The future is already here: Covid-19, criminology, and crime

Even though the world looks to have irreversibly changed since 2020, many social scientists are still looking at social life through a pre-Covid-19 lens. The evidence for this is present in the slow generation of empirical research during and in the aftermath, which could possibly generate new theoretical means to understand what this may mean for the generations to come. Major social change is underway. Almost every facet of social life is being rewritten right before our very eyes. The lockdowns, social distancing, and other measures implemented to 'control' the spread of Covid-19 have revolutionised the functioning of political and social institutions and have altered the platforms of social interactions and human relations. Yet the sublime ideological alignment of governments, the media, and law enforcement agencies in favour of these measures has radically polarised society as well as intensified present inequalities while simultaneously creating new ones in the process. All the while, all manner of historical, political, and social, as well as, importantly, medical context has been absent in the face of all this. Unless it moves quickly, criminology could well miss an opportunity to show its true multidisciplinary colours. This chapter seeks to give a general overview of this change in the context of social life, crime, and criminology. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023. All rights reserved.

Structural biology of SARS-CoV-2 accessory proteins

The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is the causative agent for the COVID-19 pandemic. Its proteome is typically separated into three classes of proteins: (1) Structural proteins which facilitate the transport and host cell infiltration of the viral RNA, (2) non-structural proteins which are thought to be essential for the viral life cycle and are all produced from open reading frame 1ab (ORF1ab) on the RNA, and (3) everything else, called accessory proteins. Although it was originally thought that these accessory proteins are non-essential for viral replication, a growing body of evidence suggests that these diverse proteins have crucial roles in virus-host interactions, in particular in the way they interfere with the signalling pathways that modulate the host cell's response to infection and viral pathogenicity. Here, we summarize efforts to structurally characterize the accessory proteins from SARS-CoV-2.

Critical Reflections on the COVID-19 Pandemic from the NHS Frontline

The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the way we live, work, and interact with each other. Nowhere was the pandemic more profoundly experienced than on the frontline of healthcare. From overwhelmed Intensive Care Units to shortages of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and clap for carers, the UK's National Health Service (NHS) became the focal point for the pandemic response. Utilising data from online survey responses (N = 16) complemented by four online interviews and one face-to-face interview (N = 5) with NHS workers primarily during the height of the pandemic, this article offers a preliminary analysis on the challenges the UK's healthcare workers faced through working in conditions of crisis management. The article particularly addresses NHS workers' amplification of fear, anxiety, and exhaustion;the absence of widespread solidarity;and implications of the absence of coherent governmental messaging upon the workforce. We situate this discussion within a critical account of neoliberal political economy, the theoretical framework of social harm, and the absence to explicate the harmful conditions of the pandemic's frontline. While the data are confined to the UK's NHS workers, its findings are relevant to other countries across the world that enacted similar responses to deal with COVID-19.

IS IT SAFE TO RECEIVE KIDNEYS FROM DECEASED KIDNEY DONORS WHO TESTED POSITIVE FOR COVID-19 INFECTION?

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Our modern world is facing extraordinary circumstances while passing through a serious pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) which may lead to multi-organ system failure and death. COVID-19 deaths may provide a potential source for kidneys available for transplantation. In our study, we are discussing the safety of receiving kidneys from donors who tested positive for the novel coronavirus. METHOD: All renal transplant recipients registered in UNOS database who had their transplants between 1 March 2020 and 1 June 2021 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients who received kidney transplants from a deceased donor with positive PCR of COVID-19 test were included in our study. Patients were followed up till 1 July 2021. Data about recipient factors (age, sex, ethnicity, diabetes and date of renal transplant), transplant factors (type of induction therapy, maintenance immunosuppressive therapy, delayed graft functions, early post-operative rejection episodes, HLA mismatch, PRA level and cold ischemia time) and donor factors (age, sex, ethnicity, diabetes, hypertension, date of COVID-19 test and type of COVID-19 test) were collected. Outcome measured were post-transplant hospitalisation, acute rejection, delayed graft function, patient, and graft survival till the end of the follow-up. RESULTS: Eighty-six transplant patients received kidneys from deceased donors who tested positive for COVID-19 infection using PCR test. Sixty patients received kidneys from deceased patients who tested positive for COVID-19 within 30 days pre-transplant. Twenty-six patients received kidneys from deceased patients who tested positive for COVID-19 between 30 and 90 days pre-transplant. Number of post-transplant hospitalisation and acute rejection episodes were nil. 19.76% of the patients had delayed graft functions. Graft loss occurred in one patient due to graft vein thrombosis. Patient survival was 100%. CONCLUSION: Receiving kidneys from deceased donors who tested positive for COVID-19 infection seems safe and does not affect hospitalisation, acute rejection rates, graft or patient survival. Longer follow-up is needed to confirm our results.

