Travel Bans Research Articles

Virtual global health through longitudinal case-based rounds.

The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly transferred medical education curricula to online platforms. Due to travel bans, students were cut off from traditional global health experiences. This project was developed to confront the travel restrictions, time restraints and cost barriers associated with global health during the pandemic. Now, with fewer travel restrictions, this programme continues to offer learning opportunities: it could be extended to practice medical language proficiency in non-English speaking countries, compliment in-person experiences and increase the sustainability of global health programs. We provided American and Tanzanian students with a longitudinal, global health experience through an interactive, online collaboration. The cohort engaged in bi-weekly meetings using live video conferencing. During the 3-hour calls, students presented and discussed de-identified patient-cases representative of cases seen in outpatient primary care clinics at their home institutions. Additionally, follow-up reports from previous cases were presented to incorporate an element of longitudinal care. Six medical students from an urban hospital in the United States (USA) and physician-assistant students from a rural Tanzanian hospital were led by an attending physician in their respective countries. The pilot program's efficacy was assessed through anonymously reviewed qualitative surveys at its initiation in December 2021, midpoint, and conclusion in April 2022. Student testimonies from the US cohort were acquired before and after the study using a Likert scale to determine student growth, global health interest and clinical skill acquisition. Although analysis was limited by the cohort's size, students indicated an increase in self-reported global health experiences, knowledge of health care limitations and benefits in resource-limited countries, primary care patient presentations proficiency and a decrease in student burnout. We have demonstrated the ability to deploy a virtual global health experience for medical students. This program is unique in its bi-directionality: students and attending physicians from two continents directly communicated and discussed cases, as opposed to traditional lecture-based global health courses. Along with the increased exposure to primary care cases, students expressed a sense of community and mentorship in these cohorts, as upper-class students provided points of guidance to students in their first and second years of training. To increase student interaction between countries and sense of community during the 6-month course, we implemented a brief introduction into each class called ‘About Me.’ Each week, two students would present a 5-minute talk describing their personal goals, hobbies and background to the group. Students experienced cultural variations in medical practice, as they were introduced to country-specific pathologies and guided through each country's approach to providing a diagnosis and treatment plans. Occasionally, there would be differences and innovations that justified additional discussion. At the end of classes, we allowed time for a student to briefly present a topic of their choosing discussed during the previous week. This program also lends itself to annual continuation, as students strengthen their bond with their international counterparts and naturally progress from inexperienced mentees to experienced mentors in the context of global health. The authors meet conditions 1, 2, 3 and 4. All authors have given final approval of the paper.

SARS-CoV-2 Prevalence on and Incidence after Arrival in Travelers on Direct Flights from Cape Town, South Africa to Munich, Germany Shortly after Occurrence of the Omicron Variant in November/December 2021: Results from the OMTRAIR Study.

The highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2-variant B.1.1.529 (Omicron) first appeared in South Africa in November 2021. In order to study Omicron entry to Germany, its occurrence related to incoming airline travel, symptomatology and compliance with entry regulations and recommendations, we conducted a cross-sectional study, followed by a retrospective cohort study among passengers and crew on 19 direct flights from Cape Town, South Africa, to Munich, Germany, between 26 November and 23 December 2021. Travelers were mandatorily PCR-tested on arrival and invited to complete an online questionnaire. SARS-CoV-2-prevalence on arrival was 3.3% (n = 90/2728), and 93% were Omicron. Of the passengers, 528 (19%) completed the questionnaire. Among participants who tested negative on arrival, self-reported SARS-CoV-2-incidence was 4.3% within 14 days, of whom 74% reported a negative PCR-test ≤ 48 h before boarding, 77% were fully vaccinated, and 90% reported wearing an FFP2/medical mask during flight. We found multiple associations between risk factors and infection on and after arrival, among which having a positive-tested travel partner was the most noteworthy. In conclusion, PCR testing before departure was insufficient to control the introduction of the Omicron variant. Additional measures (e.g., frequent testing, quarantine after arrival or travel ban) should be considered to delay virus introduction in such settings.

Reverse adoption of information and communication technology among organisers of academic conferences

This study examines the formats offered for academic conferences in the mature stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two out of three organisers discontinue their usage of online video tools and focus on in-person conferences. Only one out of five conferences offers hybrid solutions and even fewer a virtual alternative (13%). Data for the analysis originate from 547 calls for proposals announced in Spring 2022 for conferences to be held during the period August 2022 to July 2023. Estimates using a multinomial logit model show that the planning time is significantly related to the choice of format offered. The longer the lead time, the more likely it is to offer an in-person conference. International travel restrictions and bans on gatherings for the location of the venue at the time of planning are significantly related to the choice of virtual, but not hybrid formats. There are also large differences in the choice across disciplines, with conferences in arts and humanities as well as natural sciences showing the lowest preference for the virtual format.

