Mourning Sickness

The present article applies Judith Butler’s notion of “grievable life” to reflect on the manner in which selected US-American television series engaged in the work of mourning and memorializing the loss of life in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the aim of noting which lives were deemed “lose-able or injurable” (Butler, Frames 1), and how precarity of life was reflected by fictional narratives that were conceived and produced during the first waves of the pandemic. The article focuses in particular on the way in which network scripted programming operating within the melodramatic convention, namely This Is Us, Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19, incorporated pandemic storylines and which aspects of pandemic reality were highlighted or, conversely, avoided scrutiny.

Abstract: This essay explores the relationship between the crisis of politics (both institutional and insurgent) and the work of mourning in our time, in which pandemics and wars accumulate victims, but institutional politics seems only capable of saturating losses with violence—while politics from below struggles to transform mourning into consciousness and rebellion. In dialogue with Sigmund Freud, Jacques Derrida, and Judith Butler, the author connects this contradiction to the spectral status of modern politics, the state’s practices of censorship and hierarchization of mourning, and the changes in the social ritualization of mourning that have been produced by the COVID pandemic. Finally, the author asks how the generative valence of loss can be relaunched against the neoliberal rationality, which is constitutively based on the repression of loss and on its substitution with the imperatives of production, consumerism, and enjoyment.

Reviewed by: The Last Rabbi: Joseph Soloveitchik and Talmudic Tradition by William Kolbrener Shaul Magid William Kolbrener. The Last Rabbi: Joseph Soloveitchik and Talmudic Tradition. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016. 277 pp.* doi:10.1017/S0364009418000727 Over the past three decades, the writings of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, scion of a Lithuanian rabbinic dynasty and architect of Modern Orthodoxy in America, have produced a cottage industry of scholarly essays in traditional and academic journals and a series of important book-length studies. While some stress his rabbinic learning and others his philosophical acumen, in almost all of these studies, Soloveitchik is depicted as a quintessential defender of Orthodox Judaism. William Kolbrener's The Last Rabbi: Joseph Soloveitchik and Talmudic Tradition is different from anything that has preceded it. Kolbrener, a scholar of English literature at Bar-Ilan University, offers us a psychoanalytic reading of Soloveitchik, the man and his work, largely through the lens of Freudian scholar Jonathan Lear. This reading yields a picture of Soloveitchik as not only distinct from the Orthodox framework in which he lived and thought, but also in many ways as a figure who subverts, or perhaps transcends, the very halakhic man he portrays in his famous essay by that name. [End Page 481] Most readers might already be scratching their heads. Not so fast. Psychoanalytic method anticipates precisely that kind of result. And as we know, such a method functions in a hermetic bubble; it only makes sense for one who has accepted a series of criteria that can never be empirically verified. Lear alludes to this when he writes, "Psychoanalytic interpretation can only be validated within the context of psychoanalytic therapy … psychoanalysis cannot be 'objective science'" (86). Kolbrener invites his readers to come along for the ride. And it is quite a ride. Studies of Soloveitchik all navigate the messy relationship between tradition and modernity that stands at the center of his religious philosophy. Kolbrener offers a novel lens through which we can examine this. He sets up the binary of mourning (rabbinic tradition) verses melancholia (Freud's notion of the modern) to navigate Soloveitchik's break with tradition—the former a central motif of the rabbinic sages, the latter the malaise of the modern as described by Freud. To borrow a phrase from the late British philosopher Gillian Rose, for the rabbis "mourning becomes the law" (25), mourning the destruction of the temple is the driving force behind the rabbinic project. Melancholy is of a different order. Mourning requires taking partial leave of the past, law being the act that Hilary Putnam calls the "good enough." Law is the salve that makes loss bearable. Melancholy, on Freud's reading, has no resolution. Freud writes that mourning is when the world becomes poorer through loss; in melancholy it is the ego itself that suffers irreparable damage. Jonathan Lear suggests, "Melancholia is mourning directed inward" (108). The first half of the book is a series of intricate and illuminating discussions about the law, certainty, truth, and loss in rabbinic tradition, where Soloveitchik is hardly mentioned. Kolbrener begins the second section by suggesting that we understand Soloveitchik's intellectual project from a "primal scene" in his childhood that Soloveitchik relates in an autobiographical anecdote about the trauma he felt when he witnessed his father unable to solve a contradiction in Maimonides's Code of Law. The young child does not approach his stoic, unapproachable father (the model of masculinity Soloveitchik strives to overcome), but rather takes solace in the arms of his mother (the feminine he later embraces through his "Torah of the heart"), who assures him that perhaps one day he will be able to solve the problem. The nurturing female gesture doesn't quite console the crying child, yet it is the femininity of his mother that drives Soloveitchik to ultimately reject his father and, by doing so, distance himself from the tradition he represents, even as he continues to identify with it. Kolbrener writes, "Soloveitchik's 'melancholy'… has a double function. His self-professed melancholy serves him in the process of individuation in distinguishing himself from his father and other 'halakhic men,' while at the same time, as part of his Oedipal rivalry...

