Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Live Musical Performance in the United States and the United Kingdom: Outsider and Insider Perspectives

In March 2020, live music venues were shuttered because of the COVID-19 pandemic. To gauge the mood and opinions of persons involved in aspects of live performance, a questionnaire was developed. Responses from 19 individuals representing many aspects of the live music portion of the industry were analyzed. These versatile professionals have been resilient during the pandemic. Time not spent traveling on the tour circuit gave some the chance to pursue non-musical interests, foster aspects of music that could be done from home, provided time for reflection and songwriting, and allowed some to complete albums. All of the musicians expressed sympathy for the tribulations experienced by ancillary personnel vital to the operation of live venues and touring. They also expressed sympathy for new musical acts that depended on live performance for audience exposure. The pandemic spawned new musical innovations to pique the interest of the music-consuming public such as subscriptions to view live streaming of performances, and musicians reaching out directly to fans using online services. Such innovations have partially offset some of the revenue lost from being unable to tour and may continue when the pandemic is finally over. Three innovative musical performances during the COVID-19 period are highlighted. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

What's So Funny About COVID-19? How Some Comic Strip Artists Have Approached or Avoided a Sensitive Subject

Newspaper comic strip artists in the "funny pages” have approached the subject of the COVID-19 pandemic in a number of ways. There was a delayed reaction to the pandemic because of the significant lead times preceding when the strip appeared in the paper. Some artists chose never to address the pandemic;other strips are "classic” in that they had appeared previously before the pandemic (e.g., Classic Peanuts, For Better or Worse) or were firmly grounded in a different time period (e.g., Prince Valiant) and would not be expected to broach the subject. A variety of aspects of the pandemic were fodder for the strips and panels such as: shortages and rationing, quarantine behavior, hand washing and mask wearing, escapism, family togetherness and its opposite, loneliness, social distancing, virtual meetings and telecommuting. Some of these subjects are exaggerated in an attempt to highlight their humorous, even ludicrous, aspects. Others are especially poignant and pay tribute to health care workers, delivery persons, grocery store employees, teachers, and other unsung heroes helping people get through the worst of the pandemic. Special attention is paid to the themes discussed in the following three comics: Dr. Rex Morgan, MD, Frank and Ernest, and Pearls Before Swine. Thirty-seven comic strips and panels appearing in the daily and Sunday editions of two different Kentucky newspapers to which the author subscribes;they form the basis for the study. These nationally syndicated strips were analyzed from the time of the first stay at home order in mid-March 2020 until the end of February 2021. This examination is exploratory in nature. Trends in the number of cartoons addressing aspects of COVID-19 are analyzed, but more importantly an attempt is made to interpret the themes of the comic strips or panels. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Meeting the Challenge of COVID-19: How American Craft Breweries Responded

The appearance and subsequent diffusion of COVID-19 forced many bars and restaurants across the United States to close their doors and discontinue normal business practices. This included over 8000 craft breweries. As a result of COVID-19 directives, craft breweries were restricted to curbside pick-up and home delivery of the beer they produced, forcing them to rethink and redesign an important part of their business model. The primary purpose of this chapter is to assess how craft breweries responded to the restrictions placed upon them. A historical review of how the 1918-19 influenza pandemic impacted the brewing industry in the United States is also provided. Similarities between how COVID-19 and the 1918-19 influenza pandemics impacted their period's respective brewing industries are identified. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Evaluating the transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2 from sewage pollution.

