Search

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) first emerged in China in November 2019. Most governments have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by imposing a lockdown. Some evidence suggests that a period of isolation might have led to a spike in alcohol misuse, and in the case of patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD), social isolation can favour lapse and relapse. The aim of our position paper is to provide specialists in the alcohol addiction field, in psychopharmacology, gastroenterology and in internal medicine, with appropriate tools to better manage patients with AUD and COVID-19,considering some important topics: (a) the susceptibility of AUD patients to infection; (b) the pharmacological interaction between medications used to treat AUD and to treat COVID-19; (c) the reorganization of the Centre for Alcohol Addiction Treatment for the management of AUD patients in the COVID-19 era (group activities, telemedicine, outpatients treatment, alcohol-related liver disease and liver transplantation, collecting samples); (d) AUD and SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Telemedicine/telehealth will undoubtedly be useful/practical tools even though it remains at an elementary level; the contribution of the family and of caregivers in the management of AUD patients will play a significant role; the multidisciplinary intervention involving experts in the treatment of AUD with specialists in the treatment of COVID-19 disease will need implementation. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly leading addiction specialists towards a new governance scenario of AUD, which necessarily needs an in-depth reconsideration, focusing attention on a safe approach in combination with the efficacy of treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of COVID‐19 has underlined the need for reliable information to guide clinical practice and policy. This urgency has to be balanced against disruption to journal handling capacity and the continued need to ensure scientific rigour. We examined the reporting quality of highly disseminated COVID‐19 research papers using a bibliometric analysis examining reporting quality and risk of bias (RoB) amongst 250 top scoring Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) COVID‐19 research papers between January and April 2020. Method‐specific RoB tools were used to assess quality. After exclusions, 84 studies from 44 journals were included. Forty‐three (51%) were case series/studies, and only one was an randomized controlled trial. Most authors were from institutions based in China (n = 44, 52%). The median AAS and impact factor was 2015 (interquartile range [IQR] 1,105–4,051.5) and 12.8 (IQR 5–44.2) respectively. Nine studies (11%) utilized a formal reporting framework, 62 (74%) included a funding statement, and 41 (49%) were at high RoB. This review of the most widely disseminated COVID‐19 studies highlights a preponderance of low‐quality case series with few research papers adhering to good standards of reporting. It emphasizes the need for cautious interpretation of research and the increasingly vital responsibility that journals have in ensuring high‐quality publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To explore the health beliefs of clinical and academic nurses from Japan, Australia and China regarding wearing paper masks to protect themselves and others, and to identify differences in participants' health beliefs regarding masks. Background: The correct use of face masks and consensus among health professionals across the globe is essential for containing pandemics, and nurses need to act according to policy to protect themselves, educate the public and preserve resources for frontline health workers. Paper masks are worn by health professionals and the general public to avoid the transmission of respiratory infections, such as COVID‐19, but there appear to be differences in health beliefs of nurses within and between countries regarding these. Methods: This qualitative descriptive study used content analysis with a framework approach. Findings: There were major differences in nurse participants' beliefs between and within countries, including how nurses use paper masks and their understanding of their efficacy. In addition, there were cultural differences in the way that nurses use masks in their daily lives and nursing practice contexts. Conclusion: Nurses from different working environments, countries and areas of practice hold a variety of health beliefs about mask wearing at the personal and professional level. Implications for nursing policy and health policy: The COVID‐19 pandemic has sparked much discussion about the critical importance of masks for the safety of health professionals, and there has been considerable discussion and disagreement about health policies regarding mask use by the general public. Improper use of masks may have a role in creating mask shortages or transmitting infections. An evidence‐based global policy on mask use for respiratory illnesses for health professionals, including nurses, and the general public needs to be adopted and supported by a wide‐reaching education campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of migrant times/temporalities, this paper focuses on the temporal experiences among Chinese international students (CIS) who planned to enrol overseas in 2020 but instead chose to stay in China due to the COVID‐19. Specifically, it adopts 'sticky and suspended times' and 'asynchronous and precarious times' to investigate how they encounter a set of temporal disruptions at both everyday and life course levels while staying put in China. Particularly, the paper asks how CIS exercises agency to navigate through temporal dissonances and enhance their immobile state and capital accumulation. Critically, the paper develops a temporally sensitive framework to unpack the multiple kinds of temporalities CIS confront during the pandemic, further advancing studies on 'international student mobility' and 'time in migration'. Additionally, existing studies have largely focused on how time shapes people's mobility and this paper provides an empirical case on the potential of the temporal approach to understanding immobilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African trading brokers in China buy knock‐off or copy goods and move them through customs via bribery to African ports; this trade, although illegal, brings desired global products to Africa. This paper, based on interviews with African trading brokers, examines how the internet and Covid‐19 have affected their trade. African customers can now find out the accurate prices of goods; computerized customs regimes make bribery difficult; and Covid‐19 has raised shipping costs. While the informal economic arrangements of these trading brokers will probably continue despite policymakers' efforts to eradicate them, China may no longer be the source of their goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global economy has been adversely affected by the COVID‐19 pandemic, leading to setbacks in development progress. Against this backdrop, donor countries have increased their expenditure on medical aid as part of their foreign assistance. As an emerging donor from the developing world, China has also been actively involved in providing medical assistance to other countries since 2020. This paper intends to investigate and elucidate China's motivation to offer medical aid to other countries amid the COVID‐19 pandemic. To this end, it utilizes a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Specifically, the Tobit model is employed to conduct regression analyses on China's medical assistance during the pandemic. Additionally, two case studies, namely Chinese aid to Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, are examined to gain insights into the specific motivations driving China's medical aid. The results of this paper indicate that China's motivation for providing medical assistance during COVID‐19 is multifaceted, including self‐interested economic and political‐diplomatic factors rather than purely altruistic motives. Furthermore, the allocation of China's medical aid is significantly influenced by whether the recipient country is involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic has issued significant challenges to food systems and the food security of migrants in cities. In China, there have been no studies to date focusing on the food security of migrants during the pandemic. To fill this gap, an online questionnaire survey of food security in Nanjing City, China, was conducted