Children's Experiences of Death Anxiety and Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic

The aim of this study was to explore children's experience and responses to the Covid-19 pandemic through their illustrations and short narrations. During October 2020 and January 2021 data was collected from thirteen children aged 9–10 years old in a primary school in the North-West of England. Children were asked to draw their thoughts and feelings about the pandemic and to write a short narration to accompany the drawing. Thematic analysis of data revealed that during the pandemic children at this age have an understanding of death, experience death anxiety and are able to use creative expression to facilitate meaning of the impact of lockdown on their lives such as feeling isolated, lonely, sad and bored. Creative expression also facilitated adaptive coping mechanisms derived from being able to spend more time with family. The data on primary school children is part of a larger study which involved surveys and interviews with children aged 12–16 years in secondary schools. AD -, Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes, UK ;, Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes, UK

Young People's Experiences of Death Anxiety and Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Capacity for death awareness and death anxiety in young people has been previously documented but the impact of Covid-19 is not currently known. Therefore, the aim of this study of this study was to explore young people's experiences and responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Qualitative data was collected from young people via a two-stage process across the United Kingdom: Stage One consisted of an online questionnaire; Stage Two comprised online semi-structured interviews. Responses for Stage One of the study totalled 120 young people; 9 of these were interviewed for Stage Two of the study. Thematic analysis of data identified four themes relating to young people's experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic: death anxiety; mental health; normalising death; and identified support needs. Young people experienced heightened death anxiety due to the pandemic but death also became normalized for them and their mental health was negatively affected.

Preclinical development of a molecular clamp-stabilised subunit vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.

OBJECTIVES: Efforts to develop and deploy effective vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continue at pace. Here, we describe rational antigen design through to manufacturability and vaccine efficacy of a prefusion-stabilised spike (S) protein, Sclamp, in combination with the licensed adjuvant MF59 'MF59C.1' (Seqirus, Parkville, Australia). METHODS: A panel recombinant Sclamp proteins were produced in Chinese hamster ovary and screened in vitro to select a lead vaccine candidate. The structure of this antigen was determined by cryo-electron microscopy and assessed in mouse immunogenicity studies, hamster challenge studies and safety and toxicology studies in rat. RESULTS: In mice, the Sclamp vaccine elicits high levels of neutralising antibodies, as well as broadly reactive and polyfunctional S-specific CD4+ and cytotoxic CD8+ T cells in vivo. In the Syrian hamster challenge model (n = 70), vaccination results in reduced viral load within the lung, protection from pulmonary disease and decreased viral shedding in daily throat swabs which correlated strongly with the neutralising antibody level. CONCLUSION: The SARS-CoV-2 Sclamp vaccine candidate is compatible with large-scale commercial manufacture, stable at 2-8°C. When formulated with MF59 adjuvant, it elicits neutralising antibodies and T-cell responses and provides protection in animal challenge models.