In late March of 2020, a new hashtag, #FilmYourHospital, made its first appearance on social media. The hashtag encouraged people to visit local hospitals to take pictures and videos of empty hospitals to help “prove” that the COVID-19 pandemic is an elaborate hoax. Using techniques from Social Network Analysis, this case study examines how this conspiracy theory propagated on Twitter and whether the hashtag virality was aided by the use of automation or coordination among Twitter users. We found that while (...) much of the content came from users with limited reach, the oxygen that fueled this conspiracy in its early days came from a handful of prominent conservative politicians and far right political activists on Twitter. These power users used this hashtag to build awareness about the campaign and to encourage their followers to break quarantine and film what is happening at their local hospitals. After the initial boost by a few prominent accounts, the campaign was mostly sustained by pro-Trump accounts, followed by a secondary wave of propagation outside the U.S. The rise of the #FilmYourHospital conspiracy from a single tweet demonstrates the ongoing challenge of addressing false, viral information during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the spread of misinformation can be potentially mitigated by fact-checking and directing people to credible sources of information from public health agencies, false and misleading claims that are driven by politics and supported by strong convictions and not science are much harder to root out. (shrink)

Background:Moral distress occurs when constraints prevent healthcare providers from acting in accordance with their core moral values to provide good patient care. The experience of moral distress in nurses might be magnified during the current Covid-19 pandemic.Objective:To explore causes of moral distress in nurses caring for Covid-19 patients and identify strategies to enhance their moral resiliency.Research design:A qualitative study using a qualitative content analysis of focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. We purposively sampled 31 nurses caring for Covid-19 patients in (...) the acute care units within large academic medical systems in Maryland and New York City during April to June 2020.Ethical considerations:We obtained approval from the Institutional Review Board at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.Results:We identified themes and sub-themes representative of major causes of moral distress in nurses caring Covid-19 patients. These included (a) lack of knowledge and uncertainty regarding how to treat a new illness; (b) being overwhelmed by the depth and breadth of the Covid-19 illness; (c) fear of exposure to the virus leading to suboptimal care; (d) adopting a team model of nursing care that caused intra-professional tensions and miscommunications; (e) policies to reduce viral transmission (visitation policy and PPE policy) that prevented nurses to assume their caring role; (f) practicing within crisis standards of care; and (g) dealing with medical resource scarcity. Participants discussed their coping mechanisms and suggested future strategies.Discussion/Conclusion:Our study affirms new causes of moral distress related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Institutions need to develop a supportive ethical climate that can restore nurses’ moral resiliency. Such a climate should include non-hierarchical interdisciplinary spaces where all providers can meet together as moral peers to discuss their experiences. (shrink)

In this article, we focus on a particular kind of emotional impact of the pandemic, namely the phenomenology of the experience of moral injury in healthcare professionals. Drawing on Weber's reflections in his lecture Politics as a Vocation and data from the Experiences of Social Distancing during the COVID-19 Pandemic Survey, we analyse responses from healthcare professionals which show the experiences of burnout, sense of frustration and impotence, and how these affect clinicians’ emotional state. We argue that this may relate (...) to the ethical conflicts they experience when they are forced to make clinical decisions where there are no optimal outcomes, and how in turn that impacts on their own emotional state. We then further examine the notion of ‘burnout’ and the phenomenology of ‘moral injury’. Our argument is that these experiences of moral injury across a range of clinicians during the pandemic may be more prevalent and long-standing in psychiatry and mental health than in other areas of healthcare, where ethically difficult decisions and resource constraints are common outside times of crisis. Hence, in these clinical arenas, moral injury and the phenomenology of emotional changes may be independent of the pandemic. The insights gained during the pandemic may provide wider insights into the challenges of developing services and training the workforce to provide appropriate mental health care. (shrink)

During the Covid-19 pandemic, considerable scholarly attention has been paid to the proliferation of conspiracy theories and their potential impacts. How and why digital media has facilitated the production, consumption, and distribution of such discourses as ‘truth’ remains largely neglected in the literature though. This paper explores this process through a transdisciplinary methodology designed to investigate legitimation in digital spaces. Based on a theoretical bridge between Beetham’s theory of legitimation and KhosraviNik’s principle that visibility-equals-legitimacy, the Multimodal Critical Affect-Discourse Analysis of (...) an audio-visual performance of the 5G conspiracy theory exposes how it has been simultaneously legitimized through authoritative performance and visibility. An interview given by the notorious conspiracy theorist David Icke, in which he associates the pandemic with 5G technology, was used as a case study because it was widely consumed and reproduced as ‘truth’, leading media companies to take unprecedented action against conspiracy theories. Besides contributing to existing debates on conspiracy theories, this paper offers new directions for the critical analysis of legitimation and power, acknowledging the fluid and diffuse nature of power in network societies and illuminating how meanings, beliefs, and affects have been manipulated by multiple actors to achieve consent and motivate collaborative authorship. (shrink)