The presence of SARS-CoV-2 in untreated sewage has been confirmed in many countries but its incidence and infection risk in contaminated waters is poorly understood. The River Thames in the UK receives untreated sewage from 57 Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs), with many discharging dozens of times per year. This study investigated if such discharges provide a pathway for environmental transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Samples of wastewater, surface water, and sediment collected close to six CSOs on the River Thames were assayed over eight months for SARS-CoV-2 RNA and infectious virus. Bivalves were also sampled as an indicator species of viral bioaccumulation. Sediment and water samples from the Danube and Sava rivers in Serbia, where raw sewage is also discharged in high volumes, were assayed as a positive control. No evidence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA or infectious virus was found in UK samples, in contrast to RNA positive samples from Serbia. Furthermore, this study shows that infectious SARS-CoV-2 inoculum is stable in Thames water and sediment for <3 days, while SARS-CoV-2 RNA is detectable for at least seven days. This indicates that dilution of wastewater likely limits environmental transmission, and that detection of viral RNA alone is not an indication of pathogen spillover.

The Association of Early Antibiotic Use with Prolonged Mechanical Ventilation in Severe Covid-19

INTRODUCTION: The appropriate use of empiric antibiotics for patients with severe COVID-19 presents a clinical challenge. Bacterial coinfection can be difficult to exclude, sometimes resulting in empiric antibiotic therapy. However, antibiotics alter the respiratory tract microbiome and these changes in the lung microbiome have been associated with prolonged ARDS in COVID-19. We hypothesized that early antibiotic use increase the risk of prolonged mechanical ventilation in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. METHOD(S): We used the National Covid Cohort Collaborative (N3C) to identify a retrospective cohort of patients admitted between March 2020 and May 2022 with a positive COVID-19 PCR or antigen test 15 days prior or within 48 hours of admission. We collected demographics, Charlson comorbidity index, month of hospitalization, antibiotics received, surgical procedures, details of mechanical ventilation, and diagnoses. We defined early empiric antibiotic use (EEAU) as administration of IV antibiotics for at least three calendar days before the sixth hospital day. Prolonged mechanical ventilation was defined as 14 consecutive days of mechanical ventilation. Our primary analysis used logistic regression after propensity score matching (PSM) with multiple imputation via chained equations for missing data. Sensitivity analyses included varying the required days of antibiotic exposure, using PSM with complete cases only, and using inverse probability of treatment weighting. RESULT(S): Our final cohort included 283,314 admissions. Prolonged mechanical ventilation and EEAU was observed in 1.4% and 13.9% of cases, respectively. In the unadjusted cohort, patients who received EEAU were more likely to be older, obese, and have more comorbidities. These patients were also more likely to have had mechanical ventilation, ECMO, major surgery, or a traumatic diagnosis during the first days of their hospitalization. After PSM, the standardized mean difference for all variables was less than 0.05. Early antibiotic use was associated with an increased risk of prolonged mechanical ventilation (OR 1.86, 95% CI 1.71 - 2.03). This finding was robust to all approaches in our sensitivity analysis. CONCLUSION(S): In our retrospective cohort, EEAU is independently associated with increased risk of prolonged mechanical ventilation.

Early Empiric Antibiotic Use in Patients Hospitalized with Covid-19: A Retrospective Cohort Study

INTRODUCTION: The appropriate use of empiric antibiotics is a clinical challenge for patients with severe COVID-19. Early in the pandemic, there was concern that bacterial coinfection would influence morbidity and mortality. This concern often led to treating patients empirically with antibiotics. Fortunately, early data from the COVID-19 pandemic suggests bacterial coinfection is uncommon. However, there has been little published data on the antibiotic prescribing practices over the course of the pandemic. This study aims to investigate the inter-center variation and temporal trends of early antibiotic prescribing in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. METHOD(S): We performed a retrospective analysis using the National COVID Cohort Collaborative database. We identified patients admitted between March 2020 and December 2021 who had a positive COVID-19 PCR or antigen test 15 days prior or within 48 hours of admission. Age at time of COVID-19 diagnosis, gender, race/ethnicity, Charlson comorbidity index, the month of hospitalization, antibiotics received, labs at the time of hospital admission, and center identifier were collected. A chi-square test was used for categorical data and Wilcoxon rank-sum test for continuous data. Mixed effects logistic regression was used to evaluate predictors of early empiric antibiotic use. RESULT(S): Of 280,601 qualifying first hospitalizations, 30,469 patients received early empiric antibiotics. Antibiotic use declined across all centers over time from the first month (23%) to the last month in (8.1%) in the data collection period (p < 0.01). Antibiotic use decreased slightly by day 2 of hospitalization and was significantly reduced by day 5. Mechanical ventilation before day 2 (OR 2.25, 95% CI 2.14 - 2.36) and ECMO before day 2 (OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.25 - 2.05) but not region of residence was associated with early empiric antibiotic use. CONCLUSION(S): Although treatment of COVID-19 patients with empiric intravenous antibiotics has declined during the pandemic, the frequency of use remains higher than the reported incidence of bacterial superinfection. There is significant inter-center variation in antibiotic prescribing practices. Future research should focus on comparing outcomes and adverse events among COVID-19 patients treated with and without empiric antibiotics.

