Ongoing Global Pandemic Research Articles

Circumnavigating the Revolving Door of an Ethical Milieu

This paper reflects on an Ethical Review Board’s (ERB) established structure of practice throughout a student-led project. We use the research project as a means of exploring the three questions set by the Editors, Fox and Busher, regarding the role of ERBs throughout the research process. We gained full university-level ethical approval in October 2020. This project initially focused on collecting data from students, from a UK university. The participatory way we collaborated with both undergraduates and postgraduates illuminated their individual unique perspectives and successfully facilitated their agentive contributions. This required on-going simultaneous negotiation of predetermined ethical procedures through the ERB. We termed this iterative process ‘circumnavigating the revolving door’ as it summarised revisiting ethical approval in the light of requests from our student participants. The participants were also invited to be part of the analysis and dissemination phase of this research. Original data collected related to personalised experiences of learning during the on-going global pandemic. The philosophical approach adopted was through an adaptation of Photovoice. That is, with limited direction by the researchers, the participants were invited to construct images (photos or hand drawn pictures), with captions (written text or voice), to explore their own educative circumstances. With this in mind, this paper explores the students’ participatory agency throughout this visual methods project through three lenses: namely, the appropriateness of ethical practices within a contextualised scenario (i.e., researching learning during lockdown in a higher educational institution); how the ethical process of an educational establishment supported the dynamic and iterative nature of participant-led research; and finally, how the original researchers’ experiences can inform ethical regulations and policy, both nationally and internationally. The circumnavigation of the revolving door of participatory ethics has proved invaluable during this research. This iterative cycle was necessary to incorporate the students (or co-researchers) suggested contributions. One example includes gaining the ERB’s approval, post full approval, for participants to audio record their own captions for a public facing website. From originally welcoming the students as participants, to facilitating them to become agentive co-researchers, it became increasingly important to provide them with opportunities to be actively involved in all parts of the research process. The reciprocal iterative relationship developed between co-researcher, researchers and the ERB served to strengthen the outcomes of the project.

Mental health status of medical staff working in hospitals during COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan: A cross-sectional study

Background: The ongoing global pandemic of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection has created unrest and fear among frontline healthcare workers worldwide. Objective: To investigate the mental health status of medical staff working in the COVID-19 outbreak, and to compare anxiety, insomnia, and post-traumatic distress syndrome among healthcare workers dealing directly and indirectly with confirmed COVID-19 patients.Methods: The cross-sectional study was carried out in seven tertiary care hospitals as designated COVID-19 centers, between July and September 2020 with a response rate of 76.3%. The study population comprised of medical staff working in COVID-19 dedicated tertiary care hospitals managing COVID-19 patients. Mental health assessment was done by using GAD-7, ISI-7, and IES-R-22 standardized scales to evaluate depression, anxiety, insomnia, and distress among healthcare workers.Results: 458 healthcare workers participated in the study, 254 (55.5%) males and 204 (44.5%) females with a mean age of 31.98±7.18 years. Study participants were divided into two groups based on their interaction with confirmed cases of COVID-19. More number of healthcare workers directly dealing with COVID-19 patients (Group A) were at risk of developing anxiety (GAD score ≥10) with crude odds of 3.16 (adjusted OR=3.40, 95% CI 2.1 – 5.7, p<0.001) as compared to those indirectly or not dealing with COVID-19 patients (Group B). Similarly, Group A was more likely to suffer from insomnia (ISI score ≥15) and post-traumatic distress syndrome (IMS-R score ≥33) with crude odds of 2.88 (adjusted OR=2.14, 95% CI 1.2 – 3.8, p<0.001) and 3.36 (adjusted OR=3.2, 95% CI 2.0 – 5.3, p<0.001) respectively.Conclusion: A significant number of healthcare workers were found to be suffering from mental health illnesses during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Non pharmaceutical approach to COVID–19: The chemical science intervention

COVID‐19 pandemic issues are discussed in chemical science intuition which highlights the direct role of chemistry to the ongoing global pandemic by covering chemical preventive measures. Chemical preventive measures such as soap, water, hand sanitizer, disinfectants and personal protection equipment (PPE) were reviewed as the only available options in the arsenal to fight against COVID‐19 despite the availability of COVID – 19 vaccines. The present review focused on the mode of action for both sanitizer and soap water to inactivate the virus and their effectiveness.

