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Similar to many other countries, journalistic production in China during the first half of 2020 was dominated on a thematic level by the COVID-19 pandemic. The trend included the mouthpiece of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Renmin Ribao. Its news and commentary articles, which are widely republished by other media, influence the country’s political life, and contribute to the process of meaning generation in the news discourse and to the CCP’s effort to align Chinese citizens to official narratives. Renmin Ribao can therefore provide a relevant source to investigate the relationship between political power and the COVID-19 pandemic, starting from the hypothesis that the paper’s narrative would aim at discursively turning the international health crisis into a piece of positive propaganda. This study aims to verify whether and how the paper did so, and to question the assumption that the outlet’s media discourse can be equated to the CCP official discourse. The research is developed as a case study and blends quantitative and qualitative tools grounded on Applied Linguistics, Discourse-Historical Approach, and Frame Analysis, in order to analyse a corpus of commentaries that have appeared in the outlet’s online edition in 2020. By applying a Genre Analysis approach, the study also offers insights into the possibility to identify distinguishing characteristics and communicative goals in the different sub-genres of Renmin Ribao commentaries.

This paper presents the generation of a plausible data set related to the needs of COVID-19 patients with severe or critical symptoms. Possible illness’ stages were proposed within the context of medical knowledge as of January 2021. The parameters chosen in this data set were customized to fit the population data of the Valencia region (Spain) with approximately 2.5 million inhabitants. They were based on the evolution of the pandemic between September 2020 and March 2021, a period that included two complete waves of the pandemic. Contrary to expectation and despite the European and national transparency laws (BOE-A2013-12887, 2013; European Parliament and Council of the European Union, 2019), the actual COVID-19 pandemic-related data, at least in Spain, took considerable time to be updated and made available (usually a week or more). Moreover, some relevant data necessary to develop and validate hospital bed management models were not publicly accessible. This was either because these data were not collected, because public agencies failed to make them public (despite having them indexed in their databases), the data were processed within indicators and not shown as raw data, or they simply published the data in a format that was difficult to process (e.g., PDF image documents versus CSV tables). Despite the potential of hospital information systems, there were still data that were not adequately captured within these systems. Moreover, the data collected in a hospital depends on the strategies and practices specific to that hospital or health system. This limits the generalization of "real" data, and it encourages working with "realistic" or plausible data that are clean of interactions with local variables or decisions (Gunal, 2012; Marin-Garcia et al., 2020). Besides, one can parameterize the model and define the data structure that would be necessary to run the model without delaying till the real data become available. Conversely, plausible data sets can be generated from publicly available information and, later, when real data become available, the accuracy of the model can be evaluated (Garcia-Sabater and Maheut, 2021). This work opens lines of future research, both theoretical and practical. From a theoretical point of view, it would be interesting to develop machine learning tools that, by analyzing specific data samples in real hospitals, can identify the parameters necessary for the automatic prototyping of generators adapted to each hospital. Regarding the lines of research applied, it is evident that the formalism proposed for the generation of sound patients is not limited to patients affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection. The generation of heterogeneous patients can represent the needs of a specific population and serve as a basis for studying complex health service delivery systems.

Results from the European project RESISTIRÉ show that the pandemic outbreak and policies adopted to contain the virus have reinforced pre-existing gender inequalities, resulting in a “spiral of increasing inequalities” (Axelsson et al., 2021: 110). The care domain is a key part of this spiral and has been at the centre of debates and of some of the COVID-19 policy responses. However, for the most part, policy interventions in the care domain have focused primarily on work-life balance, neglecting the impact of health-related policy restrictions on domestic workers – a highly feminised and racialised sector. Yet these workers have been dramatically affected by the pandemic and related policies, not only in terms of exposure to infection, but also in terms of exacerbation of pre-existing and intersecting inequalities. Moreover, when policies did address the domestic sector, they often reproduced gender stereotyped understandings of the nature of care work, and reinforced racist assumptions on migration. This paper compares the policies on domestic workers enacted during the pandemic in Italy and Spain, which illustrate how public policy engages in gendering and racializing domestic workers. Drawing on Bacchi’s methodology, it seeks to unfold and problematise the representations and implicit assumptions related to care work, and the gender and racial hierarchies underpinning them.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2022 7(1), 481-506 | Article | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. The case of the ESM: why the Eurozone's governance does not question the unity of the EU institutional framework. - II.1. The establishment of the ESM. - II.2. The institutional functioning of the ESM. - III. The impact of tasks entrusted to the EU institutions under the ESM on the institutional equilibrium within the EU legal order. - III.1. How are new tasks entrusted to the EU institutions? - III.2. What impact do these new tasks produce on the institutional equilibrium within the EU? - IV. The post-Covid institutional set-up: back to a "community" mode of governance? - V. Conclusion. | (Abstract) In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the EU and its Member States had to face very pragmatic issues: how to avoid the economic collapse of Greece, Portugal and Ireland? Decisions had to be taken quickly in any institutional or legal forum that was immediately available. For this specific reason, legal solutions entailing the conclusion of international agreements by some of the EU Member States outside the EU legal framework were taken as a new normal. Due to a close legal relationship between these new international treaties and the EU legal order, a decision was also taken to "borrow" already existing EU institutions and entrust them with new tasks. In this Article, we question the role of EU institutions outside the EU legal framework. We first address the evolution of the EU institutional framework in the context of the euro crisis in relation to art. 13 TEU and recital 7 of the TEU preamble and the requirement of "unity of the institutional framework". Section II shows that "borrowing" the EU institutions outside the EU legal framework does not seem to alter the nature of the single EU institutional setting. Section III questions whether the tasks entrusted to the EU institutions outside the EU legal framework do not undermine the existing institutional equilibrium within the EU legal order. Section IV addresses the EU response to the Covid-19 pandemic from an institutional perspective as raising similar concerns within the EU legal order. The last section concludes.

