Extraordinary Measures Research Articles

Operation Warp Speed: Projects responding to the COVID-19 pandemic

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has profound socio-economic consequences. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, so this paper focuses on radical changes to accepted practice in project organizing in response. In particular, we focus on schedule compression to deliver outputs to mitigate the immediate impact of the pandemic on health. In the spirit of engaged scholarship, which is problem-driven rather than theory-driven, we address directly the evidence of what happened in two empirical vignettes and one more substantial case study – the CoronavirusUY app; emergency field hospitals; and vaccine development. We then suggest the implications for project management theory in discussion.

Impact Of Covid-19 Pandemic On Body Composition And Daily Energy Expenditure-intake After 6-month Confinement

The COVID-19 pandemic represents far-reaching health threats, consequently, some governments took extraordinary measures where the main guidelines included social confinement and suspension of school presential activities, resulting in changes in habitual practices of university students such daily energy expenditure and food intake. PURPOSE: To determine the changes on daily energy expenditure and food intake in 10 health sciences university students after 6-month isolation by COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Anthropometric parameters, a daily physical activity questionnaire, and a nutritional survey were obtained one week before the isolation by COVID-19 pandemic and after 6-months of confinement. Changes of body mass index, daily energy expenditure, and daily energy intake (daily total calories, total protein, total lipids, and total carbohydrates) were compared before and after the study period. RESULTS: The main outcomes are described in Table 1. CONCLUSIONS: Confinement by COVID-19 in university students showed a decrease in health status due to increased consumption of calories, specifically lipids, which results in an increase in body mass index, impacting in a greater risk of being affected by the coronavirus, in addition to being one of the main risk factors for suffering from cardiovascular diseases. Finally, even though there didn’t exist statistical difference, there can be appreciated a tendency to decrease daily energy expenditure.

Use of past collective traumas, fear and conspiracy theories for securitization of the opposition and authoritarianisation: the Turkish case

ABSTRACT Several studies have analysed different aspects of Turkey’s authoritarianisation under the AKP rule. However, there is still a gap in this literature with regards to the role of instrumentalization of narratives and discursive strategies in this authoritarian turn which has been successfully engineered by the AKP. This article addresses this gap and shows how securitizing narratives based on fear, trauma, nostalgia, ontological insecurity, grievances, and conspiracy theories have been used by President Erdoğan and his AKP as psycho-political tools of authoritarianisation. It argues that these tools have shown to be useful in securitizing the opposition to consolidate power, change the governing structure, and take other extraordinary measures, while legitimizing these acts for the public. In an attempt to provide a holistic picture, this article analyses how the AKP has securitized almost all of the significant opposition socio-political identities, groups and parties in Turkey. This study contributes to securitization theory by shedding light on the use of traumas, conspiracy theories, and fear in the securitization process, in legitimizing securitization and authoritarianisation.

COVID-19: an ‘extraterrestrial’ disease?

BackgroundSince the beginning of the pandemic, COVID-19 has been regarded as an exceptional disease. Control measures have exclusively focused on ‘the virus’, while failing to account for other biological and social factors that determine severe forms of the disease. AimWe argue that although COVID-19 was initially considered a new challenge, justifying extraordinary response measures, this situation has changed — and so should our response. Main argumentsWe now know that COVID-19 shares many features of common infectious respiratory diseases, and can now ascertain that SARS-CoV-2 has not suddenly presented new problems. Instead, it has exposed and exacerbated existing problems in health systems and the underlying health of the population. COVID-19 is evidently not an ‘extraterrestrial’ disease. It is a complex zoonotic disease, and it needs to be managed as such, following long-proven principles of medicine and public health. ConclusionA complex disease cannot be solved through a simple, magic-bullet cure or vaccine. The heterogeneity of population profiles susceptible to developing a severe form of COVID-19 suggests the need to adopt varying, targeted measures that are able to address risk profiles in an appropriate way. The critical role of comorbidities in disease severity calls for short-term, virus-targeted interventions to be complemented with medium-term policies aimed at reducing the burden of comorbidities, as well as mitigating the risk of transition from infection to disease. Strategies required include upstream prevention, early treatment, and consolidation of the health system.

THORACIC SURGERY IN A COVID-19 FRONTLINE HOSPITAL. ARE THE PATIENTS SAFE?

