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This work is an attempt to explore aspects of online teaching and its related impact from the perspective of stakeholders in education. The paper outlines faculty experience and effectiveness in the online teaching environment, perspective requisition of students, and the support and resource building called for from academic leaders. We use observations, viewpoints, practical steps taken or needed by higher education institutions and universities in India. The primary and secondary data are content analysed and are further informed by literature. We state that academic leadership, collaborative peer learning, know-how of digital technology and online learning tools, training of faculty, dean review, readiness of students and discourse are important to create an ecosystem for effective online teaching. The article highlights the need of long-term perspective from academic leaders and the significance of blended teaching for faculty, in response to readiness in uncertain times. This paper reflects on the need for educational institutes to respond to the pandemic by building resources and factors and taking actions that result in an effective learning environment. They need to ensure training of all stakeholders and availability of technology and related resources, along with building a community for peer learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qualitative Longitudinal Research (QLR) is an evolving methodology used in understanding the rich and in-depth experiences of individuals over time. QLR is particularly conducive to pandemic or disaster-related studies, where unique and rapidly changing environments warrant fuller descriptions of the human condition. Despite QLR's usefulness, there are a limited number of articles that detail the methodology and analysis, especially in the social sciences, and specifically social work literature. As researchers adjust their focus to incorporate the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic, there is a growing need in understanding the progression and adaptation of the pandemic on individuals' lives. This article provides a process and strategy for implementing QLR and analyzing data in online diary entries. In the provided case example, we explore a phenomenological QLR conducted with graduate level students during the COVID-19 pandemic (Saltzman et al., 2021), and outline a matrix framework for QLR analysis. This paper provides an innovative way in which to engage in qualitative data collection and analysis for social science research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlighted the diverse voices of 84 female-identifying professors in STEM fields who responded to a series of open-ended questions regarding work, family, and tenure experiences in the context of the current global pandemic. The current paper is part of a longitudinal study of the vocational experiences of tenure-track women in STEM that has examined the "leaky pipeline" in women's academic careers. Consensual Qualitative Research-Modified (CQR-M;) was implemented to analyze the data. The findings suggested that participants perceived the precarious balance between work and family to have increased in difficulty in the face of COVID-19. Among untenured female faculty with children, an added layer of challenge was noted related to loss of childcare in the wake of the pandemic. The pre-existing, pervasive barriers (i.e., institutional, systemic, and psychological) were further exacerbated by familial barriers for female STEM faculty seeking tenure during COVID-19. Overall, the results indicated missed opportunities within higher education to implement supportive policies for untenured female faculty in STEM. Clinical implications, future research directions, and social advocacy interventions in the context of COVID-19 are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attending to immigrants' social integration is a complex challenge for adult educators in ordinary times, and the complexity has significantly increased with the COVID‐19 pandemic. This exploratory paper begins by outlining four aspects of social integration: forming social networks, developing a sense of belonging, linking social integration to the workplace, and language learning. Working within an intersectionality framework that foregrounds migrants' experiences of discrimination, this paper reveals ways that migrants have experienced increased discrimination and inequality in their social integration since the COVID‐19 pandemic began. Recommendations are made regarding tending to migrants' physical and psychosocial needs, countering discriminatory attitudes with empathy, addressing the digital divide, and using intersectionality to empirically examine migrant experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this commentary on three articles from dozens of paradox theory scholars on paradox approaches to examining the COVID-19 pandemic and how the COVID-19 pandemic informs paradox theory, the authors involved in coordinating the collection of three papers discuss the process of bringing together scholars from around the world to discuss the pandemic. Four other preeminent paradox theorists offer additional commentaries on the papers in this Collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bangladesh has been going through the austerity of the unique COVID-19 for more than a year like several other nations in the world in spite of concerted efforts taken by the government along with other concerned authorities who have advocated compulsory guidelines involving social distancing procedures accompanied by lockdown to have control over the pandemic. In this paper, the barriers faced by the government to protect people from the COVID-19 pandemic have been investigated. Also, the number of daily infected people against the number of daily tests has been underlined to comprehend the overall pandemic picture in Bangladesh. Design and Methods: A descriptive study has been carried out to investigate the obstacles to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic for this country. The intensity of the outbreaks of the pandemic in this country is stated from March 8, 2020, to February 12, 2021. Secondary data have been employed from different sources to serve the goals of the study. Results: The poor management in the health sector of Bangladesh has been an issue of major concern during the early stage of COVID-19 which incorporates deficiency of medical equipment, lack of facilities for testing COVID-19, poor patient management, and uncertainty in the medication system. Finally, some recommendations have been proposed for the concerned organizations to tackle the current pandemic and as well in the future. Conclusions: To control this COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to find the difficulties and discover the remedies which have been done in this paper for the Bangladesh perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic presented unique challenges to researchers engaged in qualitative research. Such methods often require the use of in-person methods of data collection and were greatly interrupted during this time of global emergency. Yet, navigating this altered terrain presented opportunities to reflect on the traditional methodological landscape. In this paper, we reflect on the use of Microsoft Teams to facilitate multiple asynchronous online focus groups. We draw on the findings from a study of researchers focused on translational medicine, who work in disparate locations and often have conflicting schedules, to show how the use of this approach facilitated active communication between individuals who otherwise rarely interact. Specifically, we reflect on five ways that Microsoft Teams both enhanced and challenged traditional focus group practice. We consider how (1) conversational sequence, (2) discussion moderation, (3) nonverbal cues, (4) supporting information, and (5) technical competencies relate to using this approach. This results in several reflections intended to help future researchers prepare to facilitate asynchronous online focus groups using Teams. Specifically, we highlight our experiences in terms of participant interaction, iterative reflections, and data management. Ultimately, we argue that this approach adds an important and powerful tool to the qualitative methodological toolkit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polarization of public opinion is a major issue for societies, as high levels can promote adverse effects such as hostility. The present paper focuses on the