10.31234/osf.io/7nk8z

A recent randomized clinical trial assessed the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in the treatment of patients with common coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). 1 The results showed that “the body temperature recovery time and the cough remission time were significantly shortened in the HCQ treatment group. Besides, a larger proportion of patients with improved pneumonia in the HCQ treatment group (80.6%, 25 of 31) compared with the control group (54.8%, 17 of 31).” A Bayesian reanalysis of the pneumonia data provides support for the hypothesis that HCQ improves pneumonia in patients with COVID-19. However, the degree of this support is moderate. In line with the authors’ conclusion, more data are needed to draw definite conclusions

Efficacy of Hydroxychloroquine in Patients with COVID-19 (Chen et al., 2020): Moderate Evidence for a Treatment Effect on Pneumonia

10.31234/osf.io/mtk4j

We read with interest the correspondence by Representatives of the STARSurg Collaborative, EuroSurg Collaborative, and TASMAN Collaborative1 about the involvement of medical students in response to worldwide COVID-19 crisis. There is a positive correlation between inadequate health-care resources and COVID-19 related mortality.2 As this pandemic is ravaging through countries worldwide, even the most competent health systems are facing a dire need of workforce demand,3 likes of which have never been seen before. While developed countries are still skirmishing to get to grip with this crisis, developing nations like Bangladesh with comparatively incapacitated healthcare system is of no exception, and is in urgent need of innovative and outrageous ideas to tackle.

Considering voluntary contribution of medical students to tackle COVID-19 crisis at hospitals in Bangladesh & similar settings

10.31234/osf.io/qpbj7

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is evolving rapidly as an overwhelming burden on human health and health systems of many countries includes low resource countries like Bangladesh. The country is facing crisis and several challenges to manage confirmed and symptomatic cases with limited administrative and logistic support, inadequate governance and widespread panic and stigma throughout the country. As the number of persons with COVID-19 and death are increasing there is a potential of heightened mass panic, stress and discrimination in coming days which can be predicted from recent protests in different parts of the country, spread of rumours and falsehoods, non-scientific information, limitations in governance and growing discrimination towards certain group of population and professionals. As World Health Organization (WHO) speculated this trajectory of pandemic is uncertain, this emerging body of stigma and discrimination needs to be addressed by proper authorities, infodemic should be controlled by legal steps and mass awareness campaigns should be launched without further delays.

Addressing the COVID-19 related stigma and discrimination: a fight against infodemic in Bangladesh

10.31234/osf.io/w89fz

Background–The pandemic of COVID-19 in Italy represents a unique threat in terms of psychological distress, especially among healthcare professionals. This study represents a first attempt to investigate both the psychological states and coping strategies of Italian healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 outbreak. Importantly, we assessed psychological distress and coping strategies regarding two phases, pre-COVID (asking participants to retrospectively recall their state in December 2019) and during the time of survey, which was in the midst of the COVID emergency outbreak (March-April 2020). Methods–Self-administered questionnaires were distributed online to healthcare professionals of different Italian regions from March 26 to April 9, 2020. The questionnaire included three main sections measuring changes in psychological states, coping strategies and demographic variables. Two linear regression models were run to analyze variations in both general health and infection-risk perception depending on changes in psychological states, coping strategies, personality trait, and demographic variables. Results– Altogether, the direct exposure to the virus and a negative impact of the COVID-19 emergency outbreak on contextual psychological functioning contribute to the deterioration of physical and mental health, which may lead to severe future consequences for Italian healthcare workers, if not provided immediately with an effective support program. Conclusions– Both immediate and long-term monitoring psychological assistance services for healthcare workers should be implemented by local and national institutions to reestablish psychological well-being and enhance self-confidence and resilience of Italian hospital personnel. These intervention programs should especially target women, and professionals at their first steps into the hospital job.