Impacts of travel bans and travel intention changes on aviation emissions due to Covid-19 pandemic.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10668-023-02916-8.

Effect of cross-border migration on the healthcare system of a destination community: Insights from mathematical modelling of COVID-19 in a developing country

The movement of persons during the pandemic has played a significant role in increasing the disease transmission rates as well as the spread of COVID-19 variants from one region to another. Although, strict restrictions on movement of persons across borders had been imposed early on in the pandemic, countries had to open up their borders to travel as a way of trying to resuscitate their economies that were declining due to closure of businesses and restriction on both local and international travel. Although the lifting of travel bans was done under strict regulations, there has since been a spike in the number of infection cases and spread of virus variants. These increases have certainly put a lot of strain on the rather limited resources allocated to fighting COVID-19 in most regions including the Eastern and Southern Africa. In this manuscript, we examine the potential role played by cross-border movements on the number of detected cases in a developing country. Here, we consider cases where persons cross borders through either designated controlled border points with proper facilitation for screening and detection of potentially infected cases, as well as border crossings through ungazatted points. The persons crossing borders are considered to be either susceptible, exposed or infected with no or mild symptom. A mathematical model was formulated to cater for the aforementioned classifications as well as additional important dynamics related to the disease. The behaviour of solutions for the model is determined and the conditions for existence of the disease free equilibrium as well as the disease persistent equilibrium ascertained. Finally, a dynamically consistent nonstandard finite difference scheme is proposed to replicate the properties of the continuous model. The baseline model was fitted to data of two waves, parameter values were determined and used to obtain numerical results. Our results show that, an increase in cross border movement can result in an increase in the number of detected cases. We observed that if the number of persons who cross-border points while positive for COVID-19 is reduced by 60%, the total number of detected cases can be reduced by up to 58%. In addition, an 83% increase in immigration of exposed persons can increase the disease burden in a destination country by at least 14%. These results justify border points closures during a pandemic or imposing very stringent measure across borders to curtail the importation of positive cases in a country.

Dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease binding site.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been controlled through quarantines, travel bans, mask mandates, and vaccines. However, due to viral mutations and the unlikelihood of reaching herd immunity, there remains a need for therapeutics. The SARS-CoV-2 main protease (MPro) is necessary for the virus’ replication, thus it is a promising drug target. Additionally, it can be crystallized consistently and its sequence has few changes across virus mutants. MPro crystal structures depict general residue-residue interactions and backbone conformations, but they do not account for the dynamics of flexible regions. Instead, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to identify the flexibility of the binding site, data we hypothesize is essential for successfully designing drugs to bind to MPro using computational drug docking methods. 600 ns of all-atom, explicit solvent MD simulations of the MPro homodimer were conducted, resulting in 1.2 million frames of monomeric data. Principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted on pairwise Cα-Cα distances between selected binding residues within apo and holo PDBs and the MD frames. These distances provide an intuitive set of measurements to characterize the dynamics of the binding site. Contour mapping was used to visualize the presence of clusters in the space defined by a few of the most contributive PC's. Snapshots representative of the most common conformations within the distribution of data were identified through the use of clustering methods and will be used in future drug docking simulations.

Locking Down Violence: The COVID-19 Pandemic’s Impact on Non-State Actor Violence

Although the effects of non-state actor violence on public health outcomes are well known, the effects of public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic on non-state actor violence are not. Lockdown measures, widely used to stop the spread of disease in crises, we argue, are likely to reduce non-state actor violence, especially in urban and non-base areas. These measures deplete actors’ resources, reduce the number of high-value civilian targets, and make it logistically more difficult to conduct attacks. Using the example of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and taking advantage of the exogenous nature of COVID-19 lockdowns, we find that curfews and travel bans significantly reduce violence, especially in populated and non-base areas. These effects are most likely due to short-term changes in ISIS’s targets and logistics rather than its resources. These findings provide important insights into the security aspects of public health crises and offer novel findings into the general effectiveness of two common counterinsurgency tools.