polarization of opinions regarding COVID-19 prevention measures in survey data and on Twitter in the German-speaking regions of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The level of polarization is measured by dispersion and bimodality in the opinions based on the sentiment in Twitter data and the agreement in the survey data. Our paper, however, goes beyond existing research as we consider data from both sources separately and comparatively. For this purpose, we matched individuals' survey responses and tweets for those respondents who shared their Twitter account information. The analyses show that vaccination is more polarizing compared to mask wearing and contact tracing in both sources, that polarization of opinions is more pronounced in the survey data compared to the Twitter data, but also that individuals' opinions about the COVID-19 measures are consistent in both sources. We believe our findings will provide valuable insights for integrating survey data and Twitter data to investigate opinion polarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a qualitative interview-based study that explored online mental health and wellbeing interventions and services for care-experienced young people. The study involved young people (n = 4), foster carers (n = 8), kinship carers (n = 2) and social care professionals (n = 9) in Wales, UK. The paper reflects on the complexities of online communication in the space of 'the home'. It documents the ways in which care-experienced young people's living arrangements can restrict access to services and complicate confidentiality within portals to the virtual world, creating an environment where young people and their carers 'wouldn't want to talk about anything too personal'. Drawing on data generated in a study focused on services and interventions to support the mental health and wellbeing of care-experienced children and young people, the paper considers privacy, confidentiality and surveillance in the home and reflects on how associated relational practices impact on care-experienced young people. While the data discussed in this paper was generated during the Covid-19 pandemic, its findings have implications for how care-experienced young people and their carers can be supported to engage with the digital world in the future. Plain Language Summary: When mental health services are delivered online, they are usually accessed from home. Home can be different for young people who grow up in care, with records kept about their day-to-day activities, a lack of access to the digital world and policy governing how they are able to live their lives. We spoke with young people, foster carers and practitioners about what it is like for young people to access mental health services online. The paper discusses how the private home lives of care-experienced children and young people impacts on how they are able to access much needed mental health services. We look at the need to protect the freedom of children in care and care-experienced young people to take risks and access digital spaces like other children and teenagers do, while also recognising the reality of the pressures on practitioners and carers to protect looked after children from harm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scotland's Children's Hearings System is a unique statutory system that makes decisions about the need for compulsory professional involvement in the lives of children who are maltreated, in conflict with the law or displaying alarming behaviours. It was designed to facilitate in-person, child-centred discussions about the measures needed to ensure the care and protection of children. The Covid-19 pandemic challenged the ability of the Hearings System to fulfil this role due to the physical closure of Hearings Centres and the need to rapidly develop a virtual system. In this paper we present a realist-influenced synthesis exploring how contextual factors such as public health guidelines, emergency legislation, technological challenges and wider structural inequalities interacted with the delivery of virtual hearings to affect the participation and rights of children during the pandemic. We also describe how learning from the experiences of the participants of hearings was critical to understanding how virtual technologies could be adapted to provide a more rights-respecting approach to participation. We conclude by arguing that there is a need to ensure that the voices of children, which are largely absent from discussions around the use of virtual technologies, are incorporated into decisions made about their continued use within Children's Hearings. Plain Language Summary: The Children's Hearings System is a legal system in Scotland that makes decisions about the care and protection of children and young people who are: being abused or neglected; in trouble with the police; or regularly truanting from school. At a Children's Hearing, specially trained members of the public decide whether to place the child or young person onto a Compulsory Supervision Order (CSO). This is a legal document that specifies what support should be provided to the child or young person, where they should live and who they can have contact with. Before the Covid-19 pandemic all hearings were held in person at specially designed Hearings Centres. All of these centres were closed at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in a virtual Children's Hearings System having to be set up quickly. In this paper we describe the challenges of using video-conferencing software to run Children's Hearings. We explore how rules enacted by the UK and Scottish Governments affected how hearings could be delivered, before moving on to discuss how technical difficulties, lack of access to appropriate technologies and other inequalities such as digital poverty affected how children and young people could participate in their hearings. The paper finishes by describing changes made to virtual hearings in order to try and ensure that children and young people were able to participate in their hearings. In doing so, we highlight the importance of involving children and young people in discussions around how their voices can be heard, even in the context of a global pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption in pharmacy experiential learning as clinical practice sites restricted student access to onsite rotations. Therefore, colleges of pharmacy across the country likely included virtual advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) to fulfill experiential education requirements. The objective of this paper is to evaluate students' perceptions of virtual APPEs during the 2020-2021 academic year. Methods: Experiential directors and faculty at 3 colleges of pharmacy in the south Florida region developed a survey to assess students' perceptions of their virtual APPE rotations during the 2020-2021 academic year. Students who took at least one fully virtual APPE rotation were asked about their perceptions of these rotations. Results: A total of 349 students were invited to take the survey and 92 (26.3%) completed the survey. Of these, 77 students (83.7%) completed at least one virtual rotation. These students completed a total of 152 virtual rotations, with elective and ambulatory care rotations being the most frequent. Most students agreed that rotation objectives were clear, and preceptors offered resources needed to be successful during the rotation. Responses regarding engagement during virtual rotations, rotation expectations being met, and rotations expanding students' knowledge were mixed. Conclusions: Virtual rotations may present unique experiential opportunities for students. Colleges of pharmacy and preceptors can benefit from additional guidance regarding how to incorporate virtual rotations into the experiential curriculum. Best practices for virtual rotations include high frequency of interactions with preceptors, clear objectives and responsibilities, and the use of a rotation calendar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of fear of COVID-19 on employee turnover intention and depression, hypothesizing the mediating effect of psychological well-being and the moderating effect of workplace health and safety management practices. Data was gathered from 687 employees of five-star hotels in Sharm El-Sheikh using a structured survey instrument with time-lag approach. A partial least-square-based path modeling (PLS-PM) was applied to analyze the dataset. The findings reveal the partial mediation of psychological well-being in the relationships of fear of COVID-19 with both turnover