SMART HEALTH COMMUNITIES From sick care to health care

Health care systems around the world are now facing unprecedented challenges due to various factors including the tsunami of ageing populations, unhealthy lifestyles and diets as well as the recurrent and new emergence of infectious diseases such as flu and COVID-19. Government’s health policies need to be revisited in an attempt to put extra efforts and resources in primary care and public health. Despite the Alma-Ata Declaration of the international primary health care (PHC) conference signed in 1978, PHC models nowadays need to shift the paradigm from ‘sick care’ to ‘health care’ with the innovative model of ‘Smart Health Communities' (SHC). SHC address various stakeholders involved in enhancing the health of the citizens in the localities or cities. This initiative is within the domain of ‘Smart Cities’ with the adoption of ‘Internet of Things’ to enhance the collection of essential health data about the health status of patients and citizens in the community. SHCs are especially important in primary and community care. By means of case studies of Hong Kong and Australia, the values and impacts of using digital health and networked technologies such as wearables, electronic health record systems to facilitate SHC are highlighted to address the factors for success and the difficulties encountered. These experiences gained from Asia-Pacific regions are deemed to be the learning points for other cities to reflect about their health care systems especially in community care level so as to innovate and to further shift their focus from sick care to health care. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Ben Y.F. Fong and Martin C.S. Wong;individual chapters, the contributors.

C-Reactive Protein and Covid-19 Severity: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 clinical course has been quite unpredictable and efforts have been made to identify reliable markers that will help in early disease progression, prognosis and severity detection. METHODS: Three electronic databases, PubMed/Medline, Google Scholar, and JSTOR were searched to identify studies available online as at 1st September 2020 which assessed COVID-19 clinical outcome and CRP concentration. The search strategy involved words combination like "C-reactive protein" OR "inflammatory markers" OR "acute phase reactants" and "coronavirus 2019" OR ''COVID-19" OR "2019-nCoV" OR "SARS-CoV-2". RESULTS: Sixty-one articles were systematically reviewed out of 812 studies identified after duplicates were removed. The 61 studies comprised 13,891 COVID-19 patients made of 7,840 (56.4%) males and 6,051 (43.6%) females. All the papers revised were observational studies except one case-control and they cut across fifteen countries. The result of the review demonstrated that the severe cases had higher levels of C - reactive protein when compared to the mild cases in all the studies (100%). The increase in C-reactive protein was statistically significant in 78.7% of the cases. CONCLUSION: High levels of CRP are associated with COVID-19 severity. Highlights: Severe cases of COVID-19 is characterized with higher CRP levels. COVID-19 cases should be screened regularly for CRP to monitor severity.

Researching the COVID-19 pandemic: A critical blueprint for the social sciences

In challenging social science's established orthodoxies, this first in a series of books is a call for its disciplines to embrace new theoretical paradigms and research methods to better understand the reality of life in a post-COVID world. By offering a detailed insight into the harmful effects of neoliberalism before the pandemic, as well as the intervallic period the world is currently living through, the authors show how it is more important than ever for social science to evolve and take a leading role in contextualising the biggest crisis of the 21st century. This is a critical blueprint for ongoing debates about the COVID-19 pandemic and alternative modes of research. © Bristol University Press 2021.