in March 2020. This paper situates the research findings in the general literature on the general migrant experience during the pandemic under COVID and the specifics of the Chinese policy of hukou. Using multiple linear regression and ordered logistic regression, the paper examines the impact of migration status on food security during the pandemic. The paper finds that during the COVID‐19 outbreak in 2020, households without local Nanjing hukou were more food insecure than those with Nanjing hukou. The differences related more to the absolute quantity of food intake, rather than reduction in food quality or in levels of anxiety over food access. Migrants in China and elsewhere during COVID‐19 experienced three pathways to food insecurity—an income gap, an accessibility gap, and a benefits gap. This conceptual framework is used to structure the discussion and interpretation of survey findings and also has wider potential applicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preexisting political institutions influence governments' responses to public health crises in different ways, creating national variations. This article investigates how state capacity, a country's fundamental ability to organize bureaucracy and allocate societal resources, affects the timing and configuration of governments' COVID‐19 policy responses. Through comparative case study analysis of five of China's neighboring countries early in the COVID‐19 crisis, the paper shows that more‐capable states (Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan) initiated crisis response faster, mobilized national resources more extensively, and utilized diverse policy tools when the virus risk level was still low. In contrast, low‐capacity states (Thailand and Indonesia) were more reactive in handling the crisis, limited their focus to border‐related measures, and were more constrained in the types of tools they could employ. The paper points to the importance of studying the COVID‐19 response process rather than the outcome (i.e., confirmed cases/deaths) when unpacking the impacts of political institutions in public health crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper relates evidence from the COVID‐19 pandemic to the concept of pandemic refuges, as developed in literature on global catastrophic risk. In this literature, a refuge is a place or facility designed to keep a portion of the population alive during extreme global catastrophes. COVID‐19 is not the most extreme pandemic scenario, but it is nonetheless a very severe global event, and it therefore provides an important source of evidence. Through the first 2 years of the COVID‐19 pandemic, several political jurisdictions have achieved low spread of COVID‐19 via isolation from the rest of the world and can therefore classify as pandemic refuges. Their suppression and elimination of COVID‐19 demonstrates the viability of pandemic refuges as a risk management measure. Whereas prior research emphasizes island nations as pandemic refuges, this paper uses case studies of China and Western Australia to show that other types of jurisdictions can also successfully function as pandemic refuges. The paper also refines the concept of pandemic refuges and discusses implications for future pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To improve the level of hospital workers' safety performance in response to emergencies (e.g. COVID‐19), this paper examines the relationship between hospital workers' job control on safety performance, and the mediating role of hospital safety climate and the moderating role of social support. Design: In this cross‐sectional questionnaire survey, a convenience sampling of hospital workers from three hospitals that have COVID‐19 cases from Beijing and Shandong Province in China. Methods: These questionnaires were used to obtain self‐reported data on hospital workers' job control, hospital safety climate, social support and safety performance. Mplus software was used to calculate CFA. SPSS25.0 software was used to calculate mean values, standard deviations, correlations and regression analyses. Results: The participants were 241 hospital workers from three hospitals in China (male = 55.2%, female = 44.8%; age range <30 to >45; physician = 58%, nurse = 22%, other hospital worker = 20%). A moderated mediation model among job control, hospital safety climate, social support and safety performance was supported. Moderated mediation analysis indicates hospital workers' job control effectively improves the level of safety performance; hospital safety climate plays a partially mediating role in the process of job control affecting hospital workers' safety performance; social support moderates the effect of work control on medical workers' safety climate. Hence, it is important to increase job control and hospital safety climate. Further, social support for hospital workers should be encouraged, advocated and supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of Coronavirus 2019 (COVID‐19) has impacted everyday lives globally. The number of positive cases is growing and India is now one of the most affected countries. This paper builds predictive models that can predict the number of positive cases with higher accuracy. Regression‐based, Decision tree‐based, and Random forest‐based models have been built on the data from China and are validated on India's sample. The model is found to be effective and will be able to predict the positive number of cases in the future with minimal error. The developed machine learning model can work in real‐time and can effectively predict the number of positive cases. Key measures and suggestions have been put forward considering the effect of lockdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic has had a profound worldwide impact on the laboratory hematology community. Nevertheless, the pace of COVID‐19 hematology‐related research has continued to accelerate and has established the role of laboratory hematology data for many purposes including disease prognosis and outcome. The purpose of this scoping review was to assess the current state of COVID‐19 laboratory hematology research. A comprehensive search of the literature published between December 1, 2019, and July 3, 2020, was performed, and we analyzed the sources, publication dates, study types, and topics of the retrieved studies. Overall, 402 studies were included in this scoping review. Approximately half of these studies (n = 202, 50.37%) originated in China. Retrospective cohort studies comprised the largest study type (n = 176, 43.89%). Prognosis/ risk factors, epidemiology, and coagulation were the most common topics. The number of studies published per day has increased through the end of May. The studies were heavily biased in favor of papers originating in China and on retrospective clinical studies with limited use of and reporting of laboratory data. Despite the major improvements in our understanding of the role of coagulation, automated hematology, and cell morphology in COVID‐19, there are gaps in the literature, including biosafety and the laboratory role in screening and prevention of COVID‐19. There is a gap in the publication of papers focused on guidelines for the laboratory. Our findings suggest that, despite the large number of publications related to laboratory data and their use in COVID‐19 disease, many areas remain unexplored or under‐reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines elements of knowledge management (KM) applied during the treatment of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) and proposes a KM framework that can be applied to respond quickly to a new virus outbreak. Following a content analysis of the press conferences held in China, this study found that various elements of KM, including strategic KM, the knowledge codification strategy vs. the knowledge personalization strategy, a knowledge‐friendly culture, knowledge‐based leadership, KM‐based human resource management, and KM‐related information technologies, were widely used by Chinese authorities and healthcare workers to improve treatment effectiveness for COVID‐19 patients. This paper provides a unique case study on how KM helps the government and the healthcare workers to respond to an unexpected public hygiene crisis.i [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of Covid‐19 lockdowns on exports by Chinese cities. We use city‐level export data at a monthly frequency from January 2018 through April 2020. Differences‐in‐differences estimates suggest cities in lockdown experienced a ceteris paribus 34 percentage points reduction in the year‐on‐year growth