A network biology approach to identify crucial host targets for COVID-19.

The ongoing global pandemic of COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2 has killed more than 5.9 million individuals out of ∼43 million confirmed infections. At present, several parts of the world are encountering the 3rd wave. Mass vaccination has been started in several countries but they are less likely to be broadly available for the current pandemic, repurposing of the existing drugs has drawn highest attention for an immediate solution. A recent publication has mapped the physical interactions of SARS-CoV-2 and human proteins by affinity-purification mass spectrometry (AP-MS) and identified 332 high-confidence SARS-CoV-2-human protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Here, we taken a network biology approach and constructed a human protein-protein interaction network (PPIN) with the above SARS-CoV-2 targeted proteins. We utilized a combination of essential network centrality measures and functional properties of the human proteins to identify the critical human targets of SARS-CoV-2. Four human proteins, namely PRKACA, RHOA, CDK5RAP2, and CEP250 have emerged as the best therapeutic targets, of which PRKACA and CEP250 were also found by another group as potential candidates for drug targets in COVID-19. We further found candidate drugs/compounds, such as guanosine triphosphate, remdesivir, adenosine monophosphate, MgATP, and H-89 dihydrochloride that bind the target human proteins. The urgency to prevent the spread of infection and the death of diseased individuals has prompted the search for agents from the pool of approved drugs to repurpose them for COVID-19. Our results indicate that host targeting therapy with the repurposed drugs may be a useful strategy for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

A Critical Race Spatial Analysis of Rural Latinx Students’ College (In)Opportunities and Conscious Choices during the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated educational inequities for students from institutionally marginalized communities. This article specifically examines the college (in)opportunities and conscious choices of rural Latinx students from California’s San Joaquin Valley as they pursued higher education during the pandemic. This article applies a Critical Race Spatial Analysis (CRSA) framework to analyze the intersections of race, space, and college (in)opportunity for rural Latinx students. Additionally, this article draws on a college-conocimiento framework to argue that despite navigating deep-seated sociospatial inequities, rural Latinx students still enrolled in college. Using Chicana/Latina feminist pláticas and geographic information systems (GIS), this article takes a mixed methods research approach to analyze rural Latinx students’ college (in)opportunities and conscious choices during the COVID-19 pandemic, which disproportionately impacted their im/migrant farm working families and communities. Results from the pláticas and maps revealed that rural Latinx students lacked access to quality technological devices, internet infrastructure, high speed internet, and college information and guidance. Still, rural Latinx students enrolled in colleges that aligned with their and their families’ financial and emotional realities during the ongoing pandemic. The article concludes by providing rural Latinx-serving school districts with recommendations for increasing college access amid and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Immunity to SARS-CoV-2: What Do We Know and Should We Be Testing for It?

ABSTRACTPreexisting immunity to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was nonexistent in humans, which coupled with high transmission rates of certain SARS-CoV-2 variants and limited vaccine uptake or availability, has collectively resulted in an ongoing global pandemic. The identification and establishment of one or multiple correlates of protection (CoP) against infectious pathogens is challenging, but beneficial from both the patient care and public health perspectives. Multiple studies have shown that neutralizing antibodies, whether generated following SARS-CoV-2 infection, vaccination, or a combination of both (i.e., hybrid immunity), as well as adaptive cellular immune responses, serve as CoPs for COVID-19. However, the diverse number and type of serologic assays, alongside the lack of cross-assay standardization and emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants with immune evasive characteristics, have collectively posed challenges to determining a robust CoP ‘threshold’ and for the routine utilization of these assays to document ‘immunity,’ as is commonly done for other vaccine preventable diseases. Here, we discuss what CoPs are, review our current understanding of infection-induced, vaccine-elicited and hybrid immunity to COVID-19 and summarize the current and potential future utility of SARS-CoV-2 serologic testing.