El fenómeno de la soledad se está convirtiendo, cada vez más, en un problema amplio y relevante de las sociedades contemporáneas. En consecuencia, son muchas las investigaciones que abordan esta realidad, como numerosas son también las intervenciones que tratan de hacerle frente, en especial tras la pandemia provocada por la COVID-19. Para acercar al lector a esta realidad, en el presente artículo se exponen de forma heurística las diversas posturas existentes sobre la soledad mediante una novedosa cartografía teórica que propone un nuevo recorrido por el actual estado de la cuestión del campo de la soledad, formado por las aportaciones de distintas disciplinas. Para ello se ha seguido un método de revisión bibliográfica reflexiva con el objetivo de generar nuevos alineamientos teóricos que esclarezcan las posiciones desde las que hoy se escribe acerca de la soledad. Finalmente, el texto esboza algunas líneas reflexivas que el acercamiento sociológico a la soledad deberá tener en cuenta para constituirse como interlocutor válido y valioso en el actual campo de estudio de la soledad.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: Governments across the world were forced to impose social distancing and lockdown measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that emerged in December 2019. Following the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, the disruptions, including restrictive measures such as school closures had severe impacts on the physical, emotional and mental health of all people, especially children with special needs. There was also scant data, particularly in low-to-middle-income countries. Existing literature stems mostly from western countries, thus the need to perform a comprehensive review on this topic. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The primary objective of the systematic review is to understand the impact of COVID-19 and restrictive measures such as school closures on the educational outcomes and physical and mental health of school-going children with special needs. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: This systematic review used the PRISMA 2020 checklist where four databases and grey literature were searched for full text articles, peer reviewed publications in the English language that were published during January 2019–December 2021. RESEARCH RESULTS: The literature search identified 1294 publications, of which 25 key papers were selected. These studies investigate the impact on children with special needs across the globe, with a majority of papers from Europe. We found that COVID-19 and the digitalization of schooling had severe impacts on the physical and mental health of children with special needs and their parents/caregivers. CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND APPLICABLE VALUE OF RESEARCH: These studies highlight the need for an inclusive school environment to ensure that the learning outcomes for children everywhere are achieved. Further, a hybrid model that includes classroom learning with novel inventive methods would be beneficial for children with special needs.

The aim of this paper is a study on Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions that came along. With restrictions, violations. The principle of legality, the basic historical construction of the rule of law, had been solemnly and repeatedly vilified and carried with it many constitutional rights and principles, which, more than indispensable for us, are so on a universal level, such as the restless go and come and exercise economic activity. Under the auspices of teratological decrees, of congenital malformation, our rights were restricted. But what is worse: often under the parsimonious eye of those who should be keeping the Constitution. Is it deference to the political propaganda pieces, based on biopower, that invade the everyday? Is it a fear of contributing to health discouragement, justifying non-legality? In this paper, more than addressing the unconstitutionality of restrictions, we propose to discuss the reasons for this passivity and acceptance. Methodologically, we use inductive guidance, choosing some characteristics as a starting point to build a broader conclusion, using a wide bibliographic and jurisprudential review.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2021 6(1), 189-198 | European Forum Insight of 7 June 2021 | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. Diversity in Member States' approach to COVID-19 related travel restrictions. - III. The EU institutions' response to the implications of Member States imposing differing COVID-19 travel restrictions. - IV. Council Recommendation on a coordinated approach to measures restricting free movement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. - V. Striking a balance between respect for Member States competence in protecting public health at national level and combating the risks to European unity and freedoms from Member States imposing differing restrictive measures. - VI. The Council Recommendation's timely and useful guidance and recommendations. - VII. The Recommendation's lack of consideration of other international public health bodies. - VIII. Final remarks. | (Abstract) The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted many EU Member States to introduce unilateral and diverse travel restriction measures and border controls. European Treaties do allow the Member States to derogate from free movements on the grounds of public health, however, the imposition of inconsistent and diverse restrictions threaten the integrity of the Union. The European Commission and Council have an important role to play promoting cooperation and solidarity amongst the EU Member States and safeguarding the Union. A recent Council Recommendation for a coordinated approach to measures restricting free movement is an example of the EU's response, but does it go far enough? For it is important to acknowledge that a Recommendation is not a legally binding instrument. This Insight analyses the Council Recommendation and its role in promoting a coordinated response to the COVID-19 pandemic by the EU Member States.

La presente investigación se enfocó en el estudio de la agenda setting y el tratamiento informativo sobre la campaña de vacunación masiva contra el Covid-19; para ello, se tomó como sujeto de investigación dos canales televisivos de mayor rating en Ecuador: Ecuavisa y Teleamazonas. Como punto de partida, se consideró dicha temática puesto que fue el principal ofrecimiento del presidente Guillermo Lasso durante su candidatura presidencial en el 2021. El diseño metodológico se configuró desde un procedimiento analítico descriptivo que nos permitió resaltar las características de los dos canales de televisión. Para el efecto, se partió desde un enfoque cuanti-cuanlitativo a través del análisis de contenido y análisis de discurso, esta triangulación nos permitió conocer el tratamiento informativo y el discurso de las noticias de cada medio para conocer el tipo de contenido periodístico difundido en relación con la campaña de vacunación. Para el levantamiento de información, se tomó como referencia los 100 primeros días de la gestión del presidente Lasso; por tanto, el corpus de la investigación estuvo conformado por 66 noticias de Teleamazonas y 78 de Ecuavisa. Los resultados preliminares dan muestra que el canal Ecuavisa difunde información con un enfoque más apegado a la deontología periodística, contrasta fuentes y apela al argumento de especialistas, casi en su totalidad de emisiones, aunque también utiliza la primera persona en gran parte de su discurso. Por otro lado, en Teleamazonas todas las noticias son narradas en tercera persona y el sesgo hacia el Gobierno resalta a través de titulares y contenido meramente divulgativo.

