We are in the midst of a pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel coronavirus. At the time of writing, there were 2.17 million global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases with 146,000 deaths. Unfortunately, some of these deaths represent health care workers and first responders. One major challenge in preventing the occupational spread of SARS-CoV-2 is the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), particularly filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs). (Our use of the phrase “surgical mask design or type” below is to denote the appearance of the mask. It is the textile that we believe makes this design of mask an FFR, as it creates a negative pressure environment that filters Bitrex particles out of the air that the user is breathing.)

Introduction. Calciphylaxis is a rare, highly morbid pathological syndrome of vascular calcification and tissue necrosis. It is predominantly seen in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on chronic dialysis. There is no definitive standard of care for calciphylaxis, and the overall prognosis for patients, particularly those with ulcerated lesions, is bleak. One important role of wound care clinicians during the COVID-19 pandemic is to ensure that the continuity of care of an at-risk population is maintained while limiting the patient’s potential exposure to the virus. Innovative therapies paired with alternative treatment sites of service are one such method. Case Report. A 56-year-old female with ESRD on at-home peritoneal dialysis (PD) presented to the outpatient wound clinic with a punch biopsy-proven calciphylaxis lesion. Within days, state-wide “shelter-at-home” orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic went into effect. To prevent disruption in care and to minimize risk to the patient, the lesion was treated with bi-weekly self-application of a continuous topical oxygen therapy (cTOT) device paired with weekly telemedicine visits. The wound completely resolved after 9 weeks of topical oxygen therapy with no complications or device malfunctions. Conclusions. This case, to the authors’ knowledge, is the first to document healing in a calciphylaxis wound with the use of cTOT. Topical oxygen therapy may be a beneficial adjunctive therapy in the treatment of wounds caused by calciphylaxis. Finding creative ways to navigate this current health care crisis is essential to help mitigate risk for vulnerable patients with advanced comorbidities.

Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, universities across the country abruptly closed campuses and transitioned to remote learning. The effects of these unprecedented closures are unknown. The current study examined reported alcohol consumption during the week prior to and after campus closure at a public university in Northeast Ohio. Analysis of data from 1,958 students, who endorsed using alcohol in the past 30 days, demonstrates that alcohol consumption (amount and frequency) increased as time progressed. Those with more symptoms of depression and anxiety reported greater increases in alcohol consumption (assessed via retrospective timeline follow-back) compared to students with fewer symptoms. Furthermore, students with greater perceived social support reported less alcohol consumption. Together, these findings highlight the need for universities to offer services and programs to students that will minimize risk factors and maximize protective factors in order to reduce or prevent alcohol abuse during the coronavirus pandemic.

The present cross-sectional study examined the actor-partner interdependence effect of fear of COVID-19 among Iranian pregnant women and their husbands and its association with their mental health and preventive behaviours during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A total of 290 pregnant women and their husbands (N = 580) were randomly selected from a list of pregnant women in the Iranian Integrated Health System and were invited to respond to psychometric scales assessing fear of COVID-19, depression, anxiety, suicidal intention, mental quality of life, and COVID-19 preventive behaviours. The findings demonstrated significant dyadic relationships between husbands and their pregnant wives' fear of COVID-19, mental health, and preventive behaviours. Pregnant wives’ actor effect of fear of COVID-19 was significantly associated with depression, suicidal intention, mental quality of life, and COVID-19 preventive behaviours but not anxiety. Moreover, a husband actor effect of fear of COVID-19 was significantly associated with depression, anxiety, suicidal intention, mental quality of life, and COVID-19 preventive behaviours. Additionally, there were significant partner effects observed for both the pregnant wives and their husbands concerning all outcomes. The present study used a cross-sectional design and so is unable to determine the mechanism or causal ordering of the effects. Also, the data are mainly based on self-reported measures which have some limitations due to its potential for social desirability and recall biases. Based on the findings, couples may benefit from psychoeducation that focuses on the effect of mental health problems on pregnant women and the foetus.

The COVID-19 pandemic offers an opportunity to think more deeply about who and what we value in society, with value determined not on conditions set by capital but instead on achieving meaning in life. In this commentary, we pose a series of interconnected questions to geography: What does it mean to live a meaningful life? Furthermore, is such a life possible under capitalism? And what does a society that prioritizes meaningful life look like?

After reading Dr. Alpert's commentary, we suspect art inspires life but not consistently with historical fact. Duty to serve, a hallmark of professional medicine, is not always exhibited during pandemics. The perception is that physicians provided care to others without personal regard in pandemics. Yet, Camus's physician did not view himself as heroic. Rieux stated “there is no question of heroism in all this. It's a matter of common decency” and it was about “giving people a chance,” trying to alleviate suffering (p. 278).

Since the mid-1980s, medical historians have accepted the Zuger-Miles hypothesis, arguing there was no “strong or constant” tradition of physicians rendering care in epidemics because of a sense of professional responsibility. Most physicians treated patients who sought help often at great cost and personal risk. Other physicians fled in time of plague. During yellow fever and cholera outbreaks, physicians refused to visit patients who were acutely ill. Overtreatment with dangerous and ineffective therapies was worse than abandonment. Some physicians acted on the basis of monetary or contractual agreements. Other physicians became itinerant: “frequently bills were set up upon their doors and written, ‘here is a doctor to be let’ . . . several of those physicians were fain for a while to sit still and look about them, or . . . remove their dwellings, and set up in a new place and among new acquaintance” (p. 361).