Vaccine hesitancy has been a major cause for concern throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Health Organization have previously addressed vaccine hesitancy via the ‘3C model’ (Convenience, Complacency, and Confidence). Recent scholarship has added two more ‘Cs’ (Context and Communication) to formulate a ‘5C model’ that is more equipped to adapt to the uncertainties of the pandemic. This paper focuses on the four ‘Cs’ that explicitly concerns trust (Complacency, Confidence, Context, and Communication) and phenomenologically distinguishes confidence from trust. Experts view (...) vaccines in terms of confidence, where the prospect of an undesirable outcome is extremely rare. Hence, not vaccinating and compromising herd immunity is seen to be unreasonable. Hesitant individuals contest the expert perspective and view vaccines in terms of trust, where the prospect of disappointment is likely. From this perspective, to vaccinate is to take a risk, and it is within reason to have the freedom to choose otherwise. This paper focuses on the hesitant perspective to identify the two social indicators of trust in vaccines most prominently shown during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Global North: (i) the expert reaction to hesitant concerns and (ii) the loss of freedom in relation to vaccine requirements. (shrink)

The Covid‐19 crisis has accelerated a trend toward burnout in health care workers, making starkly clear that burnout is especially likely when providing health care is not only stressful and sad but emotionally alienating; in such situations, there is no mental space for clinicians to experience authentic clinical empathy. Engaged curiosity toward each patient is a source of meaning and connection for health care providers, and it protects against sympathetic distress and burnout. In a prolonged crisis like Covid‐19, clinicians provide (...) care out of a sense of duty, especially the duty of nonabandonment. We argue that when duty alone is relied on too heavily, with fear and frustration continually suppressed, the risk of burnout is dramatically increased. Even before Covid‐19, clinicians often worked under dehumanizing and unjust conditions, and rates of burnout were 50 percent for physicians and 33 percent for nurses. The Covid‐19 intensification of burnout can serve as a wake‐up call that the structure of health care needs to be improved if we are to prevent the loss of a whole generation of empathic clinicians. (shrink)

Private funding of life sciences has been extensively criticized as lacking objectivity (e.g., Bekelman et al. 2003). However, it is also important to point out that public funding of life sciences faces many objections. In order to improve the system of publicly funded life sciences and its ability to respond to global health challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, we should focus on several aspects. First of all, providing existential stability for researchers, in turn, could result in the decrease of (...) academic misconduct. Secondly, COVID-19 vaccines come from all parts of the world and have to be distributed throughout the world, which is a strong argument in favor of the positive stimulation of global science conducted at less-known research institutions and throughout all countries. This brings us to the quest of working on epistemic decolonization and inclusion in contrast to the current elitist paradigm in science. Finally, publicly funded research, which is at the moment mainly focused on foundational questions, should also be extended to applied ones. Public funding of applied research would lead to its development independently of private financial interests. (shrink)

Pese a los esfuerzos de las últimas décadas, la poca habilitación tecnológica dentro de las escuelas rurales de México ha quedado expuesta durante el cierre de escuelas por Covid-19. Se realizó un estudio exploratorio para identificar los niveles de brecha digital de acceso experimentados por los profesores de un centro educativo en una zona rural de México y explorar las estrategias de usos de las TIC desplegadas para dar continuidad académica durante la pandemia. Se constató que aun con acceso tecnológico (...) limitado, se desarrollaron diversos usos de las TIC para el desarrollo de los procesos de enseñanza y de aprendizaje. (shrink)

Para hacer frente a los riesgos de rezago y deserción escolar durante Covid-19, las universidades implementaron programas de apoyo y de atención tutorial virtuales. Los esquemas de acompañamiento profesor-estudiante se han documentado mayoritariamente, pero poco se ha dicho sobre otras modalidades como el acompañamiento entre pares. Bajo este panorama se planteó un diseño exploratorio para identificar los tipos de ayuda educativa desplegados durante la pandemia en el marco de un programa de tutorías entre iguales en una universidad mexicana. Los resultados (...) evidencian que las ayudas más requeridas giran en torno al factor socioemocional del aprendizaje. (shrink)