Working, living and dying in COVID times: perspectives from frontline adult social care workers in the UK

Purpose: This paper aims to explore 15 UK adult social care workers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: This paper’s 15 open-ended interviews with adult social care workers are complemented by digital ethnography in COVID-19 social media forums. This data set is taken from a global mixed-methods study, involving over 2,000 participants from 59 different countries. Findings: Workers reported a lack of planning, guidance and basic provisions including personal protective equipment. Work intensification brought stress, workload pressure and mental health problems. Family difficulties and challenges of living through the pandemic, often related to government restrictions, intensified these working conditions with precarious living arrangements. The workers also relayed a myriad of challenges for their residents in which, the circumstances appear to have exacerbated dementia and general health problems including dehydration, delirium and loneliness. Whilst COVID-19 was seen as partially responsible for resident deaths, the sudden disruptions to daily life and prohibitions on family visits were identified as additional contributing factors in rapid and sudden decline. Research limitations/implications: Whilst the paper’s sample cohort is small, given the significance of COVID-19 at this present time the findings shed important light on the care home experience as well as act as a baseline for future study. Social implications: Care homes bore the brunt of illness and death during the first and second COVID-19 waves in the UK, and many of the problems identified here have still yet to be actioned by the government. As people approach the summer months, an urgent review is required of what happened in care homes and this paper could act as some part of that evidence gathering. Originality/value: This paper offers revealing insights from frontline care home workers and thus provides an empirical snapshot during this unique phase in recent history. It also builds upon the preliminary/emerging qualitative research evidence on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted care homes, care workers and the residents. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT IN THE TIME OF PANDEMICS

I proposed that I would start this editorial with the phrase 'that we live in interesting times...'given the ongoing challenge to all is the Covid_19 pandemic. The alleged origin of the phrase is said to be from a Chinese curse 'may you live in interesting times' but is found not to be directly attributable to a Chinese source, but it does use irony to suggest we are living in difficult and challenging times. It was subsequently used by the likes of Joseph Chamberlain and more recently in the 1960s by the then USA President John F Kennedy. [1] Either way most of us know that pandemics, dissent, war, and environmental disasters are not new and recent, but have occurred throughout history and are repeated often enough for most of us to have some experience or memories of those events.

New hope or old futures in disguise? Neoliberalism, the Covid-19 pandemic and the possibility for social change

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider the implications of both the Covid-19 pandemic and UK lockdown for the social, political and economic future of the UK. Drawing on primary data obtained during the lockdown and the theoretical concepts of transcendental materialism and the “event”, the paper discusses the strength of participants' attachment to the “old normal” and their dreams of a “new normal”. Design/methodology/approach: This paper utilises a semi-structured online survey (n = 305) with UK residents and Facebook forum debates collected during the lockdown period in the UK. Findings: The findings in this paper suggest that while the lockdown suspended daily routines and provoked participants to reflect upon their consumption habits and the possibility of an alternative future, many of our respondents remained strongly attached to elements of pre-lockdown normality. Furthermore, the individual impetus for change was not matched by the structures and mechanisms holding up neoliberalism, as governments and commercial enterprises merely encouraged people to get back to the shops to spend. Originality/value: The original contribution of this paper is the strength and depth of empirical data into the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically the lockdown. Additionally, the synthesis of empirical data with the novel theoretical framework of transcendental materialism presents an original and unique perspective on Covid-19. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

COVID-19: PERSPECTIVES from the EXPERIENCE of ONE AUSTRALIAN PRIMARY HEALTH NETWORK

The Covid-19 pandemic is still current but has been particularly well addressed, so far, in the Australian context. This article presents an analysis of management practice to describe the experience of one Primary Health Network (PHN) and its approach and response to the pandemic within its geographical region in accordance with Federal government directives. The PHN is a large geographic area that includes the Central Coast, just north of the Sydney basin, the Newcastle and Hunter Valley region and the Northwest/New England region that extends from Tamworth to the Queensland Border. The article describes the PHN function within its primary healthcare role (PHC) in respect to responding to national initiatives to address and reduce the impact Of the Covid-19 event. The article recounts the Federal Governments directive described through the ‘National Cabinet’ and the Federal Health Department and the PHN response to those directives and initiatives. The article also recounts the actual cases of Covid-19 over the period of the epidemic. The article describes the governance, leadership, and management initiatives. The article then describes the PHN approach to evaluation of its approach from the perspective of general practice and other PHC providers as well as providing perspectives from governance, management, and staff. The evaluation process identified significant impacts on providers and strong support for the continuation of telehealth measures. There were positive responses to the PHN activity and as a strong sense of trusted information, ongoing education, and general engagement. © Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management 2020. All rights reserved.