rate of exports. The lockdown impacted the intensive and extensive margin, with higher exit and lower new entry into foreign markets. The drop in exports was smaller in (i) coastal cities; (ii) cities with better‐developed ICT infrastructure; and (iii) cities with a larger share of potential teleworkers. Time‐sensitive and differentiated goods experienced a more pronounced decline in export growth. Global supply chain characteristics matter, with more upstream products and industries that had accumulated larger inventories experiencing a smaller decline in export growth. Also, products that relied more on imported (domestic) intermediates experienced a sharper (flatter) slowdown in export growth. The rapid recovery in cities' exports after lockdowns were lifted suggests the policy was cost‐effective in terms of its effects on trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of China's "Zero‐Covid" policy on subnational cross‐region export performance during 2019–2021. Using monthly export data at the product‐destination level for China's 31 provinces and municipality cities, we find that new infections in a region have a significantly negative effect on the region's export growth, particularly for non‐processing exports and industries with low dependence on remote working and products that are more substitutable and used mostly in the downstream of supply chains. However, restrictions on people inflows have no significant effect. The severity of the pandemic in export destinations is negatively correlated with China's export growth, suggesting an important demand‐side reason for China's export downturn during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In a context where synchronous online teaching has become a new trend of instruction for online education due to the COVID‐19 pandemic, it is valuable and insightful to examine what factors contribute to teachers' satisfaction with synchronous online teaching. Objective: Informed by the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study investigated English‐as‐a‐foreign‐language (EFL) university teachers' synchronous online teaching satisfaction in China from social (i.e., subjective norms), institutional (i.e., facilitating conditions), and individual (i.e., self‐efficacy, attitudes toward use, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use) levels during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Methods: A total of 250 in‐service EFL university teachers participated in this study. An online questionnaire was adaptively developed to measure teachers' perceptions of and satisfaction with synchronous online teaching. The structural equation modelling (i.e., path analyses) was performed to find out a model that can best represent EFL university teachers' synchronous online teaching satisfaction. Results and Conclusion: The results showed that facilitating conditions, self‐efficacy, attitudes toward use, and perceived usefulness are direct contributors to EFL university teachers' satisfaction with synchronous online teaching. Whereas, perceived ease of use, self‐efficacy, and subjective norms are indirect contributors through the mediation of attitudes toward use. Moreover, different from previous TAM research, facilitating conditions have been found to be the most significant direct factor positively contributing to satisfaction. The findings of this study are expected to shed light on how to enhance teachers' synchronous online teaching satisfaction. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: The technology acceptance model (TAM) has been frequently adopted to examine teachers' acceptance of technology in various contexts over the last two decades.The TAM model identifies three key factors that contribute to people's intention of technology use: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of, and attitudes toward technology use.Although the TAM model has been extensively examined in various technology‐supported teaching contexts, there has been a lack of focus on livestream technology‐supported synchronous online teaching. What the paper adds: EFL university teachers' synchronous online teaching satisfaction during the COVID‐19 in China.Teachers' satisfaction with synchronous online teaching is a joint interplay of individual (i.e., self‐efficacy, attitudes toward use, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use), institutional (i.e., facilitating conditions), and social (i.e., subjective norms) factors.Facilitating conditions, self‐efficacy, attitudes toward use, and perceived usefulness are direct contributors, while perceived ease of use, self‐efficacy, and subjective norms are indirect contributors to teachers' synchronous online teaching satisfaction through the mediation of attitudes toward use.Different from previous TAM research, facilitating conditions have been found to be the most significant direct factor positively contributing to satisfaction. Implications for practice and/or policy: This study offers a diagnostic measure for schools and universities to understand the status quo of their teachers' perceptions of and satisfaction with synchronous online teaching.Universities are advised to provide teachers with readily accessible support and training to enhance their self‐efficacy for synchronous online teaching so that their satisfaction with synchronous online teaching can be strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the Chinese government's responses to COVID‐19 since its outbreak have been widely discussed, scant attention has been paid to the cross‐regional variation in China in handling the pandemic in the early stage. This article adopts and synthesizes the theory of regionally decentralized governance and the institutional collective action dilemma framework to offer a novel analytical characterization of the pattern of sub‐national governments' counter‐COVID‐19 initiatives in different policy areas and highlights the peer effect and regional competition dynamics. We provide three brief case studies to illustrate various institutional collective action dilemmas under this framework that emerged in pandemic responses and must be addressed through re‐centralization. Despite its focus on China's regional responses to COVID‐19, this paper prompts the construction of a broad analytical framework for precipitating a better understanding of the complex structure of China's political and governance system in a time of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the impact of urban density, city government efficiency, and medical resources on COVID‐19 infection and death outcomes in China. We adopt a simultaneous spatial dynamic panel data model to account for (i) the simultaneity of infection and death outcomes, (ii) the spatial pattern of the transmission, (iii) the intertemporal dynamics of the disease, and (iv) the unobserved city‐specific and time‐specific effects. We find that, while population density increases the level of infections, government efficiency significantly mitigates the negative impact of urban density. We also find that the availability of medical resources improves public health outcomes conditional on lagged infections. Moreover, there exists significant heterogeneity at different phases of the epidemiological cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) had spread from China and, within 2 months, became a global pandemic. The infection from this disease can cause a diversity of symptoms ranging from asymptomatic to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome with an increased risk of vascular hyperpermeability, pulmonary inflammation, extensive lung damage, and thrombosis. One of the host defense systems against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) is the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). Numerous studies on this disease have revealed the presence of elevated levels of NET components, such as cell‐free DNA, extracellular histones, neutrophil elastase, and myeloperoxidase, in plasma, serum, and tracheal aspirates of severe COVID‐19 patients. Extracellular histones, a major component of NETs, are clinically very relevant as they represent promising biomarkers and drug targets, given that several studies have identified histones as key mediators in the onset and progression of various diseases, including COVID‐19. However, the role of extracellular histones in COVID‐19 per se remains relatively underexplored. Histones are nuclear proteins that can be released into the extracellular space via apoptosis, necrosis, or NET formation and are then regarded as cytotoxic damage‐associated molecular patterns that have the