Population aging is a pressing global issue. As it progresses, older adults’ demand for public transport will increase. Ensuring their equitable access is vital for social equity. Meanwhile, physiological changes and travel preferences in older adults create unique bus usage patterns, making them more susceptible to the built environment. To test this, we compared bus travel behavior between older adults and young people in Wuhan, China. Our results showed that older adults travel more often, with a longer morning peak and less pronounced evening peak. We developed the GWRBoost model, combining Geographic Weighted Regression (GWR) and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), to explore the spatial heterogeneity and nonlinear impact of the built environment on bus travel for both groups. The study found significant differences in how the built environment affects bus ridership between older adults and young people. For older adults, proximity to the nearest bus stop is most critical, regardless of weekday or weekend. These variables also show spatial variations and nonlinear relations with bus ridership for both groups. These findings improve our understanding of older adults’ travel and offer insights for optimizing their travel environment and promoting transportation equity.

The COVID-19 was first reported in 2019 to cause pneumonia in people of Wuhan, Hubei province, China, is now associated with high mortality worldwide. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV) is closely (88%-89% similarity) related to the coronavirus circulating in Rhinolophus (horseshoe bats). More than 50 bat species belonging to eight families have been reported from Iran of which five species belong to the Rhinolophidae family. So far, no study has been done on COVID-19 infection in Iranian bats. The current study was performed, for the first time, to investigate the infection of Iranian bats with SARS-CoV-2. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2021 using 183 bat samples collected from three caves in the south (Fars province) and two caves in the northwest (Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces) of Iran. Bats' digestive and respiratory system samples were collected from each bat of different species. The samples were evaluated by real-time PCR and by targeting a 221 bp fragment of the envelop (E) genes of SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 was detected in alimentary specimens of two of the Mediterranean horseshoe (Rhinolophus Euryale) bats. Although, based on the findings of the molecular evaluation, the infection of bats with COVID-19 was determined in this study, further studies are needed on a larger number of bats, particularly horseshoe bats, to confirm the potential infection of Iranian bats with COVID-19.

China began to relax the zero COVID-19 policy, following which SARS-CoV-2 spread rapidly throughout China.At the time of writing this paper, BA. 5.2 and BF. 7 of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants are still the dominant strains prevalent in China.Healthcare workers fall into a special group by not only being the infected population but also the rescue force against the disease.Yet there are very few reports on the infection situation among medical staff under the rapid transmission of Omicron.In this investigation, medical workers (N = 750) from four large hospitals (Tongji Hospital, Zhongnan Hospital, Wuhan People's Hospital, and General Hospital of Central Theater Command) in Wuhan, Hubei province who were recently infected with Omicron, were surveyed through an online questionnaire between December 15, 2022, and January 5, 2023.The survey participants were divided into two groups the booster immunization group ("BI", N = 483) and the primary immunization group ("PI", N = 267) according to whether the enhanced immunization of COVID-19 vaccines was completed.Completing primary immunization means receiving two doses of inactivated vaccines (made in Beijing or Wuhan