Clinico-Genomic Analysis Reiterates Mild Symptoms Post-vaccination Breakthrough: Should We Focus on Low-Frequency Mutations?

Vaccine development against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been of primary importance to contain the ongoing global pandemic. However, studies have demonstrated that vaccine effectiveness is reduced and the immune response is evaded by variants of concern (VOCs), which include Alpha, Beta, Delta, and, the most recent, Omicron. Subsequently, several vaccine breakthrough (VBT) infections have been reported among healthcare workers (HCWs) due to their prolonged exposure to viruses at healthcare facilities. We conducted a clinico-genomic study of ChAdOx1 (Covishield) VBT cases in HCWs after complete vaccination. Based on the clinical data analysis, most of the cases were categorized as mild, with minimal healthcare support requirements. These patients were divided into two sub-phenotypes based on symptoms: mild and mild plus. Statistical analysis showed a significant correlation of specific clinical parameters with VBT sub-phenotypes. Viral genomic sequence analysis of VBT cases revealed a spectrum of high- and low-frequency mutations. More in-depth analysis revealed the presence of low-frequency mutations within the functionally important regions of SARS-CoV-2 genomes. Emphasizing the potential benefits of surveillance, low-frequency mutations, D144H in the N gene and D138Y in the S gene, were observed to potentially alter the protein secondary structure with possible influence on viral characteristics. Substantiated by the literature, our study highlights the importance of integrative analysis of pathogen genomic and clinical data to offer insights into low-frequency mutations that could be a modulator of VBT infections.

Necrology for Professor Fiona Tolhurst (1968–2021)

Necrology for Professor Fiona Tolhurst (1968–2021) K.S. Whetter Click for larger view View full resolution Fiona Tolhurst, bottom right; Evelyn Meyer, back to the camera; Molly Martin and Richard Sévère, top right; Barney Haney, top left; Joseph M. Sullivan, middle left; K.S. Whetter, bottom left: at the IAS conference at Würzburg University, 2017. Photo courtesy of David F. Johnson. Dr. Fiona Tolhurst died unexpectedly on 21 December 2021; she was 53. The death of a good friend or respected teacher or fine scholar is always hard, and Fiona was all of these things—and was these things to an extraordinarily wide range of people. But Fiona's death has hit many of us especially hard for coming when it did: in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic that complicates or negates conference travel, many Arthurians have been looking forward with more than usual enthusiasm to the days when we can all see one another again at a Branch meeting or Kalamazoo conference or the International Arthurian Congress. Suddenly, there is a conspicuous [End Page 3] absence in our Arthurian fellowship, an absence that echoes and enforces the poignant lament for lost fellowship spoken by Malory's King Arthur: 'nevyr shall I se you agayne holé togydirs!' Fiona Tolhurst pursued her undergraduate English literature degree at Rice University, graduating Magna cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa (1990); it was also at Rice that Fiona met her life-long love and husband, Christoph Neuendorf. From Rice, Fiona proceeded to a Mellon Fellowship and Princeton for her graduate training (earning her M.A. in 1994 and Ph.D. in 1995), eventually pursuing a Ph.D. thesis under the direction of the noted medievalist and Chaucerian John Fleming on what Fleming initially jokingly referred to as 'the trash literature of the Middle Ages': Arthurian literature. (Fleming's remark encapsulates what was, for much of the twentieth century, the dominant scholarly attitude towards romance and Arthurian literature, but Fleming was very supportive of Fiona and they worked well together.) After her Ph.D., Dr. Tolhurst worked one year at Texas A&M before taking up a tenure-track position at Alfred University, becoming one of the youngest female faculty members to achieve Full Professor. Fed up with American politics, Fiona and Christoph leapt at the chance to move to Switzerland for several years, where he worked in finance and she taught and continued her scholarship. When Christoph and Fiona returned to North America, Fiona secured a permanent position at Florida Gulf Coast University, where she was recently promoted (for the second time in her career) to Full Professor. At the time of her death, Fiona was Chair of the Department of Language and Literature at Florida Gulf Coast University. As a scholar, Fiona had many interests and published widely. She was a recognized authority on Geoffrey of Monmouth, particularly feminist approaches to Geoffrey, a topic on which she wrote numerous articles and book chapters as well as two monographs (see especially the commissioned chapter on 'Geoffrey and Gender: The Works of Geoffrey of Monmouth as Medieval "Feminism,"' in A Companion to Geoffrey of Monmouth, edited by Georgia Henley and Joshua Byron Smith [Brill, 2020], pp. 341–68; Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Translation of Female Kingship [Palgrave Macmillan, 2013]; and Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Feminist Origins of the Arthurian Legend [Palgrave Macmillan, 2012]). She also edited an important special collection of Arthuriana (8.4 [1998]) devoted to theoretical approaches to Geoffrey, a collection that she put together remarkably early in her career. She then co-edited a book of essays in memory of Maureen Fries (On Arthurian Women: Essays in Memory of Maureen Fries, edited by Bonnie Wheeler and Fiona Tolhurst [Scriptorium Press, 2001]), and also published articles emphasizing the extent of C.S. Lewis' Arthurian interests (including 'Beyond the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis as Closet Arthurian,' Arthuriana 22. 4 [2012]: 140–66). Throughout her career she also consistently worked on medieval women, particularly [End Page 4] Eleanor of Aquitaine (including 'Catty Queen Consort, Lioness in Winter and Loyal Queen Mother: Images of Eleanor of Aquitaine in Film', in Medieval Women on Film: Essays on Gender, Cinema...

Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 RNAemia in the convalescent plasma of COVID-19 patients

PurposeThe novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is responsible for the ongoing global COVID-19 disease pandemic. Convalescent plasma therapy (CPT) is one of the promising therapies being tried for COVID-19 patients. However, the presence or disappearance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA (RNAemia) in convalescent plasma is unclear and the prognostic implication of viral RNA detection in these samples is not fully understood. Hence, we aimed to investigate SARS-CoV-2 RNAemia in the convalescent plasma of COVID-19 patients.Methods & MaterialsConvalescent plasma samples from donors with a previous laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were included in the study. Samples were screened for the presence of Anti-SARS CoV-2 IgG antibodies using a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay targeting the whole-cell antigen of SARS-CoV-2. Then plasma samples were pooled by the mixing of five samples. RNA extraction and real-time RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 specific gene targets was performed for pooled plasma samples.ResultsA total of 250 convalescent plasma samples of COVID-19 patients with different disease severity were included in the study; of these, 149 (59.6%) were found to have anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using serological tests. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was not detected in any of the convalescent plasma samples.ConclusionSARS-CoV-2 RNAemia was not found in individuals with a previous laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection at least 28 days after the resolution of their symptoms. All RT-PCR positive COVID-19 patients subsequently may not develop antibodies. Our study showed that screening for neutralizing antibody titres is more important rather than SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection in convalescent plasma samples for therapeutic use.

Structure, mutations and variants of Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV): A brief report

The COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome SARS-CoV-2. The novel virus was first identified from an outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, and attempts to contain it there failed, allowing it to spread across the globe. The ongoing pandemic is resulting from extreme acute breathing syndrome. The World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020 and later declared a pandemic on eleven March 2020. As of eight July 2021, greater than 185 million instances had been showed, with greater than four million deaths attributed to COVID-19. Over two hundred twenty-eight million cases of COVID-19 in the world have been reported until the 21st of September 2021 after the first rise in December 2019. The virus caused the disease called severe acute respiratory syndrome. The structure of SARC-CoV-2 shows the presence of Spike S protein, Membrane M protein, Envelop protein and Nucleocapsid. Currently, four SARS-CoV-2 variants, these are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron variants originated from United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil/Japan, and India, respectively. The classification of SARS-CoV-2 variants is based on the mutations in the structure, based inclusions. Mutations in covid-2 create variants which are helpful in making stable vaccine and/or anti-viral drug design. In view of the significance of the structure, mutations and variants of Covid-19, it was found necessary to emphasize the whole problem into a brief review.