La mayoría de las investigaciones sobre gobernanza multinivel desde una perspectiva de género han tenido como variable dependiente las políticas de igualdad (Haussman et al., 2010). Por el contrario, son menos frecuentes las investigaciones que analizan la presencia de las mujeres como protagonistas de la gobernanza multinivel, sus formas de actuación o el efecto de sus acciones en el resultado final (Gushchina y Kaiser, 2021). Esta investigación aborda esta perspectiva en una situación de pandemia, donde la urgencia y la interdependencia estimulan la regla de participación ejecutiva. La limitada presencia de mujeres en la gestión intergubernamental de la pandemia está estrechamente relacionada con su escasa presencia en los gobiernos. El poder ejecutivo y, en especial, la jefatura de gobierno siguen siendo un terreno cerrado para las mujeres. Actualmente, casi la mitad de los países de la Unión Europea no han tenido en su historia a ninguna mujer como primera ministra (Novo-Arbona, 2020). Sin embargo, los sistemas federales y descentralizados han representado una vía de acceso de las mujeres a las jefaturas de los poderes ejecutivos, y su presencia ha sido más común en las jefaturas de las unidades constituyentes. El porcentaje de mujeres ministras también ha aumentado considerablemente, y ellas han ocupado carteras más prestigiosas, como las de Asuntos Exteriores, Defensa o Economía, aunque tradicionalmente —y todavía hoy— es más habitual su presencia en las relacionadas con los cuidados, como los servicios sociales o el ámbito sanitario (Kroeber y Hüffelmann, 2021). Este artículo identifica los órganos de decisión multinivel más relevantes desde la declaración de la pandemia, la presencia de mujeres en ellos y su rol dentro de las organizaciones.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a multifaceted crisis, impacting health, the economy, policy and society at large, and also resulting in a humanitarian crisis. These crises have impacted everyone, although the effects have been unevenly distributed, leading to further disadvantage and marginalisation for those who were already vulnerable and marginalised. The pandemic laid bare and intensified pre-existing gender inequalities in many aspects of life, from the labor market and educational opportunities to health and social protection systems. The unequal impacts on women and men have been observed in the economy and employment, in domestic work and care, in physical and mental health, and in violence. The collection of articles in this special issue critically interrogates these key issues relating to the impact of the pandemic on gender equality in Europe, highlighting exacerbated gender inequalities, policy responses and the potential for a gender-responsive recovery. This special issue brings together a collection of eight articles that investigate various aspects of gender inequality exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and that explore potential pathways towards achieving greater gender equality in the post-pandemic world. They summarise the findings and contributions of several social scientists and also of two EU funded projects: RESISTIRÉ (GA 101015990) and GEARING Roles (GA 824536). The articles are structured around five main themes: labor market disparities, education and skill development, social and political responses, post-pandemic opportunities, and care. Each article contributes unique insights, empirical findings and policy recommendations from a feminist perspective to enrich the ongoing discourse on gender equality. Together, the articles show the necessity of feminist analysis of crisis, and reveal the structural roots of inequalities while simultaneously emphasising the necessity for transformative action to address inequalities.

This paper explores the relationship between residential confinement to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus, seen as a public policy, and how it affects the informal labor sector, as well as the responseof individuals to the pandemic in the states of Mexico. Forming panels for various levels of informality applied to panel vector auto-regressive (PVAR) shows that staying at home as public policy becomes more effective as informality decreases. In addition, the response of individuals to an increase in the spread of the pande-mic depends on the level of informality: for states with lower rates of informality, individuals respond to a higher concentration of residential confinement. But for states with a higher level of informality, the evidence is not significant. The paper considers the role of informality in the development of an effective public policy.

This paper examines a tension in the time of a pandemic between governmental representations of death as an anomaly and techniques for normalising death as an inevitable outcome of life. It contends that the technology of registering a death during the COVID-19 pandemic is conditioned upon differentiating between the normal and the pathological, standards and variations, and average and excess. Indeed, death registration depends on the creation of a new universal nomenclature for ascertaining death causation, which excludes various circumstances of a person’s life in order to stabilise SARS-CoV-2 as a normative category for classification. The paper thus reveals how during a pandemic, registration can been utilised to pathologise specific kinds of death, while unproblematically reifying the concept of a normal death. It argues that what the COVID-19 pandemic exposes, particularly though the productive tension between the rhetoric of death as both an anomaly and inevitable, is that normalising technologies are inextricable from how a panoply of institutions determine what deaths should be counted at all. Este artículo examina la tensión que se produjo en el primer año de pandemia de la COVID-19 entre discursos sobre la muerte como anomalía y las técnicas para normalizar la muerte como resultado inevitable de la vida. Afirma que la tecnología de registro de muertes en el norte global en 2020 estaba condicionada por diferenciar entre lo normal y lo patológico, lo normal y la variación, y la media y el exceso. De hecho, el registro de un fallecimiento dependía de la creación de una nueva nomenclatura universal para comprobar la causa, lo cual excluía diversas circunstancias de la vida de una persona a fin de estabilizar el SARS-CoV-2 como una categoría normativa de clasificación. Por tanto, el artículo revela como, en época de pandemia, la tecnología de registro se puede usar para patologizar determinados tipos de muertes. Se argumenta que la fase inicial de la COVID-19 deja al descubierto, sobre todo a través de la tensión productiva entre discursos de la muerte como anomalía e inevitabilidad, que las tecnologías normalizadoras son inextricables de la forma en que un entramado de instituciones deciden qué muertes se deben contabilizar. Available from: https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1232

The objective of this paper is to investigate the hybridization dynamics of the Third sector at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. The progressive contamination between the State, market, family and Third sector spheres has long been subject of interest of the scholars. This paper aim at analysing these dynamics through the case study of Fondazione Banco Alimentare (Italian Food Bank Foundation). The case helps in investigating the impact of the pandemic on the role, logics and actors that make up the Third sector (both organizations and people) and its relation with the other subsystems. The empirical analysis shows that the pandemic and its consequences has enhanced the role of Fondazione Banco Alimentare, thanks to its relevance during the food emergency that also increased its visibility in the media. There are more institutional and non-institutional donors, more beneficiaries and help requests that resulted also in an accelerated professionalization and training of volunteers and employers. In conclusion, the Italian Food Bank and its network dealt with processes of digitalization, institutionalization and professionalization. These transformations resulted in a new positioning of the organization in the public sphere and redefined its relationship between local, national and European institutions.