La pandemia de la COVID-19 ha levantado sospechas de edadismo y gerontofobia en diversas prácticas de racionamiento sanitario. La edad es un criterio de triaje controvertido. En este artículo se esclarece la relevancia ética de la edad dentro de los sistemas de triaje, analizando particularmente su rol dentro de los principios de equidad y de eficiencia. La equidad requiere dar más oportunidades a aquellos que han cumplido menos ciclos vitales. La eficiencia tiene en cuenta la edad de manera subrepticia al (...) tratar de maximizar los beneficios a corto plazo (salvar vidas) y a largo plazo (salvar años de vida). Finalmente, la edad no debe ser la última ratio de las decisiones de triaje, aunque es una variable a tener en cuenta debido a su presencia implícita en principios fundamentales de priorización. The COVID-19 pandemic has raised suspicions of ageism and gerontophobia in various health rationing practices. Age is a controversial triage criterion. This article clarifies the ethical relevance of age within triage systems, particularly its role within the principles of fairness and efficiency. Fairness requires giving more opportunities to those who have completed fewer life cycles. Efficiency takes age into account surreptitiously when trying to maximize short-term (saving lives) and long-term (saving years of life) benefits. Finally, age should not be the final rationale in triage decisions, although it is a variable to be taken into account because of its implicit presence in fundamental principles of prioritization. (shrink)

Existing discourse on refugee resettlement in the West is rife with imperialist and neoliberal allusions. Materially, this discourse assumes refugees as passive recipients of resettlement programs in the host country denying them their subjectivities. Given the amplification of all social and economic inequities during the pandemic, our paper explores how Canada's response to the pandemic vis-a-vis refugees impacted the everyday of Yazidis in Calgary - a recently arrived refugee group who survived the most horrific genocidal atrocities of our times. Based (...) on interviews with Yazidi families in Calgary and with resettlement staff we unpack Canada's paternalistic response to COVID-19 toward refugees. We show how resettlement provisions and social isolation along with pre-migration histories have furthered the conditions of social, economic, and affective inequities for the Yazidis. We also show how Yazidi women who were most impacted by the genocide and the subsequent pandemic find ways of asserting their personhood and engage in healing through a land-based resettlement initiative during the pandemic. Adopting a Feminist Refugee Epistemology and a southern moral imaginary as our discursive lenses, we highlight the need to dismantle the existing paternalistic structures and re resettlement practices and praxis to a social justice framework centering the voices of refugee women and families in their resettlement process. (shrink)

This article discusses the ways in which healthcare professionals can use emotion as part of developing an ethical response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Affect theory, a growing approach to inquiry in the social sciences and humanities that appraises the historical and cultural contexts of emotions as expressed through art and politics, offers a frame for clinicians and researchers to consider ethical questions that surround the reopening of the United States economy in the wake of COVID-19. This article uses affect theory (...) to describe how healthcare workers’ emotions are useful for formulating a reopening plan grounded in collective action and a duty to do no harm. (shrink)

Chapter 20 of Plotinus’ treatise VI, 2 [43] has received particular attention because it seems to deal with the Intellect. However, the connection of this chapter with chapter 19 is problematic insofar as the latter deals with the ways in which species are generated by the first genera. Our aim will be to show that chapter 20 can only be understood in the light of the notion of genus. More precisely, Plotinus’ aim in this chapter is to demonstrate the priority (...) of the genus over its species by means of the theory of double activity. In order to demonstrate this point, the notion of Intellect is introduced by Plotinus as a model (παράδειγμα) to conceive this priority. We will study successively these two chapters to justify this point, insisting on the link between them as well as on the reinterpretation of some key Aristotelian concepts. This study also shows that the use of the comparison with science allows Plotinus to justify the primacy of the intelligible totalities that are the Soul and the Intellect as well as the generation of their respective parts, the particular souls and the particular intellects. (shrink)

Given the wide-reaching and detrimental impact of COVID-19, its strain on healthcare resources, and the urgent need for—sometimes forced—public health interventions, thorough examination of the ethical issues brought to light by the pandemic is especially warranted. This paper aims to identify some of the complex moral dilemmas faced by senior physicians at a major medical centre in Saudi Arabia, in an effort to gain a better understanding of how they navigated ethical uncertainty during a time of crisis. This qualitative study (...) uses a semistructured interview approach and reports the findings of 16 interviews. The study finds that participants were motivated by a profession-based moral obligation to provide care during the toughest and most uncertain times of the pandemic. Although participants described significant moral dilemmas during their practice, very few identified challenges as ethical in nature, and in turn, none sought formal ethics support. Rather, participants took on the burden of resolving ethical challenges themselves—whenever possible—rationalising oft fraught decisions by likening their experiences to wartime action or by minimising attention to the moral. In capturing these accounts, this paper ultimately contemplates what moral lessons can, and must be, learnt from this experience. (shrink)