The interplay of viral loads, clinical presentation, and serological responses in SARS-CoV-2 - Results from a prospective cohort of outpatient COVID-19 cases.

Risk factors for disease progression and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infections require an understanding of acute and long-term virological and immunological dynamics. Fifty-one RT-PCR positive COVID-19 outpatients were recruited between May and December 2020 in Munich, Germany, and followed up at multiple defined timepoints for up to one year. RT-PCR and viral culture were performed and seroresponses measured. Participants were classified applying the WHO clinical progression scale. Short symptom to test time (median 5.0 days; p = 0.0016) and high viral loads (VL; median maximum VL: 3∙108 copies/mL; p = 0.0015) were indicative for viral culture positivity. Participants with WHO grade 3 at baseline had significantly higher VLs compared to those with WHO 1 and 2 (p = 0.01). VLs dropped fast within 1 week of symptom onset. Maximum VLs were positively correlated with the magnitude of Ro-N-Ig seroresponse (p = 0.022). Our results describe the dynamics of VLs and antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in mild to moderate cases that can support public health measures during the ongoing global pandemic.

Mathematical modeling and optimal intervention strategies of the COVID-19 outbreak.

34,354,966 active cases and 460,787 deaths because of COVID-19 pandemic were recorded on November 06, 2021, in India. To end this ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need to implement multiple population-wide policies like social distancing, testing more people and contact tracing. To predict the course of the pandemic and come up with a strategy to control it effectively, a compartmental model has been established. The following six stages of infection are taken into consideration: susceptible (S), asymptomatic infected (A), clinically ill or symptomatic infected (I), quarantine (Q), isolation (J) and recovered (R), collectively termed as SAIQJR. The qualitative behavior of the model and the stability of biologically realistic equilibrium points are investigated in terms of the basic reproduction number. We performed sensitivity analysis with respect to the basic reproduction number and obtained that the disease transmission rate has an impact in mitigating the spread of diseases. Moreover, considering the non-pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical intervention strategies as control functions, an optimal control problem is implemented to mitigate the disease fatality. To reduce the infected individuals and to minimize the cost of the controls, an objective functional has been constructed and solved with the aid of Pontryagin’s maximum principle. The implementation of optimal control strategy at the start of a pandemic tends to decrease the intensity of epidemic peaks, spreading the maximal impact of an epidemic over an extended time period. Extensive numerical simulations show that the implementation of intervention strategy has an impact in controlling the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 epidemic. Further, our numerical solutions exhibit that the combination of three controls are more influential when compared with the combination of two controls as well as single control. Therefore, the implementation of all the three control strategies may help to mitigate novel coronavirus disease transmission at this present epidemic scenario.Supplementary InformationThe online version supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11071-022-07235-7.

In vitro Characterization of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Intravenous Immunoglobulins (IVIg) Produced From Plasma of Donors Immunized With the BNT162b2 Vaccine and Its Comparison With a Similar Formulation Produced From Plasma of COVID-19 Convalescent Donors.