Connecting Through Technology During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: Avoiding "Zoom Fatigue".

A Global Call for Action to Prioritize Healthcare Worker Suicide Prevention During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond.

Background: Staying at home during Covid-19 pandemic is no longer a safety aspect. During lockdown there is clustering of all the family members at home. Parents or caregivers must manage their children’s schooling as well as their own work and parenting responsibilities. Some articles mention that Covid-19 pandemic turning into “broader child crisis” such as violence against on children. Child abuse can take place in a home environment under the care of parents or other family members.
 Purpose: Analyze the impact of isolation policies caused the spread of COVID-19 and evidence of child abuse during Covid-19 pandemic
 Methods: This literature review is arranged based on literatures studies from 5 databases last 6 years, such as DOAJ, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, SpringerLink, and Elsevier Open Access Journals. This literature review searched for studies with the keyword “child abuse” or “child neglected” or “covid-19 pandemic impact”. Based on a search using these keywords, 8 articles were found from the data base.
 Results: Building awareness about child abuse and neglect during Covid-19 pandemic is vital, because children are often vulnerable and require careful consideration by parents or caregivers and health care system. So, to protecting children from violence during Covid-19 pandemic requires all sectors to undertake coordinate measure (parents or caregiver, school, community and health profession).
 Conclusion: The health profession has a duty to provide support with public health approach in overcoming about child abuse and neglect.

Globally, approximately 1.4% of people have celiac disease (CD), induced by gluten sensitivity. If left untreated, it causes small intestinal inflammation and villous atrophy, which can result in failure to thrive, anemia, osteoporosis, malabsorption, and even malignancy. The only treatment option available is a gluten-free diet (GFD). Few studies have looked at the role and perception of telehealth in relation to CD and selective nutrition both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Our goal was to screen and investigate the research conducted both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic concerning the utilization of telehealth applications and solutions in CD and other GFD-dependent circumstances. We employed a narrative review approach to explore articles that were published in scholarly journals or organizations between the years 2000 and 2024. Only English-language publications were included. PubMed and Google Scholar searches were mainly conducted using the following keywords: telemedicine, telehealth, telecare, eHealth, m-health, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, celiac disease, and gluten-free diet (GFD). Manual searches of the references in the acquired literature were also carried out, along with the authors' own personal contributions of their knowledge and proficiency in this field. Only a few studies conducted prior to the COVID-19 outbreak examined the viewpoints and experiences of adult patients with CD with relation to in-person clinic visits, as well as other options such as telehealth. The majority of patients believed that phone consultations were appropriate and beneficial. Video conferencing and telemedicine became more popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating the effectiveness of using these technologies for CD on a global basis. In recent years, urine assays for gluten identification have become accessible for use at home. These tests could be helpful for CD monitoring with telemedicine assistance. The extended knowledge gathered from the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to complement pre-COVID-19 data supporting the usefulness of telemedicine even after the emergent pandemic, encouraging its wider adoption in standard clinical practice. The monitoring and follow-up of CD patients and other GFD-dependent conditions can greatly benefit from telemedicine.