Update on influenza epidemiology and vaccines

COVID-19 pandemic mitigation measures, including travel restrictions, effectively limited global circulation of influenza viruses for much of 2020 and 2021. Travel bans and quarantine requirements were lifted on 1 November 2021 enabling recirculation of influenza. In Victoria, follow up of early influenza cases detected Dec–Feb revealed a history of travel or contact with a recent traveller. Cases were few during the Omicron epidemic in January–February. However, in late March, there was a sharp increase in cases, which in Victoria was associated with an outbreak in university residential colleges. Genomic sequencing supported a likely point-source outbreak that spread throughout the state and to other jurisdictions. In the Northern Territory and New South Wales circulation of A(H1N1)pdm09 preceded circulation of A(H3N2) and was associated with a high rate of paediatric hospitalisations. Both the A(H1N1)pdm09 and A(H3N2) viruses that circulated were well matched to the vaccine, but the early onset of the epidemic meant that many cases were infected prior to availability of vaccines in April. Nationally, circulation declined sharply in June–July coincident with another COVID-19 wave. Circulation of influenza may continue to be disrupted by SARS-CoV-2 epidemics until it establishes a seasonal pattern, which may impact seasonal influenza preparedness.

A pandemic business interruption insurance.

We analyze how pandemic business interruption coverage can be put in place by building on capitalization mechanisms and a portfolio management strategy. As evidenced with COVID-19, pandemics affect economic sectors in differentiated ways: some are very severely affected because their activity is heavily impacted by travel bans and constraints on work organization, while others are more resistant. This opens the door to risk-coverage mechanisms based on a portfolio of financial securities, including long-short positions and options in stock markets. We show that such a strategy allows insurers to offer business interruption coverage in pandemic states, while simultaneously hedging the risks associated withalternating bullish and bearish non-pandemic states. These conclusions contrast sharply with the idea of governments being the only solution to the pandemic insurability problem. They are derived from a theoretical model of corporate risk management, and their practical relevance is illustrated by numerical simulations, using data from the French stock exchange.

Impact of Anti-Pandemic Policy Stringency on Firms’ Profitability during COVID-19

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic devastated all economies across the world and triggered a deterioration in firms’ financial performance. However, some sectors turned out to be more vulnerable while others continued to perform well during the crisis period. Given this fact, we conducted a comprehensive study to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on firms’ profitability in Europe. We used a dynamic panel data approach and a system generalized method of moment (System-GMM) model to investigate (i) which sectors were affected and what was the magnitude of the impact on firms’ profitability, and (ii) whether the stringency of anti-pandemic policies such as workplace closures and travel bans impacted firms unevenly. We find that COVID-19 caused about a 25% decline in the profitability of firms. The most impacted sectors were Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, and Industrials, where profitability declined from 20 to 48%. We also find that firms in countries with high anti-pandemic policy stringency lost about 19% more in profitability than in the rest of the countries in Europe during 2020.

Between nation and empire: how the state matters in global health

Abstract The role of the state has been underplayed in scholarship on global health. Taking a historical view, this paper argues that state institutions, practices and ideologies have in fact been crucial to the realisation of contemporary global health governance and to its predecessor regimes. Drawing on state theory, work on governmentality, and Third World approaches to international law, it traces the origins of the ‘health state’ in late colonial developmentalism, which held out the prospect of conditional independence for the subjects of European empires. Progress in health was also a key goal for nationalist governments in the Global South, one which they sought to realise autonomously as part of a New International Economic Order. The defeat of that challenge to the dominance of the Global North in the 1980s led to the rise of ‘global governance’ in health. Far from rendering the state redundant, the latter was realised through the co-option and disciplining of institutions at national level. To that extent, the current order has an unmistakably imperial character, one which undercuts its declared cosmopolitan aspirations, as evidenced in the approach to vaccine distribution and travel bans during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Differences in Religious Framing of Muslims and Islam in American Media Coverage Before and After the Trump Campaign

ABSTRACT Over the last 20 years Muslims have received a disproportionate amount of news media attention. In 2017 they were again thrust into the spotlight when the Trump administration issued a travel ban blocking entry from seven predominately-Muslim countries. With our hand coding of over 900 newspaper articles and mixed modeling techniques, we examine the newspaper rhetoric surrounding Muslims before and during the Trump administration and across US states. We find that after President Trump’s election, fewer newspapers mentioned religion or referenced Muslim claimsmakers. We also reveal that higher state-level religious salience was associated with more newspapers referencing religious claimsmakers in Islam-related discussions. Other state-level political and religious characteristics had no effect on the use of religious elements or Muslims claimsmakers. These results provide insight into the position of Muslims and Islam in the United States, as well as the impact of political rhetoric on media portrayals.

Knowledge, attitudes and practices with regard to prophetic medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia.