Modern debate over physician duty occurred during the century-old Spanish influenza pandemic wherein more than 600 US civilian physicians died. Recent concerns about duty have occurred during the HIV, SARS, Ebola, and current COVID19 outbreak. Hundreds of health care workers in West Africa died during the Ebola outbreak, and numerous health care workers have succumbed during the current pandemic.

Even with social and organizational changes in modern medicine, with conflicting duties and roles for physicians in complex economic and contractual settings, the Zuger-Miles hypothesis is confirmed. We were heartened by selfless efforts of house staff in the current pandemic, placing patient care and duty above personal and family obligations. We witnessed fear of contagion among providers—translated into refusal to provide care but also translated into significant morbidity and mortality for providers. Colleagues reported feeling sidelined; physicians wanted to do more. We heard concerns regarding institutional exploitation: the duty to do more. Physician duty and obligations toward patients should not be exploited, placing physicians at risk and in circumstances considered morally, psychologically, or physically unacceptable. Our observations confirm that duty during pandemics is not a heroic, dichotomous, individual choice but rather a complex, nuanced decision, influenced by conflicting, competing, and overlapping goals, moral obligations, and institutional and contractual concerns.

Camus's Plague reminds physicians that dead rats are everywhere—epidemics, wars, and natural disasters—creating refugees, illness, and untold human suffering. Despite social, political, and scientific progress, these threats persist and repeat. Camus's physician protagonist compiles his chronicle so that he can “bear witness in favor of those plague-stricken people; so that some memorial of the injustice and outrage done them might endure; and to state quite simply what we learn in a time of pestilence” (p. 278). Camus's protagonist continues to remind physicians of the duty to care for patients and of pandemic lessons from history.

This article draws on a broadcast popular among the anti-vaccine community to map out six themes used by the broadcast to mislead viewers about COVID-19. The themes are the claim that “they” – government and pharma – are lying to you, claims that COVID-19 is an excuse to remove civil liberties, viewing everyone as an expert, claiming that science cannot save us, skewing the science, and a claim that “they” are out to harm the viewers. The article points out that similar themes are used to mislead followers with anti-vaccine information. It highlights the concern that these themes will not only mislead people who are already anti-vaccine about the pandemic, but may draw in people who are not anti-vaccine but are seeking information about COVID-19, and suggests some options for dealing with the misinformation. Scientists benefit from understanding these claims, as we are often tasked with providing rebuttals to this misinformation.

An ongoing pandemic, the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is threatening the nations of the world regardless of health infrastructure conditions. In the age of digital electronic information and telecommunication technology, scalable telehealth services are gaining immense importance by helping to maintain social distances while providing necessary healthcare services. This paper aims to review the various types of scalable telehealth services used to support patients infected by COVID-19 and other diseases during this pandemic. Recently published research papers collected from various sources such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate, PubMed, Scopus, and IEEE Xplore databases using the terms "Telehealth", "Coronavirus", "Scalable" and "COVID-19" are reviewed. The input data and relevant reports for the analysis and assessment of the various aspects of telehealth technology in the COVID-19 pandemic are taken from official websites. We described the available telehealth systems based on their communication media such as mobile networks, social media, and software based models throughout the review. A comparative analysis among the reviewed systems along with necessary challenges and possible future directions are also drawn for the proper selection of affordable technologies. The usage of scalable telehealth systems improves the quality of the healthcare system and also reduces the infection rate while keeping both patients and doctors safe during the pandemic.

COVID-19 has brought global attention to the critical role of water in managing infectious outbreaks. Although Sub-Saharan Africa could become a COVID-19 hotspot, some are optimistic that given the right strategies and interventions the region can contain the pandemic. One such interventions is Ghana's directive to provide free water to domestic users for six months to ensure that water insecure households do not compromise appropriate hygiene and sanitation during COVID-19. We highlight in this commentary how the complex geographies of water provision in the region could undermine the overall benefits of such initiatives, especially to poor and water insecure households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the UNICEF, children between 0–14 years represent ~26% of the total global population (~45% in Africa; 22% in USA, of which 90% attend school; ranging from 85–100% across countries). With high case-fatality ratios between 4.5–7.5% (Germany/Iran/USA/Brazil/Canada) and 11.9–16.4% (Spain/Italy/UK/France/Belgium), there is a critical need to empower citizens, especially children (often asymptomatic carriers), with education strategies to control COVID-19. Especially, there is need to support facemask citizen science and experiential education among children and families as the globe exits from the current lockdown, and teachers and students desire and seek for safe strategies to return to densely-attended schools. COVID-19 is a pandemic respiratory disease that disseminates as infectious respiratory or saliva droplets are released into the environment as people talk, sneeze, and cough. Currently the most publicized methods to prevent local transmission of COVID-19 and promote “droplet safety” in hospitals and communities include hand washing, social distancing, and stay-at-home strategies. In contrast to established benefits for medical masks in hospitals, the benefits of wearing masks or face covers/coverings (hereafter, “facemask”) in the community have been inconsistently debated by the media, creating confusion, and misinformation. Furthermore, high-profile political leaders in countries heavily affected by the pandemic have given misleading signs regarding containment measures associated with COVID-19 increasingly polarizing local communities around arguments on the value of facemasks in promoting public health, which is critically important to incentivize during the emergence of citizens from their lockdowns and during the phase of reopening local economies.