The rapidly widespread spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia has made the Indonesian government make policies, one of its policies is to carry out distance learning activities. This study aims to analyze the effectiveness of using Google Classroom in science learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research uses a literature study by reviewing 30 articles or journals published in the 2018-2022 period and comes from Google Scholar and several international journals that come from trusted and accountable websites. The data obtained will then be analyzed using qualitative analysis. The results showed that: (1) The use of Google Classroom is effectively used in science learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, (2) The advantages of using Google Classroom in science learning during the COVID-19 pandemic are that it can improve analytical skills, improve science literacy skills, and grow students' character in science learning, (3) The weakness of using Google Classroom in science learning during the COVID-19 pandemic is that students have difficulty in receiving material, especially those that require calculations such as mathematics, chemistry, and physics

BackgroundPreprints are preliminary reports that have not been peer-reviewed. In December 2019, a novel coronavirus appeared in China, and since then, scientific production, including preprints, has drastically increased. In this study, we intend to evaluate how often preprints about COVID-19 were published in scholarly journals and cited.MethodsWe searched the iSearch COVID-19 portfolio to identify all preprints related to COVID-19 posted on bioRxiv, medRxiv, and Research Square from January 1, 2020, to May 31, 2020. We used a custom-designed program to obtain metadata using the Crossref public API. After that, we determined the publication rate and made comparisons based on citation counts using non-parametric methods. Also, we compared the publication rate, citation counts, and time interval from posting on a preprint server to publication in a scholarly journal among the three different preprint servers.ResultsOur sample included 5,061 preprints, out of which 288 were published in scholarly journals and 4,773 remained unpublished (publication rate of 5.7%). We found that articles published in scholarly journals had a significantly higher total citation count than unpublished preprints within our sample (p < 0.001), and that preprints that were eventually published had a higher citation count as preprints when compared to unpublished preprints (p < 0.001). As well, we found that published preprints had a significantly higher citation count after publication in a scholarly journal compared to as a preprint (p < 0.001). Our results also show that medRxiv had the highest publication rate, while bioRxiv had the highest citation count and shortest time interval from posting on a preprint server to publication in a scholarly journal.ConclusionsWe found a remarkably low publication rate for preprints within our sample, despite accelerated time to publication by multiple scholarly journals. These findings could be partially attributed to the unprecedented surge in scientific production observed during the COVID-19 pandemic, which might saturate reviewing and editing processes in scholarly journals. However, our findings show that preprints had a significantly lower scientific impact, which might suggest that some preprints have lower quality and will not be able to endure peer-reviewing processes to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Coronavirus Disease-19 pandemic had an adverse impact on the mental health of the public worldwide, but the problem is worst among pregnant women due to social distancing policies and mandatory lockdown, including prenatal care services. As a result, the prevalence of depression and anxiety could increase during the pandemic, particularly among pregnant women. Thus, the purpose of this review is to determine the magnitude of depression and anxiety and contributing factors among pregnant women during the pandemic in Ethiopia. Web of Science, Since Direct, PubMed, Google Scholar, and African Journals Online were the electronic databases searched, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) reporting guidelines were followed in this review. The Newcastle-Ottawa Critical Appraisal Checklist was used to assess the quality of the included studies. A predefined data extraction sheet developed in Excel was used to extract the data. The pooled prevalence of anxiety and depression was determined by a random effect model meta-analysis. 4,269 and 1,672 pregnant women were involved in depression and anxiety studies, respectively. The pooled prevalence of depression and anxiety among pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia was 24.7% (95% CI: 18.52-30.87) and 35.19% (95% CI: 26.83-43.55), respectively. Single marital status (AOR = 2.22, 95% CI: 1.07-3.37), poor social support (AOR = 2.7, 95% CI: 1.06-4.35), unplanned pregnancies (AOR = 2.17, 95% CI: 1.34-3.0), and unsatisfied marital status (AOR = 2.16, 95% CI: 1.17-3.14) were risk factors for depression. Violence against intimate partners (AOR = 2.87, 95% CI: 1.97-3.77) and poor social support (AOR = 1.98, 95% CI: 1.24-2.71) were risk factors for anxiety. One-fourth and nearly one-third of pregnant women had depression and anxiety, respectively, during COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia. Single or unsatisfied marital status and unplanned pregnancies were risk factors for depression. Poor social support was significantly associated with depression and anxiety. Pregnant women who experienced violence against intimate partners had higher anxiety. After COVID-19 pandemic, mental health interventions are essential for reducing depression and anxiety. https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=527148, PROSPERO (CRD42024527148).