potential to damage tissues and impair organ function. This review will highlight the mechanisms of extracellular histone‐mediated cytotoxicity and focus on the role that histones play in COVID‐19. Thereby, this paper facilitates a bench‐to‐bedside view of extracellular histone‐mediated cytotoxicity, its role in COVID‐19, and histones as potential drug targets and biomarkers for future theranostics in the clinical treatment of COVID‐19 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the economic impact of the non‐pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) implemented by countries in Europe and Central Asia during the initial stages of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The analysis relies on daily electricity consumption, nitrogen dioxide emission and mobility records to trace the economic disruptions caused by the pandemic and calibrate these measures to estimate the magnitude of the economic impact. To address the potential endogeneity in the introduction of NPIs, we instrument their stringency by the extent of a country's social ties to China. The results suggest that the NPIs led to a decline of about 10% in economic activity across the region. On average, countries that implemented non‐pharmaceutical interventions in the early stages of the pandemic appear to have better short‐term economic outcomes and lower cumulative mortality, compared with countries that imposed non‐pharmaceutical interventions during the later stages of the pandemic. Moreover, there is evidence that COVID‐19 mortality at the peak of the local outbreak has been lower in countries that acted earlier. In this sense, the results suggest that the sooner non‐pharmaceutical interventions are implemented, the better are the economic and health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the recurrence of infectious diseases caused by coronaviruses, which pose a significant threat to human health, there is an unprecedented urgency to devise an effective method to identify and assess who is most at risk of contracting these diseases. China has successfully controlled the spread of COVID‐19 through the disclosure of track data belonging to diagnosed patients. This paper proposes a novel textual track‐data‐based approach for individual infection risk measurement. The proposed approach is divided into three steps. First, track features are extracted from track data to build a general portrait of COVID‐19 patients. Then, based on the extracted track features, we construct an infection risk indicator system to calculate the infection risk index (IRI). Finally, individuals are divided into different infection risk categories based on the IRI values. By doing so, the proposed approach can determine the risk of an individual contracting COVID‐19, which facilitates the identification of high‐risk populations. Thus, the proposed approach can be used for risk prevention and control of COVID‐19. In the empirical analysis, we comprehensively collected 9455 pieces of track data from 20 January 2020 to 30 July 2020, covering 32 provinces/provincial municipalities in China. The empirical results show that the Chinese COVID‐19 patients have six key features that indicate infection risk: place, region, close‐contact person, contact manner, travel mode, and symptom. The IRI values for all 9455 patients vary from 0 to 43.19. Individuals are classified into the following five infection risk categories: low, moderate‐low, moderate, moderate‐high, and high risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The coronavirus (COVID‐19) started in China in 2019, has spread rapidly in every single country and has spread in millions of cases worldwide. This paper presents a proposed approach that involves identifying the relative impact of COVID‐19 on a specific gender, the mortality rate in specific age, investigating different safety measures adopted by each country and their impact on the virus growth rate. Our study proposes data‐driven analysis and prediction modeling by investigating three aspects of the pandemic (gender of patients, global growth rate, and social distancing). Several machine learning and ensemble models have been used and compared to obtain the best accuracy. Experiments have been demonstrated on three large public datasets. The motivation of this study is to propose an analytical machine learning based model to explore three significant aspects of COVID‐19 pandemic as gender, global growth rate, and social distancing. The proposed analytical model includes classic classifiers, distinctive ensemble methods such as bagging, feature based ensemble, voting and stacking. The results show a superior prediction performance comparing with the related approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the pattens of international collaboration by analysing publications on COVID‐19 published in the first 6 months of the pandemic. The data set comprised articles on COVID‐19 indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoS CC) downloaded four times between 1 April 2020 and 1 June 2020. The analysis of 5,827 documents revealed that 128 countries, 23,127 authors, and 6,349 institutes published on the pandemic. The data reveal that the three main publishing countries were the USA, China, and England with Italy closely following. Although publication was widely spread, most of the institutions with the highest volume of output were in China. Network analysis showed growth in international cooperation with an average degree of country/region cooperation rising to 23.06 by 1 June. There was also a clear core‐periphery structure to international collaboration. Institutional collaboration was shown to be highly regionalized. The data reveal a high and growing incidence of international collaboration on the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To support young children's learning during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic, preschool educators in Hong Kong were required to teach with digital technologies. In this study, 1035 educators from 169 preschools reported their views and practices in an online survey, which we examined via multilevel mixed‐response analysis and thematic analysis. More than half of the respondents (53%) expected future online teaching to continue, and only 11% of educators believed that parents would reject this form of delivery. Administrators and teaching assistants were more likely than teachers to expect online preschool teaching to continue in the future. In addition, respondents with existing online platform experience, who taught the upper levels of preschool, or incorporated specific teaching practices (eg, after the online lesson, they assessed children and assigned homework tasks), were more likely than others to expect online teaching in the future. Many of these respondents also reported (a) difficulty with engaging their children when online and (b) inadequate support from parents for learning activities, which reduced the respondents' perceived likelihood of future online teaching. Administrators and teaching assistants were more likely than teachers to believe that parents would accept online teaching in the future. Respondents who felt they had inadequate training to teach online, children in families with inadequate technical skills and parents who believed that online lessons harmed children's well‐being, were less likely than others to believe that parents would accept online teaching in the future. These educators believed that online learning communities could connect parents and schools and foster interaction that could help align with educator's support for children's learning needs. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about technology integration for young children during COVID‐19COVID‐19 led to the closure of many schools, requiring teachers to teach online.Barriers to integrating technologies in preschool settings existed before the pandemic.Online teaching can support students' learning, but few studies have examined technology integration for preschoolers at home during a pandemic.What this paper addsThis paper adds new data on schooling during a pandemic. During the closures, preschool teachers applied two major online teaching approaches: (a) digital content interaction and (b) online human interaction.Technology integration was added to provide evidence of how teachers applied online learning resources for young children during COVID‐19.During closures, teachers often delivered learning resources via digital‐mediated learning platforms, but they were less likely than other educators to expect online teaching in the future.Educators who perceived greater engagement of children or support from parents were more likely to expect online teaching in the future.Implications for practice and/or policyThis study showed that some preschool teachers integrated technology into their teaching during a pandemic, and future studies can explore how to facilitate or extend this integration after the pandemic.This study showed the need for more interactive online teaching preparation to address young children's learning needs.Some teachers were responsive to feedback from children and monitored their learning during the online teaching process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: allergy; achievements; China; journal EN allergy achievements China journal 422 424 3 02/20/21 20210201 NES 210201 With the rapid economic development and increased national financial support for scientific research in China, there has been considerable progress in the technological innovation capabilities of the country. As elucidated in this issue of I Allergy i , the remarkable efforts and the inspiring achievements of Chinese researchers are changing our understanding of some of the key issues in the field of allergies. Distinct effects of asthma and COPD comorbidity on disease expression and outcome in patients with COVID-19. [Extracted from the article]

Recently, most countries have entered the outbreak period of the novel coronavirus epidemic. This sudden outbreak has caused a huge impact on the global economy, which has intensified the division of globalization and the recession of the global economy. Although the epidemic situation in China has gradually stabilized, the severe situation in the world still inevitably impacts China's economy. Based on the uncertainty of future epidemic, this paper sets up three scenarios to analyze the impact of the epidemic on China's economy. The first is that in June, the epidemic both at home and abroad is under control without rebound; the second is that the domestic epidemic is basically controlled but the foreign situation is not effectively controlled; the third is that the epidemic situation in China has a serious rebound due to the influence of the imported cases from abroad, which destroy the economy again. At the same time, some corresponding guidelines are put forward for the recovery of economy, and to minimize the economic losses as well as accelerate the pace of national economic recovery. In addition, it is believed that these suggestions may have certain reference value to other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the role of supply chain linkages for the transmission of COVID‐19‐induced shocks based on the monthly trade of the European Union Member States during the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Using the framework of the gravity model, we find an overall decline of over 20% in trade among EU countries following the COVID‐19 outbreak. Both supply and demand shocks are shown to contribute to this trade decline associated with COVID‐19 in the origin and destination country proxied by either infection rate or policy stringency index. While import demand shocks have an immediate effect on trade decline, the trade becomes increasingly sensitive to the COVID‐19 situation in the origin country over time. Moreover, the results confirm that forward global value chain (GVC) linkages act as a channel for the transmission of (demand) shocks in supply chain trade. Indeed, an increase in the incidence of COVID‐19 cases in the destination country leads to a larger decrease in domestic exports of intermediate goods in those destination countries with which a country has stronger forward linkages, that is in partners positioned further downstream. We also find the 'China effect', with the transmission of the COVID‐19 shock from the partner country amplified when the share of supply chain trade with China is higher. On the other hand, we fail to find robust evidence for the transmission of COVID‐19‐induced shocks via backward linkages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a low‐altitude satellite survey of power line harmonic radiation (PLHR) at 50 Hz over Mainland China. We analyzed the month‐to‐month variation pattern in PLHR occurrence rate and further analyzed its correlation with some influencing factors (i.e., solar radiation, lightning flashes, and electricity consumption) using CSES satellite electric field data from 2019 to 2021. We also investigate the response of PLHR occurrence rate to COVID‐19. The statistical results show the dayside PLHR occurrence rate decreasing from winter to summer solstice and increasing from summer to winter solstice, which indicates it is controlled by the solar radiation. The nightside variation is more complex, which may be due to many sources that could influence the nightside lower ionosphere. The PLHR occurrence rate significantly decreased over Mainland China in February 2020, which is because of the significant decrease in electricity consumption due to the suspension of industrial production caused by COVID‐19. Plain Language Summary: Power line harmonic radiation (PLHR) is the electromagnetic waves radiated by electric power systems at harmonic frequencies of 50 or 60 Hz, depending on the frequency of the system on the ground. Previous research mainly focuses on identification of individual PLHR events and their subsequent analysis. However, the number of base‐frequency PLHR signal events is the most abundant, which is suitable for the statistical study of PLHR occurrence rate and its variation pattern, and further study of the factors affecting its variation pattern. In this paper, we use 3 years of electric field data from the China Seismo‐Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) which is an LEO satellite launched into orbit in February 2018 to investigate the month‐to‐month variation pattern of PLHR occurrence rate over Mainland China and its correlation with the influencing factors. The response of PLHR occurrence rate to COVID‐19 are also investigated. Key Points: The month‐to‐month variation in power line harmonic radiation (PLHR) incidence is controlled by solar radiation and influenced by changes in electricity consumptionThe variation in nightside PLHR occurrence rate is complex, due to the nightside lower ionosphere being influenced by multiple sourcesThe PLHR occurrence rate over Mainland China decrease in February 2020 due to the decrease in electricity consumption caused by COVID‐19 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Fangcang shelter hospital is a form of large temporary hospital developed in China to tackle public health events. Through the case study and analysis of managing a nursing unit in a huge Fangcang shelter hospital transformed from the National Exhibition and Convention Center during the Omicron wave in Shanghai, China between April 9, 2022 and May 24, 2022, this paper aimed to highlight critical implications of public health nurses in health emergencies. Design: A case study was conducted using data collected from a nursing unit with 570 beds. The five characteristics of management were organized as follows: human resource management, establishment and optimization of the core workflow, safety management of high‐risk patients, the grid cooperation mechanism with patient volunteers, as well as humanistic nursing. Results: Analysis of the data of the nursing unit indicated close team cooperation, efficient and orderly process scheduling, good outcomes of patients, and the indispensable role of volunteers. Conclusion: Practice indicated that nursing unit management in a large Fangcang shelter hospital is important to ensure medical order and efficiency. This practical experience can provide valuable reference and data to support for the nursing management of large‐scale public health events, such as infectious disease epidemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vaccines can play a crucial role in reducing the negative outcomes of pandemics. In this paper we explore how vaccine perceptions and uptake willingness can be affected by vaccine‐related information, the vaccine's country of origin, and national identity. Study 1 (N = 800) showed that a vaccine manufactured by China was perceived more negatively compared to vaccines from the UK, Germany, and Chile. Providing vaccine effectiveness information (83%) increased preference for waiting for an alternative vaccine and reduced perceived effectiveness of a vaccine from China. Brexit supporters perceived vaccines as less safe in general, and particularly thought of a vaccine from China as less competent, effective, and trustworthy, and were less prepared to