COVID-19 pandemic forced a change in health care resources and provision due to the emergence of a new group of patients, requiring extraordinary protective measures and the adoption of new organization for the treatment of urgent or priority COVID-19 negative patients. We reviewed our practice during the first pandemic period to evaluate our surgical outcomes and identify if patients COVID-19 negative submitted to thoracic surgery had an increased risk of being infected or die. We retrospectively reviewed our surgical results between 11th March and 15th May 2020. Thirty patients underwent thoracic surgery at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery of Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São João. None of the patients was COVID-19 positive and cross-transmission of the disease was not recognized. The majority of patients were admitted from home, with a high priority indication, namely an oncological disease. There was only one case of in-hospital mortality. During the first wave of the pandemic it was safe to be admitted and submitted to thoracic surgery at CHUSJ. Our patients, including oncological patients, received the adequate surgical treatment without an increase of risk of death or infection.

La regolarizzazione dei lavoratori migranti come intervento straordinario per far fronte all’emergenza sanitaria da Covid-19

This essay analyses the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on undocumented and irregular migrant workers, especially those employed in the agricultural, domestic and personal care sectors. Then, the article offers a summary of the arguments spent at the National and International level about the regularisation as an extraordinary measure to face health, economic and social crises suffered by migrant workforce because of Covid-19. In addition, the critical aspects of the regularisation promoted by the Italian government through the Decree Law No. 34/2020, are highlighted. In conclusion, criticism is raised about the use of the regularisation as a mean to solve structural problems faced by migrant workers in Italy among which exploitation and marginalisation.

Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Mental Health Outcomes among Youth: A Rapid Narrative Review.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has affected not only physical health but also mental health and psychological wellbeing. This narrative review aimed to map the literature on the psychological impact on the young generation of the COVID-19 pandemic, social restrictions, and extraordinary measures to curb the spread of coronavirus. We performed a systematic search of MEDLINE through PubMed and Web of Science [Science Citation Index Expanded, SCI-EXPANDED), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)] of all scientific literature published from May 2020 until 15 March 2021. Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 15 articles were included. We conducted a narrative review. The reviewed articles suggested the impact of the pandemic and lockdown measures on young persons for several mental symptoms as well as anxiety, stress, depression, event-specific distress, decrease in psychological wellbeing, and changes in sleep habits. Psychological symptoms were related to the experience of several stressors, such as risk for reduction of academic perspectives, massive e-learning adoption, economic issues, social restrictions, and implications for daily life related to the COVID-19 outbreak. This narrative review points out the negative psychological impact of the pandemic outbreak and the high vulnerability of the young in the development of psychological distress, highlighting the relevant focus on the mental health of young people during the pandemic and the need for structured and tailored psychological support and interventions focused to the improvement of Quality of Life of university students after the pandemic experience.

AWARENESS OF PREVENTION OF COVID-19 AMONG HEALTHCARE WORKERS IN KOLKATA

Introduction: The recent corona virus infection is known as sars-cov-2 or covid-19. The infection rst started in the Wuhan province of China and gradually spread to other countries. On March 12th 2020 it was declared as pandemic by WHO. Extraordinary measures are being adopted to combat the formidable spread of the ongoing outbreak. Under such conditions, people's adherence to preventive measures is greatly affected by their awareness of the disease. Aim:To assess the knowledge of preventive measures of Covid-19 disease and its related infection control practices among healthcare workers to minimise the risk of transmission. Material and methods: This is an questionnaire based observational prospective survey on the awareness, knowledge and infection control practices related to Covid 19 infection in the healthcare setting and conducted from May 2020 to September 2020- to collect the data and October 2020 to January 2021 for thesis writing, statistical analysis, discussion and conclusion. This survey involves the doctors, nursing staffs, paramedical staffs, lab technicians and other people who helps in transporting the patients and the people who handles the biomedical wastes. Total 430 participants were taken. Result: Majority of the health care workers were answered that it is caused by virus (89.1%), the virus can spread from one person to another (89.4%), the virus can be prevented (90.4%), symptoms of the virus was not common cold (94.2%), it is not occurred at certain period of the year (84.7%) and the COVID-19 symptoms are worse with any Co morbidity (83.2%). Health care workers were answered that common symptom of this disease is headache (94.7%), Sore throat (91.6%), Vomiting (92.6%), Persistent cough (96.7%), Running nose(92.6%), Sneezing (95.1%), Muscle aches(93.0%), abdominal pain (93.0%), Fever (96.7%), Diarrhea (92.6%) and Feels tired (93.5%). Conclusion: This research was help common men to understand the intensity of infection and its symptoms and precaution. It will help out common people to be aware of the threatens level of virus in society and counsel him that it's with everyone, rather than only with him. We suggested that the knowledge of preventive measures of Covid-19 disease and its related infection control practices among healthcare workers to minimise the risk of transmission.