Objectives Considering the difficulty and importance of supporting persons with disabilities (PWDs) and patients with intractable diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic, we monitored and reported support activities for PWDs and patients with intractable diseases.Methods We attempted to identify the issues to be resolved by the keywords "disability" and "intractable disease" from 2019-2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The information materials were (1) abstracts from the general meetings of the Japanese Society of Public Health and the Society of Local Public Health journals (2019-2021), (2) foreign academic journals; (3) newspapers (national papers [Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun], in 2021), media information, such as magazines and websites, (4) legislation, notifications, and research expenses, and (5) patient group information. We made several proposals for the Japanese Society of Public Health.Results In 2020, facilities for PWDs did not have a system for receiving advice from infection control experts. During the COVID-19 pandemic, PWDs experienced trouble because of the characteristics of their disabilities, such as difficulty in accessing COVID-19 information. Children with disabilities felt stressed owing to the closure of daycare facilities. Further web research is necessary, considering the changes in working style. In 2021, local governments were requested to prepare manuals to provide information to PWDs and respond to infections according to the characteristics of each disability, and support from academic societies was anticipated. In 2022, local governments led collaborations with medical care facilities, health, and welfare. Support from academic societies was desirable to eliminate regional disparities, such as creating manuals for infection control and COVID-19.Conclusion We believe that receiving advice from various experts on supporting welfare systems for facilities for PWDs during the COVID-19 pandemic helped us achieve our initial goals. We hope that all the experts will continue to work from the perspective of whether anyone is left behind concerning health and welfare.

The study is about the strategies to help the hotel industries survive during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since this pandemic never happens before, the hotel industries are not ready to face such challenges in the business. Since the COVID-19 first outbreak, many businesses were affected and experienced a dramatic drop in the sales and revenue which no exception for hotel industry. For that reason, a study regarding the strategy or plan on how to make the hotel industries survive and avoid shutting down was conducted to help the business which had reached a dead end. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyse the hotels’ strategies to survive during COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, the secondary data method was used to obtain data from recent studies by other researchers from academic journals, articles, and websites from the trusted sources. There are three strategies that was often applied by hotels in other countries which are cutting cost, becoming a quarantine hotel, and having pricing strategy. These strategies had shown a positive result and suitable to be applied by the hotels during COVID-19. The findings of this study can help the top management of the hotels to find the solutions on how to generate revenue and to sustain longer in the industry. Plus, hoteliers also can come out with a new polished strategy in the future and help them winning the battle against COVID-19.&#x0D; Keywords: COVID-19, Hospitality Industry, Hotel industry, Strategies