Psychological Impact and Contextual Factors Associated With Physical and Mental Health Conditions of Italian Healthcare Professionals During the Covid-19 Disease Outbreak

10.31234/osf.io/4z62t

Background The current Corona pandemic is not only a threat to physical health. First data from China and Europe indicate that symptoms of anxiety and depression and perceptions of stress rise significantly as a consequence of the pandemic. There are also anecdotal reports of increased domestic violence, divorce, and suicide rates. Hence, the Corona crisis is also a mental health crisis. There is urgent need for knowledge about factors that can protect mental health (resilience factors) in this world-wide crisis, which is different in nature from other crises that have so far been studied in resilience research. Methods Potential resilience factors, exposure to Corona-specific and general stressors, as well as internalizing symptoms were assessed online in N=5000 adult Europeans. Resilience, as an outcome, was conceptualized as good mental health despite stressor exposure and measured as the inverse residual between actual and predicted symptom total score. Preregistered hypotheses (osf.io/r6btn) were tested with multiple regression models and mediation analyses. Results Results confirmed our primary hypothesis that positive appraisal style (PAS) is positively associated with resilience (p<0.001). The resilience factor PAS also mediated the positive association between perceived social support (PSS) and resilience (p<0.001). In comparison with other resilience factors, positive appraisal specifically of the consequences of the Corona crisis was the single strongest factor. Conclusions This research identifies modifiable protective factors that can be targeted by public mental health efforts. Future work will have to identify potential group differences in the effectiveness of these resilience factors, for improved prevention planning.

Mental resilience in the Corona lockdown: First empirical insights from Europe

How can the behavioral science community be most effective in responding to the present global COVID–19 crisis? What kind of science can we do, and how should we go about doing it?

Reconfiguring behavioral science for crisis knowledge management

The paper forms part of a series of two papers outlining the theoretical framework for a new model of uncertainty distress (paper one) as well as treatment implications (paper two) arising from the model. We define uncertainty distress as the subjective negative emotions experienced in response to the as yet unknown aspects of a given situation. In the first paper we drawn on a robust body of research on distinct areas including: threat models of anxiety, perceived illness uncertainty and intolerance of uncertainty. We explore how threat and uncertainty are separable in anxiety and how we can understand behaviours in response to uncertainty. Finally, we propose a clinically, theoretically and empirically informed model for uncertainty distress and outline how this model can be tested. Clinical applications and practitioner key points are briefly included, however these are more fully outlined in our treatment implications (paper two). While we outline this model in the context of novel coronavirus (Covid-19), the model has broader applications to both mental and physical health care settings.

Towards a model of uncertainty distress in the context of Coronavirus (Covid-19)

10.31234/osf.io/v8q6m

10.31234/osf.io/bvcgu

Background: Mental health service policymakers require evidence-based information to optimise effective care provision based on local need, but tools are unavailable. We developed and validated a population-level prediction model to forecast need for early intervention in psychosis [EIP] services in England up to 2025. Methods: We fitted six candidate Bayesian Poisson regression models, combining epidemiological data on psychosis risk, to predict new annual caseload of referrals, assessed, treated, and probable first episode psychosis [FEP] cases in EIP services, aged 16-64 years at small-area level. Models were validated against observed NHS Mental Health Services Data Set [MHSDS] data at Clinical Commissioning Group [CCG] and national levels for 2017. Projections were made up to 2025, based on small-area demographic forecasts. Outcome: In 2017, our best-fitting model predicted 8,112 (95% interval: 7,623 to 8,597) individuals with probable FEP in England, compared with 8,038 observed in the MHSDS (difference: n=+74; +0·92%), after accounting for psychosis risk by age, sex, ethnicity, small area-level deprivation, social fragmentation and regional cannabis use. In 2020, this model forecasted 9,066 new treated FEP cases (8,485 to 9,618), rising 1% annually up to 2025. For every ten treated cases, we forecasted that 23 and 21 people would be referred to and assessed by EIP services, respectively, for “suspected FEP”. Interpretation: Our methodology provides an accurate, validated toolkit to inform planners, commissioners and providers about future population need for psychosis care at different stages of the referral pathway, based on local determinants of need. Funding: Wellcome Trust, Royal Society, National Institute for Health Research