Dump Your Cloud Before Your Cloud Dumps You Hey, You, Get off of My Cloud! A CTO's Guide to the Unanticipated Risk

In early 2021, some cloud providers took extraordinary measures to shut down businesses hosted on their platforms for various non-business-related reasons. This sent a shockwave through the tech industry. If a 2.2 million user platform could be snuffed out due to the posts of one person, what could this mean to all other businesses? One business was down for 6 weeks, and as of 5 months later had still not completely recovered. This exposed an unanticipated risk--being de-platformed for reasons beyond a business's reasonable predictability. During this time, I was given a charter from my CEO--come up with a plan that would result in us potentially being down for 6 minutes (or less!) rather than 6 weeks if the same thing were to happen to us. This paper is that plan and we share it freely so others can plan for the unanticipated risk of being kicked out of a cloud.

Protocol for sampling and analysis of food and agricultural produces consequent to a nuclear accident in India

Nuclear accidents, despite having an extremely low probability of occurrence, could cause uncontrolled release of radioactive elements (fission and activation products) into the environment, and may ultimately lead to contamination of food products. Such a scenario requires extraordinary measures for control of food, which might be contaminated to a level not suitable for human consumption. Agricultural products (which include grain crops, vegetable, fruits, dairy, meat, eggs and poultry) pass through a series of local, district and state level markets to finally reach consumers. An effective intervention at different stages of distribution by targeted sampling and analysis of suspected (contaminated) foodstuffs will substantially reduce the chances of contaminated food to reach the public. At the same time, it will also ensure food security of the people without imposing unreasonable restrictions in market flow. This can also help in getting the farmers adequately compensated. This paper presents a protocol for sampling and analysis suitable for India, considering the diversity with respect to climate, soil type, land use, crop pattern, population density, etc. The paper also provides an estimate of infrastructure requirement to carry out environmental monitoring following the emergency with respect to human resources and instruments. The paper proposes to use the national web portal for collection of data pertaining to crop pattern, land use and market flow. A web-based decision support system (Web-DSS) on a GIS platform, for sampling, analysis and display of data online would enhance the transparency of decision being taken and enable the administrators to effectively monitor the work flow, details of sample collection, analysis and effective use of human and other resources.

Women's health anxiety and psychological wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. A descriptive study.

The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has led to extraordinary measures taken worldwide and has led to serious psychological disorders. With the measures taken, the difficulties in women's daily lives are increasing exponentially. This situation has caused women to experience more mental health problems. To identify the relationship between women's health anxiety and psychological wellbeing and the factors affecting these situations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive study conducted online among women living in Adana, Turkey. This descriptive study was conducted among 623 married women between April 1 and April 20, 2020, using a SurveyMonkey online questionnaire. Data were collected using the link that was established. The questions comprised personal information, perceptions regarding the pandemic, the Health Anxiety Inventory (Short Form) and the Psychological Wellbeing Scale. The women who participated were found to have a high level of anxiety and a moderate level of psychological wellbeing. A positive, moderate-level relationship was found between the scales. The COVID-19 pandemic has had negative effects on both physical and psychological health. Support for women, to be provided within their holistic understanding of care, is of great importance for maintaining the psychological health of society.

Signal Versus Noise: How to Analyze the Microbiome and Make Progress on Antimicrobial Resistance.

Antimicrobial resistance has become a worldwide medical challenge [1], so impactful that vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have entered the common vernacular. We have attempted to reduce the selective pressure through antimicrobial stewardship, curtail the spread by identifying and isolating carriers and individuals with symptomatic infection, and treat antibiotic-resistant organisms (AROs) by developing novel antimicrobials. Despite these extraordinary measures, the challenge of AROs continues to grow. The gut microbiome, the ecosystem of microbes (ie, the microbiota) and metabolites present upon and within all humans, is an emerging target for both the risk for colonization and defense against infection with AROs. Here, informed from experiences and successes with understanding the role of the microbiome in mediating risk of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), we (1) review our understanding of the risk from ARO acquisition; (2) review our current understanding of the gut microbiome's ability to resist colonization with AROs; (3) describe how experimental model systems can test these initial, global insights to arrive at more granular, mechanistic ones; and (4) suggest a path forward to make further progress in the field.