First publication and copyright by Frontiers Media.

Novel coronavirus (COVID-19), an ongoing pandemic, is threatening the whole population all over the world including the nations having high or low resource health infrastructure. The number of infection as well as death cases are increasing day by day, and outperforming all the records of previously found infectious diseases. This pandemic is imposing specific pressures on the medical system almost the whole globe. The respiration problem is the main complication that a COVID-19 infected patient faced generally. It is a matter of hope that the recent deployment of small-scale technologies like 3D printer, microcontroller, ventilator, Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) are mostly used to resolve the problem associated with medical equipment's for breathing. This paper aims to overview the existing technologies which are frequently used to support the infected patients for respiration. We described the most recent developed breathing aid devices such as oxygen therapy devices, ventilator, and CPAP throughout the review. A comparative analysis among the developed devices with necessary challenges and possible future directions are also outlined for the proper selection of affordable technologies. It is expected that this paper would be of great help to the experts who would like to contribute in this area.

Benefits of Pinterest as a Teaching Resource One of the key benefits of Pinterest for teachers is that it can provide instructional ideas that teachers can adapt for their classrooms. Tips for Using Pinterest In light of these benefits and weaknesses, we present the following tips for teachers using Pinterest as a teaching resource Tip 1. These tips are things teachers can do before using Pinterest (#1-3), while using Pinterest (#4) and after using Pinter est (#5) that will help make the social media platform even more useful.

As we enter the second quarter of the COVID-19 pandemic, with testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS–CoV-2) increasingly available (though still limited and/or slow in some areas), we are faced with new questions and challenges regarding this novel virus. When to test? Whom to test? What to test? How often to test? And, what to do with test results? Since SARS–CoV-2 is a new virus, there is little evidence to fall back on for test utilization and diagnostic stewardship (1). Several points need to be considered to begin answering of these questions; specifically, what types of tests are available and under which circumstances are they useful? This understanding can help guide the use of testing at the local, regional, state, and national levels and inform those assessing the supply chain to ensure that needed testing is and continues to be available. Here, we explain the types of tests available and how they might be useful in the face of a rapidly changing and never-before-experienced situation. There are two broad categories of SARS–CoV-2 tests: those that detect the virus itself and those that detect the host’s response to the virus. Each will be considered separately.

We must recognize that we are dealing with (i) a new virus, (ii) an unprecedented pandemic in modern times, and (iii) uncharted territory. With this in mind, in the absence of either proven effective therapy or a vaccine, diagnostic testing, which we have, becomes an especially important tool, informing patient management and potentially helping to save lives by limiting the spread of SARS–CoV-2. What is the most appropriate test, and for whom and when?

Hypothetically, if the entire world’s population could be tested all at once, with a test providing 100% specificity and sensitivity (unrealistic, obviously), we might be able to identify all infected individuals and sort people into those who at that moment in time were asymptomatic, minimally/moderately symptomatic, and severely symptomatic. The asymptomatic and minimally/moderately symptomatic could be quarantined to avoid the spread of the virus, with the severely symptomatic managed and isolated in health care settings. Contract tracing could be carried out to find those at risk of being in the incubation period by virtue of their exposure. Alternatively, testing for a host response, if, again, the test were hypothetically 100% sensitive and specific, could identify those previously exposed to the virus and (if we knew this to be true, which we do not) label those who are immune to the virus, who could be tapped to work in settings where potentially infected individuals (e.g., sick patients in hospitals) might otherwise pose a risk. Unfortunately, these hypothetical scenarios are not reality. However, with this ideal situation as a guide, what we do have available as tests today should be carefully considered in terms of how they can be leveraged to move the current crisis closer to the ideal situation, especially in the absence of therapeutics or vaccines.

Although the virus can be cultured, this is dangerous and not routinely done in clinical laboratories. While detection of viral antigens is theoretically possible, this approach has not, to date, been a primary one, but one that those participating in the summit considered to deserve further research.

Novel and unconventional strategies continue to emerge in response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19). One recent innovative response is high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) use for adults experiencing the respiratory effects of COVID-19. HFNC provides warmed, humidified oxygen at higher fractions of inspired oxygen (FiO2) levels and flow rates than conventional oxygen therapy, potentially reducing the number of patients requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation. Increased HFNC use stems from an attempt to mitigate the virus’s devastating pulmonary effects, including alveolar inflammation that leads to scarring and respiratory compromise, which persist after the virus has been treated.

However, HFNC is controversial because of limited and inconsistent research and the risk for aerosolization of virus particles. This article discusses the delivery of HFNC, its benefits and risks, and nursing considerations. 