“Framing KBO: ESPN, Media Discourse, and the Cultural Identity of Korean Baseball”

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) and South Korea were leaders in sport’s return during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was added to the television landscape through ESPN beginning in May 2020. The intersection of Korean sport and American media provides a unique gap to examine the globalization of sports media and its impact on identity. A thematic analysis was conducted across a one-week, stratified sample (six broadcasts) of KBO games during the first thirty games televised on ESPN between May 4 and June 13, 2020, which allowed time for “tracking discourse” to explore how terminology and perspective on KBO traveled across borders. Broadly, KBO was framed as quality professional baseball and heralded for a style centered on fundamentals. Rather than offered as a standalone, KBO player identity formation was largely contextualized alongside a comparison to a successful American Major League Baseball (MLB) player. The consistent overlapping MLB discourse was constructed as the Americanization of all global professional baseball leagues to follow their lead. Lastly, the altered reality for KBO within the context of the coronavirus pandemic was positioned as a litmus test for the return of professional sports. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Paleoclimatology and Paleoceanography Perspectives on Integrated, Coordinated, Open, Networked (ICON) Science

This article is composed of three independent commentaries about the state of Integrated, Coordinated, Open, Networked (ICON) principles (Goldman et al., 2021, https://doi.org/10.1002/essoar.10508554.1) in the AGU section paleoclimatology and paleoceanography (P&P), and a discussion on the opportunities and challenges of adopting them. Each commentary focuses on a different topic: (Section 2) Global collaboration, technology transfer and application, reproducibility, and data sharing and infrastructure;(Section 3) Local knowledge, global gain: improving interactions within the scientific community and with locals, indigenous communities, stakeholders, and the public;(Section 4) Field, experimental, remote sensing, and real‐time data research and application. P&P projects can better include ICON principles by directly incorporating them into research proposals. A promising way to overcome the challenges of interdisciplinarity and integration is to foster networking, which will advance our research discipline through the application of ICON.

Uncertainty about the future: Insights from older patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (aml) on different treatment paths

