Management of Legal Instruments in Fighting Pandemics

Purpose: Law constitutes an effective instrument of society management and goods distribution. The law 's impact is verified in situations of threat to public policy and safety or citizens' health and life. In Poland the state of fight against pandemics connected with corona virus SARS-CoV-2 threat showed very low level of legal instruments management. Permanent institutional instability, and sometimes chaos in the implementation of particular law solutions, led to negation of rationality basics in administrative and judicial practice. The goal of the paper is to present Polish official authorities' legal actions. Design/Methodology/Approach: Social research methods (observation), study of documents and case study with regard to administrative and judicial practice. Findings: Shaping authorities ' tasks and competences. Practical implications: Research of actual influence of law institutions. Originality/value: The study has features of originality due to the general nature of the topic taken, the methods adopted and the results obtained. Skillfully refer to the normative state and previous knowledge. The value of the article lies in the analysis of detailed issues that take up not only theoretical and legal topics, but also those that are directly related to practice.

Clinical studies of detecting COVID-19 from exhaled breath with electronic nose.

The COVID-19 pandemic has attracted numerous research studies because of its impact on society and the economy. The pandemic has led to progress in the development of diagnostic methods, utilizing the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as the gold standard for coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 detection. Numerous tests can be used at home within 15 min or so but of with lower accuracy than PCR. There is still a need for point-of-care tests available for mass daily screening of large crowds in airports, schools, and stadiums. The same problem exists with fast and continuous monitoring of patients during their medical treatment. The rapid methods can use exhaled breath analysis which is non-invasive and delivers the result quite fast. Electronic nose can detect a cocktail of volatile organic com-pounds (VOCs) induced by virus infection and disturbed metabolism in the human body. In our exploratory studies, we present the results of COVID-19 detection in a local hospital by applying the developed electronic setup utilising commercial VOC gas sensors. We consider the technical problems noticed during the reported studies and affecting the detection results. We believe that our studies help to advance the proposed technique to limit the spread of COVID-19 and similar viral infections.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Patient's Decision about Bariatric Surgery: Results of a National Survey.

Background: the COVID-19 pandemic and the implemented restrictions have changed the functioning of healthcare systems worldwide. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the impact of the present epidemiological situation on patients' decisions about undergoing weight loss surgery. Methods: data were collected from 906 bariatric patients by the means of a national online survey, the majority of whom were women (87.9%). The survey started on 9 April 2020 and was open until 28 April 2020. The questionnaire included multiple choice and open questions, divided into three chapters: general information about the patient, life during the COVID-19 pandemic, and bariatric care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: despite the pandemic and the associated risk of COVID-19 infection, 443 responders (48.9%) would have decided to undergo bariatric surgery. Awareness of the negative impact of obesity on the course of COVID-19 illness had only marginable impact on patients' decision-making (76.6% vs. 75.3%; p < 0.80). Contact with COVID-19 prior to the survey had a negative impact on the willingness to undergo bariatric surgery (3.0% vs. 4.4%; p < 0.55). There was a positive correlation between the BMI and preference for bariatric surgery in the time of the pandemic (37.4 ± 9.0 vs. 34.9 ± 8.7; p < 0.001). Conclusions: the level of awareness about the advantages of operative treatment of obesity is high among bariatric patients. The majority of patients awaiting bariatric surgery at the moment of the survey were positive about undergoing bariatric surgery despite the increased risk of a serious course of COVID-19 infection. Therefore, a large proportion of patients was determined to have bariatric treatment even during the pandemic, being aware of the increased risk of worse pace of COVID-19 disease in case of obesity and related diseases.

Influence of COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown on Patients from the Bariatric Surgery Waiting List.

Background and Objectives: Social isolation and lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic have influenced dietary habits and physical activity of all the population, but the obese population is the most vulnerable to weight gain. Material and Methods: A group of 189 patients (166 female and 23 male) from the bariatric surgery waiting list filled in a survey about the influence of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on their dietary habits, physical activity, and the possibility of contact with their bariatric care center. Results: The majority of patients with weight gain declared a decrease in physical activity, compared to half of the patients without weight gain (50.5% vs. 74.5%, p < 0.05). The continuation of bariatric care and the possibility of contact with a bariatric surgeon, dietician, and psychologist had each significant influence on reducing the risk of patients' weight gain (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Maintaining physical activity and contact with bariatric care specialists are important factors in allowing to avoid weight gain in patients waiting for bariatric surgery.