have it. Study 2 (N = 601) largely replicated findings of Study 1 regarding the effects of a vaccine's country of origin. Moreover, participants who reported a higher sense of British superiority reported more negative attitudes towards a vaccine from China. However, apart from the aforementioned main effects of Study 2, our attempt to manipulate British identity vis a vis a Global identity in order to examine particular national‐identity related outcomes was not successful. Overall, vaccine characteristics can interact with various social psychological factors, potentially affecting people's perceptions and willingness to uptake particular measures to support personal and public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries worldwide have been affected by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID‐19) that was first reported in China. To understand and forecast the transmission dynamics of this disease, fractional‐order derivative‐based modeling can be beneficial. We propose in this paper a fractional‐order mathematical model to examine the COVID‐19 disease outbreak. This model outlines the multiple mechanisms of transmission within the dynamics of infection. The basic reproduction number and the equilibrium points are calculated from the model to assess the transmissibility of the COVID‐19. Sensitivity analysis is discussed to explain the significance of the epidemic parameters. The existence and uniqueness of the solution to the proposed model have been proven using the fixed‐point theorem and by helping the Arzela–Ascoli theorem. Using the predictor–corrector algorithm, we approximated the solution of the proposed model. The results obtained are represented by using figures that illustrate the behavior of the predicted model classes. Finally, the study of the stability of the numerical method is carried out using some results and primary lemmas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assumes that the severity of local COVID‐19 spread can capture the short‐run fluctuation of macro‐level uncertainty in business environments. Given capital‐market pressure and incentives to obtain favourable considerations from the government and lenders, we hypothesise that COVID‐19‐induced uncertainty can lead managers to release (delay) preexisting firm‐specific bad (good) news. Our baseline results show that firms are more likely to disclose unfavourable (favourable) 2019 forecasts in days when recent COVID‐19 cases in headquarter provinces increase (decrease). Results in further analyses provide evidence on the aforementioned reporting incentives by showing that the opportunistic timing behaviour is more prominent in firms with higher managerial ownership, non‐state ownership, and in firms under financial distress. In addition, we uncover the role of local marketisation level and medical resources in mitigating the opportunistic timing behaviour. Finally, the analysis of market reactions shows that the manipulation of disclosure dates can influence the market price in a favourable direction for firms. Overall, our paper presents a comprehensive picture of corporate opportunistic timing behaviour amid the COVID‐19 crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2019 coronavirus (COVID‐19), started in China, spreads rapidly around the entire world. In automated medical imagery diagnostic technique, due to presence of noise in medical images and use of single pre‐trained model on low quality images, the existing deep network models cannot provide the optimal results with better accuracy. Hence, hybrid deep learning model of Xception model & Resnet50V2 model is proposed in this paper. This study suggests classifying X‐ray images into three categories namely, normal, bacterial/viral infections and Covid positive. It utilizes CLAHE & BM3D techniques to improve visual clarity and reduce noise. Transfer learning method with variety of pre‐trained models such as ResNet‐50, Inception V3, VGG‐16, VGG‐19, ResNet50V2, and Xception are used for better feature extraction and Chest X‐ray image classification. The overfitting issue were resolved using K‐fold cross validation. The proposed hybrid deep learning model results high accuracy of 97.8% which is better than existing techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has caused major disruptions to agricultural supply chains around the world. Researchers and policy-makers are interested in identifying means to reduce the disruptive effects caused by the pandemic. We investigate the impacts of COVID-19 on the operation of e-commerce stores (in short, e-stores) specialising in agricultural inputs. The difference-in-differences method (DID) is employed to estimate the causal relationship between COVID-19 and online sales of agricultural inputs using data from 54,244 agricultural input e-stores registered in 118 prefecture-level cities across 15 provinces and hosted on two major Chinese e-commerce platforms. The results show that COVID-19 led to a substantial growth in monthly sales of agricultural input e-stores, and this growth of online sales varied across store scales and by types of agricultural inputs. In particular, e-stores selling seeds and seedlings experienced a larger growth in sales than stores selling agricultural machinery and implements, and the mid-and larger-scaled e-stores experienced more growth of sales than micro-and small-scaled e-stores. Further analysis reveals that the growth of online sales of agricultural inputs was driven mainly by an increase in the quantity of customer orders (QCO). The findings of this paper underscore the importance of e-commerce in ensuring the resilience of the agricultural supply chain during the pandemic period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The organisation of value chains within and between firms and even countries is an important reason for domestic as well as international travel. Hence, value chains create interdependencies which have to do with economic but also personal interactions between firms and places. The latter means value chains are a springboard for shocks—positive or negative—to travel and other related outcomes. This paper sheds light on how input–output relations in China as one human‐interaction‐intensive activity can help explain spreading patterns of COVID‐19 in the first few months of 2020 in China. We document that COVID‐19 at that time spread more intensively where input–output relations were stronger between cities in China, and this contributed to inducing direct and mediated, indirect effects on the stock market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early in the COVID‐19 pandemic, a global shortage of hospital gowns, gloves, surgical masks, and respirators caused policymakers globally to panic. China increased imports and decreased exports of this personal protective equipment, removing supplies from world markets. Shortages led to European Union and US export controls as well as other extraordinary policy actions, including a US effort to reserve supplies manufactured in China by a US‐headquartered multinational. By April 2020, China's exports had mostly resumed, and over the rest of the year its export volumes surged. But China's export prices also skyrocketed and remained elevated through 2020, reflecting severe and continued shortages. This paper explores these and other government actions, such as US trade war tariffs and US industrial policy in the form of over $1 billion of subsidies to build out its domestic personal protective equipment supply chain, as well as potential lessons for future pandemic preparedness and international policy cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) captured worldwide attention as the virus spread from initial detection as a pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, China in December 2019 to the declaration of a pandemic by the WHO only 3 months later. This paper describes the impact of COVID-19 on cardiac surgery services in the greater Los Angeles area. Discussion includes public health response to the pandemic, how local hospitals reacted to the expected surge in patients with COVID, the establishment of telemedicine services, and the projected future impact on California healthcare as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in December 2019, presumed from the city of Wuhan, Hubei province in China, and the subsequent declaration of the disease as a pandemic by the World Health Organization as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in March 2020, had a significant impact on health care systems globally. Each country responded to this disease in different ways, however