Increased incidence of gallbladder dysplasia and Cancer during COVID19 pandemic

Aims: Cholecystectomy is one of The most frequently performed operations in The United Kingdom. Following The spread of COVID19 infection, reduced operational capacity has led to lengthen The waiting time for cholecystectomy, which leads to significant readmission rate, growing financial burden and increased complexity of The surgical intervention. Our study aims to identify changes in gallbladder (GB) histopathological findings before and during COVID19 pandemic. Method(s): Data was collected retrospectively on 337 patients who underwent cholecystectomy between 01/2019-12/2019 (pre-COVID19) and 296 patients between 09/2020-10/2021 (during COVID19) at Princess Alexandra Hospital, including preoperative clinical-radiological, Surgery waiting time, operation details, postoperative histology and complications. Statistical analysis performed using chi-square tests (p-value<0.001). Result(s): A total of 2 (0.6%) female cases (average age 75.6) had gallbladder dysplasia (GD) and 1 of them had GB adenocarcinoma found pre-COVID19 versus 8 (2.7%) (7F:1M, average age 46.6) with GD and 5 (1.7%) (3F:2M, average age 72.6) with adenocarcinoma during pandemic. Other histopathological findings were 153 (45.4%) GB with chronic inflammation, 2 (0.5%) with necrosis or perforation pre-COVID19 versus 127 (42.9%) and 6 (2%) respectively during pandemic. The average Surgery waiting time for patients with GD or adenocarcinoma was 135 days before COVID19 versus 224.21 (33-676) during pandemic. Conclusion(s): GD is associated with increased Cancer risk at GB and other biliary tract sites. Our data demonstrated a statistically significant increase of incidence of GD and adenocarcinoma (p-value<0.00089) in patients who underwent cholecystectomy during pandemic versus pre-COVID19. Further ongoing study is recommended to understand The correlation with prolonged Surgery waiting time.

Overcoming Obstacles to Collective Action by Communicating Compassion in Science

This chapter examines the COVID-19 pandemic as an example, explains why traditional approaches to science communication that rely almost entirely on analytical information are insufficient to motivate collective action. The coronavirus pandemic presented yet another collective action problem: the suppression of infectious disease provides a non-rival, non-excludable benefit for the global population. One of the biggest challenges in collective action problems is motivating individuals to act in ways that benefit people other than themselves. Strategies that motivate compassion- the concern for another’s undeserved suffering and the desire to minimize it-may be the most helpful in addressing collective action problems. Showing the adverse consequences that COVID-19 can inflict on the vulnerable others should facilitate the experience of compassion by way of their blamelessness and deservingness of assistance. In addition to compassion appeals and moral reframing, narratives offer yet another approach that could aid in the elicitation of compassion for the purpose of motivating collective action. © 2021 John Wiley and Sons Inc.