Scientometrics enables scholars to assess and visualize emerging research trends and hot-spots in the scientific literature from a quantitative standpoint. In the last decades, Africa has nearly doubled its absolute count of scholarly output, even though its share in global knowledge production has dramatically decreased. The still-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted the way scholarly research is conducted, published, and disseminated. However, the COVID-19-related research focus, the scientific productivity, and the research collaborative network of African researchers during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic remain to be elucidated. This study aimed to clarify the COVID-19 research patterns among African researchers and estimate the strength of collaborations and partnerships between African researchers and scholars from the rest of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, collecting data from electronic scholarly databases such as Web of Science (WoS), PubMed/MEDLINE and African Journals OnLine (AJOL), the largest and prominent platform of African-published scholarly journals. We found that COVID-19-related collaboration patterns varied among African regions. For instance, most of the scholarly partnerships occurred with formerly colonial countries (such as European or North-American countries). In other cases, scholarly ties of North African countries were above all with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In terms of number of publications, South Africa and Egypt were among the most productive countries. Bibliometrics and, in particular, scientometrics can help scholars identify research areas of particular interest, as well as emerging topics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. With a specific focus on the still-ongoing viral outbreak, they can assist decision- and policy-makers in allocating funding and economic-financial, logistic, organizational, and human resources, based on the specific gaps and needs of a given country or research area.

Research background Since the COVID-19 pandemic, disruptions in food production have highlighted the renewed importance of ensuring food security. This context motivates the investigation of food insecurity during and after the epidemic. Purpose The purpose of this study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of food insecurity research, utilizing bibliometric and thematic analysis techniques. The aim is to identify prevalent approaches or models employed in studying food insecurity and to track the evolving trends in research on food insecurity during and after pandemics. Research methodology We conducted a systematic search of relevant articles published in scholarly journals between 2020 and 2023, utilizing the Scopus and Web of Science databases. A total of 146 publications were included in the study. Bibliometric analysis was performed using the R-based Bibliometrix library to analyze the characteristics of the literature. Results Our analysis reveals the diverse range of models and methodologies employed to study food insecurity. Descriptive research and the Logit model emerge as consistently utilized approaches, with the United States and Asia leading in model and methodology adoption. Furthermore, the bibliometric analysis indicates a rapid growth in scholarly interest in food insecurity, demonstrating a global inclination towards understanding this complex issue. Novelty This study contributes to the existing literature by providing insights into the current landscape of food insecurity research during and after pandemics. It highlights the prevalent approaches and trends in this field, shedding light on areas of focus and potential avenues for future research and collaboration among scientists worldwide.

Since the inception of Covid-19 in China, the economies around the world have been on the turmoil. This is because China has a direct correlation with most economies in the world; they depend on it directly or indirectly. On 13th March, 2020 the first case of COVID-19 in Kenya a 27-year-old Kenyan woman who traveled from the US via London, was confirmed. The Kenyan government identified and isolated a number of people who had come into contact with the first case. On 15 March 2020, the president of Kenya directed that a number of measures be taken to curb COVID-19, some of those measures included; dusk to dawn curfew, secession of movement and mandatory quarantine of suspected cases. Based on the available literature, probabilistic predictions using steady state Markov chain allow to assess the uncertainty of the COVID-19 comprehensively. Therefore they are preferable to forecasts for the mean or median COVID-19 only. The probabilistic COVID-19 predictions allow to derive probabilistic forecasts for the number of patients who are still at the ICU at a certain day in future. This may be useful for planning purposes. From the probabilities for single patients, one may compute the probability that any given number of patients is still at the ICU after t days. However, in Kenya there is scanty information on analysis of COVID-19 using steady state Markov Chain. The aim of this study was therefore be to carry out probabilistic analysis of COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya using Markov chain. The study was a literature based, in which the researcher reviewed surveys books, scholarly journals, and other secondary sources relevant to the current study topic. The findings revealed that one of the most important uses of steady state Markov chain in analyzing COVID-19 pandemic situation in Kenya is that it compares performances for different states of affairs and courses of action within the health sector, by using system steady state performance measurements. The study concludes that steady state Markov chain is beneficial in simulating the corona infection in numerous stages. It is thus recommended that there is need for policy-makers to seek regional and global solutions to COVID-19 disease instead of limited solutions within the country. Keywords: Steady State, Markov chain, COVID-19 Pandemic, Transition Matrix