Purpose of Review With real-time communication crucial to both healthcare professionals (HCPs) and the public in infectious diseases (ID), social media networking sites has become even more important. Twitter is the most popular form of social media used for ID communication. We will review the power of Twitter in ID. Recent Findings Twitter allows for real-time sharing of educational resources at ID scientific conferences, enabling individuals that are not able to attend conferences to follow conferences anytime anywhere and stimulate discussion around topics of interest with experts from across the globe. Further, Twitter chats are a valuable tool for stewardship, with different accounts periodically hosting chats on various stewardship topics. Several studies have also demonstrated the strong relationship between dissemination and citation impact of publications with the help of Twitter. There is great value in engaging with non-ID people on Twitter via dissemination of ID knowledge to other disciplines. Lastly, when used appropriately, Twitter is a useful site for distributing vaccine information, whether informally (by advocates and physicians) or formally (by government entities) and allows one to keep up with ongoing ID outbreaks in real time. Twitter has transformed how we communicate in healthcare. Particularly in ID, where bacteria and viruses can enter/exit borders anytime anywhere, global real-time information about outbreaks and antimicrobial resistance for clinicians and the public is critical. Twitter has no hierarchy or barriers, is a conduit for global collaboration, and is a way for HCPs and the public to "social"ize on healthcare topics, if used appropriately.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created huge damage to society and brought panic around the world. Such panic can be ascribed to the seemingly deceptive features of COVID-19: Compared to other deadly viral outbreaks, it has medium transmission and mortality rates. As a result, the severity of the causative coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was deeply underestimated by society at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. Based on this, in this review, we define the viruses with features similar to those of SARS-CoV-2 as the Panic Zone viruses. To contain those viruses, accurate and fast diagnosis followed by effective isolation and treatment of patients are pivotal at the early stage of virus breakouts. This is especially true when there is no cure or vaccine available for a transmissible disease, which is the case for the current COVID-19 pandemic. As of July 2020, more than 100 kits for COVID-19 diagnosis on the market have been surveyed in this review, while emerging sensing techniques for SARS-CoV-2 are also discussed. It is of critical importance to rationally use these kits for efficient management and control of the Panic Zone viruses. Therefore, we discuss guidelines to select diagnostic kits at different outbreak stages of the Panic Zone viruses, SARS-CoV-2 in particular. While it is of utmost importance to use nucleic acid based detection kits with low false negativity (high sensitivity) at the early stage of an outbreak, the low false positivity (high specificity) gains importance at later stages of the outbreak. When society is set to reopen from the lockdown stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes critical to have immunoassay based kits with high specificity to identify people who can safely return to society after their recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infections. Finally, since a massive attack from a viral pandemic requires a massive defense from the whole society, we urge both government and the private sector to research and develop affordable and reliable point-of-care testing (POCT) kits, which can be used massively by the general public (and therefore called massive POCT) to contain Panic Zone viruses in the future.

Link to published version included, and author's accepted version included here.

With the first reports on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the scientific community working in the field of type III IFNs (IFN-λ) realized that this class of IFNs could play an important role in this and other emerging viral infections. In this Viewpoint, we present our opinion on the benefits and potential limitations of using IFN-λ to prevent, limit, and treat these dangerous viral infections.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes COVID-19, utilizes angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) for entry into target cells. ACE2 has been proposed as an interferon-stimulated gene (ISG). Thus, interferon-induced variability in ACE2 expression levels could be important for susceptibility to COVID-19 or its outcomes. Here, we report the discovery of a novel, transcriptionally independent truncated isoform of ACE2, which we designate as deltaACE2 (dACE2). We demonstrate that dACE2, but not ACE2, is an ISG. In The Cancer Genome Atlas, the expression of dACE2 was enriched in squamous tumors of the respiratory, gastrointestinal and urogenital tracts. In vitro, dACE2, which lacks 356 amino-terminal amino acids, was non-functional in binding the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and as a carboxypeptidase. Our results suggest that the ISG-type induction of dACE2 in IFN-high conditions created by treatments, an inflammatory tumor microenvironment or viral co-infections is unlikely to increase the cellular entry of SARS-CoV-2 and promote infection.

Preprint available here on biorxiv: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.19.210955

Science and medical professionals are often looked to as experts in the event of a health crisis, but relatively few have received formal training in science communication. We provide a brief review of the current outbreak situation and suggestions for engaging in reliable, effective science communication online.

It is generally agreed that striking a balance between resuming economic and social activities and keeping the effective reproductive number (R0) below 1 using non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important goal until and even after effective vaccines become available. Therefore, the need remains to understand how the virus is transmitted in order to identify high-risk environments and activities that disproportionately contribute to its spread so that effective preventative measures could be put in place. Contact tracing and household studies in particular provide robust evidence about the parameters of transmission. In this viewpoint, we discuss the available evidence from large-scale, well-conducted contact tracing studies from across the world and argue that SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics should inform policy decisions about mitigation strategies for targeted interventions according to the needs of the society by directing attention to the settings, activities and socioeconomic factors associated with the highest risks of transmission.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted normal face-to-face classes across institutions. This has significantly impacted methods courses where preservice teachers (PSTs) practice pedagogy in the field (e.g., in the PreK-12 classroom). In this paper, we describe efforts to adapt an assignment originally situated in a face-to-face school placement into a virtual version. By utilizing multi-perspective 360 video, preliminary results suggest virtual field experiences can provide PSTs with similar experiences for observation-based assignments. Acknowledging that immersive virtual experiences are not a complete replacement for face-to-face fieldbased experiences, we suggest virtual field assignments can be a useful supplement or a viable alternative during a time of the pandemic.