this was done broadly by fortifying and prioritizing health care provision as well as introducing social lockdown aiming to contain the infection and minimizing the risk of transmission. In the United Kingdom, a lockdown was introduced by the government on March 23, 2020 and all health care services were focussed to challenge the impact of COVID-19. To do so, the United Kingdom National Health Service had to undergo widespread service reconfigurations and the so-called "Nightingale Hospitals" were created de novo to bolster bed provision, and industries were asked to direct efforts to the production of ventilators. A government-led public health campaign was publicized under the slogan of: "Stay home, Protect the NHS (National Health Service), Save lives." The approach had a significant impact on the delivery of all surgical services but particularly cardiac surgery with its inherent critical care bed capacity. This paper describes the impact on provision for elective and emergency cardiac surgery in the United Kingdom, with a focus on aortovascular disease. We describe our aortovascular activity and outcomes during the period of UK lockdown and present a patient survey of attitudes to aortic surgery during COVID-19 pandemic., (The Authors. Journal of Cardiac Surgery published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

A novel coronavirus which has appeared from China, has been circulating hastily around the world. We summarized the publications including oral manifestation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases based on PubMed and Google Scholar data bases, and also present a case that highlights oral lesions 2 days prior to the first COVID-19 general symptoms. Two authors independently reviewed the papers, 17 studies of more than 170 confirmed cases between ages of 9 and 90 were included. The most common oral manifestation was dry mouth followed by dysgeusia and pseudomembranous fungal structure. Change in tongue sensation and ulceration, muscle pain during mastication, swelling in oral cavity, and herpetic lesions were other common symptoms. Associated symptoms, latency time, treatment, and prognosis have also been meticulously reviewed. We hope that careful clinical intraoral examination on all COVID-19 positive patients and equally on any patients who need dental care will pave the way for further studies., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

In this paper, we employ a combination of time regression discontinuity design method (T‐RD) and the difference‐in‐difference method (DID) to identify and quantify the causal effects of the strict lockdown policy on vegetable prices using multiple‐year daily price data from 151 wholesale markets of Chinese cabbage. We find that the lockdown policy caused a large and immediate surge in price and price dispersion of Chinese cabbage, though they fluctuated smoothly for the same period in normal years. The DID results further show that the price surge peaked in the fourth week of lockdown but gradually came down to the level of a normal year by week 11. However, the price rose again (though to a much smaller extent) in response to the resurgence of COVID‐19 in a few provinces in early‐mid April but quickly returned to the normal level in week 15 when the lockdown measures were largely removed. We also find that the supply chain disruption is the driving factor for the price hike. Policy implications are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In December 2019, a new coronavirus has emerged out of China, the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus, causing a disease known as COVID‐19, which steadily has progressed into a pandemic. This coronavirus affects many organs, including the skin, whose manifestations are a consequence of the disease itself, as well as the preventative measures taken to avoid the infection. This paper reviews the cutaneous manifestations which currently have been encountered during this pandemic. Methods: A search was conducted on PubMed, and all relevant articles were included. Results: The results show the occurrence of many cutaneous findings, ranging from those related to the infection itself and to various dermatitides related to the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) utilized by healthcare workers while attending to infected patients. Discussion: Recognizing these findings is important for the accurate diagnosis of those infected with COVID‐19 as well as the prompt treatment of the side effects caused by PPE that might further impair the effectiveness of healthcare workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 outbreak has been one of the world's most severe challenges since World War II, which not only reflected in the observable economic depression, but also in emotional damage that is scarcely underscored. This paper estimates the effect of the epidemic on happiness of Chinese residents by capturing the emotions conveyed through massive social media, combined with city‐level epidemic data. We confirm the significant negative impact of the outbreak on life satisfaction, with an extra 1% of cumulative death cases associated with a 0.54% decrease in expressed happiness. Meanwhile, we find that well‐being drops the most in regions with high‐level risk of COVID‐19, and happiness in regions with higher or lower income levels are more vulnerable to the effects of the epidemic, in comparison to the intermediate‐level income regions. Female sentiment exhibits more sensitivity to the epidemic situation than does male sentiment. Furthermore, the timing of major public events also plays a sizable role in determining self‐reported happiness, and our results suggest that pandemic alerts announced by the World Health Organization significantly increased the loss of well‐being, while announcements of city‐unlocking had the opposite impact. The interaction between the outbreak and real‐time expressed happiness provides an important opportunity for reflection on the future governance policies of epidemic containment. Key Points: First, the results indicate significant negative impact of the outbreak on life satisfactionSecond, we find that well‐being drops the most in regions with high‐level risk of COVID‐19Female sentiment exhibits more sensitivity to the epidemic situation than does male sentiment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the Quad countries, Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, have countervailed China's Belt and Road Initiative in the Indo‐Pacific through various institutional efforts both individually and collectively. It argues that the existing approach of offering an alternative to China's BRI will hardly be successful. Although the 2020 COVID‐19 pandemic has weakened China's financial and economic capacities in sustaining and expanding its BRI projects, it is unlikely that China will give up the BRI under Xi Jinping's leadership. This, however, creates an opportunity for the Quad countries to weigh in on the future BRI in the post‐COVID era. These Quad countries could consider employing an 'inclusive institutional balancing' strategy to constrain, change, and shape China's BRI behaviour from the inside. Inclusive institutional balancing will be also a viable strategy for recipient countries to maximize their economic interests in the balance‐of‐infrastructure game among great powers in the Indo‐Pacific in the post‐COVID era. To be sure, there will be tough institutional bargaining and negotiations, because the major powers (no matter whether it is China or the United States) will not easily compromise their economic and strategic interests, especially to these recipient countries. However, the more players in the game, the more advantages these host countries will get. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new disease called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-COV-2) virus, was discovered in the city of Wuhan in China in December 2019, and has reached, quickly and progressively, several countries on different continents. Even before the World Health Organization recognized the COVID-19 epidemic as a pandemic, the Brazilian Ministry of Health had already declared COVID-19 a national public health emergency due to the confirmation of cases in Brazil. In this scenario, the educational sector was one of the first to suffer the effects of the pandemic soon after the announcement of social distancing as a way to prevent the collapse of the Unified Health System. The aim of this paper is to report how Brazilians dental schools are leading with the new coronavirus pandemic., (© 2020 American Dental Education Association.)