¿Cómo es la vejez en Iberoamérica? En un sentido amplio, ya son visibles, estudiadas, analizadas y conocidas en los países iberoamericanos, la longevidad - definida como supervivencia individual y colectiva - y la expectativa de vida - es la media de la cantidad de años que vive una determinada población absoluta o total en un cierto período. Con este número monográfico esperamos contribuir en este debate. Así, fueron seleccionados 15 artículos y una reseña que tratan temas importantes para la población mayor como salud, covid, educación, convivencia, servicios, derechos. participación, residencias además de otros enfocados en aquellos pueblos y comunidades tradicionales. En el caso de los pueblos y comunidades tradicionales, las especificidades de su longevidad y expectativa de vida vienen siendo incorporadas muy lentamente al conocimiento técnico-científico, a las políticas y a la gestión pública. Esperamos que este monográfico sobre longevidad sirva no solo para que los gestores públicos pongan en marcha e implementen políticas para ese grupo de población sino también para que la sociedad visibilice que la vida tiene muchos periodos y que todos ellos son importantes. Si algo hemos aprendido durante la pandemia es que las soluciones no pueden ser individuales sino colectivas, apliquemos esta lección al cuidado y protección de las personas mayores que lo necesiten, pero sin olvidar que son ciudadanos de pleno derecho y por lo tanto tienen derecho a ser oídos en las medidas que se tomen. En caso contrario estaremos quitándoles los derechos que les corresponden.

O envelhecimento populacional tem implicado em um processo de reestruturação do processo de cuidado. As Instituições de Longa Permanência para Idosos surgem na tentativa de assistência à população idosa. Entretanto, a literatura apresenta um desfalque quanto a gestão financeira dessas instituições. Diante do exposto, o objetivo do trabalho foi analisar comparativamente os custos por direcionador em instituições privadas e filantrópicas no contexto da COVID-19. Trata-se de estudo transversal, descritivo-exploratório, realizado em Minas Gerais com 10 instituições. Foram analisados dados referentes às receitas e custos das ILPIs. Os resultados demonstram que as instituições filantrópicas possuem custos totais maiores do que as privadas. Tendo sido consideradas os direcionadores de alimentação, hospedagem, higiene e conforto, atendimento clínico e lazer. A hospedagem representa o maior custo por residente, já o lazer, o menor custo. O estudo reforça o incipiente gerenciamento de custos nas ILPIs e o agravamento da situação financeira durante a pandemia.

O estudo se desenvolveu por meio do acompanhamento da gestão financeira realizada em dez ILPIs sem fins lucrativos localizadas no estado de Minas Gerais, tendo como objetivo analisar a gestão financeira das mesmas no contexto da pandemia de COVID-19. O acompanhamento que aconteceu de forma virtual coletou os dados dos participantes por meio de encontros virtuais, questionários eletrônicos, planilhas e entrevista semi-estruturada. O estudo revelou uma carência de conhecimento dos gestores sobre gestão financeira. Tal carência se configura como um entrave para que ferramentas que podem contribuir para uma gestão mais eficiente sejam utilizadas. Entretanto, os conhecimentos compartilhados nos encontros mensais e apresentação de ferramentas que podem contribuir para uma gestão mais eficiente proporcionaram uma boa evolução nos gestores em relação ao conhecimento. Alguns participantes demonstraram planos para implementação das ferramentas e conhecimentos compartilhados. Com isso, foi possível perceber uma influência positiva gerada pelo estudo.

The COVID-19 crisis had a huge impact on education and became the subject of many scientific studies. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the opinions of professors and students on the quality of teaching and satisfaction with e-learning during the COVID-19 crisis. The aim of the research is to answer the question to what extent professors and students are satisfied with the quality of e-learning in higher education institutions, as well as their expectations in the future. The research was created on the research platform 1KA and conducted in the period from November 12, 2021 to February 12, 2022 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A survey questionnaire was used as a research instrument, which was sent to 192 addresses, 101 publics and 91 private faculties in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and included 132 professors and 202 students. The results of the research showed that the quality of teaching is positively influenced by the satisfaction and level of usefulness of the tools used among professors, but also among students. The results also confirmed that more work experience leads to lower e-learning expectations in the future. The paper presents empirical research that was conducted on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina about the impact of COVID-19 on the quality of e-learning. The scientific contribution of the paper is reflected in the fact that it can be used in research related to the impact of crises on teaching in higher education institutions, as well as potential future emergency situations of crisis and uncertainty that result in new models of teaching that combine classroom and e-teaching.

This paper reports on a comparative study between the structures, regulation and challenges of small and medium size businesses (SMEs) in Australia and two Latin American jurisdictions – Chile and Cuba - with the object of exploring ways in which SME-propitious ecosystem can be configured in an unprecedented crisis situation. It examines the legislation, bodies and regulation in place which deal with SME issues, including consumer protection, and the differing contextual considerations, taking cognizance of the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the paper explores ways in which SMEs can be assisted and advised of their legal rights, including the provision of clinical and advisory support at a university level, and considers the steps taken by governments in mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. To compare practices and learn from them the research utilizes three case studies and contrasts the issues faced in an emerging economy such as Cuba with more established frameworks such as Chile and Australia, both OECD countries.

Abstract The spread of COVID-19 in early 2020 has prompted governments to impose travel and mobility restrictions ranging from increased border controls to limitations to internal movement, and border closures. These measures significantly influenced migration trends and patterns, leaving thousands of migrants and refugees with nowhere to go. Therefore, this paper examines the influence of the COVID-19 on the lives of migrants and refugees in three Maghreb states (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia) and studies the policies implemented to assist in areas such as health, shelter, and economic relief. This paper also considers the legal and material practices through which migrants and refugees were governed during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The paper finds that as the pandemic develops and waves of infection continue in the region, local governments face crumbling healthcare infrastructure and long-term financial consequences that directly affect nationals and non-nationals.

This paper describes a Mass Ventilation System (MVS) which serves as a medical ventilator system. It can be used to ventilate large number of COVID-19 patients in parallel (5 – 50+) with personalized respiratory parameters. The system has been designed to be medically suitable for both non-invasive and invasive patient ventilation. It protects healthcare workers with its centralized air filtering solution, it increases the effectiveness of the healthcare workers with its networked communication and it can be operated in a temporary emergency hospital setup. In this paper, we describe the basic concept and building blocks of the system.