The rapid spread of the pandemic of coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has created an unprecedented, global health disaster. During the outburst period, the paucity of knowledge and research aggravated devastating panic and fears that lead to social stigma and created serious obstacles to contain the disastrous epidemic. We propose a deep learning-based method to detect stigmatized contents on online social network (OSN) platforms in the early stage of COVID-19. Our method performs a semantic-based quantitative analysis to unveil essential spatial-temporal characteristics of COVID-19 stigmatization for timely alerts and risk mitigation. Empirical evaluations are carried out to examine our method’s predictive utilities. The visualization results of the co-occurrence network using Gephi indicate two distinct groups of stigmatized words that pertain to people in Wuhan and their dietary behaviors, respectively. Netizens’ participations and stigmatizations in the Hubei region, where the COVID-19 broke out, are twice ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p &lt; 0.05$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) and four ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p &lt; 0.01$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) times more frequent and intense than those in other parts of China, respectively. Also, the number of COVID-19 patients is correlated with COVID-19-related stigma significantly (correlation coefficient = 0.838, <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p &lt; 0.01$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ). The responses to individual users’ posts have the power law distribution, while posts by official media appear to attract more responses (e.g., likes, replies, and forward). Our method can help platforms and government agencies manage public health disasters through effective identification and detailed analyses of social stigma on social media.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw the digital amplify all aspects of our lives—work, sociality, health, intimacy, care, and inequality. In a time of restrictions and physical distancing, the role of the digital for social inclusion—especially for older adults—was heightened with many having to care at a distance. Our study focuses on older adults from Wuhan and the role of the dominant social media app, WeChat, for intergenerational informal care through digital literacy during and after the pandemic. Often characterized in global media as the place where the virus began, many of the quotidian experiences of Wuhan people have been overlooked. We reflect upon ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Wuhan in 2020–2021 with 10 households. We are particularly interested in how kinship care practices in Wuhan households—as sites for complex configurations of intergenerational practices that converge digital, social, and material worlds—have shifted during the pandemic. We ask: what are the learnings, opportunities and limitations around smartphone apps like WeChat for informal care as part of filial piety? In sum, what are the possibilities and limitations for mobilizing care?

家庭年收入状况、社会阶层感知与居民幸福感的影响研究——基于1998年武汉人形象调查数据的实证分析

Background: A worrying phenomenon has emerged in recent years: a growing number of people have stopped seeking coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) information and have started deliberately avoiding it. Even though the virulence of COVID-19 has now weakened, the proportion of severe illnesses and deaths in elderly people is still much higher than in other age groups. However, no study has focused on this topic. This is the first study to explore the level of COVID-19 information avoidance among elderly people, and to identify the barriers and potential factors associated therewith. Methods: Convenience sampling was used to recruit 907 elderly people in Wuhan, China. Data collection measures included a sociodemographic questionnaire, health information avoidance scale, information overload scale, general self-efficacy scale, and health anxiety inventory. Results: A total of 72.3% of elderly participants reported COVID-19 information avoidance. Regarding COVID-19-related information reading habits, 44.5% of the elderly only read the title, 16.0% merely skimmed through the content, and 22.9% skipped all relevant information. The most common reasons for this result were information overload (67.5%), underestimation of the infection risk (58.1%), and uselessness of information (56.4%). The main factors associated with COVID-19 information avoidance were recorded as information overload, age, health anxiety, and children (p < 0.05). Conclusions: China should strengthen its health communication regarding COVID-19 in accordance with the characteristics of elderly people, adopt more attractive publicity methods on traditional media, improve censorship about health information, and pay more attention to the childless elderly and the elderly aged 80 and above.

COVID-19 is a coronavirus virus that does not belong to the Coronaviridae family. It was suggested that it originated in the Bats and was distributed to the people of Wuhan, China, in an anonymous way. When an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks, COVID-19 is spread through respiratory droplets. By touching something dirty and touching the eyes, mouth, or nose, people can get sick. Ideally the incubation period of COVID-19 virus is between three and fourteen days. Nowadays, thousands of people are suffering from this deadly virus and many of them have been died because of this deadly disease. Symptoms of the disease are coughing, fever, sneezing, and sore throat, shortness of breath, headache, and fatigue. In both COVID-19 diagnoses, samples of upper and lower respiratory tract are collected and tested in a laboratory. X-rays and CT scans of the chest are also used to diagnose the disease. Currently, there is no specific treatment for this disease, and as a result there is a need to prevent the disease from spreading.

BackgroundIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, people in many countries have shown xenophobia toward China, where the pandemic began. Within China, xenophobia has also been observed toward the people of Wuhan, the city where the first cases were identified. The relationship between disease threat and xenophobia is well established, but the reasons for this relationship are unclear. This study investigated the mediation role of perceived protection efficacy and moderation role of support seeking in the relationship between perceived COVID-19 risk and xenophobia within China.MethodsAn online survey was administered to a nationally representative sample (N = 1103; 51.7% women; ages 18 to 88) of Chinese adults during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants completed questionnaires about their perceived COVID-19 risk, perceived protection efficacy in reducing risk, support seeking, and xenophobic attitudes toward people of the Wuhan area.ResultsRegression based analyses showed that the perceived COVID-19 risk positively predicted xenophobia. Low perceived protection efficacy partly mediated the relationship between perceived COVID-19 risk and xenophobic attitudes, and this indirect effect was moderated by support seeking. Specifically, the indirect effect was weaker among individuals who sought more social support.ConclusionsUnder disease threat, xenophobia can appear within a country that otherwise seems culturally homogeneous. This study extends the extant research by identifying a possible psychological mechanism by which individuals’ perception of disease threat elicits xenophobia, and by addressing the question of why this response is stronger among some people than others. Increasing the public’s perceived efficacy in protecting themselves from infection, and encouraging support seeking, could reduce xenophobic attitudes.

Urbanisation and ever-intensified rainstorms exacerbated urban waterlogging in some Chinese cities. In 2013, the Chinese government proposed a nationwide initiative, Sponge City, for managing the flood risk using the nature-based solution (NBS) approach. Pilot projects have been implemented among thirty selected cities, including Wuhan. Because the effectiveness of implementing NBS relies on the participation of the well-informed public, this study aims at identifying the factors affecting the awareness of the public about the Sponge City program. The viewpoint of people in Wuhan on urban floods and the Sponge City initiatives was surveyed among 1600 participants using a face-to-face questionnaire in mostly Wuchang area of Wuhan; more than 900 of them were further interviewed. The majority of participants, though recognising the threats from flooding, were lacking awareness and understanding of the Sponge City initiatives. The Chi-square analyses of association revealed that the level of awareness is affected by education, age and residential time; these demographic factors also affected their interpretation of the direct experiences of the water environment and governmental water management. To optimise communicating the relevant policy to the public, the content and the advertising tools for promoting Sponge City may need to be mindfully customised for targeted demographic groups.

Abstract The threat of disease is associated with xenophobia, but limited research is available to shed light on the underlying processes that shape this relationship. Based on integrated threat theory and existing research, we tested a model in which the association between threat of disease and xenophobia is mediated by negative emotions, and how the process is moderated by empathic responding to others who are concerned about the disease threat. The research was conducted in China during the early phases of the COVID‐19 pandemic with the focus on Chinese unease about the people of Wuhan, the city where the pandemic began. A national sample of Chinese adults (N = 1697) completed a survey on their perceptions of risk due to COVID‐19, negative emotions experienced during the pandemic, empathic responses to others who were concerned about COVID‐19, and xenophobia expressed toward people from Wuhan. The results showed that negative emotions mediated the relationship between perceived COVID‐19 threat and xenophobia. However, contrary to expectation, empathic responding did not weaken the relation between perceived COVID‐19 threat and xenophobia; instead, it exacerbated the relationship. Specifically, empathic responding to help others in the context of concerns about COVID‐19 was related to greater xenophobia toward the out‐group (i.e., the people of Wuhan).

The pace of life, as an indispensable aspect of microscopic culture, has been largely ignored by the academia for a long time. This study proposes that the emergent outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan put people there into a fight against time, leading to a speeding up of their pace of life. This might have affected their temporal perspective, regardless of the macroscopic regulation of Chinese culture. To this end, we designed an online questionnaire to gather data about Wuhan people’s pace of life and temporal perspective, both during its lockdown and seven months after the lockdown. The results showed that people in while-lockdown Wuhan displayed a much faster pace of life and also a much higher tendency to choose the Moving Time perspective than people in Wuhan seven months after the lockdown. This suggests that the pace of life is not only regulated by specific culture macroscopically, but also by certain pressing events microscopically, and one’s temporal perspective is affected by the changed pace of life.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40167-022-00113-4.

