Plos One
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During pandemics, including the most recent COVID-19 pandemic, the mental health of university healthcare students' is expected to be affected negatively, impacting the students' learning process. ⋯ Anxiety and depression levels amongst university healthcare students in Jordan were found to be high when assessed during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the learning process during the pandemic was not accepted by more than half of the students. Implementing psychological interventions for healthcare students during pandemics is strongly recommended in order to optimize students' mental health and their learning process alike.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has been followed intensely by the global news media, with deaths and bereavement a major focus. The media reflect and reinforce cultural conventions and sense-making, offering a lens which shapes personal experiences and attitudes. How COVID-19 bereavement is reported therefore has important societal implications. ⋯ Accounts of death and grief were largely homogenous, with bereavement due to COVID-19 presented as a series of tragedies, and there was limited practical advice about what to do if a loved one became seriously ill or died. Reporting reflected the tension between focusing on existential threat and the need to retreat from or attempt to control that threat. While the impact of this reporting on the public is unknown, a more nuanced approach is recommended to better support those bereaved by COVID-19.
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The world is grappling with an ever-changing COVID-19 pandemic using preventive measures such as personal hygiene, face masks, restrictions on travel and gatherings in communities, in addition to a race to find a vaccine. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the western Uganda community on the proper use of face masks to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. ⋯ Despite the satisfactory knowledge, good attitude and practices, there is still much more to be done in terms of knowledge, attitude and practices among participants. Government, non-governmental organizations and civil society should improve sensitization of populations on how to behave with face masks while talking to avoid the spread of the COVID-19 among western Ugandans.
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In order for healthcare systems to prepare for future waves of COVID-19, an in-depth understanding of clinical predictors is essential for efficient triage of hospitalized patients. ⋯ Certain patient characteristics and clinical features can help clinicians with early identification and triage of high-risk patients during subsequent waves of COVID-19.
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With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging and the vaccination program still rolling out, there continues to be an immediate need for public health officials to better understand the mechanisms behind the deep and perpetual divide over face masks in America. Using a random sample of Americans (N = 615), following a pre-registered experimental design and analysis plan, we first demonstrated that mask wearers were not innately more cooperative as individuals than non-mask wearers in the Prisoners' Dilemma (PD) game when information about their own and the other person's mask usage was not salient. ⋯ Non-mask wearers were 23 percentage points less likely to cooperate than mask wearers when facing a mask-wearing partner, and 26 percentage points more likely to cooperate than mask wearers when facing a non-mask-wearing partner. Our analysis suggests social identity effects as the primary reason behind people's decision whether to wear face masks during the pandemic.