Xi Jinping Confronts the Network Society

Xi Jinping’s radical reconcentration of power is widely seen as a watershed development in the history of PRC politics. Xi’s effort can be interpreted from an international relations perspective as a complex “securitization move” in which an elite figure defines some trend, tendency, or other development as a security threat so severe that it becomes necessary to deploy special, extraordinary measures to address it. But what in China’s case was the perceived threat or configuration of threats that Xi could use to justify his reconcentration of power? Analysis of articles published in neibu (internal-circulation-only) policy journals from 2012 through 2015 reveals a primary concern among members of the broader CCP elite to be a threat to the stability and integrity of the political order itself resulting from the dislocations caused by trying to fuse a Leninist political system with what was, by 2010, a well-developed network society.

Rolling out COVID-19 vaccine: Half the battle won.

According to the World Bank forecast COVID19 economic consequences have been estimated as the deepest recession since the Second World War. To date COVID19 has claimed 1.4 million lives, leaving millions in varying levels of morbidity and emerges as a bigger problem in the high income than in the low middle income countries. The only hope to put a stop to this monster and go back to the normal is the man's old friend, the vaccines. Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary measures and we have seen that the development of vaccines which was usually thought as a years of business is being prepared and ready to be rolled out under ten months of concentric efforts. A certain percentage of adverse effects are expected from any medication and the same is true for vaccines. However even within the expected numbers of any untoward effects from vaccines, the same are highlighted and become under media limelight for no scientific reason. In this regard manageing mthe mass media is imperative. In the recent history of infections and vaccines, the world has seen both causal and spurious adverse relationships claimed to be associated with vaccines. Whatever the truth was, news of vaccines causing adverse reactions can not only affect the uptake of the very vaccine itself, but can also avert people to go for other routine vaccinations. In the low and middle income countries of the world this could prove as an impending community health disaster. In a country like the UK the Wakefield reports caused decline in the vaccine uptake and a surge in the infections, so what worse we can be expected in other parts of the world. Considering the tight rope of a newly developed vaccine administration in the first stage, ‘the first few thousands’ in the population would be a make or break situation, specially in the low middle income countries where rumors spread faster than anything. In the second stage, targeting a bigger population for vaccine delivery, diligent planning at both macro and micro levels would be required to avoid problems related to vaccine storage, safe delivery, administration and follow up of the vaccine receivers. This pandemic provided us with an opportunity to uncover our potential in a time constraint Global health crisis. The precious achievements of scientists and vaccine manufacturers in this regard must be capitalized upon and be secured from mishaps and mismanagement. Continuous...

Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Exposed the Fragility of South Africa's Constitutional Democracy?

On 15 March 2020, and while owing to medical and scientific advice and with the aim of controlling and managing the invasion and the spread of the invisible enemy, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa introduced extraordinary legal measures, placed the country under a nationwide lockdown and sealed its international borders. The lockdown took effect from 27 March 2020. The President simultaneously declared a national state of disaster in terms of section 27 of the Disaster Management Act (52 of 2002). Apart from the 1996 Constitution, the Disaster Management Act is applicable during lockdown together with other relevant statutes such as the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 and Prevention of Combating and Torture of Persons Act 13 of 2013. It is worrisome that with a sheer declaration of a national state of disaster under the Disaster Management Act, the National Coronavirus Command Council mysteriously emerged as a super-commanding body that governs the affairs of a liberal constitutional state with unprecedented concentration of powers, devoid of transparent legal mechanisms that could sanitise its existence and powers. Additionally, while enforcing lockdown Regulations and Directives, the security forces have been reigning on terror and violating human rights. A follow-up concern emanates from the imagination of what could then transpire in future circumstances where a state of emergency is declared in terms of section 37 of the 1996 Constitution. This is because the State of Emergency Act curtails people’s human rights further, as opposed to the Disaster Management Act. Accordingly, it sounds reasonable to ponder if the COVID-19 pandemic might have exposed the fragility of South Africa’s constitutional democracy.

Anti-Epidemic Emergency Regimes under Polish Law in Comparative, Historical and Jurisprudential Perspective

The SARS-CoV-2 crisis of 2020 triggered a number of unprecedented reactions of European states, in particular in the form of either constitutional emergency measures or statutory anti-epidemic emergency measures. Poland chose to deal with the crisis by delegating powers to the executive by ordinary legislative means and declared a nationwide state of epidemic emergency on 13 March 2020 and a week later a state of epidemic on the basis of the Act of 5 December 2008 on preventing and combating infections and infectious diseases. For a century, Poland has been dealing with epidemics by delegating powers to the executive by ordinary legislative means. Anti-epidemic emergency measures were developed under the relevant acts of 1919, 1935, 1963, 2001, 2008 and now form an autonomous normative model authorised directly by Article 68 (4) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 2 April 1997. The Constitution of 2 April 1997 authorises also extraordinary measures in situations of particular danger, "if ordinary constitutional measures are inadequate". This article analyses anti-epidemic emergency regimes under Polish law in a comparative, historical and jurisprudential perspective.