The current study explores the impact of Prophetic medicine's knowledge, attitudes, and practices on the Saudi population during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used a web-based cross-sectional design. A self-selected nonprobability sampling technique was utilized to recruit social media users in Saudi Arabia aged ≥18. Four statements were used to evaluate participants' knowledge of the role of prophetic medicine in preventing and treating COVID-19. The participants had significant levels of knowledge, with an average of 90.3% correct answers. They strongly agreed with prophetic advice, including quarantine, travel bans and hand washing to prevent COVID-19 infection, with a mean of 4.3. In addition, the participants followed prophetic advice, including walking for half an hour, keeping social distance, wearing masks, and taking vaccines to prevent COVID-19 infection, with a mean of 4.2. The current study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Muslim residents of Saudi Arabia concerning prophetic medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study revealed that participants had good knowledge of prophetic medicine, including the use of natural products such as honey, ginger, garlic, and olive oil, as well as herbal products such as black seeds, and practices such as cupping. The study also showed that participants strongly believed that COVID-19 preventative measures - including quarantine, travel bans, and handwashing - were introduced by prophetic medicine. Practices including self-isolation, hand washing, and travel bans help prevent, treat and control diseases. They assist in maintaining good health and developing resistance to diseases.

Conservative Ideologies in Canada and the United States Predict Poorer Pandemic Outcomes

Purpose: We conducted studies in two Western, individualistic countries, Canada and the United States, to assess the impact of political ideology on governmental policies (e.g., implementation of mask mandates) and individual conduct (e.g., getting vaccinated) in response to the COVID19 pandemic, as well as infection and death rates. We argue that conservative political ideology is associated with poorer handling of COVID-19. Methods (Study 1): The relationship between whether or not a conservative majority held power in Canadian provinces and territories and COVID-19 infection and death rates in nursing homes and the general population, business insolvencies, implementation of mask mandates or travel bans, allowed religious gathering sizes, anti-mask and anti-lockdown protests, and vaccination rates was examined. Results (Study 1): Infection and death rates in conservative provinces were higher and rose faster. Conservative provinces had higher infection and death rates in nursing homes, had more business insolvencies, took longer to introduce mask mandates and dropped them sooner, allowed larger religious gatherings, and took longer to introduce interprovincial travel bans (or had none). Residents of conservative provinces were more likely to engage in anti-mask and anti-lockdown protests, and less likely to have been vaccinated. Methods (Study 2): Study 2 examined similar variables in the United States as a function of the percentage of states’ votes for Donald Trump (the more conservative candidate) in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. Results (Study 2): Infection and death rates were higher in conservative states (those with a higher percentage of Trump voters) than more liberal states (those with a lower percentage of Trump voters). Conservative states also were less likely to mandate masks or did so later, were less likely to close businesses or issue stay at home orders, reopened schools for in-person learning sooner, and had lower vaccination rates; all of these differences were related to infection and death rates. Conclusion: Our data suggest that conservative governments have had poorer responses to the pandemic than more liberal governments, and conservative individuals have lower vaccination rates than their more liberal counterparts, resulting in higher infection and death rates. Public health measures such as vaccinations and masking are essential for controlling infectious diseases, but their success depends fundamentally on the social behavior of governments and individuals.

Sentiment Analysis based Emotion Extraction for COVID-19 Using Crawled Tweets and Global Statistics for Mental Health

The unpredictable and crucial challenges that occurred because of the COVID-19 pandemic disease have taken a gradual upsurge impacting over 213 countries across the globe. Different countries have taken several measures to get control over it like Lockdown, Curfews, Travel ban, etc. but still the cases were increasing and the situation was getting worse globally during some period of time. The impacts on the financial, social, and physical aspects of several citizens resulted in their psychological and mental health issues. In this work, we have quantitatively analyzed the depression, stress, and suicide cases during the period of COVID-19 globally and especially, in India. The global data including tweets (collected using a Scraper) is used for analysis. The data have been analyzed on Tableau and; sentiment analysis for extracting emotions in tweets has been performed using Python. Tweets are analyzed to extract the emotion of people in terms of Fear, Sadness, Anger, and Happiness. With total collected Tweets of 819678 from Jan 2020 to March 2022, it is found that people are more into Fear and Sadness with 59.3% and 28.9% scores respectively.

Importance of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Bibliometric Analysis

The impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on people’s life was high, influencing almost all aspects of human functioning, causing sleeping disorders, eating disorders, stress, anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems due to the increasing levels of sickness, fear of death, and imposing various restrictions such as travel ban, social distancing, and quarantine which increased the need for mental health support for people and health workers. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a promising method to treat patients with psychological disorders such depression, anxiety, etc.