Despite vaccines are the main strategy to control the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, their effectiveness could not be enough for individuals with immunosuppression. In these cases, as well as in patients with moderate/severe COVID-19, passive immunization with anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulins could be a therapeutic alternative. We used caprylic acid precipitation to prepare a pilot-scale batch of anti-SARS-CoV-2 intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIg) from plasma of donors immunized with the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) anti-COVID-19 vaccine (VP-IVIg) and compared their in vitro efficacy and safety with those of a similar formulation produced from plasma of COVID-19 convalescent donors (CP-IVIg). Both formulations showed immunological, physicochemical, biochemical, and microbiological characteristics that meet the specifications of IVIg formulations. Moreover, the concentration of anti-RBD and ACE2-RBD neutralizing antibodies was higher in VP-IVIg than in CP-IVIg. In concordance, plaque reduction neutralization tests showed inhibitory concentrations of 0.03–0.09 g/L in VP-IVIg and of 0.06–0.13 in CP-IVIg. Thus, VP-IVIg has in vitro efficacy and safety profiles that justify their evaluation as therapeutic alternative for clinical cases of COVID-19. Precipitation with caprylic acid could be a simple, feasible, and affordable alternative to produce formulations of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IVIg to be used therapeutically or prophylactically to confront the COVID-19 pandemic in middle and low-income countries.

Prevention of atherosclerosis from childhood.

Cardiovascular diseases caused by atherosclerosis do not typically manifest before middle age; however, the disease process begins early in life. Preclinical atherosclerosis can be quantified with imaging methods in healthy populations long before clinical manifestations present. Cohort studies have shown that childhood exposure to risk factors, such as dyslipidaemia, elevated blood pressure and tobacco smoking, are associated with adult preclinical atherosclerotic phenotypes. Importantly, these long-term effects are substantially reduced if the individual becomes free from the risk factor by adulthood. As participants in the cohorts continue to age and clinical end points accrue, the strongest evidence linking exposure to risk factors in early life with cardiovascular outcomes has begun to emerge. Although science has deciphered the natural course of atherosclerosis, discovered its causal risk factors and developed effective means to intervene, we are still faced with an ongoing global pandemic of atherosclerotic diseases. In general, atherosclerosis goes undetected for too long, and preventive measures, if initiated at all, are inadequate and/or come too late. In this Review, we give an overview of the available literature suggesting the importance of initiating the prevention of atherosclerosis in early life and provide a summary of the major paediatric programmes for the prevention of atherosclerotic disease. We also highlight the limitations of current knowledge and indicate areas for future research.

Evaluation of the performance of erasable marker pen ink for the development of indentations on documents upon surface charging by electrostatic detection device

Indented impressions can be left on the surface beneath a document when it is written on. In the absence of this document, electrostatic detection devices can be used to reveal the underneath previously written information. However, there are instances where the toner used to develop these indentations has to be substituted with alternative application, under unexpected circumstances, such as the supply chain disruption during the ongoing global pandemic. This study aimed to verify the use of erasable marker pen ink as an alternative application for the development of indentations. The procedure was optimized and evaluated, and its performance in deciphering indented impressions from 11 different underlying surfaces was compared to a conventional electrostatic detection device that applied toner to develop indentation. Electrostatic device with toner application using cascade developer method has successfully developed indented impressions from all surfaces, except for the coated glossy paper. In contrast, the application of erasable marker pens revealed indentation successfully from not only the coated glossy paper but also six other common writing surfaces. While the toner is a reliable application for deciphering indentations, the application of erasable marker ink pen can be used in the event when toners are unavailable but also on surfaces such as glossy paper, where application of toners to develop indentation may not provide satisfactory results.

Management of Psychiatric Disorders in Patients with Respiratory Diseases.

Management of Psychiatric Disorders in Patients with Respiratory Diseases.

Ocena efektywności systemów podatkowych w Europie wobec skutków pandemii COVID-19

Ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic is not only health crisis but the economic challenge. The future of society depends on how successfully the authorities find a balance between imposition of stringent restrictions and economic development. Tax policies play a role in reducing losses caused by the COVID-19 lockdowns. All countries are taking tax measures to mitigate the impact of the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on society. While the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet been defeated, it is too early to draw conclusions about which tax measures against the effects of COVID-19 are efficient. On the other hand, correct trajectory of economic recovery can be missed if not to analyze the other countries experience. The object of this study is tax measures in the European countries against the effects of COVID-19. The subject of the study is the fuzzy set theory to assess the efficiency of tax measures in the European countries against the effects of COVID-19. The aim of the study is to find out which European countries have been more succeeded in tax measures implementing and type of their immediate crisis response. The analysis is carried out in 29 European countries. The result of the study allows to state that the number of tax measures against the effects of COVID-19 does not affect their efficiency and the most popular type of immediate crisis response has been the business cash-flow enhances.