Studies on the association of apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1) and apolipoprotein B (ApoB) with hypertension (HTN) prevalence in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) are limited. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate this association in Chinese people in Wuhan, China. Serum ApoA1 and ApoB levels were measured by immunoturbidimetry assay. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the associations of ApoA1 and ApoB level and ApoB/A1 ratio with HTN prevalence. We included 5192 individuals (3060 men, mean age 61 years; 4412 HTN cases) in this study. After adjusting for covariates, serum ApoA1 but not ApoB level or ApoB/A1 ratio was inversely associated with HTN prevalence. HTN prevalence was reduced with the fifth versus first quintile of ApoA1 level [odds ratio = 0.78 (95% confidence interval 0.62-0.98)]. In stratified analyses based on sex, the probability of HTN with the fifth versus first ApoA1 level was 0.71 (0.53-0.96) for men. The probability of HTN with the fifth versus first quintile of ApoB/A1 ratio was 1.54 (1.11-2.13) after adjustment. With quintiles 2-5 versus of ApoB level, the probability of HTN did not differ in both men and women. On path analyses, the association of ApoA1 level and ApoB/A1 ratio with HTN was mediated by BMI (β coefficients: -0.179 to 0.133). In general, high serum ApoA1 level may be associated with a reduced probability of HTN prevalence in patients with CAD in China, and this association may be mediated by BMI.

BackgroundStigma associated with infectious diseases is common and causes various negative effects on stigmatized people. With Wuhan as the center of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, its people were likely to be the target of stigmatization. To evaluate the severity of stigmatization toward Wuhan people and provide necessary information for stigma mitigation, this study aimed to identify the stigmatizing attitudes toward Wuhan people and trace their changes as COVID-19 progresses in China by analyzing related posts on social media.MethodsWe collected 19,780 Weibo posts containing the keyword ‘Wuhan people’ and performed a content analysis to identify stigmatizing attitudes in the posts. Then, we divided our observation time into three periods and performed repeated-measures ANOVA to compare the differences in attitudes during the three periods.ResultsThe results showed that stigma was mild, with 2.46% of related posts being stigmatizing. The percentages of stigmatizing posts differed significantly during the three periods. The percentages of ‘Infectious’ posts and ‘Stupid’ posts were significantly different for the three periods. The percentage of ‘Irresponsible’ posts was not significantly different for the three periods. After government interventions, stigma did not decrease significantly, and stigma with the ‘Infectious’ attitude even increased. It was not until the government interventions took effect that stigma significantly reduced.ConclusionsThis study found that stigma toward Wuhan people included diverse attitudes and changed at different periods. After government interventions but before they took effect, stigma with the ‘Infectious’ attitude increased. After government interventions took effect, general stigma and stigmas with ‘Infectious’ and ‘Stupid’ attitudes decreased. This study constituted an important endeavor to understand the stigma toward Wuhan people in China during the COVID-19 epidemic. Implications for stigma reduction and improvement of the public’s perception during different periods of epidemic control are discussed.

(1) Background: in early 2020, COVID-19 broke out. Driven by people’s psychology of conformity, panic, group polarization, etc., various rumors appeared and spread wildly, and the Internet became a hotbed of rumors. (2) Methods: the study selected Weibo as the research media, using topic models, time series analysis, sentiment analysis, and Granger causality testing methods to analyze the social media texts related to COVID-19 rumors. (3) Results: in study 1, we obtained 21 topics related to “COVID-19 rumors” and “outbreak rumors” after conducting topic model analysis on Weibo texts; in study 2, we explored the emotional changes of netizens before and after rumor dispelling information was released and found people’s positive emotions first declined and then rose; in study 3, we also explored the emotional changes of netizens before and after the “Wuhan lockdown” event and found positive sentiment of people in non-Wuhan areas increased, while negative sentiment of people in Wuhan increased; in study 4, we studied the relationship between rumor spread and emotional polarity and found negative sentiment and rumor spread was causally interrelated. (4) Conclusion: These findings could help us to intuitively understand the impact of rumors spread on people’s emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic and help the government take measures to reduce panic.