Dungeon Masters may or may not make use of familiar fantasy elements whose beginnings lay with Tolkien, but they must always put their players in a world. Dark Sun, Eberron, and the Planar City of Sigil little resemble the history, languages, lands, peoples, and places of Middle Earth, but they follow Tolkien's practice of creating a world in which all these elements are meant to fit together. The first part of fantasy is the human capacity to separate the qualities of (...) things from the things in which they appear, and to imagine them in other things that do not have them. Many Dungeons Dragons campaigns treat magic as a kind of alternate science, but in fairy tales there is more to it than that. Fantasy succeeds when it transports us to an imaginary land, and we escape the grayer parts of our own for a little while. (shrink)

Volume 20, Issue 7, July 2020, Page 103-106.

COVID-19 Lockdown was particularly challenging for most mothers of people with intellectual disabilities, including those with Rett syndrome, leading to feelings of abandonment from healthcare services of their children. Within those days, telerehabilitation has represented a valid alternative to support physical activity and treatment, supporting parents in structuring their children’s daily routine at home. This article aims to describe the well-being level of two groups of mothers of girls and women with RTT who were involved in a home-based remotely supervised (...) motor rehabilitation program, respectively, before and during the COVID-19 Italian lockdown. Forty participants with classic RTT were recruited before the lockdown and randomly assigned to two groups that performed the intervention immediately before and during the lockdown, respectively. The intervention included an individualized daily physical activity program carried out for 12 weeks by participants’ parents and fortnightly supervised throughout Skype contacts to plan, monitor, and accommodate individual activities in the participant’s life at home. The short form Caregivers Well-Being Scale was collected for the mothers in each group 12 weeks before intervention, at intervention initiation, immediately after intervention termination, as well as at 12 weeks after intervention termination. Mothers of participants in the Group 1 showed a stable level of well-being across all four evaluations with a slight improvement during the lockdown, without significant change. Similarly, the well-being level of mothers in the Group 2 showed a statistically significant increase in their well-being between T2 and T3 and its reduction to the pre-intervention level between T3 and T4. The results suggest that the lockdown did not negatively affect the participants’ mothers’ well-being, leading to its improvement. Moreover, the proposed intervention could have supported the mothers in managing the new daily routine at home, positively affecting maternal well-being. (shrink)

COVID-19 confinement has supposed a challenge to the whole wide world, especially in athletes that have frustrated their expectations about training programs and competitions. Specifically, competition cyclists during confinement had lot of difficulties to train due to the need to train outside their homes. However, the increase of online training sessions, or virtual training tools could help to overcome training difficulties due to confinement although there are not studies that analyse the effects of using these types of tools in cyclists. (...) This study aims to test how the use of online training tools in competition cyclists during confinement is related to training frequency and duration, and emotions. 329 cyclists filled an online questionnaire about feelings during confinement and the use of online training tools, before and during confinement. Results showed that the use of online training tools was associated with higher frequency and duration of trainings. Moreover, those who used these tools felt more positively about their future and preparation to compete, feeling more energy than those who did not used online tools. In addition, cyclists that started using these online tools (including virtual roller training) during confinement increased the frequency of training. In conclusion the use of online training tools for cycling could be appropriate to maintain training levels and energy and positive feelings about their future. (shrink)

Volume 20, Issue 7, July 2020, Page 139-141.

The aim of this article is to present a new Polish translation of Aristotle’s Poetics, namely, those of its central chapters (6–19) that deal with the Stagirite’s explication of the mimesis of tragedy. When interpreting the first five chapters of the treatise, it is important to recognize the mimetic distinctions and forms according to means and objects as well as the question of how poetic creativity takes shape (generally from improvisation through epic to comedy and tragedy). On the basis of (...) these preliminary assumptions, Aristotle proceeds to define tragedy and analyze its components, forms and functions in more detail. Unlike the previous Polish translations of the Poetics, we have attempted here to render Aristotle’s essential technical expressions as faithfully as possible, without distorting them in accord with various concepts of modern aesthetics or literary criticism. We have also sought to preserve the Stagirite’s typical composition and his complex argument. Only in this way can the sense of Aristotle’s leading assumptions and distinctions be properly discerned. For the ease of reading, we also introduce more paragraphs and relevant subject headings into the text. (shrink)