Organ-specific immune response in lethal SARS-CoV-2 infection by deep spatial phenotyping.

ObjectivesImmunopathology of ongoing COVID‐19 global pandemic is not limited solely to pulmonary tissue, but is often associated with multi‐organ complications, mechanisms of which are intensely being investigated. In this regard, the interplay between immune, stromal cells and cytokines in pulmonary and extrapulmonary infected tissues, especially in young adults (median age 46 years, range 30–53 years) without comorbidities, remains poorly characterised.MethodsWe profiled lung, heart and intestinal autopsy samples from five SARS‐CoV‐2‐infected cases for 18–20 targets to detect immune, cytokine and stromal cell status at subcellular resolution by a novel IHC‐based deep‐phenotyping technique, iSPOT (immunoSpatial histoPhenOmics using TSA‐IHC), to assess spatial and functional patterns of immune response in situ, in lethal COVID‐19 infection.ResultsSARS‐CoV‐2‐infected autopsy samples exhibit skewed counts of immune populations in all samples with organ‐specific dysfunctions. Lung and ileal tissue reveal altered architecture with marked loss of tissue integrity, while lung and heart tissue show severe hyperinflammation marked by elevated TNF‐α in heart tissue and additionally IL‐6, IFN‐γ and IL‐10 cytokines in lung samples.ConclusionWith resurgence of infection in younger populations, single‐cell cytokine localisation in immune and stromal structures provides important mechanistic insights into organ‐specific immunopathology of naïve SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in the absence of other comorbidities.

COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights into Interactions between SARS-CoV-2 Infection and MAFLD

COVID-19, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has become an ongoing global health pandemic. Since 2019, the pandemic continues to cast a long shadow on all aspects of our lives, bringing huge health and economic burdens to all societies. With our in-depth understanding of COVID-19, from the initial respiratory tract to the later gastrointestinal tract and cardiovascular systems, the multiorgan involvement of this infectious disease has been discovered. Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), formerly named nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), is a major health issue closely related to metabolic dysfunctions, affecting a quarter of the world's adult population. The association of COVID-19 with MAFLD has received increasing attention, as MAFLD is a potential risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19 symptoms. In this review, we provide an update on the interactions between COVID-19 and MAFLD and its underlying mechanisms.

АНАЛИЗ МЕДИКО-СОЦИАЛЬНЫХ АСПЕКТОВ НОВОЙ КОРОНАВИРУСНОЙ ИНФЕКЦИИ В РЕСПУБЛИКЕ БАШКОРТОСТАН ЗА 2020-2021 гг.

Significance. Against the background of the ongoing global pandemic of the new coronavirus infection, it is necessary to study peculiar features of the epidemic process of morbidity in the Republic of Bashkortostan. Purpose. The purpose of the study was to analyze morbidity, mortality, case fatality and organization of inpatient care across different age groups in the context of the new coronavirus infection in the Republic of Bashkortostan in 2020-2021. Material and methods. Data from the Federal Patient Registry for COVID-19 was used. Results. Plotting intra-annual dynamics made it possible to determine the maximum and minimum periods of morbidity and mortality. Sex and age characteristics, the number of hospitalized, the average length of patient stay in the hospital, case lethality rates were determined. Conclusions. In general, in the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan, in 2020-2021, the trend towards increased incidence of the new coronavirus infection continued with a distinct significant increase in autumn. A characteristic feature of the epidemic process in the Republic of Bashkortostan in 2021 is the increased number of cases of the disease among working age population. There was a relationship between the patient's age and death at the hospital. There was a significant decrease in the mortality rate in 2021 compared to 2020 across all age groups. A high mortality rate was registered among patients over 70 years.