Immune memory after SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a serious global public health threat with more than 540 million infections and 6.32 million cases of death as of 25 June, 2022.Understanding whether COVID-19 patients can obtain persistent immune protection after recovery is crucial for vaccine development, disease control and epidemic forecast.The persistent immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is mainly derived from the immune memory.Thus, the generation and maintenance of immune memory specifically targeted to the virus were reviewed in this paper. Copyright © 2022 Society of Microbiology and Immunology. All rights reserved.

Immune memory after SARS-CoV-2 infection

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a serious global public health threat with more than 540 million infections and 6.32 million cases of death as of 25 June, 2022.Understanding whether COVID-19 patients can obtain persistent immune protection after recovery is crucial for vaccine development, disease control and epidemic forecast.The persistent immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is mainly derived from the immune memory.Thus, the generation and maintenance of immune memory specifically targeted to the virus were reviewed in this paper. © 2022 Society of Microbiology and Immunology. All rights reserved.

Dynamic change of IgG titers in hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019: a group-based trajectory analysis

Objective To study the dynamic trajectories of quantitative immunoglobulin G (IgG) titers of hospitalized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients and reveal the immune process of the organism after infection. Methods The clinical data and quantitative IgG titers at different time points of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital and Guanggu Branch of Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital of Hubei Province from Feb. 5 to Apr. 15, 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to identify the subgroups from time-series data of patients’ antibody titers, and then the clinical characteristics and outcomes were compared among these trajectory groups. Results Totally, 734 patients who met the criteria were included. Three IgG trajectory groups were identified from the antibody data: group 1 (consistently low group, 60 cases［8.17%］), group 2 (moderate group, 38 cases ［5.18%］) and group 3 (high group, 636 cases［86.65%］). The hospitalization days and the virus clearance time of patients in the 3 groups were significantly different (both P＜0.001), those in group 1 were the shortest, while the all-cause mortality and disease deterioration rate had no significant difference in the 3 groups (both P＞0.05). Conclusion Patients with different IgG antibody developmental trajectories may have heterogeneous prognosis and immune process. Patients with consistently higher longitudinal antibody titers may require more medical attention.

FLOP: Federated Learning on Medical Datasets using Partial Networks

The outbreak of COVID-19 Disease due to the novel coronavirus has caused a shortage of medical resources. To aid and accelerate the diagnosis process, automatic diagnosis of COVID-19 via deep learning models has recently been explored by researchers across the world. While different data-driven deep learning models have been developed to mitigate the diagnosis of COVID-19, the data itself is still scarce due to patient privacy concerns. Federated Learning (FL) is a natural solution because it allows different organizations to cooperatively learn an effective deep learning model without sharing raw data. However, recent studies show that FL still lacks privacy protection and may cause data leakage. We investigate this challenging problem by proposing a simple yet effective algorithm, named Federated Learning on Medical Datasets using Partial Networks (FLOP), that shares only a partial model between the server and clients. Extensive experiments on benchmark data and real-world healthcare tasks show that our approach achieves comparable or better performance while reducing the privacy and security risks. Of particular interest, we conduct experiments on the COVID-19 dataset and find that our FLOP algorithm can allow different hospitals to collaboratively and effectively train a partially shared model without sharing local patients' data. © 2021 ACM.

COMBATING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DURING COVID-19: WHAT DOES THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE SHOW US?

Previous evidence demonstrates that a public health crisis triggers and intensifies domestic violence, especially against women. The pandemic of COVID-19 supported this observation, as the world witnessed an increase in domestic violence. China has witnessed a similar trend. While the Chinese government is applying a stringent model of virus control measures over COVID-19 when compared to certain other countries, many questions remain . How is this impacting the situation of domestic violence in China? What has China done to combat domestic violence during COVID-19? What can we learn from the Chinese experience? This article intends to answer these questions by reviewing reports and media coverage and conducting interviews with stakeholders. First, it examines causes of domestic violence during COVID-19. Second, it analyses the types and features of domestic violence during COVID-19. Third, the article intends to discover the current difficulties in combatting domestic violence. Fourth, it presents good practices for specific local areas. Last, it concludes with recommendations for tackling domestic violence during public health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, by understanding the Chinese experience.