In the midst of a vast spread of COVID-19 across the world, legal regulations were introduced in most countries including social distancing, travel restrictions, and a lockdown in an attempt to slow down the spread of the virus. The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has raised companies’ awareness of the need to foster consumer’s trust in order to survive a crisis. Therefore, the present paper aims to understand the expectations that consumers have towards the behaviors and strategies implemented by brands during the pandemic. This paper contributes to the discussion on how consumers perceive brand’s reactions to the pandemic, by showing ways in which brands can foster brand trust through manifestations of competence, problem-solving and benevolence/integrity. Following an exploratory qualitative research, findings of interviews with consumers suggest that they are informed and interested in brands' efforts towards the topic, and in fact the brand’s positive or negative reactions to the pandemic can shape brand trust.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the Chinese political leadership has devoted substantial efforts to shape, through media and institutional discourses, a specific narrative of its response to the crisis, framing it as a fight in which the Chinese people, under the leadership of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, promptly came together to defeat the virus. The present paper examines this dominant narrative focusing on the Chinese language section on the fight against COVID-19 of the multilingual online platform China Keywords, a project run by State and Party-affiliated institutions. Drawing on the theoretical background and analytical tools from Critical Discourse Studies, the paper provides an analysis of the discursive representation of social actors constructed by this tool. The analysis shows how different discursive strategies employed to represent specific social actors contribute to reinforce the constitutive elements of the Chinese leadership’s dominant narrative of the events of early 2020. Moreover, the paper argues that the section of China Keywords on the topic should be understood as one of the products of the multifaceted institutional efforts to “tell China’s Covid-19 story well,” both domestically and internationally.

Introduction: Early in the pandemic, older people were identified as one of the most vulnerable population. More than 80% of deaths occur in adults over the age of 65. Several conditions have been clearly established to protect the elderly, such as banning visits to nursing homes. Therefore, it is important to fully understand how this pandemic has affected the elderly. This study covers the negative effects on the physical and mental health of the elderly during COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: A systematic review of the literature to identify COVID-19 papers with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) using PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, BioMed Central (BMC) and Frontier in 2020 and 2021. Included studies are those that investigate the psychological and physical impact on elderly (>=60 years old) resulting from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unrelated, duplicated, unavailable full texts/abstract-only papers, and studies that analyzed mental and behavioral disorders due to the use of alcohol and other drugs are excluded. Results: A total of 12 studies are included out of 352. Impact of COVID-19 on physical health to elderly were weight loss, lesser time of exercise, decreased social activities, increased respiratory and heart diseases, and increased mortality. On the other hand, identified impact on mental health were higher depression, anxiety, fear of acquiring COVID due to irresponsible younger generations, discrimination and isolation, increased levels of loneliness, and generalized anxiety. Conclusion: The findings summarized in this review suggest that older adults experienced negative consequences for the ongoing pandemic, both physically and mentally. This information will be useful to responsible institutions when acting and making decisions for elderly regarding health care access and public health measures.

Founder-entrepreneurs in SMEs tend to have an active role in shaping the business and the direction and management of their innovation strategies. During COVID-19, their understanding of risks and approach towards decision making has become very crucial as the market sensitivity changed drastically with various levels of challenges such as travel restrictions, national lockdown, reduced market demand and operational uncertainty. So far, there are very limited studies on the role of the founder-entrepreneurs from Chinese high-tech software SMEs in managing the business risks from the pandemic. This paper will address some of these gaps by presenting case studies of 9 successful high-tech software SMEs in China and discuss how their founder-entrepreneurs have engaged with the market, identified COVID-19 related risks and how they have made critical decisions to survive and explore new market opportunities for growth. As part of a longitudinal study, in-depth interviews were conducted with the founder-entrepreneurs at various stages of the pandemic to explore their progress with the business operation and management. The paper will discuss the role of the founder-entrepreneurs from SMEs in risk analysis and decision-making. It makes an important contribution to the growing literature on Chinese SMEs, and COVID-19.

COVID-19 has exposed, reproduced, and created new inequalities in Latin America and the world. In this introductory paper, we discuss the impact of extant inequities on vulnerability to COVID-19 but we also identify new, and some unexpected, vulnerabilities. We emphasize vulnerabilities to the disease as well as vulnerabilities to policies and other responses in the fight against COVID-19. Building on insights from Peter Hall and Michele Lamont’s work on social resilience, we draw on the papers of this special issue to identify the important role of the state in addressing vulnerabilities and discuss the types of social resilience that vulnerable groups have turned to in their response to COVID-19.

Globally, COVID-19 reached unprecedented levels of contagion, affecting the social meetings, public spaces, and many everyday aspects. During the first days of the pandemic, supply chains were severely impacted by a great uncertainty in socio-economic terms, causing irrational variations and the inability to forecast demand. In this paper, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the behaviour of different companies is analysed based on the variation in supply and demand of consumer-packaged goods. The pandemic outbreak disruption, the bullwhip effect caused by demand fluctuations, and the resilience of different companies were studied. A multiple case study methodology is used to analyse the decision-making process of fourteen different companies, from diverse sectors in Uruguay, affronting the pandemic. The paper’s main findings include the identification of disruption and operation risks along with coordination in supply chain management during the first four months of the pandemic. Moreover, due to the necessity of sanitation and comestibles, and the fear of stockout, consumers’ demand was uncertain, and the bullwhip effect was observed in critical channels of some products. Finally, the resiliency and robustness of the affected companies were studied and good practices for a resilient and robust response to the pandemic were identified and analysed.