intention and depression. While workplace safety and management practices significantly moderate the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and both turnover intentions, depression also mediates the relationship. The findings add to the existing literature on the effects of COVID-19 through the dual lenses of protection motivation theory and attribution theory. We can employ these findings to overcome issues of employee well-being in the hotel setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, people with dementia living in the community experienced the sudden loss of their usual activities, and videoconferencing was widely adopted by music groups whilst face-to-face sessions were not possible. This paper reports the findings of a proof-of-concept study of online singing for people living with dementia and their carers, focusing on the experiences of the participants. Method: People with dementia and their care partners were invited to take part in 10 weeks of online singing sessions. Each session lasted 1 hour, and comprised time for talking, warming up and singing familiar songs. Participants completed standardised outcome measures at baseline and after 10 weeks. Dyads were invited to take part in a semi-structured interview. Results: In total, 16 pairs were recruited. The response to the online singing group was mostly positive. Participants were able to use the technology to join the sessions, and reported few technical problems. Despite the limitations of online singing, the experience was frequently reported to be enjoyable. Some participants described longer-term benefits, such as improved mood and better relationship between care partners. Some felt online sessions had advantages over face-to-face ones; for example, they were more accessible. However, participants who had previously been attending face-to-face sessions felt that the online singing was a "better than nothing" substitute. Conclusions: Online singing cannot recreate the experience of group singing face-to-face, and it requires some technical knowledge, but it provides a worthwhile alternative in a time of need for some people with dementia and their carers. Furthermore, for some people online singing may be preferable due to its accessibility. Given the potential for online singing to include people who cannot go out for any reason and its relatively low cost, providers may wish to consider hybrid online/in-person singing groups in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and the inequities it uncovered highlighted the need for a rapid and coordinated response among different disciplines in medical settings. Interprofessional collaboration and education is necessary to provide culturally competent emergent care. However, there is still scarce evidence demonstrating the use of interprofessional education in emergent care settings. This paper explores the training and education of health care professionals in a primarily minority serving hospital located in New York City during the first phase of COVID-19. Guided by the appreciative inquiry framework, two focus groups were conducted with administrators and health care workers who provided care to COVID-19 patients in an emergent care setting. It was found that a positive work environment that emphasizes knowledge sharing, collaboration, communication, and continuous on-the-job training facilitates culturally competent care. The implementation of interprofessional education and collaboration has the potential to transform clinical practice and improve health outcomes for under-resourced communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience increased levels of stress, anxiety, and depression compared to caregivers of neurotypical children. The high levels of stress and the prevalence of emotional disorders experienced by caregivers may negatively impact their capacity and confidence to effectively manage their child's complex emotional and behavioral needs. Given these demands, caregivers of children with ASD require additional support to improve their psychological well-being and parenting self-efficacy. While support programs and treatments for children and adolescents with ASD are abundant, prevention programs that specifically targeted the emotional well-being of caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic were limited. In this case paper, we describe Coping Options for Parent Empowerment (COPE), a prevention program for parents adapted from the Unified Protocols for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Adults, Children, and Adolescents developed during the pandemic. To alleviate the stressors faced by caregivers during the pandemic and beyond, including increased caregiving responsibilities and financial difficulties, Project COPE targeted parent anxiety and depression through four brief, telehealth group sessions provided free of cost for caregivers of school-age children with ASD. In the case example presented, decreases in anxiety and depression, and increases in parent self-efficacy were reported after completing this program. Key insights about the intervention's feasibility and content reported by parents are described. Findings suggest that the intervention removes some treatment access barriers typically seen in caregivers of children with ASD during and following the pandemic and that the program can be modified to increase engagement and acceptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on medical education and gastroenterology fellowship training. As a result of the pandemic, a trainee's physical safety, mental health and wellness, clinical and procedural training, and educational opportunities were all potentially altered. Changes necessitated at the start of the pandemic were different than those needed further along in the pandemic course. Fellowship programs were required to modify policies and adapt to changes rapidly to advocate for their trainees and ensure quality education. Much of COVID-19's initial impact on education – decreased endoscopic procedures and the loss of educational conferences – has largely returned to pre-pandemic form. However, other changes made during the pandemic have persisted and likely will continue in the future. This includes a virtual interview format for fellowship matches, a virtual option for many national conferences, and an expansion of simulation training. This article reviews the impact that COVID-19 had on medical education with a specific focus on gastroenterology fellowship. The paper highlights the initial impact of COVID-19, the lingering effects, and discusses the areas needed for further research to best understand the total impact COVID-19 had on our trainees' education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The onset of COVID-19 resulted in the adoption of various measures such as lockdowns and alcohol bans. These interventions were new and unprecedented in the way they impacted drinking experiences across various contexts. The impact of COVID-19 lockdowns and other alcohol restrictions in non-Western contexts remains unknown. Little is known about how the strict prohibition of COVID-19 lockdowns impacted drinkers. Using grounded theory methods from an alcohol study based in Botswana with drinkers (n = 20), this paper investigated the impact of lockdowns and alcohol bans in Botswana. Key themes from the data relate to support for alcohol bans, opposition to bans, and adjusting drinking practices. Drinking at home due to COVID-19 lockdowns led to shifts in drinking practices. The paper draws attention toward the need to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic might impact drinking experiences in developing countries. Study findings point toward the complex ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic and its alcohol restrictions may shape drinking experiences in home contexts. More importantly, the paper highlights the importance of home-drinking as a focal area for research in non-Western contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic affected healthcare systems worldwide, including the National Health Service (NHS). It drastically changed the practice and delivery of healthcare and laid bare longstanding structural flaws. It also brought a time of innovation and digitalisation and renewed appreciation of the role of public health. This paper offers a thematic summary of a debate held in December 2021 by the University of Edinburgh School of Medicine. It featured a multi-specialty panel of doctors and patient representative discussing the likely impact of the pandemic on the future of NHS. It serves as a reflection point on the pressures the NHS has faced since and their likely genesis at a time when the impact of the pandemic on staff risks being forgotten. