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This study aimed to analyze the role of nurses in hospital management in the face of COVID-19. The study had a qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory approach. The setting was a hospital that was completely transformed to care for patients with COVID-19. At the time of data collection, ten nurses managed the services, and all participated in the semi-structured interview. After thematic analysis, the data were presented in three categories, representing the elements of Donabedian's triad: structure, process, and result. Category 1 highlighted the hospital structure reconfiguration based on material and people management; category 2 addressed the work process restructuring to achieve goals with safety and quality; and category 3 focused on nurses' experiences in describing the results achieved and expected. The analysis highlighted the importance of teamwork, involvement, and adaptation of managers in the face of the challenges of a new and life-threatening disease, scarce resources, and the complexity of human relationships in the crisis. In transformational leadership, these nurses encouraged behavior change, professional growth, and resilience.

This article maps the structural, nonstructural and functional vulnerabilities of healthcare facilities to the COVID-19 pandemic. It reports on a scoping review guided by JBI recommendations and structured by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. The PubMed, CINAHL, LILACS, EMBASE, SciELO, Scopus and Web of Science Repositories and databases were consulted, as was the grey literature. The protocol was registered in the Open Science Framework. The 54 studies included summarised 36 vulnerabilities in three categories in 29 countries. Functional and non-structural vulnerabilities were the most recurrent. Limited material and human resources, service disruption, non-COVID procedures and inadequate training were the items with most impact. COVID-19 exposed nations to the need to strengthen health systems to ensure their resilience in future health crises. Prospective risk management and systematic analysis of health facility vulnerabilities are necessary to ensure greater safety, sustainability and improved standards of preparedness and response to events of this nature.

This study analyzed the periodontal clinical data of individuals with a history of COVID-19 treated in a dental school during the pandemic in 2021 before vaccination., Methods: This analysis included individuals older than 18 years with no history of systemic disorders other than systemic arterial hypertension. Individuals who had COVID-19 were classified according to the World Health Organization as asymptomatic, with mild, moderate, severe, or critical symptoms., Results: A total of 95 individuals were evaluated, which included 24 with a history of COVID-19. Seventeen percent had been asymptomatic, 21% had mild, 25% moderate, 21% severe, and 17% critical symptoms, including intubation. Individuals with no history of COVID-19 presented significantly lower measurements of probing depth (p=0.003; Mann-Whitney test) and clinical attachment level (p=0.002) compared to individuals with a history of COVID-19. A significant negative association was found between bleeding on probing and the severity of characteristics of COVID-19 (rho= -0.233; p=0.023). Conversely, positive associations between the values of probing depth (rho= 0.292; p=0.004) and mean clinical attachment level (rho= 0.300; p=0.003) and the characteristics of COVID-19 were found., Conclusions: The periodontal data shows that patients who had COVID-19 before vaccination may present a worse periodontal status when compared to patients in the same clinical setting with no history of COVID-19. However, a more extensive study should confirm it with more participants.

Introduction: Few data on the COVID-19 epidemiological characteristics among the pediatric population in Africa exists. This paper examines the age and sex distribution of the morbidity and mortality rate in children with COVID-19 and compares it to the adult population in 15 Sub-Saharan African countries., Methods: A merge line listing dataset shared by countries within the Regional Office for Africa was analyzed. Patients diagnosed within 1 March and 1 September 2020 with a confirmed positive RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 were analyzed. Children's data were stratified into three age groups: 0-4 years, 5-11 years, and 12-17 years, while adults were combined. The cumulative incidence of cases, its medians, and 95% confidence intervals were calculated., Results: 9% of the total confirmed cases and 2.4% of the reported deaths were pediatric cases. The 12-17 age group in all 15 countries showed the highest cumulative incidence proportion in children. Adults had a higher case incidence per 100,000 people than children., Conclusion: The cases and deaths within the children's population were smaller than the adult population. These differences may reflect biases in COVID-19 testing protocols and reporting implemented by countries, highlighting the need for more extensive investigation and focus on the effects of COVID-19 in children., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

The text presents and discusses the main aspects related to the current dynamics of the vaccine industry in the world and in Brazil, focusing on the demand created by the pandemic of COVID-19. At the global level, it briefly exposes the place currently occupied by Brazil within the scope of the BRICS and sets out and analyzes the options - identities and differences - of industrial policy in Brazil, China and India in the field of vaccines. Next, it analyzes the displacement of the vaccine industry, from a situation of exclusive production of immunizers to a majority control by the large pharmaceutical industry. Further on, it recovers recent fundamental aspects of the vaccine industry in Brazil, with an emphasis on Biomanguinhos / Fiocruz and the Butantan Institute. Finally, it discusses the successes and limitations of the technology transfer mechanism used by the two institutions, as well as the relevance of their historically assumed commitment to public health policies.