Rapid Implementation of High-Frequency Wastewater Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2

There have been over 507 million cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), resulting in 6 million deaths globally. Wastewater surveillance has emerged as a valuable tool in understanding SARS-CoV-2 burden in communities. The National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) partnered with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to implement a high-frequency sampling program. This report describes basic surveillance and sampling statistics as well as a comparison of SARS-CoV-2 trends between high-frequency sampling 3-5 times per week, referred to as USGS samples, and routine sampling 1-2 times per week, referred to as NWSS samples. USGS samples provided a more nuanced impression of the changes in wastewater trends, which could be important in emergency response situations. Despite the rapid implementation time frame, USGS samples had similar data quality and testing turnaround times as NWSS samples. Ensuring there is a reliable sample collection and testing plan before an emergency arises will aid in the rapid implementation of a high-frequency sampling approach. High-frequency sampling requires a constant flow of information and supplies throughout sample collection, testing, analysis, and data sharing. High-frequency sampling may be a useful approach for increased resolution of disease trends in emergency response. © 2022 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.

How we completed major maintenance and new installations at Las Cumbres Observatory during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Las Cumbres Observatory (LCOGT) operates a network of more than 25 telescopes that are globally distributed over seven sites. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic restricting travel to most of those sites since March 2020, LCOGT achieved several significant operational milestones: (i) We deployed a new multi-channel imager (MuS-CAT3) at Haleakala Observatory. (ii) We installed two new 1-meter telescopes at Teide Observatory. (iii) We performed essential maintenance with local staff at the sites. The latter included opening two of the NRES spectrograph's thermal and pressure enclosures - a task traditionally executed by trained LCOGT personnel only. We discuss the evolution of LCOGT's paradigm for maintenance. Sustaining observatory operations increasingly relied on local observatory staff, of various skill levels and capabilities, to execute the highest priority work with remote support. We made this possible with extensive planning, being sensitive to local conditions, and bringing in expertise to support and guide in real-time via extended Zoom sessions.

A Systematic Review of the Impact of Covid- 19 on Cancer Patients and Survivors from an Economic, Social and Psychological Perspective

Background: Cancer is one of the leading causes of death and has been found to have a significant associated economic burden. That cancer diagnosis comes with a financial burden on patients and survivors is known but little is known about the psychological and social impact of COVID-19 or how the resulting economic environment has exasperated this further. Aims of the Study: This systematic review examines the impact of COVID-19 on cancer patients and survivors from an economic, social and psychological perspective. Methods: A systematic review of the literature published between January 2020 and March 2021 was completed by searching electronic databases. The review protocol was registered on the PROSPERO database. Results were analysed using a thematic analysis approach. Results: A total of 55 articles were identified. Approximately 93% of the psychological studies reviewed reported increased anxiety, depression, psychological distress and worry in cancer patients. Evidence in 50% of social studies reviewed, showed that national stayat- home guidelines compounded and contributed to feelings of increased loneliness and social isolation. While the underlying economic conditions were found to impact health systems both positively and negatively with reports of a modified workflow and transitioning to telemedicine. Discussion and Limitations: National stay-at-home guidelines implemented to stop the spread of the virus and protect vulnerable populations were found to have a negative social effect on patients. Increased anxiety, depression, psychological distress and worry among cancer patients was found. Furthermore, there is evidence of socio-economic inequalities with certain subgroups more vulnerable to the economic strain caused by Covid-19 than others. Psychological strain and financial distress are side effects associated with cancer treatment but COVID-19 exasperated these side effects further. Many of the papers reviewed were reliant on single institutions and lack long term follow-up and in some cases data were only available for short periods which had negative implications on sample size. Implications for Healthcare Provision and Use: COVID-19 has reduced healthcare capacity, adversely impacting delivery and access to healthcare and causing a re-distribution of resources to meet with demand. In addition environmental considerations such as national and institutional COVID-19 guidelines and the reaction/ behaviour of patients to these guidelines will influence both demand and supply behaviour. The underlying economic conditions were found to impact health systems both positively and negatively with reports of a modified workflow and transitioning to telemedicine. Implications for Health Policy: The results provide reflections on how care for cancer patients undergoing treatment were affected by the pandemic. This informs continued plans for the implementation of the National Cancer Strategy and operationalisation plans for Ireland's blueprint for universal health care, Sláintecare. Implications for Future Research: Before COVID-19, studies were already shown to be lacking particularly on the financial burden of cancer on patients. The need for more studies in this area is paramount in order to fully understand the challenges that cancer patients face particularly because of COVID. The systematic review revealed few papers on survivors (two years post treatment)of cancer. The late effects of cancer and its treatment are well documented and extend further than active treatment and with only a few studies reporting on the psychological effects the true impact and risk to survivors is not yet fully understood.

Fast Mapping onto Census Blocks

Pandemic measures such as social distancing and contact tracing can be enhanced by rapidly integrating dynamic location data and demographic data. Projecting billions of longitude and latitude locations onto hundreds of thousands of highly irregular demographic census block polygons is computationally challenging in both research and deployment contexts. This paper describes two approaches labeled "simple" and "fast". The simple approach can be implemented in any scripting language (Matlab/Octave, Python, Julia, R) and is easily integrated and customized to a variety of research goals. This simple approach uses a novel combination of hierarchy, sparse bounding boxes, polygon crossing-number, vectorization, and parallel processing to achieve 100,000,000+ projections per second on 100 servers. The simple approach is compact, does not increase data storage requirements, and is applicable to any country or region. The fast approach exploits the thread, vector, and memory optimizations that are possible using a low-level language (C++) and achieves similar performance on a single server. This paper details these approaches with the goal of enabling the broader community to quickly integrate location and demographic data.