Normalizing the exception: prejudice and discriminations in detention and extraordinary reception centres in Italy

The human security of both migrants and refugees is at risk at several steps in the process of migration. This work considers that migrants’ human security is not automatically guaranteed once they reach a safe country in Europe either. This article explores how, with the evident will to bypass Italian anti-discriminatory law, derogatory legal instruments, such as law decrees, have been used to increasingly normalize the state of exception with indefinite detention and further extraordinary measures in the system of reception. The analysis of Italian laws, legislative decrees and reports in the field of migration proves that, in Italy, the state of exception has been normalized particularly from 2018 onwards through Salvini’s Security Decrees, to evidently both create additional insecurities for migrants and self-fulfill the initial prejudicial assumption that framed migration as a threat to the nation. The normalization of the exception does not stop at the borders but continues also throughout migrants’ stays, with the consequent increasing entanglement of citizens’ stereotypes and migrants’ discriminations, mainly through a self-fulfillment of prejudice, which further endanger the life of refugees, whose insecurity is left to persist across the entire Italian territory, when instead it should supposedly be a safe country for those in need of a shelter.

Impact on Democracy of Emergency Measures Against Covid-19

Whilst there is significant discussion globally on the thesis that the Coronavirus is emboldening autocrats the world over through vastly expanded emergency powers, extraordinary measures and reliance on enforcement rather than on expendable democratic subtleties, this paper focuses on the particular case of Albania to show that even though the level of illiberal thrust in this country is far from equalling that of authoritarian regimes, a host of key similarities are already there, and the substance behind those similarities is equally worrying.
 In Albania, the operationalisation of the pandemic has made room for the relentless advancement of the government’s political agenda, giving rise to serious doubts about the sincerity of the government-sponsored measures, their end effects and their compatibility with public interest and constitutional framework.

Kinesiólogos frente a la pandemia de COVID-19: ¿Cuál es su rol?

El impacto de la pandemia por COVID-19 a nivel social, económico y sanitario no tiene precedentes. Sólo en Chile hasta el mes de julio de 2020, más de 340.000 personas han contraído la enfermedad y alrededor de 9.000 han fallecido por esta causa. Esta crisis sanitaria ha llevado a una adaptación en todo el sistema de salud y toma de medidas extraordinarias para poder cubrir dichas necesidades. El kinesiólogo como profesional de la salud constituye una pieza fundamental en la atención de estos pacientes. Su rol se ha visto reflejado en las distintas etapas de la enfermedad desde la atención primaria y urgencia hasta la atención de pacientes en la unidad de cuidados intensivos y posterior al alta hospitalaria. Además de su rol clínico asistencial, el kinesiólogo es capaz de contribuir en áreas de educación, promoción, gestión en salud e investigación científica, aspectos que podrían ser esenciales en el manejo de la pandemia. Es deber del kinesiólogo considerar esta oportunidad y asumir los múltiples desafíos derivados de la pandemia para comprometerse y otorgar respuestas a las necesidades sanitarias actuales.

Administrative Governance and Frontline Officers in the Chinese Prison System During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The spread of COVID-19 put prisons across the globe into an emergency state where extraordinary reactions and measures have been taken. Prison governance and management under such circumstances have facilitated the revelation of existing mechanisms of control. Focusing on the experience of frontline officers, this paper explores how the Chinese prison system contained the spread of COVID-19 inside its walls by demanding officers work on ‘lockdown shifts’, and what we can learn about its governing logic. Multi-sourced data is utilized, including government-issued policies and reports, media reports, blog posts written by prison officers and participant observation as well as semi-structured interviews with frontline prison officers. This study offers a diachronic analysis of pandemic control within the prison system, focusing on key turning points. By examining frontline prison officers’ accounts through first- and second-hand data, the study explores the execution of control policies and how they affect individual lives. The study found that prison officers were ordered to fight at the forefront of pandemic control in prisons by working on shifts inside for an extended and indefinite period of time, which proved effective in terminating the spread of the virus, but placed a heavy burden on the personal lives of the officers. The findings also reveal new facets in the mobility and experience of frontline officers. While effective in terms of what the statistics have demonstrated, the Chinese measures have been less effective in adjusting to the needs of frontline staff and acknowledging the personal sacrifices demanded and made in this process.