The school principals play a pivotal role in leading educational institutions. Their lived experience as educational leaders in the context of a virulent crisis, however, is largely unexplored. This paper sought to discover the essence of educational leadership practices of school principals in the context of the current COVID-19 crisis. Following phenomenology as a research design, the researcher explored the world of six Filipino school principals through interview procedures. The analysis method developed by Colaizzi (1978) was used. The results revealed six emerging themes of educational leadership practices during a crisis as follows: 1.) navigating the crisis with adaptive leadership; 2.) cultivating practices in crisis management; 3.) managing through the machine; 4.) freezing the standards and patterns; 5.) promoting inclusivity in the new normal, and 6.) caring first for what is essential. These themes form the basis of the description and structure of the phenomenon offered at the end of the paper. Considering the present scarcity of knowledge on how school principals respond in times of crisis, this paper provides insights into educational leadership practices within the context of the COVID-19 situation

The paper aims in highlighting that situations of pandemics and social disasters, such as the recent Covid-19 emergency, have an impact on daily urban rhythms and spatial practices and, as a result, a series of emotions emerge which, in the future, we will have to take seriously in consideration when creating urban policies. Henri Lefebvre, with his book Rhythmanalysis, studied the link between rhythms (cyclical & linear) and cities, in which he also described how the frequency of rhythms in spaces could manifest signs of health or illness (Arrhythmia, Polyrhythmia, Eurhythmia and Isorhythmia). Arrhythmia (otherwise indicated as non-rhythm in greek language), characterized by an unstable frequency and a lack of repetition, is a condition manifesting signs of illness, biologically, but also, according to Lefebvre’s theory, in an individual’s daily life pattern and more generally in urban rhythms. Sudden events, in the micro or macro life, could interfere with frequency and interrupt rhythm. As a result to a sudden interference of rhythm in various scales of our daily lives (economical, social, cultural, etc.), the paper proposes that, a series of negative emotions emerge on the “surface”. Undoubtedly, the emotion-protagonist in a situation of arrhythmia (biological or urban, in our case) is fear, with which individuals but also larger scale systems (cities, activities, institutions, governments, communities, etc.) have to deal with. In the Covid-19 and quarantine situation, the individual had to adapt him/herself to a new daily pattern of life and to change profoundly him/herself routine. Apparently, individuals who managed to maintain a constant daily rhythm, although in quarantine situation (in other words, being eurhythmic inside the Covid-19 arrhythmic situation), seem to be those who managed better their emotional condition. We cannot but ask ourselves, if emotions are also responsible for an individual’s and an entire community’s resilience and quality of life, why they are missing from urban policies and the urban planning agenda. Western culture was founded on the perception of “reason”, which was immediately separated from the “emotion”. In general, the role of emotion in social life and in action, has been denied, or even when it has been taken into consideration, has been negatively addressed. During the development of the western world, analysts were taught to separate cognitive and emotional qualities of judgment and tended to study cognitive rather than emotional relationships. As a result, architecture and planning, our urban space in general, followed specific functions related to our biological rhythms only. We never really understood that emotions can condition the quality of life of the individual in a high level and never tried to incorporate emotional cognition in urban planning policies. We believe more that ever that in the future and as the Covid-19 emergency showed us, we will have to deal with the consequences of negative emotions in our daily lives. Fear, anxiety and depression, all emotions caused from arrhythmic conditions in a micro (individual) or macro (entire communities) level, will eventually have to be incorporated in our future urban policies. Studying urban rhythms and their frequency, could alarm us for eventual malfunctions (micro or macro) and prepare us for their correspondent emotions. Bridging emotions to urban policies seems rather inevitable today. In particular, tackling fear through place-specific public policies seems crucial for providing a quality of life to a community, not only in biological but also in emotional terms.

This paper attempts to show that the surge of a world pandemic known as COVID-19 has allowed the local languages of Cameroon to supplant the official languages, English and French in their daily use to fight against the pandemic or to prevent the population from the threat. To reach the people at the grassroots, local languages have been used as the main channel. The pandemic is therefore looked at as a contributor to the dynamics of small languages, mainly in Cameroon, favouring their greater use for better communication and sensitisation. Relying on the community-based approach, triggered by personal observation and community involvement, the paper demonstrates that COVID-19 has allowed the enrichment of the local languages or national languages of Cameroon with new words, and has vivified their use in an environment where they are dominated by some world killer languages like English and French. The paper concludes that the dynamics of the local languages would also benefit a lot from an interconnectedness among language committees and health care specialists who will develop entangled discourses in the local languages to reach a larger majority of peoples at the grassroots, and by doing so, creating more new words that will perpetuate the lexical dynamics of the involved languages.

Society management and the COVID-19 pandemic require continuous restatement and consolidation. Furthermore, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development created by the United Nations establishes a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability to meet the needs of future generations and where Goal 5 addresses gender equality as a central priority. The main aim of this paper is to present a crossed-analysis study on how the health crisis has influenced differently the social behaviour between gender and generations in Spain. For this study there have been used a massive open data from the Sociological Research Centre (CIS). The mixed techniques´ methodology of this research was applied to study four social effect dimensions, such as “way of living”, “way of thinking”, “way of self-healthcare” and “social habits and behaviour”. The used techniques contributed analytically to gender and generations management during the pandemic with the intent of complementarity. Obtained findings by analysing four studied dimensions explain the effects and consequences of the pandemic involving differences between men and women, younger and older generations, leading to society management implications that can timely serve as a paradigm with scientific insights for public policies.

Abstract The present study focuses on how the COVID-19 crisis was dealt with and represented in newspaper articles in the period January 2020-February 2022. To this end, a corpus of articles was compiled from the Times using Sketch Engine (https://www.sketchengine.eu/), in order to manage and investigate the corpus quantitatively; discourse and genre analyses were applied for the qualitative approach. After providing a definition of the coronavirus timespan and the term crisis, the paper explores how the language used changed over successive periods of crisis management and communication (Coombs 2010). It also shows how the unpredictable development of the pandemic had an effect on communication flows, which in turn affected how the crisis unfolded. Different types of information were conveyed through the media that played a crucial role in selecting what to convey (and what not to convey) to the readers and how to represent it. This significantly contributed (and continues to contribute) to the development of the readers’ opinions and sentiments, fuelling their worries and feelings of uncertainty, weakness and risk (Denti 2021; Wodak 2021). Future research will focus on metadiscursive features and the changes in rhetorical persuasion (Hyland 2005), and on the politicisation of the crisis (Musolff et al. 2022; Thielemann and Weiss 2023).