Forecasting population need for mental health care: a Bayesian methodology applied to the epidemiology of psychotic disorders in England

10.31234/osf.io/yb2h8

The unexpected COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown impositions are having a significant impact on people’s day-to-day life, confronting Western countries with hitherto unknown contagion threats and restrictions on freedoms. Given the serious effects of stress on physical and mental health, the stressful impact of the COVID-19 emergency represents an important public health issue. The present study assessed the stressful impact of the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy, identifying possible mediators of perceived stress (sociodemographic variables and stable psychological traits). High levels of perceived stress were found in the Italian population. Being female, having low income and living with other people were associated with higher levels of stress. Higher rates of emotional stability, self-control, positive coping style and internal locus of control were protective factors against psychological distress. These results may provide indications for early and targeted prevention and intervention programs.

Stable psychological traits predict perceived stress related to the COVID-19 outbreak

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/bpp.2016.7

Conventional economic policy focuses on ‘economic’ solutions (e.g. taxes, incentives, regulation) to problems caused by market-level factors such as externalities, misaligned incentives and information asymmetries. By contrast, ‘nudges’ provide behavioural solutions to problems that have generally been assumed to originate from limitations in human decision making, such as present bias. While policy-makers have good reason for exploiting the power of nudges, we argue that these extremes leave open a large space of policy options that have received less attention in the academic literature. First, there is no reason that solution and problem need have the same theoretical basis: there are promising behavioural solutions to problems that have causes that are well explained by traditional economics, and conventional economic solutions often offer the best line of attack on problems of behavioural origin. Second, there is a wide range of hybrid policy actions with both economic and behavioural components (e.g. framing a tax or incentive in a specific way), and there exist many societal problems – perhaps the majority – that arise from both economic and behavioural factors (e.g. firms’ exploitation of consumers’ behavioural biases). This paper aims to remind policy-makers that behavioural economics can influence policy in a variety of ways, of which nudges are the most prominent but not necessarily the most powerful.

Putting nudges in perspective

10.31234/osf.io/nvxpb

We see little benefit to separating Honesty-Humility from the broader FFM Agreeableness domain. In our commentary, we summarize several studies showing that although lexically-based Big Five measures under-represent H-H content, the same cannot be said for FFM-based measures. We also indicate that contrary to claims by some advocates, FFM-based Agreeableness is more strongly related to the Dark Triad than H-H. Finally, we review a recent study examining the lower-order structure of FFM Agreeableness that failed to reveal a separate H-H factor, despite more than adequate representation of that content.

Agreeableness in the HEXACO

Although the scientific evidence of anthropogenic climate change continues to grow, public discourse still reflects a high level of scepticism and political polarisation towards anthropogenic climate change. In this study (N = 499) we attempted to replicate and expand upon an earlier finding that environmental terminology (“climate change” versus “global warming”) could partly explain political polarisation in environmental scepticism (Schuldt, Konrath, & Schwarz, 2011). Participants completed a series of online questionnaires assessing personality traits, political preferences, belief in environmental phenomenon, and various pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. Those with a Conservative political orientation and/or party voting believed less in both climate change and global warming compared to those with a Liberal orientation and/or party voting. Furthermore, there was an interaction between continuously measured political orientation, but not party voting, and question wording on beliefs in environmental phenomena. Personality traits did not confound these effects. Furthermore, continuously measured political orientation was associated with pro-environmental attitudes, after controlling for personality traits, age, gender, area lived in, income, and education. The personality domains of Openness, and Conscientiousness, were consistently associated with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, whereas Agreeableness was associated with pro-environmental attitudes but not with behaviours. This study highlights the importance of examining personality traits and political preferences together and suggests ways in which policy interventions can best be optimised to account for these individual differences.

