The “Great Lockdown” and cultural consumption in the UK

In this paper, we exploit a unique weekly longitudinal survey of adults in the UK purposefully collected to study consumption choices with respect to cultural content types during the first Covid-19 national lockdown (the "Great Lockdown"). We look for changes in the probability of consuming different cultural and creative types of content (Music, Movies, TV, Games, Books, Magazines and Audiobooks), as well as changes in the overall variety of consumption. We find that changes in consumption depend on the type of content. In particular, other things being equal, the likelihood of listening to Music and playing Games went up and the likelihood of reading Books went down. We find little statistically significant evidence of changes in the probability of consumption of the other types of content. We find that, while on average individuals increased the variety of their consumption, the statistical significance of this increase varied depending on the socio-demographic and economic characteristic of interest. In particular, we find evidence of an increase in the variety of consumption for those at the bottom of the distribution of socio-economic status, which speaks to the importance of access to culture and creativity during lockdown for this specific social class.

Adenovirus vector-based vaccines as forefront approaches in fighting the battle against flaviviruses.

Flaviviruses are arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) that have been recently considered among the significant public health problems in defined geographical regions. In this line, there have been vaccines approved for some flaviviruses including dengue virus (DENV), Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), yellow fever virus (YFV), and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), although the efficiency of such vaccines thought to be questionable. Surprisingly, there are no effective vaccine for many other hazardous flaviviruses, including West Nile and Zika viruses. Furthermore, in spite of approved vaccines for some flaviviruses, for example DENV, alternative prophylactic vaccines seem to be still needed for the protection of a broader population, and it originates from the unsatisfying safety, and the efficacy of vaccines that have been introduced. Thus, adenovirus vector-based vaccine candidates are suggested to be effective, safe, and reliable. Interestingly, recent widespread use of adenovirus vector-based vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the importance and feasibility of their widespread application. In this review, the applicability of adenovirus vector-based vaccines, as promising approaches to harness the diseases caused by Flaviviruses, is discussed.