Background: Professional commitment is an important factor in employee performance. COVID-19 outbreak has seriously affected the nurses working conditions. Numerous factors can affect nurses' professional commitment in this situation. Aim: To explore the nurses' lived experiences, attitudes, views and perceptions toward professional commitment and factors affecting it in the Covid-19 crisis. Method, Setting and Participants: This qualitative study was conducted using phenomenological approach and content analysis method. Twenty-five nurses were interviewed using semi structured in-depth interviews. Conventional content analysis was used (...) to analyze collected data. Ethical considerations: Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences. Results: Five themes were extracted as follows: “Collaborative empathetic commitment”, “Loyal commitment”, “Sacrificial commitment”, “Commitment with doubt and concern” and “humanistic commitment”. Discussion and Conclusion: The Covid-19 crisis has caused major changes in nurses' working conditions, which have also affected the concept of professional commitment to the nursing profession and revealed new concepts. Identifying internal and external factors that can enhance nurses' commitment to the profession in critical situations such as the Covid-19 outback is of particular importance. (shrink)

In April 2020, almost six out of 10 people around the world were in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Being locked down usually has a deleterious effect on the confined individual's mental health. In this exceptionally challenging context, finding ways to minimize negative mood about the pandemic is essential. Pandemic-related negative states (“negative mood”) and recovery experiences were investigated in a sample of 264 individuals who completed daily surveys four times per day over 7 consecutive days. MSEMs analyses revealed (...) that negative mood persisted from moment-to-moment through the day, thus showing a response lag effect. Further analyses revealed that when someone experienced pandemic-related psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery, control, pleasure, or relatedness at specific periods of the day, mood had improved at the next measured time period, suggesting a protective effect. However, the pattern displayed by singles with dependents suggests that some recovery experiences at specific periods during the day seem to have a backfiring effect and worsen subsequent mood. These findings bring new insight into the role of recovery experiences during lockdowns and suggest that many could benefit from such experiences throughout the day when self-isolating. However, for individuals with multiple risk factors such as being single with dependents, some recovery experiences, at specific periods during the day, might not bring the desired outcome and future research is needed to examine if guilt or domestic burden may explain this finding. Results contribute to our understanding of how to take care of one's mental health during the current pandemic, and concrete recommendations adapted to individual contexts are provided. (shrink)

La pandemia del SARS-CoV-2 ha creado un desafío sin precedentes para la educación. En 2020, como resultado de las medidas para reducir la propagación del SARS-CoV-2, muchas instituciones educativas pasaron del aprendizaje presencial al aprendizaje remoto. Sin embargo, este modelo educativo puede generar estrés y ansiedad adicionales a la ansiedad provocada por la pandemia. Los objetivos del presente estudio fueron: 1) comparar las perspectivas de estudiantes y docentes sobre el número de horas dedicadas a las clases, y 2) determinar las (...) principales dificultades que enfrentan docentes y estudiantes, respectivamente, al pasar al sistema de educación en línea. Para realizar esta investigación se realizó una encuesta online en países de habla hispana, utilizando una muestra de 1.048 participantes anónimos. A través de los datos recopilados. Se analizaron el uso de plataformas, los tipos de equipos, los niveles de angustia y las posibles razones de esta angustia. Esta pandemia es una de las amenazas de salud pública más importantes de la historia reciente y ha afectado nuestras vidas de manera significativa, siendo una de las más importantes la futura adaptación de escuelas, estudiantes y docentes a una nueva forma de aprender. (shrink)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses experienced tremendous dilemmas including the need to perform their duties in caring for patients while they have concerns about contracting the disease. This study described the moral distress of nurses in-charge of handling COVID-19 patients which can be used as baseline data for intervention programs in overcoming moral distress among nurses. This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with nurses in-charge of handling COVID-19 treatment rooms. Before conducting the survey, ethical approval was obtained from the Medical (...) Faculty of Universitas Hasanuddin. Questionnaires on moral distress for clinical nurses and the demographic data questionnaire were distributed to 128 respondents. These nurses experienced relatively low levels of moral distress despite the fact that they were generally exposed to morally stressful situations. Education background appeared as a factor influencing this condition, in which higher moral distress was mostly experienced by nurses with undergraduate education. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic-induced worldwide contingency has significantly disrupted the way education has been delivered, going through a crucial period of change and adaptation. But how does this dynamic impact both students’ and teachers’ educational process? This research on the teaching of renewable energies at the higher education level in engineering programs reveals the main challenges to this transformation as well as how they were overcome. The methodology is qualitative with two-way dynamic reflection, between the facts and their interpretation, and impacts (...) 130 engineering students, from all of Colombia’s regions. Among the main results, six challenges stand out, which were addressed through different strategies. (shrink)