10.31234/osf.io/fm95k

Political Preferences, Personality Traits, and Environmentalism

Several psychologists are actively working on the response to Covid-19, and psychological theory / research is relevant in many ways… this page will serve as a growing resource collecting and linking to those contributions.

Coronavirus – Psychological perspectives

Third lecture (seminar) of the Net-COVID online series: Understanding and Exploring Network Epidemiology in the Time of Coronavirus. Seminar by Sam Scarpino of Northeastern University. See go.umd.edu/net-covid for more information about the online series.

Net-COVID Session3A: Human mobility and control measures in the COVID-19 epidemic by Sam Scarpino

Behavioural economics is being abused by politicians as a justification for flawed policies over the coronavirus outbreak

Nudge theory is a poor substitute for hard science in matters of life or death

COVID-19 has brought with it a wave of information, misinformation, and disinformation as it has spread through Latin America. In Brazil and Mexico, two of the region’s largest countries, responses to curbing the pandemic have exacerbated polarization and sparked pushback. How have the administrations of Presidents Jair Bolsonaro and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador approached this pandemic? How has the spread of disinformation and misinformation about COVID-19 impacted citizens’ response to the crisis? And how can government, media, and civil society come together to tackle the dangers posed by misleading narratives? Join the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) and Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center on Monday, April 27 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 pm EDT for a 360/virtual conversation on the real impacts of disinformation about COVID-19 in Brazil and Mexico.

Brazil and Mexico: Domestic disinformation in the context of COVID-19

But the fight to control the pandemic is likely to be a long and slow one

Coronavirus infections have peaked in much of the rich world

This document provides guidance to those who employ and/or supervise individuals in assistant psychologist and other associated posts, both within the NHS and privately, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Please utilise this document alongside Trust policies and other guidance referenced throughout, particularly the BPS Guidance for psychological professionals during the Covid-19 pandemic (2020).This guidance has been written to offer a structure of support for those aspiring psychologists who are working during this difficult period.

GUIDANCEGuidance for aspiring psychologists and their supervisors during Covid-19 | 21.04.20201GUIDANCEGuidance for aspiring psychologists and their supervisors during Covid-19

I have been corresponding with the authors of the well-known Santa Clara County COVID-19 preprint, and I am alarmed at their sloppy behavior. The confidence interval calculation in their preprint made demonstrable math errors - *not* just questionable methodological choices.

Everyone makes mistakes, but the record must be corrected ASAP. I emailed them on Saturday morning asking them to do so. In the last three days they haven't corrected anything yet, but a subset of them have released a new study without saying how they did the analysis this time.

Given the critically important and time-sensitive policy decisions being made now, if the authors are still pressing their case in the media using possibly incorrect calculations, then I feel I should make my criticism public too.

The errors are not debatable and can be seen in these two screenshots of the supplement: 0.0034, the standard error meant to measure uncertainty about prevalence pi, is not the square root of 0.039, and the variance of a binomial estimate of proportion depends on the sample size.

I can't redo the whole calculation myself because parts were not described anywhere, but I have low confidence that those parts were done correctly; if not, the corrected confidence interval for prevalence in Santa Clara County might well stretch all the way to include zero.

The authors said by email that they used a built-in Stata function and aren't sure themselves how the software used the input weights. I suspect they misapplied that function (too complicated to tweet why) but I don't know Stata well enough to be sure; it seems neither do they.

We see the coronavirus shock as akin to a large-scale natural disaster that severely disrupts activity in the near term, but eventually results in an economic recovery.

