Environmental Compliance and Practices Of Cruise Ships in ísafjörður, Iceland

The drastic growth of cruise tourism in the world, while potentially beneficial for economic growth in local communities, also brings concerns regarding environmental impacts. This research used the port of Ísafjörður, Iceland, a growing hotspot destination for cruise ships, as a case study to aid in understanding the potential environmental impacts from cruise ships. The study's aims were: 1) to determine the quantity and type of waste discharged to the shore facilities by cruise ships in Ísafjörður in 2019, and 2) to explore the compliance behavior of the ships in adhering to Icelandic and international environmental regulations. To do this, quantitative and qualitative questions were presented in a survey to officers from 40 cruise ships, accounting for 87% of the total 46 different ships that docked in Ísafjörður in the 2019 cruise ship season. The survey questions were designed based on the MARPOL Convention and the law of Iceland, and these questions were compared with the ship's statutory record or ship's certificates to strengthen the reliability of the data. The questions covered five categories: emissions, waste oil, wastewater, garbage and food waste, and ballast water. Results showed that very little garbage and food waste had been discharged to shore facilities, and this was likely because Ísafjörður is one of several stops for many cruise ships in Iceland and the waste had simply been discharged elsewhere. In assessing the other four categories, 8 out of the 40 cruise ships carried out illegal activities, including 12 specific violation cases. This article discusses three primary reasons for those violations: accessibility, inconsistency, and monitoring. This research was conducted pre-COVID-19;however, by 2022 cruise ship calls in Ísafjörður approached preCOVID-19 numbers. Interested parties such as local communities, national decision makers, tourism boards, municipal planners, and environmental agencies must use the best available knowledge, such as this study, to manage the positive and negative aspects of the growth of cruise ship tourism, and perhaps even more so in a post-COVID-19 phase.

Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccines in People Living with HIV in British Columbia and comparisons with a matched HIV-Negative Cohort: A Test Negative Design.

BACKGROUND: We estimated the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection among people living with HIV (PLWH) and compared estimates with a matched HIV-negative cohort. METHOD: We used the British Columbia COVID-19 Cohort, a population-based data platform which integrates COVID-19 data on SARS-CoV-2 tests, laboratory-confirmed cases, and immunizations with provincial health services data. Vaccine effectiveness (VE) was estimated with a test-negative design using multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: Adjusted VE against SARS-CoV-2 infection was 79.2% (52.5, 90.9%) 7-59 days after two doses, rising to 91.6% (75.2, 97.2%) between 60-89 days. VE was preserved four to six months following receipt of 2 doses after which slight waning was observed (72.7% [39.1, 87.8%]). In the matched cohort (n=375 043), VE peaked at 91.0% (90.5, 91.5%) 7-59 days after 2 doses and was sustained for up to four months after which evidence of waning was observed, dropping to 83.8% (82.9, 84.7%) between four to six months. CONCLUSION: Receipt of two COVID-19 vaccines doses was effective against SARS-CoV-2 infection among PLWH pre-Omicron. VE estimates appeared to peak later in PLWH compared to the matched HIV-negative cohort and the degree of waning was relatively quicker in PLWH; however, overall estimates were comparable in both populations.

COVID-19 and Well-Being in Remote Coastal Communities - A Case Study from Iceland

This study utilizes a recently developed framework for the well-being economy to evaluate the impacts of COVID-19 in the sparsely populated Westfjords region of northwestern Iceland. A total of 42 semi-structured interviews were conducted with a broad spectrum of local community members, nearly all undertaken in October 2021. Local impacts to human and social capital were very evident, whilst economic consequences to individuals and business were largely mitigated through national economic packages. The remoteness of the Westfjords and pre-existing challenges, such as exposure to nature disasters, a harsh climate, and limited infrastructure, provided a bedrock of resilience with which to tackle the pandemic. This underpinned the sustainability of the communities, and flexible approaches to work and education constrained some of the worst potential effects of social distancing and isolation. Nevertheless, some socio-demographic groups remained harder hit than others, including the elderly in nursing homes and non-Icelandic speaking foreigners, who were marginalized via isolation and lack of information provision in the early, most severe outbreaks of COVID-19. The study demonstrated the coping mechanisms and solutions that were adopted to sustain subjective and community well-being, whilst reinforcing the importance of utilizing local community strengths in tackling the many challenges induced by a pandemic crisis.

Human Resource Management and Institutional Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic-A Case Study from the Westfjords of Iceland

Human resource management (HRM) is challenging in times of crisis, more so than when there is a stable business environment. Consequently, the overall aim of the study is to identify the preparedness, transition process, learning, and growth that businesses in the Westfjords region experienced because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, 42 semi-structured interviews were conducted with various members of the society, such as health authorities, healthcare workers, staff of a university center, social workers, and business owners, to gain as broad of an understanding of the local impacts as possible, as well as the coping strategies that emerging or were employed. The model employed for the analysis is an organizational resilience and organizational coping strategies model, which considers both the pre- and post-crisis situation. The core components of this model-anticipate and plan, manage and survive, and learn and grow-were the themes that were used in the thematic analysis of the interviews presented in the results. The findings of the study suggest that the preparedness aspect of the model employed, namely anticipate and plan, was negligible, as institutions were neither very ready for disruption prior to the crisis, nor had plans in place to deal with such a situation. Despite the lack of pre-crisis anticipation and planning mechanisms, examples of how institutions managed and coped during the pandemic were evident in the data. Also, during the crisis, some institutions managed to not just learn and grow, but, through adaptation to the situation, they were able to thrive. The findings also suggest both positive and negative aspects to HRM in public and private institutions. The implications of the study are theoretical in cases of alteration to the analytical model employed, practical in the case of coping mechanisms and practical solutions suggested, and have policy relevance, as the study emphasizes the importance of integrating flexible approaches to national mandates, thus enabling local conditions to be taken into account.