Dietary exposure and risk assessment of perchlorate in diverse food from Wuhan, China

Background: Severe viral pneumonia cases were observed in the people of Wuhan, China in December 2019. It has already affected almost every country around the globe and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. We aim to evaluate the therapeutics and safety of various off label COVID-19 drugs. Methods: PubMed, Research Gate, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Centre for Disease control and prevention (CDC) portal, Chinese Centre for Disease Control and prevention (CCDC) portal, World Health Organization (WHO) portal were searched for obtaining reliable data. Result: COVID-19 is creating a storm of deaths and active cases globally, which is forcing the pharmaceutical companies and scientists to work day and night to find an effective and safer anti-COVID-19 medication. Various in vitro and clinical trials had been performed as well as are currently ongoing to analyze the mechanisms and therapeutics of off label medications like Chloroquine, Hydroxychloroquine, Amodiaquine, Azithromycin, Remdesivir, Favipiravir, Ritonavir/Lopinavir, Umifenovir, Oseltamivir, Ribavirin, Nafamostat, Camostat, Tocilizumab, Ivermectin, Nitazoxanide, Famotidine, Vitamin D, Corticosteroids and Dexamethasone. In vitro studies were performed by utilizing Vero E6 cells and hSLAM cells while open/closed, randomized/non-randomized, single-centered/multi-centered and retrospective clinical trials and case studies were organized to determine their safety and efficacy. Conclusion: Although these drugs have shown promising results against COVID-19 patients, it cannot be concluded that these drugs are truly safe and effective because there are no conclusive evidence to support the facts since only limited researches and studies had been investigated.

At the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was able to spread quickly in Wuhan and in the province of Hubei due to a lack of experience with this novel virus. Additionally, authories had no proven experience with applying insufficient medical, communication and crisis management tools. For a considerable period of time, the actual number of people infected was unknown. There were great uncertainties regarding the dynamics and spread of the Covid-19 virus infection. In this paper, we develop a system dynamics model for the three connected regions (Wuhan, Hubei excl. Wuhan, China excl. Hubei) to understand the infection and spread dynamics of the virus and provide a more accurate estimate of the number of infected people in Wuhan and discuss the necessity and effectivity of protective measures against this epidemic, such as the quarantines imposed throughout China. We use the statistics of confirmed cases of China excl. Hubei. Also the daily data on travel activity within China was utilized, in order to determine the actual numerical development of the infected people in Wuhan City and Hubei Province. We used a multivariate Monte Carlo optimization to parameterize the model to match the official statistics. In particular, we used the model to calculate the infections, which had already broken out, but were not diagnosed for various reasons.

Public health information with a fear appeal is often used to promote people's positive health intentions. Anchored by the extended parallel process model and trait activation theory, in this study we examined the effects of self- versus other-directed outcomes, Machiavellianism, and hypothetical distance on the effectiveness of fear-appeal information in the context of COVID-19. In an online survey of 303 people in Wuhan, China, we found that respondents high in Machiavellianism reported stronger antipandemic intentions in response to a self-directed compared to an other-directed outcome message. This effect was actualized through the trait of Machiavellianism, moderated by hypothetical distance, and mediated by perceived severity. Our findings have implications for the effective development and delivery of public health information for specific groups, and for encouraging more detailed exploration of personality in relation to epidemiology.

Objective: To investigate whether yogurt reduces the risk of infection of COVID—19. Methods: 10000 citizens in Wuhan who drink yogurt every day and 10000 citizens in Wuhan who do not drink yogurt were retrospective reviewed by telephone follow-up. Results: The positive rate of COVID—19 nucleic acid detection was 0.13% among the 10000 people in Wuhan who drink yogurt every day. The positive rate of COVID—19 nucleic acid detection was 7.89% among the 10000 people in Wuhan who do not drink yogurt. The COVID—19 infection rate of the citizens who drink yogurt every day is significantly lower than that of the citizens who do not drink yogurt. Conclusion: Yogurt reduces the risk of infection of COVID—19.