Deep shock underway

THE MACROECONOMICS OF EPIDEMICS

We extend the canonical epidemiology model to study the interaction between economic decisionsand epidemics. Our model implies that people’s decision to cut back on consumption and work reducesthe severity of the epidemic, as measured by total deaths. These decisions exacerbate the size of therecession caused by the epidemic. The competitive equilibrium is not socially optimal because infectedpeople do not fully internalize the effect of their economic decisions on the spread of the virus. Inour benchmark model, the best simple containment policy increases the severity of the recession butsaves roughly half a million lives in the U.S.

10.1177/1529100612451018

The widespread prevalence and persistence of misinformation in contemporary societies, such as the false belief that there is a link between childhood vaccinations and autism, is a matter of public concern. For example, the myths surrounding vaccinations, which prompted some parents to withhold immunization from their children, have led to a marked increase in vaccine-preventable disease, as well as unnecessary public expenditure on research and public-information campaigns aimed at rectifying the situation.We first examine the mechanisms by which such misinformation is disseminated in society, both inadvertently and purposely. Misinformation can originate from rumors but also from works of fiction, governments and politicians, and vested interests. Moreover, changes in the media landscape, including the arrival of the Internet, have fundamentally influenced the ways in which information is communicated and misinformation is spread.We next move to misinformation at the level of the individual, and review the cognitive factors that often render misinformation resistant to correction. We consider how people assess the truth of statements and what makes people believe certain things but not others. We look at people’s memory for misinformation and answer the questions of why retractions of misinformation are so ineffective in memory updating and why efforts to retract misinformation can even backfire and, ironically, increase misbelief. Though ideology and personal worldviews can be major obstacles for debiasing, there nonetheless are a number of effective techniques for reducing the impact of misinformation, and we pay special attention to these factors that aid in debiasing.We conclude by providing specific recommendations for the debunking of misinformation. These recommendations pertain to the ways in which corrections should be designed, structured, and applied in order to maximize their impact. Grounded in cognitive psychological theory, these recommendations may help practitioners—including journalists, health professionals, educators, and science communicators—design effective misinformation retractions, educational tools, and public-information campaigns.

Misinformation and Its Correction: Continued Influence and Successful Debiasing

The nature of the COVID-19 pandemic may require governments to use big data technologies to help contain its spread. Countries that have managed to “flatten the curve”, (e.g., Singapore), have employed collocation tracking through mobile Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth as a strategy to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. Through collocation tracking, Government agencies may observe who you have been in contact with and when this contact occurred, thereby rapidly implementing appropriate measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The effectiveness of collocation tracking relies on the willingness of the population to support such measures, implying that government policy-making should be informed by the likelihood of public compliance. Gaining the social license - broad community acceptance beyond formal legal requirements - for collocation tracking requires the perceived public health benefits to outweigh concerns of personal privacy, security, and any potential risk of harm.This project involves a longitudinal cross-cultural study to trace people’s attitudes towards different tracking-based policies during the crisis. At present, we are planning 4 weekly waves in Australia, at least 1 wave in the UK (data collection currently under way), several waves in Germany, at least one wave in the U.S., and we are reaching out to collaborators and colleagues in other countries to broaden our scope.We aim to understand (1) the factors that influence the social license around governmental use of location tracking data in an emergency, (2) how this may change over time, and (3) how it may differ across cultures. We will present participants with one of two vignettes describing mild or severe Government tracking methods that may reduce the spread of COVID-19, and then question participants’ attitudes towards the proposed methods.

Social Licensing of Privacy-Encroaching Policies to Address COVID

Health authorities have warned that an overabundance of information can make it harder for people to obtain reliable guidance about the coronavirus pandemic.Helping the world make sense of this information requires a broad response, involving scientists, journalists, public figures, technology platforms and many others. Here are some ways we plan to help.

COVID-19: $6.5 million to help fight coronavirus misinformation

There are a lot of upsides to urban density — but viral contagion is not one of them. Also: a nationwide lockdown will show if familiarity really breeds contempt. And: how to help your neighbor.