Accepted version provided in institutional repository, for final publisher version, visit: https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/216115/

This article aims to review the important roles of health knowledge organization systems (KOSs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Different types of knowledge organization systems, including term lists, synonym rings, thesauri, subject heading systems, taxonomies, classification schemes, and ontologies are widely recognized and applied in both modern and traditional information systems. Apart from their usage in the management of data, information, and knowledge, KOSs are seen as valuable components for large information architecture, content management, findability improvement, and many other applications. After introducing the challenges of information overload and semantic conflicts, the article reviews the efforts of major health KOSs, illustrates various health coding schemes, explains their usages and implementations, and reveals their implications for health information exchange and communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some general examples of the applications, services, and analysis powered by KOSs are presented at the end. As revealed in this article, they have become even more critical to aid the frontline endeavors to overcome the obstacles due to information overload and semantic conflicts that can occur during devastating historic and worldwide events like the COVID-19 pandemic.

The unfolding of the coronavirus pandemic is a pivotal moment, one that will shape us individually and collectively for years to come. Experiencing these events as an early career public health professional has brought to mind lessons I have learned about the value of public health evidence. Having reliable information in this time is critical, particularly as we are called to do our part in curbing the spread of the virus through social distancing. As a public health professional, I support my personal network of family and friends by sharing meaningful evidence. I share information to stay connected and highlight how public health works and what we know about this novel virus, and I offer a perspective on what the mitigation efforts we are living through mean for our health. Within my state, this includes watching a daily press conference hosted by the governor of Ohio, reading updates from my colleagues in epidemiology, and searching emerging research for information about the virus.

Lessons in how to evaluate evidence were among the most important that I learned through my doctoral studies. Experience in how to do so was bolstered by my role as the first student editor of AJPH. By working with editor-in-chief Alfredo Morabia, MD, PhD, and the entire editorial team of the Journal, I learned the value of strong public health evidence and how to identify it. I developed these skills by working with associate editors as they made decisions about which articles to feature and about finding leading public health professionals to provide editorials. Through these activities, I strengthened my ability to think critically about evidence, observed firsthand how evidence is vetted, and participated directly in the important work of the Journal. I also acquired insight into how important the dissemination of research is. Sharing evidence and results with the broader community is an essential piece of the research process. Through my experience as student editor, I acquired a deep appreciation for this process that I now apply to my own work as a postdoctoral researcher. This has become particularly relevant in these times, as wide dissemination of evidence about coronavirus is informing the actions taken at all levels of the public health system.

When I view these experiences in light of the current pandemic, it is clear that the work of public health is continual and that new evidence emerges about this novel coronavirus every day. It is essential to determine what is factual and accurate and to promote information that helps others take needed and appropriate action. News reports have applauded the efforts of Ohio’s Governor DeWine and health director Amy Acton, MD, MPH, for their work in implementing evidence-based social-distancing measures early, while working to educate the public on how to “flatten the curve.”

Social-distancing measures have been in place in Ohio since early March, beginning with the closure of the 2020 Arnold Classic, a fitness expo in Columbus, Ohio, that brings together athletes from more than 80 countries and 60 000 spectators. With the closure of Ohio’s universities shortly thereafter, I found myself undertaking completely virtual work. No one has been left untouched by these widespread mitigation efforts, and while we all adjust to this “new normal,” it is important not to lose sight of the facts and evidence that inform these policies. Each day, I am reminded about the power of information and evidence, and I actively promote its importance. Public health professionals are working tirelessly across the globe to develop and share the necessary evidence that will help us, as a global society, emerge from this pandemic safely.

Across the globe, students have been away from schools and their teachers, but literacy learning has continued. In many countries, students’ literacy proficiency is often measured via high‐stakes assessment tests. However, such tests do not make visible students’ literacy lives away from formal learning settings, so students are positioned as task responders, rather than as agentive readers and writers. The authors explore the fluidity and diversity of literacy events and practices for students and their teachers observed during the recent period of COVID‐19 lockdown restrictions. In this piece for The Inside Track, we consider how schools in the United States have been educating the very youngest students to how colleges of teacher education are grappling with a transition to a new shelter in place at home and virtual teaching and learning during the global pandemic. This contrasts to the emergence of public environmental literacy events observed in the United Kingdom, specifically in the South of England.