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores what it means to 'animalise' International Relations (IR). The posthuman move in the social sciences has involved the process of de-centring the human, replacing an anthropocentric focus with a view of the human as embedded within a complex network of inter-species relations. In a previous work we drew attention to the lack of analysis within International Relations of the key role played by more-than human animals in situations of conflict. The current COVID-19 pandemic again indicates that an analysis of international relations that does not have at its core an understanding of a more than human world is always going to be an incomplete account. The paper argues for the animalising of International Relations in order to enhance inclusivity, and suggests five ways in which this might be approached. As it becomes increasingly clear that a climate-related collapse is imminent, we argue for a transformative approach to the discipline, stressing interlinked networks and a shared vulnerability as a political project which challenges capitalism (advanced/late/carboniferous/genocidal) and the failure of states to address the concatenation of crises that life on the planet confronts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The onset of COVID-19 made governments and other education actors prioritize distance learning, particularly through education technologies (EdTechs). Most sub-Saharan African countries adopted and adapted this approach. This paper examines the extent of EdTechs' deployment in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic among marginalized and vulnerable populations. A cross-sectional study design was adopted for the study from which this paper drew its data, with both secondary and primary data utilized. The findings show that marginalized/vulnerable learner populations are still left out on EdTech supported learning. This article proposes salient recommendations that could help advance inclusive education discussion and related EdTechs' discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 crisis increased unemployment all over the World, with significant regional heterogeneity. This paper intends to analyze this territorial heterogeneity for the Portuguese case and investigate which regional factors complement personal and job characteristics in explaining individual vulnerability to COVID-19 unemployment. By considering personal, job and regional dimensions, we extended the literature and provided a more comprehensive understanding of this new phenomenon in the immediate and medium-term. Furthermore, this knowledge is essential to support policy suggestions for quick and effective action in preventing job losses in the current and future crises. Detailed information on all individuals that lost their jobs in Portugal 1 year after (and before) the COVID-19 outset was used to estimate three logit models that compare the odds of losing a job after and during the pandemic. Significant territorial heterogeneity of the COVID-19 impact on unemployment is obtained. Along with personal and job characteristics, we conclude that regional characteristics are essential for explaining individual vulnerabilities. In particular, workers are more prompted to lose their jobs if they live in regions with higher population densities, lower pre-crisis unemployment, and more dependable international flow. Conversely, individual and regional human capital investment contributes to protecting employment, revealing the existence of external effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of 2020, the world was left in an unprecedented state of shock by the COVID-19 pandemic. Brazil quickly became the epicenter of new cases of contamination, where the propagation of the virus was unrestrained, despite boasting one of the strongest Universal health coverage systems in Latin America. This paper has at least three empirical contributions to the literature about economic resilience and the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly it is a critical issue regarding the "economics versus life" trade-off, which is an essential question for developing countries, given that policymakers must decide between policies to reduce the number of COVID-19 infections without damaging the economy. Secondly, our findings suggest that the early adoption of isolation measures applied in 2020, such as the financial aid and the vaccination have been effective in controlling the effects of the pandemic, especially in vulnerable microregions. Furthermore, it was verified that the Emergency financial aid was a fundamental policy in minimizing the economic impacts of the pandemic and allowing people to practice social distancing, contributing positively to the Employment Resilience Index and negatively related to the growth rate of deaths due to COVID-19. The contribution of our study is to measure an inverted U-shaped curve to demonstrate that policymakers must achieve a minimum of families to decrease the COVID-19 deaths. These contributions are essential and straightforward findings to lead policymakers' decisions in developing countries facing financial constraints in the public budget and population reticence about physical distancing, self-quarantine and vaccination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the potential responses of international labor mobility to the recent COVID-19 health shocks, using a New Economic Geography model inspired by recent events in Central and North America. The model suggests that the restraining impact of COVID-19 on migratory flows may retain potential emigrants in Mexico and Central America, enlarge the home market in the region, attract foreign and local businesses, and increase real wages. Moreover, this prediction unveils opportunities for the future from the opening of new, regular migratory pathways between Central America and Mexico. These would concentrate population and industry in Mexico, raise the market potential in the area and boost real wages in Mexico – and possibly in Central America as well – despite the partial deindustrialization of the Central American hinterland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, India has established itself as the world's 'pharmacy hub', and this claim was proven once again when it delivered COVID-19 vaccines to its citizens, neighbouring nations and across the globe. Following the philosophy of humanitarianism through the principle of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', India has decided to provide the COVID-19 health assistance to its immediate neighbouring countries. India's immediate neighbourhood refers to the countries that are geographically adjacent to it. In addition, India's vaccine diplomacy has exposed geopolitical fault lines in South Asia as China's vaccine diplomacy aims to outpace India in the region. Against this background, the main objective of this paper is to explain and examine India's vaccine diplomacy as an instrument of its 'Neighbourhood First' policy during the COVID-19 pandemic. It argues that India's health-focused approach has proved effective and aligned with its national interests. This review demonstrates that India's health diplomacy has had an impact on medical and humanitarian assistance reciprocation at the regional and international levels. As a result of this strategy, during the second wave of the pandemic, India received medical devices and vaccines from other countries in dealing with COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The project on which this paper is grounded is the first in-depth empirical study of the impacts of COVID-19 on each stage of the English and Welsh Youth Justice System. We take the notion of a child's right to a fair trial as the lens by which we detail the findings from our research. The paper documents the experiences of professionals working in the courts and children who had contact with the courts during the pandemic. While we concentrate on processes in England and Wales as an exemplar of the impact of COVID-19, recognising that globally, courts were experiencing similar challenges, initiates a discourse about how to re-envision their role in wider criminal justice systems in a COVID-19 world. Our research demonstrates an urgent need for renewed consideration of what support children need to effectively participate in court, and where and how children's cases should be heard. The pandemic demonstrated that creativity is possible and creates a timely opportunity to review the evidence and think more radically about a welfare-based, trauma-informed court process for children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers using deliberative techniques tend to favour in-person processes. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has added urgency to the question of whether meaningful deliberative research is possible in an online setting. This paper considers the reasons for taking deliberation online, including bringing people together more easily; convening international events; and reducing the environmental impact of research. It reports on four case studies: a set of stakeholder workshops considering greenhouse gas removal technologies, convened online in 2019, and online research workshops investigating local climate strategies; as well as two in-person processes which moved online due to COVID-19: Climate Assembly UK, a Citizens' Assembly on climate change, and the Lancaster Citizens' Jury on Climate Change. It sets out learnings from these processes, concluding that deliberation online is substantively different from in-person meetings, but can meet the requirements of deliberative research, and can be a rewarding and useful process for participants and researchers alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: With the necessary skills available to community pharmacists, they are well equipped to relieve pressure on hospitals and general practices by providing referral services for symptomatic patients for COVID-19 testing. Objective: The assessment of potential barriers that limit the successful implementation of a community pharmacy referral service for patients with suspected COVID-19 symptoms. Methods: A questionnaire comprising of 100 questions was administered to one pharmacist by interview in 1023 working community pharmacies in 4 regions of Egypt between May 17 and May 30th 2020. Results: Forty-five barriers were identified. Respondents (79%, n = 803) had difficulty obtaining an accurate patient history. Patient data confidentiality was a significant issue for pharmacists who had not received referral training, with these respondents being significantly (P =.010) less able to differentiate between COVID-19 and similar conditions. Respondents (68.8%, n = 698) were not confident in determining whether COVID-19 was the cause of the patient's presenting symptoms. A large majority (73.7%, n = 747) of respondents were worried about referring misdiagnosed patients and were concerned about the negative implications of proceeding with such a referral, including legal consequences. Of Respondents (71.7%, n = 727) reported that online referral was not easy, and 71.6% (n = 722) were unable to locate paper referral forms. Only a small number of pharmacists (11%, n = 112) preferred to report a referral in their own name. Conclusions: This study has demonstrated the potential of the community pharmacist's role as a point of referral for COVID-19 testing, and identified some major barriers to implementation of this. The lack of pharmacists' education, legal support, availability of referral forms, clarity of responsibility and unsupportive management teams are key obstacles that must be overcome for the successful implementation of a COVID-19 referral service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adapting to the remote working environment has been one of the most visible challenges for many organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. As employee creativity helps organizations' survival and resilience during times of crisis, this study aims to examine the role of leadership communication, family-supportive leadership communication in particular, in fostering creativity among work-from-home employees. The current study specifically focuses on the mediating processes in this relationship and the moderating role of employees' work-life segmentation preferences, using a survey of 449 employees who have worked from home during the COVID-19 outbreak. The results showed that employee-organization relationship (EOR) quality, positive affect, and work-life enrichment mediate the relationship between family-supportive leadership communication and employee creativity. The effects of family-supportive leadership communication on employees' positive affect and work-life enrichment were more prominent for those who prefer to segment their work and lives. This paper concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for leadership in organizational communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UK community finance institutions play an important role in deprived neighbourhoods by serving households and businesses unable to access mainstream finance. This paper analyses the short-term effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on the activities and sustainability of the community finance sector by analysing longitudinal survey data for 40 providers and follow-up interviews with 25 organisations. COVID-19 resulted in an acceleration of the shift to online service delivery and temporary and permanent branch closures among community finance institutions. Further, the demand for, and volume and value of lending fell significantly during the first lockdown only recovering by the end of the summer 2020. This resulted in lower income, greater costs and lower regulatory ratios. Smaller providers in a weak financial position with more financially vulnerable customers were worst affected by the pandemic. We argue the pandemic may reduce access to finance for the financially excluded through the intensification of the shift to online services and by increasing the risk of providers serving the poorest folding or being merged with larger providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 transformed frontline anti-violence workers' organizational routines by transitioning to virtual formats, decreasing face-to-face interactions, and shifting client needs. To address ever-changing workplace stressors, service providers adapted and/or modified coping mechanisms. In this paper, we analyze interviews with 23 anti-violence workers in the US Great Plains region, focusing on tactics used to avoid burnout and meet client needs. We discuss how workplace pace, direct-action coping practices, and a lack of inter/intra-agency social support impact how workers do their necessary jobs. Though some challenges were pervasive pre-pandemic, anti-violence workers' experiences also highlight how "post-COVID-19" workplaces must adequately support staffers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Paycheck Protection Program was a highly unusual policy measure enacted to provide bridge capital to support small businesses coping with the dramatic downturn in demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By design, the program effectively required potential applicants to work through the bank with whom they had a relationship. Yet large swathes of the country are effectively banking deserts, which dramatically steepen the gradient for those regions' businesses seeking Paycheck Protection Program support. This paper tests the proposition that the exogenous distribution of banks effectively discriminated against those regions where banking services were limited, while also looking at whether loans were distributed to those areas with less dense employment opportunities and higher concentrations of small businesses. The authors find that areas with fewer banking services and lower employment opportunities were systematically disadvantaged in the Paycheck Protection Program distribution, while there were no significant flows to areas with higher rates of small businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic remained a global risk factor and integrated into various means in the functioning of companies, economies and financial markets. Therefore, this paper investigates how COVID-19 influences the energy market in the main financial markets (China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States), using time series from February 28, 2020, to November 3, 2020. The goal of this research is to investigate the asymmetric impact of COVID-19 from leading financial markets on energy commodities. In this regard, the non-linear auto-regressive distributed lag (NARDL) framework is employed to capture the long-run asymmetric reactions. The econometric design allows to explore the long-term asymmetric reactions of dependent variables through positive and negative partial sum decompositions of changes in the explanatory variables. The quantitative results show a significant