What Does Covid-19 Mean for Cities (and Marriages)? (Ep. 410)

This chapter reviews current research on telework. We first examine the literature on telework and job performance, job attitudes, and professional isolation, beforereviewing the outcomes of telework on employee well-being as characterized by stress and work-life balance. We then turn our attention to factors that contribute to a successful telework experience: characteristics of the job, characteristics of the employee, and characteristics of the employee’s manager(s). We also identify the key role of technology support in influencing many of the established outcomes of and contributors to telework. Finally, we discuss the gaps in our knowledge of telework’s repercussions for employees and organizations. We conclude by identifying the implications of what we do know for theory and practice. To maximize positive outcomes, we recommend evidence-based guidelines for organizations with regard to 1) selecting and preparing employees for telework, and 2) managing their use of this flexible work practice.

How scientists can respond to COVID-19

Ministers are answering criticism by insisting they were “guided by the science”. But government experts say the science is “riddled with doubt, uncertainty, and debate”.

Scientists Advising The UK Government On The Coronavirus Fear Boris Johnson’s Team Is Using Them As “Human Shields”

2004.10546v1

Inferring topological characteristics of complex networks from observed data is critical to understand the dynamical behavior of networked systems, ranging from the Internet and the World Wide Web to biological networks and social networks. Prior studies usually focus on the structure-based estimation to infer network sizes, degree distributions, average degrees, and more. Little effort attempted to estimate the specific degree of each vertex from a sampled induced graph, which prevents us from measuring the lethality of nodes in protein networks and influencers in social networks. The current approaches dramatically fail for a tiny sampled induced graph and require a specific sampling method and a large sample size. These approaches neglect information of the vertex state, representing the dynamical behavior of the networked system, such as the biomass of species or expression of a gene, which is useful for degree estimation. We fill this gap by developing a framework to infer individual vertex degrees using both information of the sampled topology and vertex state. We combine the mean-field theory with combinatorial optimization to learn vertex degrees. Experimental results on real networks with a variety of dynamics demonstrate that our framework can produce reliable degree estimates and dramatically improve existing link prediction methods by replacing the sampled degrees with our estimated degrees.

Inferring Degrees from Incomplete Networks and Nonlinear Dynamics

10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30320-0

Controversy exists regarding whether severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can be transmitted in utero from an infected mother to her infant.1Qiao J What are the risks of COVID-19 infection in pregnant women?.Lancet. 2020; 395: 760-762Google Scholar To date, studies have mainly focused on women in late pregnancy.2Huijun C Juanjuan G Chen W et al.Clinical characteristics and intrauterine vertical transmission potential of COVID-19 infection in nine pregnant women: a retrospective review of medical records.Lancet. 2020; 395: 809-815Google Scholar,  3Zeng H Xu C Fan J et al.Antibodies in infants born to mothers with COVID-19 pneumonia.JAMA. 2020; (published online March 26.)DOI:10.1001/jama.2020.4861Google Scholar,  4Dong L Tian J He S et al.Possible vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from an infected mother to her newborn.JAMA. 2020; (published online March 26.)DOI:10.1001/jama.2020.4621Google Scholar We report SARS-CoV-2 negativity in amniotic fluid from two pregnant women who were diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the early stage of pregnancy. The ethics committee of Tongji Hospital approved the study, and written informed consent was obtained from both patients.Clinical records and laboratory results were retrospectively reviewed for two pregnant women with COVID-19 admitted to Wuhan Tongji Hospital (Wuhan, China) in the first trimester of pregnancy. The first patient (case 1; figure; appendix) was a 34-year-old primiparous woman who was admitted to hospital on Jan 30 after developing a cough on Jan 26 (8 weeks plus 5 days of gestation); her husband had previously had a fever and been diagnosed with COVID-19. On Feb 3, chest CT showed typical signs of viral infection of both lungs, and so a clinical diagnosis of COVID-19 was made. On Feb 13, the patient was observed as being in the recovery phase on CT, discharged from hospital, and isolated at home.