Abstract The first lockdown had a positive impact on alcohol consumption, with wine becoming the most commonly consumed alcoholic beverage. Although the belief that the immune system and viral resistance are boosted by alcohol was labelled as ‘myth’ by the World Health Organization, a later study gave evidence that red wine drinking provided protection from COVID-19 1. Based on these premises, this paper embraces a multi-disciplinary approach combining sentiment and corpus-assisted discourse analysis to explore news readers’ reactions to the news story as divulgated by the Daily Mail in a corpus of 454 online comments. Findings indicate that sarcasm and distrust are the most frequent feelings, along with a mainly negative sentiment associated with discourses concerning politics, the effectiveness of various substances in combating the virus and wine-making traditions. Also, insights into the role of readers’ role in affecting editorial policies are drawn.

Abstract In this paper we analyse how populist leaders in UK and Italy – namely Nigel Farage, Nicola Sturgeon, Giorgia Meloni, and Matteo Salvini – reacted to the first and second lockdowns on their Twitter accounts, communicating directly to their people. The analysis was carried out following a combined qualitative and quantitative approach to discourse. The qualitative analysis focused on comparing populist leaders’ rhetorical and semiotic choices, while the quantitative analysis observed the response by the community of common Twitter users. This work aims on the one hand at unveiling the strategic use of social media by populist leaders and on the other at investigating conflictual interactional dynamics, especially in times of crisis.

El presente texto muestra un diagnóstico sobre la intervención de los Estados en la atención y gestión del fenómeno de la migración internacional en los primeros meses de la pandemia producida por la COVID-19 en 2020. Asimismo, realiza un comparativo entre las tendencias que se habían fijado en las agendas de gobierno, así como entre las distintas políticas y mecanismos en materia migratoria utilizados para controlar y mitigar la enfermedad producida por el virus del SARS-CoV-2. El desarrollo de la pandemia de la COVID-19, así como el incremento en el número de contagios y muertes, han incentivado a los Estados a implementar nuevas políticas y mecanismos en materia migratoria, fuera de los patrones que habían marcado a sus agendas de gobierno. Considerando esto, se plantea contestar a las siguientes preguntas: ¿Cuáles son y qué tipo de políticas han predominado? ¿Cuál es el contexto de la migración internacional durante la pandemia? y ¿Cuáles son los posibles escenarios futuros que enfrentará este fenómeno en el marco de su gestión y gobernanza?

Este artigo analisa a gestão dos hospitais de campanha criados pela Prefeitura de São Pau-lo no contexto da pandemia da COVID-19 via contratualização por resultados com Organi-zações Sociais de Saúde (OSS). Por meio de revisão bibliográfica, análise documental e de indicadores, discute-se o caráter de excepcionalidade dessas contratações em oposição aos ditames das teorias democráticas, da accountability e da Administração Pública. Ancorado nos dados e análises sobre o avanço dos mecanismos e discursos empresariais sobre a ges-tão pública, conclui-se que os mesmos pontos críticos em relação ao controle e à transpa-rência são observados em situações tanto de normalidade quanto de excepcionalidade, po-dendo-se afirmar o caráter de “excepcionalidade normalizada” desse modelo de contrata-ção por resultados.

This paper provides a retrospective analysis of the impact of trust in institutions in Brazil during the initial wave of Covid-19 on distress symptoms. Capturing data from 571 respondents across all five Brazilian regions during the crucial period of April-May 2021, the study examines the relationship between institutional trust and public health outcomes at the pandemic's onset. Our findings reveal four distinct trust-based groups, reflecting the multifaceted nature of trust amidst the political and misinformation crisis of the time. Notably, our data contradicts the expected norm: the group with the lowest trust in institutions reported fewer distress symptoms, a paradox possibly rooted in a negationist attitude linked to anti-establishment sentiments and the misinformation crisis. In a contemporary context, this study provides historical insights into the dynamics of the pandemic's early days and also offers a reflection point for understanding the long-term implications of institutional trust on public health, especially in times of crisis.

The paper presents an initial analysis of issues related to health work in Brazil, in the context of COVID-19 Pandemic, seeking to contribute to a debate about the relationships between work process, the ongoing psychological dynamics and the struggle for health. It is based on a framework of Work Organizational Psychology, guided by the point of view of the activity and experience, to account for materials emerging from an experiment that has been developed within the scope of “University Extension”, under the coordination of the two authors of the paper. Initially, both the international emergency context of COVID-19 and general characteristics of the work situations that are being faced by health professionals are presented. Then, upon selection of a main axis as the object of attention, the analysis of some work situations, present in that dramatic context, is carried out, which allowed to present some clues, as conclusion.

The speed in producing information and the rush to publish scientific articles on COVID-19 in several knowledge areas have resulted in what is known as an infodemic also in the scientific field, potentially producing inaccurate information and sources of misinformation at scholarly communication. This has led to some articles being retracted or withdrawn due to unintentional errors or deliberate misconduct, but they continue to be cited. This article (i) gives an overview of the COVID-19 retracted articles and preprints, and (ii) analyses a set of post-retraction citations in the context of the COVID-19 infodemic. We analyzed 56 retracted articles and preprints by using the list available in the section on “retracted coronavirus (COVID-19) papers” in the Retraction Watch (RW) webpage. We found that 64.3% of these retractions were articles published in journals, 33.9% were uploaded in preprints servers, and 1.8% conference papers. We also analyzed 162 eligible articles out of 612 records identified by using the Google Scholar search engine. This research found that an article from The Lancet continued to be cited even after being retracted. In this case, we identified 214 post-retraction citations, of which 38% were negative (n=81), 32% were neutral (n=69), and 30% were positive citations (n=64)

This paper aims an analysis about the impact of the technology implementation in the justice administration in Colombia from the changes introduced by the fourt industry revolution. although the use of TICs for a better development of justice isn´t a legal mandate, with the emergency derived from COVID-19, it was necessary to use different shock strategies against the possibility of physical contact in the judicial services. The main objective is to determinate the impact caused by the changes presented in the use of technology generated by the COVID-19 in Colombian justice: the application of Information and communication technologies (TICs) to the Law. In this context, it been used an analytical documentary approach by the study of juridical texts, specialized web pages and other documents that allow to go deeper in the subject. As a main conslusion, are evidente new cultural patterns and new autonomous regulations forms of human behavior, juridical traffic, wich are linked to data ownership, intimacy rigths, strategic and politic advantages that may arise from its use among other.

