drastically, without increasing the number of test kits. EB modifies the pooled testing method; this has been followed by countries like Germany, Israel and South Korea for mass testing their citizens. EB has the potential to reduce test kits requirement by up to 85% and 80% in a population with 5% and 10% affected cases, respectively.     

Narrating a Global Crisis from Guayaquil in Real Time: Early Literary Responses to the COVID-19 Outbreak in Latin America

This article identifies and provides initial insight into the early literary responses to the COVID-19 outbreak in Latin America. It focuses on the case of Guayaquil, the epicentre of the pandemic in Ecuador, to examine how writers responded to the health emergency in real time by using online platforms. I argue that, while the virus was spreading, the death toll was rising, and the lockdown was at its most severe, a body of writing deeply engaged with the crisis was taking shape in digital outlets. Its study enables a uniquely contextual understanding of the global crisis from a Latin American perspective.     

Combating Domestic Violence During COVID-19: What Does the Chinese Experience Show Us?

Previous evidence demonstrates that a public health crisis triggers and intensifies domestic violence, especially against women. The pandemic of COVID-19 supported this observation, as the world witnessed an increase in domestic violence. China has witnessed a similar trend. While the Chinese government is applying a stringent model of virus control measures over COVID-19 when compared to certain other countries, many questions remain: How is this impacting the situation of domestic violence in China? What has China done to combat domestic violence during COVID-19? What can we learn from the Chinese experience? This article intends to answer these questions by reviewing reports and media coverage and conducting interviews with stakeholders. First, it examines causes of domestic violence during COVID-19. Second, it analyses the types and features of domestic violence during COVID-19. Third, the article intends to discover the current difficulties in combatting domestic violence. Fourth, it presents good practices for specific local areas. Last, it concludes with recommendations for tackling domestic violence during public health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, by understanding the Chinese experience.     

From women for women: The role of social media in online nonprofit activities during Wuhan lockdown

The article examines the role of social media in mitigating information asymmetry and coordination problems during COVID-19 epidemic crisis. We use “Sisters-Fight-Epidemic” online volunteering project during the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, as a case to demonstrate how social media plays a role as a mechanism in linking multiple stakeholders and shaping their actions during the epidemic response. We show that social media facilitates the self-organizing processes of volunteers and develops the emergency information networks, therefore enabling a relatively efficient relief responses to the needs of epidemic victims particularly female medical workers. This article also identifies spontaneous online volunteering project as a new form of nonprofit organization and as a new emergent response group that can leverage the strengths of social media in disaster responses to enable effective coordination, initiate advocacy, and improve transparency of relief efforts.     

Imaginaries of the Pandemic in Chile: A Conceptual-Empirical Discussion

This article aims to reconstruct the social imaginaries of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Chile. We seek to understand how families interpret their experience confronting the pandemic by identifying four main aspects: (a) the COVID-19 pandemic, (b) working and learning, (c) health and (d) family life. Following Habermas' distinction between lifeworld and social systems, we consider these issues as constituting the social imaginary of lifeworld, different but related to the imaginaries of social systems. The qualitative empirical data was gathered through a sample of 38 families interviewed online between September 2020 and January 2021 in four Chilean cities: Iquique, Valparaíso, Santiago and Concepción. Other complementary sources of information are multimodal ethnography (digital diaries), press articles and state reports.