No SARS-CoV-2 detected in amniotic fluid in mid-pregnancy

We can “nudge” our way toward a healthier planet

The World Health Organization Needs to Put Human Behavior at the Center of Its Initiatives

Delays in diagnosing and treating people with cancer could lead to more years of lost life than with Covid-19, according to a leading cancer expert.

'Thousands missing out on cancer diagnosis'

We are extended our usual monthly #CyberSectionChat to a weekly event for most of April.This will run as a "Meet & Mingle" and an opportunity to socially connect during lockdown and physical distancing. If you want to connect with the community, be here at 7pm (BST) on Thursdays!

Government ministers in the UK are reportedly in disagreement over whether to lift lockdown restrictions in May, or to keep these measures in place until the summer. Onlookers ranging from journalists to Conservative MP Liam Fox have presumed that British people want the lockdown to end “as quickly as possible”. But the results of a recent survey my team ran indicate the opposite.

Coronavirus: new survey suggests UK public supports a long lockdown

Informal networks including community organizations and faith-based groups are stepping in to help people during the COVID-19 pandemic. They fill gaps in resources and services often left empty by traditional public and private organizations. The informal networks forming today may shape our economic and health recovery from COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred the creation of many formal emergency responses, initiatives and partnerships. But often the first people on the scene within communities most impacted by the outbreak are informal networks, groups of people connected by social ties, including community organizations, faith groups and clubs. Here are four reasons why informal networks are essential to enacting meaningful change and must be an important part of the COVID-19 response.

Why informal networks will be key to the COVID-19 recovery

A lot of people infected with the coronavirus have very mild or even no symptoms, or ones that don’t match the usual markers of fever, dry cough or difficulty breathing. The discovery of larger numbers of so-called asymptomatic cases, initially thought to be rare, underscores a key challenge in stopping the pandemic: If people don’t know they’re infected, they’re probably not taking steps to prevent transmitting it.

How ‘Silent Spreaders’ Make Coronavirus Hard to Beat

OPeN - Parliaments working during COVID

Behavioral scientists have made recommendations based on empirical evidence on how to keep social distancing up. More information about this project is here. We have created an infographic with these tips. Behavioral changes are critically needed to reduce the spread of coronavirus. Please share the information!

Keep social distancing up

Online learning and teaching has necessarily come to the fore over the past few weeks and months as we adapt to Covid-19. In a new virtual issue of the British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET) the editors offer a free-to-view collection of practical, high-quality research on online resources and practices that professionals across the education sector can draw guidance and inspiration from as they rise to these new challenges.

COVID-19: Online teaching and learning

How we communicate research is changing because of new (especially digital) possibilities. This article sets out 10 easy steps researchers can take to disseminate their work in novel and engaging ways, and hence increase the impact of their research on science and society.

10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007704

Ten simple rules for innovative dissemination of research

The NIHR and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) are jointly calling for research proposals to investigate emerging evidence of an association between ethnicity and COVID-19 incidence and adverse health outcomes.

NIHR and UKRI launch call for research on COVID-19 and ethnicity

Bringing Face-to-Face Events Online: Virtual Policy Events and Online Meetings With this WebTalk series, DGAP, WonkComms and Soapbox are joining forces to bring the international Think Tank community together to better understand how we can continue our work under lockdown. Each week, experts from across our community will share tips and tools for bringing your work as a Think Tank online.

Digital ThinkTanking in Times of COVID-19

“In medias res” is a narrative technique, used in a variety of works ranging from The Odyssey to Raging Bull, in which a story opens in the middle of the action. I am co-opting the term here to describe the kind of learning teams we need now to learn alongside covid-19 responses.