Pregnant people with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have a higher risk of adverse maternal and fetal outcomes compared with pregnant people without COVID-19. In 2021, large increases in maternal mortality were reported in Jamaica, almost half of which were attributable to COVID-19. COVID-19 vaccination has been shown to reduce these risks, but low- and middle-income countries lack free, publicly available data, known as open data, on COVID-19 vaccine uptake for their pregnant populations. The objectives of this paper were to: review how high-income countries use open data to detect trends in COVID-19 vaccine uptake among pregnant people and develop vaccination distribution strategies; outline barriers to making open data available for maternal COVID-19 vaccination in the Caribbean; and propose a multipronged strategy that would increase the availability of open data on maternal COVID-19 vaccination in the Caribbean. A multipronged strategy to fill the data void would involve: (i) utilizing existing Caribbean maternal immunization data collection entities; (ii) adapting digital software tools to establish maternal electronic immunization registries; and (iii) collaborating with local partners skilled in data analytics. Making open data available for COVID-19 vaccine uptake among pregnant people in the Caribbean could offer substantial benefits, including the development of measurable maternal COVID-19 vaccination goals and the facilitation of vaccine decision-making discussions between providers and pregnant people.

This paper presents the sociological research carried out among Polish and Ukrainian students concerning the importance of family within their life. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the differences and similarities in the perception of this fundamental group unit of society. The research was conducted at a unique time, as it was during the ongoing period where Ukraine has been a country at war, in addition to the epidemic outbreak of COVID-19. It was assumed that these special circumstances as well as the cultural differences would influence the perception of marriage and family. In a threatening situation, a person can change their former value system, priorities, and the most important life goals. In addition, the observed social and cultural changes that are taking place in both countries - albeit not at the same time and to the same extent - affect the way young people see their vision of the world, and in particular in what family model they would like to spend their future, and also whether they think about starting a family at all.

The majority of recent research studies show the emotional state of language learners at the onset of the Covid-19 . Although the language students themselves identified issues limiting their learning, such as lack of interaction, lack of motivation and feedback, isolation, problems with the Internet, language teachers have admitted their concerns about students learning and confessed to being flexible, tolerant, and more humane. Today, there is a need to follow up on those student issues regarding their language learning beyond the Spring of 2020. This paper sheds light on the evolution of life, emotions, and wellbeing of the students, and their language learning beyond the rapid transition in Spring 2020 from forced unplanned teaching to the planned teaching during the pandemic of Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. This study explores the perceptions of 68 foreign language students in an American context through a survey. The results report on college language students’ needs, their emotions and wellbeing, and their recommendations to administrators based on their needs and perceptions.

This paper focuses on income-related health inequalities amid COVID‑19 in Greece. The prolonged crisis and the pandemic have exacerbated the socioeconomic risks in the country. A major implication is the sharp decline in incomes, which has worsened the health status and the access and use of healthcare, especially among low and middle income individuals. We analyze the theoretical background on health inequalities and describe the dual shock to Greek society, both with the ongoing fiscal consolidation and the COVID-19 pandemic. By utilizing EU-SILC data through alternative techniques, we offer empirical estimates of the extent of health inequalities ranked by incomes. The empirical findings indicate a certain increase in income-based health inequalities over a critical period for Greece’s population.

During the period of lockdown both students and teachers experienced immersion in the digital environment to the full, what allowed actualizing the so-called “dark” sides of organization of the educational process; those metamorphoses, which traditional roles of a student and a teacher are currently getting exposed to. Post-pandemic realities of education within the contour of Timothy Morton’s dark ecology theory are considered in the present paper. The authors make use of a “hyperobject” concept while studying the introduction of digitalization in the field of education, submitting to extrapolate Morton’s optics to comprehension of educational practices, mediated by digital environment. It is shown in the study, that absorption of traditional educational practices proves to be a limited discourse, where the technological component of digitalization is being merely actualized and the essence of educational process is being simultaneously discredited.

The cooperation between Brazil and China dates from 1980 and is inserted in the South-South cooperation scope. However, the literature observes a transformation of this cooperative modality in the crisis of international relations – as evidenced by the impact of covid-19 pandemic – and the domestic challenges faced by developing countries. This raises the question of whether there is increasingly a gray area between South-South and North-South cooperation, and whether there is any likelihood of a reversal of this low cooperative profile between states. In this context, the paper seeks to analyze Brazil-China cooperation in science, technology and innovation (STI), observing the nuances of the previous and subsequent period of the covid-19 pandemic. Has there been a reduction in this cooperation in the contemporary scenario? How has the pandemic impacted this process? To answer these questions, this research is based on a bibliographic and documental review, as well as official websites of the cooperative initiatives and the Brazilian organizations involved in the bilateral interaction. We conclude that the biggest leaps in bilateral STI relations occurred at the end of the first decade of the 21st century and at the beginning of the second, with a subsequent reduction in cooperative intensity, although relations remained active. Furthermore, we note a transition in strategic terms and that, during the pandemic, new bonds were established, as well as dialogues for the renewal of the existing cooperation. Under the current administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, recent international acts have been signed and there has been a strengthening of the partnership, especially in the space area, demonstrating a boost in South-South cooperation in STI between Brazil and China.

The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic to hit Africa (February–September 2020) was not particularly virulent either in terms of cases detected or lethality. However, the presence of the virus and the subsequent restrictions exacerbated pre-existing inequalities based on ethnicity, class and gender. This paper analyses the impacts of the pandemic on refugee women, who are subject to "structural vulnerability" and "multisystemic violence" in Africa. After analysing the ten African countries with the largest refugee populations, the different forms and levels of these impacts are systematised, along with the consequences and implications for refugee women in the long term, highlighting the need for strategies to be adopted towards this group at various levels.