Crisis challenges of small firms in Macao during the COVID-19 pandemic

This research develops a framework that combines crisis stages, stakeholder engagement, and crisis challenges. The framework is applied to small firms in Macao during the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic crisis. We conduct a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with the leaders of six small firms in Macao. The findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has turned into a "normal" context, which blurs the traditional crisis termination stage. We also find that participating firms engage more with internal stakeholders than external ones. The strategies adopted by small firms include flexible human resource (HR) practices, cost reduction, enhancing customer relations, and using government support schemes. These strategies are effective in the short term;firms need to pay attention to diversity and learning for the long term.

Investigation and analysis of risk factors of anxiety and depression of rural residents in china during the prevalence of COVID-19

Introduction: Novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) is a public health emergencies of international concern, which causes a certain degree of psychological burden, which may cause people's anxiety, depression, and fear. This study aims to investigate the rural residents in China to better understand their psychological state during the epidemic period, and to provide reference for formulating targeted strategies. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional survey method was used to select 587 rural residents in a certain area of China to conduct a questionnaire survey through online recruitment and snowball sampling, and then to use the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 assess their psychological status and use demographic data to analyze risk factors. Results: The anxiety score was (4.71±4.898), the anxiety detection rate was 45.0%;the depression score was (4.58±5.371),and the depression state detection rate was 42.6%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that monthly income, residence situation, fear of infection, the impact of COVID-19 on life, contact with people in epidemic areas, chronic diseases are risk factors for villagers'anxiety (p<0.05 for all). Marriage, education level, residence situation, fear of infection,fear of prognosis, the impact of COVID-19 on life, and chronic diseases are risk factors for depression of villagers (p<0.05 for all). Conclusion: During the epidemic period, some villagers have anxiety and depression. It is suggested to strengthen the psychological attention of rural residents and carry out psychological protection and counseling in a timely manner so as to improve their psychological coping ability.

PIN133 Medical Human Resource NEEDS of Chinese Health Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Objectives: To explore the medical human resource needs of Chinese health professionals duringthe COVID-19 pandemic and provide evidence-based support for the national medical workforce allocation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A mathematical model was established with two scenarios (under control and intermittent outbreak) for predicting the health professionals’ human resource needs. The model inputs were based on the data obtained from the National Health Commission (NHC) of the PRCand the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Results: The medical workforce supply is 10.78 million during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Due to the decrease in the number of patients in outpatient and elective surgery, there are excess human resources in most clinical specialties. The demand for professionals during the COVID-19 epidemic in under control and outbreak circumstances will be 8.00 million and 8.42 million, respectively. Around 1.5–2 million of the workforce supply could be reallocating human resources to the shortage of specialties or services (for example, a massive screening program for COVID-19 in the community). Conclusions: The total number of health professionals is adequate during the COVID-19 pandemic (under control and intermittent outbreak) in China. However, due to the massive screening program for COVID-19 in the community, the needs of professionals for extensive screening programs are increased, and the reallocation of human resources to specialties with shortages is needed.

Investigation of sleep quality and psychological status of a naval force stationed in Hubei, China during coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic

Objective To understand the sleep quality and psychological status of officers and soldiers in naval force stationed in Hubei, China during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, and to explore the influencing factors, so as to maintain the physical and mental health of officers and soldiers during the epidemic. Methods Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) scale, patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), generalized anxiety disorder-7 (GAD-7) and impact of event scale-revised (IES-R) were used to evaluate the sleep and psychological status of officers and soldiers in a naval force stationed in Hubei province. Results A total of 238 questionnaires were sent out, and 232 valid questionnaires were collected, with an effective rate of 97.5%. The median score of PSQI scale was 2.00 (1.00, 5.00), and poor and very poor sleep qualities accounted for 5.6% (13/232) and 0.9% (2/232), respectively. The median score of PHQ-9 was 0.00 (0.00, 2.00), and mild, moderate and severe depression accounted for 12.1% (28/232), 0.9% (2/232) and 0.4% (1/232), respectively. The median score of GAD-7 was 0.00 (0.00, 0.00), and mild anxiety was found in 7.8% (18/232) participants. The median score of IES-R was 1.00 (0.00, 5.00), and mild and moderate psychological stress accounted for 12.5% (29/232) and 1.3% (3/232), respectively. Conclusion The sleep quality and psychological status of the officers and soldiers from the naval force stationed in Hubei are generally good during the COVID-19 epidemic. A small proportion of them have mild psychosomatic disorders, such as poor sleep quality, depression, anxiety and psychological stress reaction. Psychological counseling and humanistic care should be given to better maintain the physical and mental health of naval forces and ensure their combat capability.