In this paper, we propose a new susceptible–vaccinated–exposed–infected–recovered with unaware–aware (SEIR/V‐UA) model to study the mutual effect between the epidemic spreading and information diffusion. We investigate the dynamic processes of the model with a Kinetic equation and derive the expression for epidemic stability by the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix. Then, we validate the model by the Monte Carlo method and numerical simulation on a two‐layer scale‐free network. With the outbreak of COVID‐19, the spread of the epidemic in China prompted drastic measures for transmission containment. We examine the effects of these interventions based on modeling of the information‐epidemic and the data of the COVID‐19 epidemic case. The results further demonstrate that the epidemic spread can be affected by the effective transmission rate of awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), which causes serious respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia and lung failure, was first reported in mid‐December 2019 in China and has spread around the world. In addition to causing serious respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia and lung failure, there have been conflicting reports about the presence of SARS‐CoV‐2 in the semen of patients who were previously diagnosed with COVID‐19 and possible implications for the male reproductive tract. Objective: The goal for the present study was to review the current status of the literature concerning COVID‐19 and male reproduction. Material and methods: An electronic literature search was done by using PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Relevant papers, concerning SARS‐COV‐2 and COVID‐19 and male reproduction, published between January 2020 and December 2020 were selected, analyzed and eventually included in the present literature review. Results: SARS‐CoV‐2 may infect any cell type expressing angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), including reproductive cells. Besides the presence of the SARS‐CoV‐2 receptor, the expression of host proteases, such as transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2), is needed to cleave the viral S protein, allowing permanent fusion of the viral and host cell membranes. Here, we aimed to review the current status of the literature concerning COVID‐19 and male reproduction. The lack of co‐expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in the testis suggests that sperm cells may not be at increased risk of viral entry and spread. However, the presence of orchitis in COVID‐19‐confirmed patients and compromised sex‐related hormonal balance among these patients intrigues reproductive medicine. Discussion: SARS‐CoV‐2 may use alternate receptors to enter certain cell types, or the expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 may not be detected in healthy individuals. Conclusion: COVID‐19 challenges all medical areas, including reproductive medicine. It is not yet clear what effects, if any, the COVID‐19 pandemic will have on male reproduction. Further research is needed to understand the long‐term impact of SARS‐CoV‐2 on male reproductive function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I explore the mental consequences of Covid‐19. Starting with the images of the pandemic – the intubated patient, the anonymous mass grave, and the death on FaceTime – images that express the horrendous threat of the coronavirus death, I emphasize that the pandemic reminds us of our vulnerability and existential dependence on the other. Based on examples, I discuss different reactions to Covid‐19 from a psychoanalytic perspective, specifically highlighting the mechanisms of denial, splitting and projection – the latter is illustrated in the scapegoating of the pandemic, for example, blaming China, the immigrants or youth parties. I argue that a common characteristic of those different defense mechanisms may be a contempt for weakness – as demonstrated when coronavirus deniers and Proud Boys are marching together. The paper also examines the importance of structure and the consequences of the loss of everyday structure – be it job, school, peer groups, training studios, senior centers, or culture. I conclude by emphasizing that the pandemic has taught us how dependent we are on each other – and that it should inspire us to greater tolerance for vulnerability, and less contempt for weakness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human movement and economic activities have been drastically reduced due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) outbreak, leading to the sharp decreases of pollutant emissions and remarkable air quality improvement. Nevertheless, however, the changes of gaseous pollutant concentrations and health effects across China during the COVID‐19 lockdown period remained poorly understood. Here, a random forest model was applied to assess the impact of COVID‐19 lockdown on pollutant concentrations and potential health effects. The results suggested that estimated NO2, SO2, and CO concentrations in China during January 23–March 31, 2020 decreased by 13.68%, 25.71%, and 7.42%, respectively compared with the same periods in 2018–2019. Nonetheless, the predicted 8‐h O3 concentrations across China suffered from 1.29% increases during this period. The avoided premature all‐cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD), respiratory disease (RD), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mortalities induced by NO2 decrease during COVID‐19 lockdown period reached 3,954 (3,076–4,832), 635 (468–801), 612 (459–765), and 920 (653–1,186) cases. However, the increases of all‐cause, CVD, RD, and COPD mortalities due to O3 increase during COVID‐19 lockdown period achieved 462 (250–674), 79 (29–129), 40 (−25–105), and 52 (−34–138) cases. The natural experiment demonstrated the drastic emission reduction measures could significantly decrease the NO2, SO2, and CO concentrations, while they significantly elevated the O3 concentration. It is highly imperative to propose more coordinated air pollution control strategies to control O3 pollution. Plain Language Summary: The human movement and economic activities have been drastically reduced due to the outbreak of COVID‐19, and thus the air pollutant concentrations might suffer corresponding variation. Although some recent studies have assessed the effects of COVID‐19 lockdown on air quality, most of these studies only used the observed data at many monitoring sites, which generally show low spatial resolution. Moreover, these sites mainly focus on the urban areas, which cannot reflect the real air quality change status. To date, the changes of air pollutant concentrations and associated health effects at a high spatial resolution in China still remained unknown. The natural experiment provided an unprecedented chances to assess the response of air quality and health benefits (costs) to emission reduction, which provide scientific basis for air pollution prevention. This paper will appeal to a wide general readership and be of exceptional interest to the environmental health specialist. Key Points: The impacts of Coronavirus Disease 2019 lockdown on gaseous pollutants across China were investigatedThe 8‐h O3 level displayed slight increase, while other pollutants showed dramatic decreasesCOVID‐19 saved 3,954 lives due to NO2 decrease, but it claimed 462 lives linked with O3 increase [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of COVID‐19 on fruits and vegetable prices in the United States and China in a difference‐in‐differences framework. Our main results show differing impacts of the pandemic on the U.S. and Chinese wholesale prices. We conclude that despite the unprecedented disruptions, the U.S. produce industry remained intact. However, the long‐run effects could be mixed. We conjecture that the industry would stay resilient in the long run by having gained practical know‐how. Nevertheless, potential structural changes, such as changing household expenditure patterns due to income loss and increasing concentration in the food service market, could hurt the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic is crippling the global economy and heightening distrust and political disagreements among major countries. Furthermore, ongoing deglobalization efforts taken by firms and countries are fueling the rise of economic nationalism. A prime example is the possible decoupling of US–China economic and trade relations, which the ongoing trade war has already significantly disrupted. This paper analyzes the impacts of COVID‐19 on US agricultural exports to China, especially the added delays and uncertainty regarding China's food imports meeting the US–China phase one trade deal target. I present the views of US farmers and the general public toward China and argue that healthy US–China agricultural trade relations are not only critical for both countries but welcomed by US farmers. I also discuss the possible rise in nontariff barriers following the pandemic as well as trade policies that are increasingly intertwined with political tensions. Finally, I discuss how the US–China phase one trade deal could possibly lead to a more balanced bilateral agricultural trade portfolio with greater share of protein and retail food products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]