Over the course of the first six weeks of lockdown, the affordances of the range of these events and the influence of the specific, local cultures (Street, 1984) were documented, highlighting how the immediate physical and virtual environments appear to have become more significant during the COVID‐19 pandemic. As students and their teachers respond and react to new literacy experiences, we hope to expose potential points of intersection where students, with encouragement from their teachers, crafted new and hybrid literacy practices appropriated and recontextualized within new communicative space(s) (Dyson, 2001). Writing instructional practices across the world vary to some extent; in the United States, there are many similarities to what are considered best practices, despite each state holding different standards for writing instruction (Lacina, 2018). Teachers in the United States focus much more of their instructional time in the area of reading, instead of writing (Edwards, 2003; Puranik, Al Otaiba, Sidler, and Greulich, 2014). However, much has been written about teacher planning and instruction with process writing instruction, such as writers' workshop (Troia, Lin, Cohen, & Monroe, 2011). Within a writers' workshop classroom, the teacher uses literature as a model for writing (Lacina & Espinosa, 2010); the teacher teaches minilessons and scaffolds the teaching of writing. Researchers also have noted the importance of teaching writing within the content areas (Fisher & Frey, 2020) and the need to teach using the new literacies (Lacina & Block, 2012). Researchers who study writing instructional practices have found that there is great variance between teachers’ writing instructional practices (Cutler & Graham, 2008); with such variance, there are also connections between teachers’ writing instructional practices and their beliefs about teaching writing. Students out‐of‐school literacy lives often demonstrate a broader conceptualization of writing than is displayed in their school writing (Chamberlain, 2019; Dyson, 2020). Current definitions of literacy appear to mean reading, not writing. It is easier to test, measure, and compare reading proficiency than writing accomplishments. However, writing is better positioned as purposeful in the lives of students and reflected through sociocultural and situated identities where writing is framed as a mode of social or personal action (Prior, 2006; Rowsell & Pahl, 2007). The National Literacy Trust’s recent research based on over 4,000 questionnaire responses (Clark, Picton, & Lant, 2020) of children and young people in the United Kingdom suggested that new and positive writing habits have been developed during this time of lockdown. Educators have studied students’ consumption and production of texts through a framework of multimodality in both in‐ and out‐of‐school contexts (Lenters, 2016, 2018). Studying a framework of multimodality in the area of literacy has helped educators rethink the way literacy is instructed in school spaces (Kendrick & McKay, 2004; Kress, 1997; Lenters, 2018). However, rather than polarizing the literacies acquired in different settings, those of school and away from school, which serves only to limit our understanding of such encounters, the learnings from the examples in this piece aim to make visible the unique nature of students' interactions with their writing (Reder & Davilla, 2005) when schooled literacy (Cook‐Gumperz, 2006) is not an option.

Wearable technology plays a significant role in our daily life as well as in the healthcare industry. The recent coronavirus pandemic has taken the world's healthcare systems by surprise. Although trials of possible vaccines are underway, it would take a long time before the vaccines are permitted for public use. Most of the government efforts are currently geared towards preventing the spread of the coronavirus and predicting probable hot zones. The essential and healthcare workers are the most vulnerable towards coronavirus infections due to their required proximity to potential coronavirus patients. Wearable technology can potentially assist in these regards by providing real-time remote monitoring, symptoms prediction, contact tracing, etc. The goal of this paper is to discuss the different existing wearable monitoring devices (respiration rate, heart rate, temperature, and oxygen saturation) and respiratory support systems (ventilators, CPAP devices, and oxygen therapy) which are frequently used to assist the coronavirus affected people. The devices are described based on the services they provide, their working procedures as well as comparative analysis of their merits and demerits with cost. A comparative discussion with probable future trends is also drawn to select the best technology for COVID-19 infected patients. It is envisaged that wearable technology is only capable of providing initial treatment that can reduce the spread of this pandemic.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives in countless ways. This has included the move to emergency remote learning for PreK-12 and post-secondary education around the world. While school districts and post-secondary education institutions originally anticipated relatively brief closures, the impact of COVID-19 resulted in extensive periods of emergency remote teaching and learning. Many K-12 school districts and institutions of higher education had to teach online for almost all of the spring semester (2020); they have also added contingency plans for future remote instruction in the summer and for the 2020-2021 academic year. As we move beyond the survival phase of remote teaching and learning, it is critical now to transition to a thriving phase of remote teaching, learning, and teacher education.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted education, forcing teachers and teacher educators into emergency, remote instruction. While there were noted challenges, there also were global success stories of innovation in preparing current and future teachers. This AACE and SITE-published, open access eBook contains 133 chapters with over 850 pages documenting best practices, strategies, and efforts by teacher educators, professional developers, researchers, and practitioners. It is divided into seven sections that address pedagogy, collaboration, field experiences, preservice education methods, professional development, digital tools, and equity issues. Chapters are presented as innovations with supporting materials that could be easily replicated or studied.

Digital poetry has been an important and innovative genre in many disciplines. This paper describes two separate tools (Emerge and Thread) that were used to support teacher professional development during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results suggest that within one month, over 120 poems at each of two separate schools were created, showing both a willingness of the teachers to engage in this form of professional development and a desire of the students to share their knowledge. The paper includes an invitation to freely collaborate in both the use of and research studies on digital poetry for teacher education.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly affected K-12 education in 2020. To protect students and staff, as well as to flatten the infection
curve, parents, teachers, and policy makers endorsed and implemented a
modified version of homeschooling in the spring in the US and across the
globe. Teachers used some form of paper mailings and electronic
technology (eg, video conferencing, emailing) to deliver content to
students, while parents assumed a coteaching responsibility. Most
parents, schools, and teachers were unprepared and untrained to handle
the complexities inherent to educating as well as the demands of the
technology needed to support these efforts. Although teachers deserve
high praise for their rapid response, the educational outcomes were
unsatisfying, families were burdened, and most are hesitant to repeat
the same format. As government officials attempt to plan for the fall,
the American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement supporting the
return to traditional school as soon as possible to preserve education
and socialization while limiting the exacerbation of existing
educational disparities for high-risk populations.