Background: AML is a haematologic cancer primarily affecting older people (median age 68 at diagnosis). Prognosis is poor, with median survival ranging from 2 to 10 months from diagnosis, depending on patient health, age, and treatment path. Some patients described struggling with uncertainty about the future, but it is unclear how this differs across patients and treatment paths. Aims: This study explored the experiences of AML patients (≥65 years old, not receiving intensive chemotherapy), their close relatives, and independent clinicians. Specifically, patient expectations for the future and how these varied by treatment path and by time since diagnosis were investigated. Methods: A total of 28 AML patients (aged 65-83;median 74), 25 relatives, and 10 clinicians from the US, UK, and Canada each took part in a 60-minute, semi-structured telephone interview. Open-ended questions were used to elicit spontaneous content, followed by focused questions when needed. Results: Patients had diverse treatment histories: 13 no treatment, 14 with experience of non-intensive chemotherapy (NIC) including 3 who discontinued treatment, and 1 on best supportive care (BSC). At time of interview the mean time since diagnosis was 5 (range 2 to 9) months for patients with no treatment experience, and 8 (range 2 to 19) months for those with treatment experience. The BSC patient was diagnosed 9 months prior to interview. Patients discussed positive and negative expectations for the future related to: physical functioning;treatment;life expectancy;ability to do hobbies, spend time with family, and go on vacation. In the no treatment group, there was evidence that expectations about the future became more negative over time. Few patients (n=4/13) recalled having negative expectations about the future at diagnosis, while most (n=10/13) did at time of interview. In contrast, patients with treatment experience appeared to have increasingly positive expectations. Most of these patients (n=11/14) recalled negative expectations when diagnosed, whereas at interview most (n=9/14) felt hopeful about future events. Further, of patients with treatment experience, almost all those diagnosed ≥6 months prior to interview had positive expectations about their future (n=6/7), while under half of those diagnosed <6 months prior (n=3/7) did. Clinicians (n=7/10) further highlighted that patient expectations changed over time depending on treatment success. Additionally, patients (n=15/28) and relatives (n=15/25) discussed feeling uncertain throughout the AML journey, reporting unknowns around life expectancy, what they would be able to accomplish, and future plans. Uncertainty was a consistent experience regardless of treatment history, with similar proportions of patients not on treatment (n=7/13) and those with NIC experience (n=7/14) reporting the sentiment. Additionally, recently interviewed patients (n=7/13) and relatives (n=7/10) noted that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic contributed to experiences of uncertainty and difficulties planning for the future. Summary/Conclusion: There were key differences between patients not on treatment and those with experience of NIC, as patients with treatment experience demonstrated more hope for the future. Regardless, uncertainty is a key element of the AML journey. For some patients, this was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings highlight the importance of ensuring all patients are provided with emotional and spiritual support to help them process their diagnosis and plan for the future, both during this pandemic and beyond.

The impact of covid-19 on patient disease experience: Insights from social media posts contributed by patients with multiple myeloma

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is rapidly spreading;high infection and mortality rates have resulted in extreme restrictions on individuals' liberties and freedom of movement, which are particularly salient for individuals with pre-existing conditions affecting health related quality of life. Patient-reported information (PRI) shared on social media provides an opportunity to access real-time data to better understand patients' perspectives outside the formal research context. Aims: The aim of this study was to explore the impact of COVID-19 on patients, focusing on analyzing relevant social media posts to better understand the patient experience of multiple myeloma (MM) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Searches were conducted of two patient advocacy websites (Patient Power, Myeloma Crowd) and YouTube to identify individual social media posts. English-language posts were reviewed if shared by adults with a self-reported MM diagnosis, with content relevant to the impact of COVID-19 on their experiences of MM. A pragmatic literature review was also conducted to identify articles on the impact of COVID-19 on general patient disease experience and use of social media for research during the pandemic. Results: Six social media posts (9 individuals [4 male/5 female]) were identified that met the review criteria (7 individuals provided >1 source of data). Four articles were identified as pertinent to humanistic challenges associated with disease management and use of social media for research during the pandemic. Patients with MM encounter additional challenges associated with the pandemic. The PRI data highlighted exacerbation of the psychosocial impact of MM by the pandemic;patients expressed concern about increased vulnerability to infection due to previous treatment toxicities, plus fear and anxiety regarding possible virus transmission. PRI data reported that patients with MM took additional precautions to limit physical contact while attempting to maintain social interactions;already restricted by MM. Both data sources identified that patients encountered disruption/delays to their medical management and treatments. Although the pandemic has been a catalyst for development of telemedicine strategies to provide efficient management, delays/restrictions on treatments (e.g., transplants for MM) and suspension of development of innovative treatments may have deleterious effects for disease management. However, COVID-19 has also provided positive opportunities. Patients' previous experience of MM treatment-related immunosuppression had provided preparation for dealing with COVID-19. Articles reporting on patients' experiences in general noted that medication adherence during the pandemic has reportedly improved for patients with respiratory conditions. Social media has been utilized as a strategy for patient research during the pandemic, resulting in the formation of research groups-i.e., the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance-as a way of studying the effects of COVID-19 on patients with rheumatic disease. Summary/Conclusion: PRI can provide timely access to preliminary information on changes to the patient disease experience not easily accessed by traditional research methods. Findings from the targeted search of patients in general and social media posts from patients with MM illustrated that patients with pre-existing diseases encounter challenges due to COVID-19 that can further disrupt their daily lives (e.g., social functioning, medical management) and impact their psychological well-being (e.g., anxiety, fear).