long-run asymmetric interdependence between the number of new SARS-CoV-2 incidence and mortality and the daily percent change in close price of future contracts pertaining to Brent oil, crude oil WTI, carbon emissions, gasoline RBOB, heating oil, Chukyo kerosene, and natural gas. Furthermore, no asymmetry is found in the case of ethanol and fuel oil futures. The novelty of this article is the study of the impact of COVID-19 on the energy sector during the first two waves of COVID-19 by applying the NARDL model that allows to capture long-term asymmetric reactions. Certainly, further research on this topic is necessary due to the permanent shifts in the pandemic, as well as the availability of longer data periods on COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Managing mental health patients during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a global challenge. Current workforce arrangements tend to separate those skilled in caring for highly infectious medical patients from those whose specialism is in managing co-morbid mental health, substance misuse and/or behaviours of concern, including potential non-compliance with community or health care directives. This paper reports an innovative service development through the emergency establishment of a temporary COVID-positive mental health ward in response to a local outbreak in Melbourne. Method: A case study of service reorientation is presented, examining barriers and enablers to effective care of co-morbid mental illness, addiction and COVID-19. Results: Establishing a skilled multidisciplinary workforce across mental health and infectious disease is the most important consideration in optimising care. Other issues included suitable physical space, security arrangements and inter-disciplinary communication. Conclusions: The paper holds insights for managing mental health care during potential future infectious disease outbreaks across the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using bibliometric analysis, quantitative content analysis, qualitative thematic analysis, and spatial analysis, this paper analyzes the intellectual landscape of research on tourism resilience over the past two decades. The results show that tourism resilience research has not yet established a close collaborative network at the international level, although the themes of tourism resilience research have been diversified. Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, research on tourism resilience can be divided into two stages. Climate change and the pandemic are the two major factors affecting tourism resilience at destination, organizational, and individual levels. Additionally, we identified five major themes of tourism resilience research. Finally, we provide three suggestions for rebuilding a new paradigm of tourism development in the post-pandemic era. It is hoped that the study contributes to promoting tourism resilience studies and provokes critical thought about whether tourism development need a "pandemic turn." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the contemporary nature of association football consumption. In particular, we argue that the coronavirus 2019 pandemic reveals the contemporary and particular nature of the relationship between football and its supporters, which is increasingly focused on the consumption of themed digital participatory experiences. During this pandemic, what fans missed was not only live football, but also the sporting 'experience' and the opportunities for participation that this provides. Hence, here we saw fans, clubs and media providers employing new digital technologies to create themed experiences that facilitated (and mediated) participation and interaction. Following Žižek (2014), we suggest that the coronavirus 2019 pandemic can be understood as a global mega event that creates a seismic, reality alerting schism, whose aftermath requires new ontologies and theories. Our response is to utilise a number of key and illustrative examples and to offer a new synthesis of theories and literatures, most notably, on the experience society, theming, participatory culture, neoliberalism and digital culture. This new context and (re)combination of theories then provides a new, and essential, perspective that reveals a great deal about the contemporary nature of the sport, what fans buy into, and also, how this may change post pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has increased the demand of effective control of the disease transmission between people, especially when they are in close distance between each other. The microenvironment between the people in short distance contains multiple airflow patterns that directly affect the disease transmission. By understanding and respecting this special localized environment, the airborne cross-infection at both short and long distance can be minimized. This paper gives an overview of the flow fields in human microenvironment. The exhalation flow from different respiratory activities, e.g. normal breathing, speaking, coughing or sneezing is considered as a part of the microenvironment. The dynamics of the exhalation flow and the contained droplets or aerosols are summarized from previous studies. The factors influencing the flow fields in human microenvironment are discussed, including both the physiological factors of the occupants and the environmental factors in the ventilated context (macroenvironment). Effective control of these influencing factors can be helpful to mitigate airborne transmission risk between individuals. This paper highlights the importance of better understanding of the dynamics and transmission routes of the expelled virus-laden droplets or aerosols, which are largely affected by complex flow interactions in human microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sri Lanka's ethnic civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also known as the Tamil Tigers, and the government of Sri Lanka comprising the majority of the Sinhalese Buddhist community came to a bloody end in May 2009. Muslims, whose political and civil society elite had largely supported the Sri Lankan state and security forces, welcomed the end of the war and the defeat of the Tamil Tigers given the history of the community with the LTTE. The expectations by the Muslims (and other communities) that peace would return to the country, were quickly dashed as it appeared that a new extremist Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist movement targeting religious minorities especially the Muslims would emerge as the country grappled with post-war reconciliation. The rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric, hate speech, and incitement to violence against the community has pushed some Muslims to think that they have become the new focus for Sinhala-Buddhist extremists in the wake of the defeat of the Tamil Tigers. With suspicions of the complicity of the state apparatus in the anti-Muslim campaign, there are serious concerns around the role and place of minorities (non-Sinhala and non-Buddhist) in the future makeup of the country. While there is no concrete evidence on the state's support for such an action, it is clear that the reluctance of the state to bring to justice those responsible for hate speech and incitement to violence since 2009 raises some serious questions about impartiality. In addition, with the increase of detentions and scrutiny of the Muslim community's post-Easter Sunday attacks and the recent treatment of the Muslim community in the response to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, including shutting down of key Muslim towns and the enforcement of forced cremations (which goes against Islamic teachings of dignified burials), there is much to ponder of an anti-Muslim strategy being mainstreamed and institutionalized by the state. This paper will seek to situate the present response to the COVID-19 pandemic by the state and its particular actions affecting the Muslim community amid a wider backdrop of a rise in anti-Muslim hatred and action. In order to understand this, the paper will seek to understand the reasoning behind why Muslims who supported the war against the Tamil Tigers, have now become the enemy for Sinhala-Buddhist extremists. It does this through primary and secondary data gathering including interviews conducted between July 2020 and February 2021. In so doing this paper will explore the development of Muslim political and religious identity by looking at a historical perspective. This paper makes the argument that a holistic approach needs to be developed to avoid a new conflict