This research investigated the impact measures (such as lockdowns) used to combat the spread of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) have on the church’s mission. When people face travel and assembly restrictions, the church as a community of witnesses testifying and participating in Christ’s work risks is being neutralised, and its presence weakened. What then does mission as ‘being with’ look like in these situations? Is faithful presence something one can turn on and off at will depending on the (...) situation? If faithful presence was no more, what then was the impact of such absence on the church’s mission? These questions underscore the relevance of this research which sought to ascertain the impact the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown had on the church’s mission. The crucial area this research sought to explore are the lessons from the COVID-19 lockdown that will help the church prepare for future pandemics which scientists say are inevitable. The research made use of a qualitative interview method to discover the meaning of ‘being with’ in the context of the COVID-19 lockdown. The results revealed six attributes of a missional church. Based on these attributes, the research recommends a seven-step process to prepare the church for possible future pandemics.Contribution: This research has provided the church with an opportunity to shift from being ‘inward-looking’ to a church that is community focused, a church that prepares, trains and equips its adherents for the work of ministry in their own communities such that the work of ministry continues with or without gatherings. (shrink)

The deeply imaginative structure of Dungeons Dragons (DD) can allow for players to explore the intricacies of gender and sexuality in creative and potentially radical ways. One would be hard pressed to argue that cartoonishly large breasts and skin‐tight leather skirts really allow for dexterous swordplay or quick getaways. DD liberates us from the limitations of our sex by making male and female characters equal in terms of abilities. The shyest of men can be the most outspoken of wizards, the (...) most honest girl can play the most unscrupulous rogue, and the pacifist woman can don full armor and fly into a berserker rage on a group of bugbears ambushing her adventuring party because, after all, bugbears are her species enemy and she just can't help herself when they are around. (shrink)

In recent years, the field of music therapy has increasingly embraced the use of technology for conducting therapy sessions and enhancing patient outcomes. Amidst a worldwide pandemic, we sought to examine whether this is now true to an even greater extent, as many music therapists have had to approach and conduct their work differently. The purpose of this survey study is to observe trends in how music therapists from different regions around the world have had to alter their practice, especially (...) in relation to their use of technology during the COVID-19 pandemic, because of limited options to conduct in-person therapy due to social distancing measures. Further, the findings aim to clarify music therapists’ perspectives on the benefits and limitations of technology in MT, as well as online MT. In addition, this survey investigated what changes have been necessary to administer MT during COVID-19, in terms of virtual therapy and online tools, and how the changes made now may affect MT in the future. We also explored music therapists’ views on whether special technology-focused training might be helpful to support the practice of MT in the future. This is the first survey, to our knowledge, to break down opinions of and trends in technology use based on geographical region, and several noteworthy differences were apparent across regions. We hope our findings provide useful information, guidance, and a global reference point for music therapists on effectively continuing the practice of MT during times of crisis, and can encourage reflection and improvement in administering MT. (shrink)

This study provides an in-depth examination of the relationship between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and the idiosyncratic volatility of Korean companies. In line with the risk-mitigation view, the study finds that strong ESG performance is associated with a reduction in a firm's idiosyncratic volatility. The impact of ESG performance on reducing firm volatility was particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the role of ESG performance in risk mitigation during crisis periods. The study also shows that companies with (...) strong ESG performance in industries that are highly sensitive to ESG factors are particularly adept at reducing idiosyncratic volatility. These findings underscore the importance of ESG enhancement for both firm managers and policymakers, particularly within ESG-sensitive industries. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic has put in the foreground the dramatic actuality of global and local inequalities, undermining neo-liberal, communitarian, democratic or cosmopolitan projects of collective id...

As the COVID-19 pandemic was unfolding, a surge in scams was registered across the globe. While COVID-19 poses higher health risks for older adults, it is unknown whether older adults are also facing higher financial risks as a result of COVID-19 scams. Here, we examined age differences in vulnerability to COVID-19 scams and individual difference measures that might help explain them. A lifespan sample of sixty-eight younger, 79 middle-aged, and 63 older adults recruited through Prolific completed questions and questionnaires online. (...) In a within-subjects design, each participant responded to five COVID-19 solicitations, psychological measures, and demographic questions. Age group comparisons revealed that older adults were marginally less likely to perceive COVID-19 solicitations as genuine than middle-aged adults were. In addition, older adults perceived significantly fewer benefits than both younger and middle-aged adults did and perceived marginally higher risks than younger adults did. Hence, older adults did not exhibit greater vulnerability to COVID-19 scams. Regardless of age, intentions to respond to COVID-19 solicitations were positively predicted by higher levels of educational attainment, being married, past fraud victimization, and higher levels of positive urgency. As expected, stronger genuineness and benefit perceptions positively predicted action intentions, whereas stronger risk perceptions negatively predicted action intentions As such, COVID-19 scam susceptibility appears to be the result of a impulse control issue that is not easily inhibited, not even by past experiences of scam victimization. (shrink)