In Medias Res teams: The case for crisis learning alongside government covid-19 responses

Lancet Migration1Orcutt M Spiegel P Kumar B Abubakar I Clark J Horton R Lancet Migration: global collaboration to advance migration health.Lancet. 2020; 395: 317-319Google Scholar calls for migrants and refugees to be urgently included in responses to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.2Lancet MigrationLeaving no one behind in the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for urgent global action to include migrants and refugees in the COVID-19 response.https://www.migrationandhealth.org/statementsDate: April 10, 2020Date accessed: April 22, 2020Google Scholar Many of these populations live, travel, and work in conditions where physical distancing and recommended hygiene measures are impossible because of poor living conditions3Orcutt M Mussa R Hiam L et al.EU migration policies drive health crisis on Greek islands.Lancet. 2020; 395: 668-670Google Scholar and great economic precarity. This global public health emergency highlights the exclusion and multiple barriers to health care4Abubakar I Aldridge RW Devakumar D et al.The UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health: the health of a world on the move.Lancet. 2018; 392: 2606-2654Google Scholar that are faced by migrants and refugees, among whom COVID-19 threatens to have rapid and devastating effects.5Lau LS Samari G Moresky RT et al.COVID-19 in humanitarian settings and lessons learned from past epidemics.Nat Med. 2020; (published online April 8.)DOI:10.1038/s41591-020-0851-2Google Scholar From an enlightened self-interest perspective, measures to control the outbreak of COVID-19 will only be successful if all populations are included in the national and international responses. Moreover, excluding migrants and refugees contradicts the commitment to leave no one behind and the ethics of justice that underpin public health. Principles of solidarity, human rights, and equity must be central to the COVID-19 response; otherwise the world risks leaving behind those who are most marginalised. Join our global call to action for the inclusion of migrants and refugees in the COVID-19 response (panel).

10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30971-5

Global call to action for inclusion of migrants and refugees in the COVID-19 response

Millions of refugees and migrants reside in countries devastated by protracted conflicts with weakened health systems, and in countries where they are forced to live in substandard conditions in camps and compounds, and high-density slum settings.1International Organization for MigrationWorld Migration Report 2020. International Organization for Migration, Geneva2019Google Scholar Although many such settings have yet to feel the full impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the pandemic is now having an unprecedented impact on mobility, in terms of border and migration management, as well as on the health, social, and economic situation of migrant populations globally. An urgent coordinated effort is now needed to align these populations with national and global COVID-19 responses.Migrants—including the internally displaced, asylum seekers and refugees, undocumented migrants, and low-waged labour migrants—can be neglected and marginalised, live in precarious conditions, and face barriers to accessing public health and social services in the countries in which they reside. These factors considerably complicate the control of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is exemplified by the situation facing low-waged labour migrants in the Middle East working in the construction sector, where living quarters are completely sealed off after cases of COVID-19 are detected. Movement in and out of compounds is being prohibited, with workers left living in suboptimal and overcrowded conditions with limited access to health care, and substantial knock-on effects from foregone salaries for both themselves and their families back home.2Pattisson P Sedhai R Covid-19 lockdown turns Qatar's largest migrant camp into ‘virtual prison’.https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/mar/20/covid-19-lockdown-turns-qatars-largest-migrant-camp-into-virtual-prisonDate: March 20,2020Date accessed: March 21, 2020Google Scholar Elsewhere, there have been reports of tens of thousands of labour migrants being expelled overnight back to their country of origin with no clear arrangements or provision of basic needs, such as food or shelter. In other countries, the mass movement of now unemployed labour migrants, who are evacuating cities to return home to rural communities, highlights that labour migrants—the biggest global migrant group—have not been well considered since public health measures have been introduced.3Singh J Kazmin A Parkin B Indian coronavirus lockdown triggers exodus to rural areas.The Financial Times (London). March 30, 2020; Google Scholar Despite a strong public health rationale to extend COVID-19 strategies to everyone to prevent ongoing transmission, governments might prioritise their own citizens, with migrants facing devastating consequences.

10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30292-9