taking place in Sri Lanka and to avoid violent Islamist extremism taking hold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws upon the experience of mainly women workers in the Bangladeshi apparel industry to explore whether deregulated bodies are the fundamental condition of work in the global production network (GPN). We organised the study during the first waves of Covid-19. To conceptualise how 'deregulated bodies' have been structured into the industry as the exchange condition of work, we draw on the work of transnational feminist and Marxist scholars. The study provides insights about how a gendered GPN emerged under the neoliberal development regime; the pattern of work and work conditions are innately linked to volatile market conditions. By documenting workers' lived experiences, the paper enhances our empirical understanding of how workers depend upon work, and how a form of expendable but regulated life linked with work has been embedded in GPN. Our findings reveal that unlike those of other human beings, workers' bodies do not need to be regulated by norms that enable protection from Covid-19. As for the workers, work implies earning for living and survival, so 'live or be left to die' becomes the fundamental employment condition, and the possibility of their death an overlooked consideration. This reality has not changed or been challenged, despite the existence of compliance regimes. We further argue that as scholars, we bear a responsibility to consider how we engage in research on the implications of such organisation practices in a global environment, when all of us are experiencing the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive research has been carried out on government capacity to cope with the pandemic. However, little study on this issue exists examining it in the context of the creative economy sector. It has been argued that the successful organizations to address changes in the environment are determined by their organizational capacity. In this paper, we analyze the Indonesian government's capacity to recover the creative economy sector during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The qualitative content analysis method and key informant interviews were undertaken to understand government capacity. The paper extended the RISE (resilience, intention, sustain, and endurance) model to understand the process of government actions in recovering the creative economy sector from the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The RISE model portrays the government's capacity to respond to the hostile and uncertain environment through tax and loan relaxation, social and health assistance, and capacity building. This paper provides valuable insight into public administration by highlighting government responses to the global pandemic. By analyzing four stages of government actions in restoring the creative economy sector, this study shows that the expected outcomes are far from satisfactory. The government intervention during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic becomes ineffective because the government is weak in preparing the creative economy recovery policies according to the needs of creative economy actors and accurate data. These findings suggest that the central and local government should improve their collaborative capacity to upgrade the creative economy recovery programs according to the local aspiration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of COVID-19 in late 2019 had soon become a pandemic, leading to the lockdown of schools all around the world. To mitigate the negative impacts brought by COVID-19, the educational institutions of all levels have inevitably shifted from face-to-face teaching to online teaching. For English language teaching, fully synchronous online learning has been implemented worldwide, posing a great challenge for both instructors and learners. This study reports on findings of Chinese university English as a foreign language students' perspectives' on synchronous online language learning during the pandemic, with a special focus on their encountered difficulties. Drawing on the qualitative interview method, the study investigated 14 EFL learners at a public comprehensive university in a coastal city in southern China. Using thematic analysis, there are four main difficulties identified in the interviews, namely the lack of learning climate, the cultivation of learner autonomy, changes of interaction patterns, and the adaptation to remote assessment. The paper ends with a discussion of findings and implications for English learning and teaching in the "new normal." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to look at factors that might influence whether or not academics will use e-learning during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The goal of this paper is to look into the effect of perceived interaction, educational materials, playfulness, perceived enjoyment, self-efficacy, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use on students' attitudes toward and intentions to use e-learning in Saudi Arabia higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the indirect impact of student satisfaction with their actual use of e-learning. The research model was evaluated using structural equation modeling (SEM) and route analysis, which were based on e-learning user data collected through a survey. Student happiness and desire to use e-learning both had a beneficial impact on actual use, according to the statistics. During the COVID-19 epidemic, perceived interaction and self-efficacy were shown to be the most important factors influencing perceived usefulness and ease of use, which affected students' intentions and satisfaction with e-learning. The study's participants were e-learning users from a government university in Saudi Arabia. Previous studies on e-learning in developing nations have seldom taken a holistic approach. This paper also aims to include a literature review of recent published studies in the field of e-learning usage during the COVID-19 outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, mitigation measures were implemented on a state-by-state basis. Governors were responsible for establishing interventions appropriate for their states and the timing of implementation. This paper evaluated the association between the presence and timing of a mask mandate and the severity of the COVID-19 epidemic by state. Methods: The states were divided into 3 categories based on when the governors of each state implemented a mask mandate: Early (mask mandate implemented between March 2020 and June 2020), Late (July 2020-December 2020), and Never (no mask mandate implemented). The rates of hospitalizations and mortality (per 100 000) were assessed at the different time points during the pandemic across these categories from March to December 2020. Results: The mortality rates across all 3 groups were observed to be highest in the beginning and toward the end of the pandemic in 2020 with the peak observed in the Early group between April and May 2020. Also, the rates of hospitalization increased steadily across all groups. The Early mask group was comprised of 86.7% and 13.3% states with Democratic and Republican governors respectively, and no states in the Never category had Democratic governors. Conclusion: These results support the benefit of implementing a mask mandate to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of political affiliation of governors on that impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do COVID-19 experts psychologically manage the pandemic and its effects? Using a full year of press briefings (January 2020–January 2021) from the World Health Organization (N = 126), this paper evaluated the relationship between communication patterns and COVID-19 cases and deaths. The data suggest as COVID-19 cases and deaths increased, health experts tended to think about the virus in a more formal and analytic manner. Experts also communicated with fewer cognitive processing terms, which typically indicate people "working through" a crisis. This report offers a lens into the internal states of COVID-19 experts and their organization as they gradually learned about the virus and its daily impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic becomes increased in a drastic way, with the availability of a limited quantity of rapid testing kits. Therefore, automated COVID-19 diagnosis models are essential to identify the existence of disease from radiological images. Earlier studies have focused on the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques using X-ray images on COVID-19 diagnosis. This paper aims to develop a Deep Learning Based MultiModal Fusion technique called DLMMF for COVID-19 diagnosis and classification from Computed Tomography (CT) images. The proposed DLMMF model operates on three main processes namely Weiner Filtering (WF) based pre-processing, feature extraction and classification. The proposed model incorporates the fusion of deep features using VGG16 and Inception v4 models. Finally, Gaussian Naïve Bayes (GNB) based classifier is applied for identifying and classifying the test CT images into distinct class labels. The experimental validation of the DLMMF model takes place using open-source COVID-CT dataset, which comprises a total of 760 CT images. The experimental outcome defined the superior performance with the maximum sensitivity of 96.53%, specificity of 95.81%, accuracy of 96.81% and F -score of 96.73%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data visualisations are intimately connected to the emergence of public health as a discipline and policy area. Besides the mapping of cases and deaths, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen an explosion of attempts to track policy responses. They have come from actors sometimes initially unfamiliar with public and global health. In this paper, we analyse seven of the most successful tracker initiatives that have sought to map governments' reactions to COVID-19 and reflect on our own. When not led by international organisations, the trackers primarily rely on networks of volunteer country expert contributors (who need to be incentivised in the medium term). The vertical crowdsourcing approach means that, despite good intentions, contributors have a relatively limited agency in shaping the trackers. Maps and timelines comparing countries are the most popular visualisations; they suggest that (some) policy solutions can be found abroad and rely on policy taxonomies established by the trackers' core teams. We contend that such taxonomies, which compete with each other, constitute attempts to frame the complex issue of which policies matter in responding to COVID-19. All the projects are large and complex and often without a well-defined intended audience. We hypothesise that the popularity (in terms of backlinks) of the most successful tracker arises from the fact that it sums up COVID-19 policies in one easily visualisable indicator. We suggest that the trackers are a more helpful emergency policy tool when they provide contextual information, keep policy details or refer to them (rather than only reduce them to categories), and suggest ways to link different elements—including the relationship between health or societal outcomes and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, visitors' worries about health and safety in tourist destinations have become paramount. Consequently, this research aims to evaluate the impact of health and safety considerations on visitors' satisfaction. It also examines the influence of health consciousness and satisfaction on visitors' willingness toward robot-delivered tourism and hospitality services usage and the impact of destination healthcare system and satisfaction on loyalty intentions. Applying a quantitative-based methodology, 650 responses were collected from domestic tourists visiting Egyptian tourism destinations using multiple non-probability sampling techniques. Using PLS-SEM, the results articulated that emotional well-being, perceived safety, and perceived green image positively impacted visitors' satisfaction, which in turn, positively affected their willingness toward service robot's usage and loyalty. Tourists' health consciousness also positively affected their satisfaction and intentions to use robot-delivered services. Additionally, destination healthcare system significantly influenced visitors' satisfaction and loyalty intentions. Theoretical and managerial contributions as well as future research are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Latin America, informality has historically operated as a safety net during economic crises, by absorbing unemployed workers and providing income. However, unlike past economic crises, the 2020 crisis unleashed by the outbreak of the new coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) is not only economic but has resulted from a health emergency that requires social distance and isolation. In this article we argue that, in the context of social distancing and confinement measures, informal work constitutes a safety trap instead of operating as a safety net. First, informality as an economic subsistence mechanism is limited given that working activities in the informal sector are less convertible to remote jobs. Second, even when telework may be a viable option, the home conditions of informal workers often hinder the feasibility of telework. In making this argument, we bring to bear a conceptualization of potential to telework which includes both occupational and household components, the latter an often-neglected piece of the telework puzzle. To evaluate our argument, we conduct a quantitative cross-country analysis of seven Latin American countries (Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay). The empirical analysis consists of a descriptive assessment of the potential to telework of informal workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Influenza (flu) and COVID-19 vaccination rates are subpar across the US, especially in racial and/or socioeconomic minority groups who are understudied in public health literature. Objective: The objective of this mixed-methods study was to elucidate attitudes of patients at the Turtle Creek Primary Care Center, a clinic that cares for ∼70% non-white patients, towards flu and COVID-19 vaccines, with the goal of establishing vaccine education gaps and increasing vaccine uptake in minority communities. Design/Patients: This study was conducted as a cross-sectional analysis. Authors completed 123 patient phone surveys of patients cared for at the Turtle Creek clinic inquiring about flu and COVID-19 infection status and vaccination uptake (August 26–October 10, 2021). Approach/Key Results: We found that rates of vaccination were subpar in the Turtle Creek community, with only 54% having received the COVID-19 vaccine and only 44% receiving the flu vaccine regularly. There was a strong association between COVID-19 and flu vaccine acceptance and a notable correlation between vaccine acceptance and age. When assessing how vaccine acceptance was influenced by trusted sources of information, those who cited trusting "medical professionals" and "word of mouth" had higher odds of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance but those who cited trusting "social media" had decreased odds of acceptance. Finally, we uncovered 14 common factors for either vaccine acceptance or refusal that clustered into four overarching themes of trust, need, safety, and availability. Conclusion: These data highlight the necessity of improved vaccine education and reveal targetable populations and approaches for disseminating vaccine information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some scholars argue that the public is generally myopic in their attitudes about disaster preparedness spending, because they prefer to spend money on disaster response rather than preparedness, despite the greater cost effectiveness of the later. Given voters' general lack of policy information, it is possible that limited support for preparedness comes from lack of information about its efficacy. In this paper, we build on these studies by examining how people respond to new information about the effectiveness of policy initiatives in the context of public health and the COVID-19 pandemic. Through two online survey experiments with over 3400 respondents, we demonstrate that information can lead people to update attitudes about preparedness, illustrating the potential for information campaigns to increase support for preparedness policies. Our results suggest that information about the efficacy of preparedness can increase support for these policies, and the information effect exists even for individuals whose prior beliefs were that public health programs were ineffective. These results suggest that information can make people more supportive of preparedness spending, which could provide electoral incentives for its provision. We conclude by providing some directions for future research to enhance our understanding of public opinion and preparedness spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]