COVID-19 is proving to be a particularly cruel disease not just because
of its pathophysiology but also due to its potentially devastating
consequences for engendering loneliness. From the outset of the
pandemic, we have learned of countless individuals having to die alone
or loved ones not being able to grieve by providing burial services (Miller, 2020).
This disease holds particularly dire consequences for many
populations—most notably the elderly and those with compromised health
conditions but also minorities and the homeless; these groups have also
faced unique difficulties in contending with loneliness well before this
crisis (Rokach, 2019).
For as much attention that this disease has rightfully focused on the
elderly, individuals can experience different developmental challenges
with loneliness throughout the lifespan including adolescence and young
adulthood (Luhmann and Hawkley, 2016)—and,
indeed, there is already evidence of heightened psychological problems
amongst Chinese youth in the wake of this pandemic (Liang et al., 2020).
Accordingly, it will be important for psychologists to assess how
age-based threats to loneliness evolve in the era of COVID-19.

This paper provides the author's assessment of the nature of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic crisis as of the period from mid-March to mid-April 2020. This analysis at this early stage of this crisis does not aim to offer specific predictions regarding how this emergency will continue to evolve or ultimately end. Instead, it documents key themes and issues that have developed during the earliest phase of the crisis and it utilizes known select points from the preexisting scientific literature in order to provide insight into some of the core issues that psychologists and other social scientists (in particular) will likely strive to investigate in the coming months and years. Issues involving loss, mental health, prosocial and destructive social behavior, and social, economic, and political matters are particularly highlighted.

The UK is well into the second wave of COVID-19, with 60 051 lives lost to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection to date, according to provisional data from the Office for National Statistics. Official UK Government data show that cases have been rising exponentially since late August, 2020, with increases across all regions in England in recent weeks.

 As of Nov 4, 2020, the UK had 25 177 confirmed daily cases. These are almost certainly underestimates as between Oct 17 and Oct 23, 2020, England alone had 52 000 estimated daily cases.

 Estimates of the effective reproduction number in England vary between 1·1 and 1·6.

The coronavirus-2019 pandemic was declared a national emergency in the United States on March 13, 2020. The disruptions resulting from subsequent unprecedented mitigation efforts have limited and, in some cases. eliminated the ability of psychologists to meet in person with their patients, clients, and examinees. This has led to a broad and sudden reliance on synchronous (live) videoconferencing (also commonly referred to as telehealth, telepsychological practice. and telepractice) to deliver clinical services. A vital component of psychological practice involves the administration of psychological testing, particularly in clinical settings and specialties that rely heavily on the use of assessment instruments. Remote administration of psychological testing presents challenges that cannot be ignored, even in a crisis, without risking the violation of ethical standards and without compromising the reliability and interpretability of test results and the security of test instruments. With these considerations in mind, we provide practical guidance for remote test administration, using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory instruments.

This article discusses data safety monitoring during Covid‐19. the pandemic of Covid‐19 has created the imperative for new treatments and a vaccine, countless clinical trials already in progress have still needed oversight. With the emergence of Covid-19, studies needed to quickly adapt because what it meant to protect study participants wasn’t the same as it had been weeks earlier. One of the primary roles of DSMBs is to evaluate interim data to ensure that participants aren’t at additional risk by virtue of being randomized to a study arm found to have more risks or fewer benefits than other arms. Stopping a study early when it falls out of equipoise is the most monumental task a data safety monitoring boards (DSMB) is charged to perform. The pandemic brought with it risks that changed many studies’ risk-benefit calculus. In some cases, merely attending a visit to report symptoms, check progress, verify pill counts, or report adverse events posed additional risk. Participants in placebo arms are typically expected to experience little benefit, and certainly not greater harm, than participants in the active therapy group. Suddenly, participating in even the most innocuous placebo arm might result in unforeseen harm. DSMBs’ primary responsibility is to protect research participants, but if data is compromised, then the benefit of the study will never outweigh the risks to participants. Thus, protecting the integrity of data collection was also foremost in the minds of DSMB members. Researchers, representatives from the National Institutes of Health, and DSMB members were in constant communication about trials already in progress.