Background Healthcare professionals face a myriad of ethical challenges during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. However, there is limited literature examining the ethical challenges faced by HCPs in low- and medium-income countries. The research was designed to explore the ethical challenges experienced by HCPs in a Malaysian hospital setting during the pandemic. Methods Semistructured interviews were conducted via video calls with 10 Malaysian HCPs across different clinical disciplines involved in managing patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infections. The calls were audio-recorded, transcribed (...) verbatim and checked. Thematic analysis with constant comparison across transcripts was carried out to identify categories and themes. Results Three main themes emerged. Firstly, there was deprioritisation of care for non-COVID-19 patients resulting from resource limitations. HCPs raised concerns that there was curtailed access to various healthcare services by non-COVID-19 patients. There was also a trade-off between protecting individual patient safety and public health interests. Secondly, patients were disempowered from decision-making; the decision to segregate suspected COVID-19 patients to high-risk areas without seeking patients’ approval may result in an increased risk of infection. Lastly, HCPs expressed internal conflicts when balancing the professional duty of care against concerns about contracting COVID-19 and spreading it to their family members. Conclusion The study highlighted ethical issues faced by HCPs in Malaysia during the pandemic. It underscores the need for clinical ethics consultation services in hospitals to navigate the various ethical dilemmas. (shrink)

The impacts of COVID-19 have spread rapidly to global financial markets. In this context, combining the spillover index method introduced by Diebold and Yilmaz and the complex network analysis framework, we examined the volatility connectedness and the topological structure among the top ten cryptocurrencies before and during the COVID-19 crisis. The results revealed that the total volatility connectedness of the cryptocurrency market markedly increased following the outbreak of COVID-19; statically, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, and Bitcoin Cash were the net transmitters before (...) COVID-19, while Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Cardano, and Stellar became the major net transmitters in the market after COVID-19. Dynamically, the dynamic performance of different cryptocurrencies during the COVID-19 pandemic was heterogeneous, and the possible driving factors are diverse. Moreover, from network analysis, we further found that the COVID-19 crisis has significantly changed the topological structure of the cryptocurrency market. Our findings may help understand the typical dynamics in the cryptocurrency market and provide significant implications for portfolio managers, investors, and government agencies in times of highly stressful events like the COVID-19 crisis. (shrink)

The pandemic has adversely impacted children. The vaccine roll-out to children aged 12 - 17 years is important to curb the spread of the virus and allow children to revert to some form of normality. Children’s rights to equality, education, health and food have been impeded during the pandemic. However, there is a persistent hesitancy towards the vaccine roll-out. This is apparent from a case before the High Court in Pretoria, in the pending matter between the African Christian Democratic Party (...) and others v The Minister of the National Department of Health: Dr M Phaahla and Others. SECTION27’s intervention as amicus curiae highlights the importance of vaccines, and provides evidence to illustrate the adverse impact of the pandemic on learners’ rights to equality, education, food and health. Further, the evidence illustrates the inequalities that exist among learners. (shrink)

This article has explored the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 -induced decline in consumer durables and mobility on nitrogen dioxide emission in Europe by providing empirical and graphical justifications based on consumer price index and gross domestic product deflator indexes. The empirical estimations show that carbon dioxide and NOx emission along with other greenhouse gases drastically decreased in the wake of COVID-19-induced lockdowns and decrease in the demand of consumer goods in Europe. This means that COVID-19 improved environment in the (...) European region. However, high cost makes COVID-19 an unstable solution to environmental woes where positive impact of COVID-19 on environment achieved in short run cannot be guaranteed in the long run. Besides environment, COVID-19 drastically curtailed economic activities and exposed them to the risk of economic crisis particularly in case of Europe. (shrink)

The controversy surrounding the use of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, for COVID-19 has raised numerous ethical and policy problems. Since the suggestion that HCQ has potential for COVID-19, there have been varying responses from clinicians and healthcare institutions, ranging from adoption of protocols using HCQ for routine care to the conduct of randomised controlled trials to an effective system-wide prohibition on its use for COVID-19. In this article, we argue that the concept of ‘disease public profile’ has become a prominent, (...) if not the sole, determinant in decision-making across various healthcare responses to the pandemic. In the case of COVID-19, the disease’s public profile is based on clinical and non-clinical factors that include contagiousness, clinical presentation and media coverage. In particular, we briefly examine the dangers of a heightened public profile in magnifying the inequality of diseases and undermining three key ethical concepts, namely evidence-based practice, sustainable allocation and meaningful consent. (shrink)