SportsCenter: A Case Study of Media Framing U.S. Sport as the COVID-19 Epicenter

When COVID-19 enveloped sport, it presented SportsCenter, ESPN's primary news vehicle, with an unexpected and ironic form of "MarchMadness," with basketball as the sporting epicenter for a pandemic. This case study applied an ethnographic content analysis to examine how the cancellation or postponement of sport as a result of COVID-19 was framed across 22 episodes of SportsCenter from March 8 to 14, 2020. More than 134 min of coveragewas devoted toCOVID-19-related stories, and 268 unique types of stories were produced. Descriptive statistics suggested that COVID-19 was framed as having a direct impact on U.S. men's professional sports leagues and the National Collegiate Athletic Association men's basketball tournament. When considering news format characteristics, SportsCenter produced its coverage through convenience and relevance to ESPN, not sport. Even during a "breaking news" pandemic, SportsCenter retained its long-standing news process of gender bias and nationalistic favoritism. The visual difficulty of how to "show" coronavirus also presented a production challenge, but the messages and cues embedded in the visuals depicted a rapid shift in discourse that focused on basic reporting without health or global context. Instead, SportsCenter overwhelmed viewers with how sport was ripped away from (U.S.) American society.

Pseudo-outbreak of coagulase-negative staphylococcus species from blood cultures highlights unique challenges in care of critically ill patients with COVID-19

Background: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a dedicated intensive care unit for patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 was created at our institution. We noticed a marked increase in the number of blood cultures positive for coagulase-negative Staphylococcus species (CoNS) that highlights unique challenges that arise with the creation of new units and workflows. Methods: We reviewed all blood culture results from the COVID-19 intensive care unit (CoVICU) from April 15 to May 29. We reviewed all blood cultures taken from the oncology ward, medical intensive care unit (MICU), and emergency department (ED) for the same time frame as a comparison. We calculated contamination rates, using the clinical microbiology laboratory criteria for possible contaminants based on species and number of positive blood cultures. Results: There were 324 total blood cultures collected from the CoVICU with 27/324 (8.3%) positive for organisms deemed contaminant, 10/324 (3.1%) were positive considered bloodstream infections (BSI);the ratio of BSI:contaminant was 1:2.7. For the MICU, ED, and oncology units contamination rates were 2/197 (1%), 33/747 (4.4%), and 2/334 (0.6%), respectively;and the ratio of BSI:contaminant was 5:1, 2.2:1, and 17.5:1, respectively. There was a significant relationship between contamination rates and unit, X2(3, N = 1602) = 30.85, p < 0.001. Conclusion: Upon investigation, peripheral blood draw kits were not stocked in the CoVICU. Additionally, certain components of standard work for blood culture collection (e.g. glove exchange) could not be performed per usual practice due to isolation precautions. Peripheral blood draws were routinely performed by nurses in CoVICU and MICU while phlebotomy performed these in other comparison units. We suspect that lack of availability of blood draw kits and disruption of typical workflow in isolation rooms contributed to an unusually high number of contaminated blood cultures among patients admitted to the CoVICU. Notably, the CoVICU and MICU providers were the same pool of caregivers, further supporting a process issue related to isolation precautions. Institutions should be aware of the need for extra attention to supply chain management and examination of disruption to standard work that arise in the management of COVID-19 patients.