Biodiversity in Times of COVID-19 and its Relationship with the Socio-Economic and Health Context: A Look from the Digital Media.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a pause in people's activities and a socio-economic crisis worldwide due to confinement. This situation is an unprecedented opportunity to understand how these changes may impact biodiversity and its conservation, as well as to study human-nature interaction. Biodiversity plays an essential role in conservation and economic activities, and in countries with greater inequality and low gross domestic product (GDP), biodiversity could have a low priority. Moreover, how biodiversity is prioritized in a society impacts how the citizens view it, and digital news tends to shape biodiversity narratives. The aim of this work was to determine the main trends in biodiversity-related news categories during the COVID-19 pandemic in countries with terrestrial and marine hotspots and relate them to the socioeconomic and public health context of each country. For this, we searched for news on biodiversity and Covid-19 in the first 6 months of the pandemic and related them to GDP, Gini-index, deaths, and infections by Covid-19. Results showed that conservation, public policies, and use of natural resources stood out as the main news categories across countries, with a positive narrative and mostly related to terrestrial rather than marine environments. On the other hand, the socio-economic and public health characteristics of each country had an influence on which aspect of the biodiversity was reflected in the media. For example, countries with greater inequality were associated with tourism news, additionally, countries with low GDP, high cases, and deaths by Covid-19 were associated with news about cultural diversity. In contrast, countries with high GDP and low inequality were associated with news about zoonosis, research and development, public policies, and alien and invasive species.

Clinical Epidemiology and Outcomes of Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis as a Complication of Respiratory Viral Infection in Hospitalized Patients

Background. Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is increasingly recognized as a complication of severe respiratory viral infections (RVIs), including influenza and COVID-19. However, the incidence and outcomes of IPA following other RVIs is not well-described. We hypothesized that IPA may be an underreported complication of non-influenza RVIs. The objective of this study was to quantify the incidence and associated outcomes of IPA following RVI in hospitalized patients. Methods. We conducted a single-center retrospective cohort study of adult hospitalized patients with RVI diagnosed by multiplex PCR-based assay at the University of Kansas Hospital (Kansas City, Kansas) from September 2018-October 2019. Patients with a diagnosis of proven or probable IPA prior to RVI and those with hospital admission < 24 h were excluded from analysis. Proven or probable IPA was defined according to EORTC/MSGERC consensus definitions. The primary outcome was 1-year all-cause mortality. Results. A total of 195 patients met study criteria and were included in the analysis. The most common types of RVI observed were rhinovirus/enterovirus (57.9%, n=113), parainfluenza (13.3%, n=26), influenza (8.2%, n=16), and respiratory syncytial virus (7.7%, n=15). The cumulative incidence of IPA infection within 6 weeks of RVI was 5.6% (n=11). Excluding patients co-infected with multiple respiratory viruses (n=5), IPA was numerically more likely to occur following influenza compared to non-influenza RVI (12.5% [ n=2/16] vs. 4.6% [n=8/174];odds ratio, 2.96;95% confidence interval [CI], 0.57-15.3;P=0.176). Overall, one-year all-cause mortality was 20% (n=39/195) in this cohort. Development of IPA as a complication of RVI was associated with a significant decrease in 1-year survival (hazard ratio [HR], 3.04;95% CI, 1.19-7.78;P=0.021), and this relationship persisted after adjustment for age (HR, 2.77;95% CI, 1.08-7.10;P=0.034). Conclusion. In a cohort of hospitalized patients with RVI, 5.6% of patients developed proven or probable IPA. Although IPA was more likely to occur in patients with influenza, this complication was also observed with other types of RVI. Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis may be an underappreciated complication of non-influenza RVI in hospitalized patients and warrants continued study.