이 글의 목적은 코로나19 확산에 대응하기 위한 사상적 방역 중 하나로, 유학적 정명론을 궁구하는 데 있다. 이는 혼란한 시기에 인간과 세상의 현상에 관한 지혜를 탐구하려는 의도이다. 역사 속 위대한 사상을 연구하는 것은 더 나은 미래를 위한 현재의 지속과정이다. 이 글은 사실 위주의 뉴스 자료, 질병관리청의 브리핑 자료, 유교 경전 그리고 기존 연구자료를 사용하였다. 이를 통해 전반부에서는 코로나19 창궐에 관한 사상적 방역의 중요성을 논하였고 후반부에서는 사상적 방역으로서의 정명론이 갖는 함의를 논하였다.BR 공자가 논한 정명론은 여타 시기보다 전염병이 창궐하는 시기에는 더욱 강조되어야 할 (...) 당위성을 갖는다. 왜냐하면, 국민이 방역수칙을 준수하고, 국가가 국민의 안전할 권리에 관한 제반 의무를 다하는 것이 정명적 방역이기 때문이다. 따라서 이 글은 시의성 있는 논의라고 할 수 있으며. 가시적 방역과 그 성과가 중요한 시기에 사상적 방역을 함께 논하는 것은 전염 질환 창궐에 대응하는 지속 가능한 가치기반의 의식기준을 함양하는 데 이바지할 것이다. (shrink)

The prioritisation of scarce resources has a particular urgency within the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic crisis. This paper sets out a hypothetical case of Patient X (who is a nurse) and Patient Y (who is a non‐health care worker). They are both in need of a ventilator due to COVID‐19 with the same clinical situation and expected outcomes. However, there is only one ventilator available. In addressing the question of who should get priority, the proposal is made that the (...) answer may lie in how the pandemic is metaphorically described using military terms. If nursing is understood to take place at the ‘frontline’ in the ‘battle’ against COVID‐19, a principle of military medical ethics—namely the principle of salvage—can offer guidance on how to prioritise access to a life‐saving resource in such a situation. This principle of salvage purports a moral direction to return wounded soldiers back to duty on the battlefield. Applying this principle to the hypothetical case, this paper proposes that Patient X (who is a nurse) should get priority of access to the ventilator so that he/she can return to the ‘frontline’ in the fight against COVID‐19. (shrink)

Este estudio tiene como objetivo identificar la tipología y los patrones de los mensajes desinformativos relacionados con la salud y la nutrición que se difundieron durante la primera etapa de la pandemia COVID-19 (marzo-noviembre de 2020). Para ello, se realizó un estudio cuantitativo exploratorio con dos tipos de datos. Los primeros provienen del estudio de 95 documentos (artículos científicos) hallados en la base de datos SCOPUS a través de búsquedas booleanas con los términos desinformación, engaño, salud y nutrición. A estos (...) documentos se les aplicó un formulario de registro, indicando los siguientes ítems: a) el tema del artículo (salud o nutrición); b) el tipo de mensaje erróneo (desinformación o engaño); c) el país en el que se realizó el estudio; d) el tipo de participantes (público general, jóvenes, ancianos, profesionales de la salud, estudiantes universitarios); y e) el tipo de canal de información estudiado (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, periódicos impresos, periódicos digitales, plataformas web, televisión, entre otros). Por otro lado, se seleccionaron 95 ingredientes o alimentos que fueron diseminados vía WhatsApp en diferentes bulos en español durante el primer mes de confinamiento (marzo-abril de 2020). Se aplicó un formulario para evaluar el contenido de los engaños, identificando: a) el tipo de sustancia o alimento (fruta, verdura, legumbre, nuez, hierba, entre otros); y b) las fuentes de información a las que se refirió el engaño (autoridades sanitarias, público general, organismos médicos, entre otros). Finalmente, los resultados de ambos estudios cuantitativos concluyeron que el patrón internacional de difusión de bulos fue principalmente sobre la salud en general, y que la desinformación sobre nutrición fue minoritaria, y en el 91% de los casos estuvo relacionada con la ingesta de frutas y verduras, afirmando que podrían prevenir o curar la COVID-19, sin ninguna evidencia científica. (shrink)