ABSTRACT
A pragmatic investigation of the social media as a digital tool for increasing awareness against COVID-19 is presented in this Chapter. The study aims at exploring selected internet-based entertainment contents (also known as memes) as digital tools to create awareness on COVID-19 particularly from Facebook. The study adopts the Austinian Speech Act Theory-an assertion that language is used to perform actions and these actions are only identified when utterances are contextually appropriate. Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were adopted to give adequate and in-depth descriptions of the types of speech acts identified from the memes. It is found that the memes are characterized by representatives (assertion), directives, commissives and expressives. Furthermore, there is the preponderance of representatives speech act type used in the memes (about 45.4%), implying that creators of memes made lucid statement on the need to keep to COVID-19 rules;followed by directives (18.2%), commissives (18.2%) and expressives (18.2%) each;while declaratives are missing in the memes. The study concludes that the social media as a digital tool are used by netizens to express their opinions about government and co-existence. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s).
ABSTRACT
SARS-CoV-2 infection causes a spectrum of clinical outcomes and diverse memory responses. Population studies indicate that viral neutralizing antibody responses are protective, but do not always develop post-infection. Other antiviral antibody effector functions, T-cell responses, or immunity to seasonal coronaviruses (OC43, 229E) have been implicated but not defined in all ages. Here, we identify that children and adult subjects generate polyfunctional antibodies to the spike protein after asymptomatic infection or mild disease, with some subjects developing cellular responses without seroconversion. Diversity in immunity was explained by two clusters distinguished by CD4+ T-cell cytokines, age, and antibodies to seasonal coronaviruses. Post-vaccination neutralizing responses were predicted by specific post-infection immune measures, including IL-2, spike-IgA, OC43-IgG1, 229E-IgM. We confirm a key role for CD4+ T cell cytokines in functionality of anti-spike antibodies, and show that antibody diversity is impacted by age, Th/Th2 cytokine biases, and antibody isotypes to SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal coronaviruses.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Severe Acute Respiratory SyndromeABSTRACT
Introduction: The national opioid epidemic has become a key focus of various health agencies. Recent data suggest increases in overdose deaths, primarily driven by synthetic opioids, during the 2019 novel coronavirus disease pandemic. A leading strategy in mitigating risk from the opioid public health crisis, including opioid use disorder (OUD), is via increased promotion and access to the lifesaving, opioid overdose-reversing medication, naloxone. Pharmacists have been recognized as integral in addressing this emergency;however, literature evaluating outcomes from multifaceted clinical pharmacy specialist (CPS) interventions and involvement are lacking. Research Question or Hypothesis: A quality improvement project was undertaken with the expectation that CPS involvement would result in increased naloxone prescribing proportions (quantity of OUD patients with an active prescription for naloxone within the past year divided by the quantity of patients with OUD), improved patient access to care, and increased clinical interventions. Study Design: A before and after evaluation was conducted. Methods: CPSs spearheaded a variety of interventions to increase naloxone prescribing in patients with OUD, including naloxone informational letters, focused education with prescribers, review of clinical dashboards identifying OUD patients indicated to receive naloxone, CPS naloxone prescribing, and automated naloxone medication orders integrated into electronic health record progress note templates. Naloxone prescribing proportions were compared before and after implementation of these interventions. Other measures evaluated were number of encounters, patients and clinical interventions completed by the CPSs. The evaluation period for both groups was three months. Prescribing proportions were compared through statistical analysis with chi-squared for nominal data. Results: Naloxone prescribing proportions increased from 21.9% to 56.0% (p<0.01). Number of encounters, patients and clinical interventions completed increased by 45%, 74%, and 36%, respectively. Conclusion: The significant increase in naloxone prescribing proportions and numerically increased encounters, patients, and clinical interventions suggest the value of CPS involvement in targeting the opioid epidemic.