The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on public transit use: Case study of Konya city

Since March 2019, Turkey has been enforcing various measures on the policies based on the trends in the COVID-19 cases. To restrain the spread of virus, policies limiting the mobility of people (i.e. lock downs, remote working and travel bans) were applied as in many other countries. Furthermore, social distancing calls for health concern directly caused a major reduction in public transit (PT) use. However, economic activities and new normal conditions required return of a part of the commute travels, which brought the issue of use of PT modes. This study focuses on the comparison of the PT mobility during the month of April in the 2019 (pre-pandemic), in 2020 during restrictions and in 2021 under new normal condition using the Smart Card (SC) data in Konya, Turkey. Monthly, daily and hourly distribution of ridership patterns are compared as well as usage patterns and characteristics of different bus lines are examined in detail. The results suggested that during the restrictions, the ridership was about one eight of the pre-pandemic periods, while it increased to 2.5 million ridership in 2021 which is still very low. Daily ridership in 2020 showed no PT mobility due to lockdowns, while during weekdays, hourly ridership distributions were changed parallel to changes in the work/education activity schedules. Evaluation of the bus lines having highest ridership in 2019 with 2020 and 2021 showed some of the bus lines were cancelled during the pandemic and routes/frequencies changed. The results showed the importance of PT management during pandemic which is very challenging due to economic loss and fear of infection by public. However, it should be emphasized the importance of continuation of public transportation in terms of accessibility and equity for all.

Место европейских городов Средиземноморья в сфере туризма Европейского союза

The purpose of the study is to determine the position of Mediterranean cities in the European tourism system. For this purpose, the tourist attractiveness and tourism development of the Mediterranean region and the EU countries are analyzed. The place of the most attractive tourist cities of the Mediterranean in the EU market has been determined. Their strengths and weaknesses in the development of tourism are highlighted and opportunities and threats are considered. The methods of comparative, cluster, SWOT analysis were used in the work, a classification and a series of tables and maps were created. As a result of cluster analysis of a dozen indicators, groups of countries by tourist attractiveness and groups of cities of the European Union by the level of tourism development were identified. The study showed that the cities of the Mediterranean have different degrees of tourism development, while the level of tourism development in the cities of the western part of the region is higher than in the eastern. The largest of them have a diversified tourist offer and attract tourists as centers of resort, cultural and educational, business, event and religious tourism. They are a popular destination for citizens of Germany, Great Britain, Austria and the Scandinavian countries. There is also an interchange of tourists from the Mediterranean countries: France and Italy. Mediterranean cities have different and, in some cases, significantly different values of tourism development indicators. Higher rates of tourism development are observed in cities in the western part of the Mediterranean, while lower rates are observed in cities in the eastern part (cities of Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, Cyprus). The predominant number of Mediterranean cities, which are included in the list of the most popular destinations, demonstrate indicators of tourism development closer to the minimum values: economy and business, tourist activity, tourist policy and attractiveness, tourist infrastructure. In terms of characteristics, they are similar to cities in Portugal, as well as cities in Eastern Europe. The weak side of the development of tourism in Mediterranean cities is the indicators of sustainable development (the increase in average air temperature, the content of PM2.5 particles in the air), which affects the index of sustainable tourism. After the lifting of all coronavirus restrictions, Mediterranean cities are capable of rapid recovery due to the fact that they provide a familiar tourist product of good quality, which is important in conditions of uncertainty. Also, a plus is the proximity to the countries-the main suppliers of tourists and a long travel ban, which stimulated the desire to travel.

Non-Pharmacologic Interventions in COVID-19 Pandemic Management; a Systematic Review.

Different countries throughout the world have adopted non-pharmacologic interventions to reduce and control SARS - CoV-2. In this systematic approach, the impact of non-pharmacologic interventions in management of COVID-19 pandemic was assessed. Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, systematic search was carried out on the basis of a search strategy on PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and WHO databases on COVID-19. The impact of travel ban, personal protective equipment, distancing, contact tracing, school closure, and social distancing and the combined effect of interventions on COVID-19 were assessed. Of the 14,857 articles found, 44 were relevant. Studies in different countries have shown that various non-pharmacological interventions have been used during the COVID-19 pandemic. The travel ban, either locally or internationally in most of the countries, movement restriction, social distancing, lockdown, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), quarantine, school closure, work place closure, and contact tracing had a significant impact on the reduction of mortality or morbidity of COVID-19. Evidence shows that the implementation of non-pharmacologic interventions (NPIs), for this study suggests that the effectiveness of any NPI alone is probably limited, thus, a combination of various actions, for example, social distancing, isolation, and quarantine, distancing in the workplace and use of personal protective equipment, is more effective in reducing COVID-19.

Travel Bans: Mormons and Muslims

Travel Bans: Mormons and Muslims