The COVID-19 pandemic has closed non-essential businesses which may alter individuals' leisure behaviors. Consequently, physical activity and sedentary behavior may be negatively impacted as many fitness and recreational centers have been closed. This study aimed to examine the impact of the pandemic on physical activity and sedentary behavior in a sample of university students and employees before and after the university cancelled face-to-face classes and closed campus. Participants ( N = 398) completed the validated Godin physical activity questionnaire and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire which assessed physical activity and sedentary behavior pre- and post-cancellation of face-to-face classes. Participants were also separated in the groups ( low, moderate, high physical activity) based upon a tertile split of pre-pandemic total physical activity. Physical activity group by time ANOVAs were used to assess potential changes in total physical activity and sedentary behavior. Post-cancellation sedentary behavior was greater ( F (1, 388) = 9.2, p = 0.003, partial η 2 = 0.032) than pre-cancellation. Physical activity group moderated ( F (2, 395) = 22.0, p < 0.001, partial η 2 ≥ 0.10) changes in total physical activity from pre- to post cancellation. The high activity group decreased physical activity whereas the moderate and low activity groups increased physical activity ( t ≥ 2.4, p ≤ 0.02, Cohen's d = 0.23). While the university closure increased sedentary behavior across the sample, it only decreased physical activity in participants who were the most active pre-cancellation. Pandemic-related closure of facilities designed for physical activity may disproportionately impact active individuals.

As of August 2020, thousands of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) publications have been produced. Manual assessment of their scope is an overwhelming task, and shortcuts through metadata analysis (e.g., keywords) assume that studies are properly tagged. However, machine learning approaches can rapidly survey the actual text of publication abstracts to identify research overlap between COVID-19 and other coronaviruses, research hotspots, and areas warranting exploration. We propose a fast, scalable, and reusable framework to parse novel disease literature. When applied to the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19), dimensionality reduction suggests that COVID-19 studies to date are primarily clinical-, modeling- or field-based, in contrast to the vast quantity of laboratory-driven research for other (non-COVID-19) coronavirus diseases. Furthermore, topic modeling indicates that COVID-19 publications have focused on public health, outbreak reporting, clinical care, and testing for coronaviruses, as opposed to the more limited number focused on basic microbiology, including pathogenesis and transmission.

Objective: This study analyzes the conceptual structure of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. We present a thematic mapping of concepts and a narrative exposition of the clusters of themes and relevant terminologies that explains the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has rattled the world in the past five months. We evaluate the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and two previous coronavirus outbreaks, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Finally, we point to areas for future epidemiological studies to help in containing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Materials and Method: We use network analysis, data mining, and visual analytics to synthesize the keywords, themes, and terminologies in the scientific literature on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, and related concepts and terms. The data used in this study come from 346 scientific publications on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 between 2019 and April 2020, selected through a systematic review process. The selected documents come from the Web of Science.

Results: The study offers the first comprehensive exposition of the conceptual structure and theoretical evaluation of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, and in-depth narrative of themes and clusters of related terminologies through the scholarship of integration. The study points to areas for future clinical trials and epidemiology studies as the effort to contain the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

Conclusion: This paper achieved three outcomes; the conceptual structure of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, a narrative exposition of the cluster of themes and terminologies with analysis of the relationship with SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, and highlight crucial areas for future studies.

The adoption of cutting-edge technologies to steer business activities during community lockdown to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, even if involuntarily, provides evidence that technologies not only offer competitive advantages but also provides a means for survival, by improvising existing business models. In June 2019, we issued a call for papers to address the awareness, adoption, and implementation challenges of technologies that can drive businesses of all sizes in the fourth industrial revolution. We intended to identify as critical elements the “must-have” and a “nice to have” technologies for small businesses and innovation. Then the ongoing COVID-19 global health pandemic struck in December 2019, forcing the need for digitization of business activities and remote operations, which was considered a “nice to have” to immediately become a “critical to have” to survive in the ever increasingly uncertain business environment. This paper identifies the technologies, evaluates disruptive software platforms, and strategies needed for creating and managing small business innovation and highlighting the complexity of that process and the context within which this process takes place. We integrate this discussion alongside a summary of the articles included in the Special Issue. The current realities show that technologies that enable social business creation, customer relationship management systems, new communications channels, virtual reality technologies for remote operations, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are crucial to lowering the costs of doing business. Big data and predictive and visual analytics are critical enablers to aiding complex business decisions in the current challenging business climate.

Many challenges continue to hinder digital technologies' adoption by small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies. Comparatively, there are more success stories by SMEs in emerging markets. However, most SMEs operating in the informal sector in the emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) face similar challenges that inhibit the adoption of advanced technologies and innovations needed to improve business operations and re-engineer processes. This article evaluates the implementation and use of state-of-the-art technologies by SMEs in EMDEs to improve operations performance and create sustainable competitive advantages. Further, the papers in this Special Issue identify FinTech and analytical algorithms as some of the current technologies employed by SMEs in EMDEs to improve operations and processes in the manufacturing and service industries. The recognized technologies and technical innovations that seem novel in EMDEs have long existed in the advanced economies. Most state-of-the-art technologies, including cloud computing, 'big data', and predictive analytics that can improve operations and strategic decisions, are yet to make inroads in most EMDEs. Also, disruptive computing technologies, data analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT) required to engineer new business models, reduce overheads, enhance competitive advantages, and digitize SMEs' business operations remain untapped. The absence and non-adoption of digital technologies in EMDEs explain why business activities in most EMDEs remain shut during the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 and the community lockdown to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The strategies to survive the 'new normal' imposed by COVID-19 and fierce global competition includes a successful adoption of advanced technologies.