Scientific globalism during a global crisis: research collaboration and open access publications on COVID-19.

This study sought to understand the nature of scientific globalism during a global crisis, particularly COVID-19. Findings show that scientific globalism occurs differently when comparing COVID-19 publications with non-COVID-19 publications during as well as before the pandemic. Despite the tense geopolitical climate, countries increased their proportion of international collaboration and open-access publications during the pandemic. However, not all countries engaged more globally. Countries that have been more impacted by the crisis and those with relatively lower GDPs tended to participate more in scientific globalism than their counterparts.

Association of Statins and 28-Day Mortality Rates in Patients Hospitalized With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection.

BACKGROUND: Statins may be protective in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 SARS-CoV-2 infection. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of in-hospital statin use on 28-day mortality rates and intensive care unit (ICU) admission among patients with SARS-CoV-2, stratified into 4 groups: those who used statins before hospitalization (treatment continued or discontinued in the hospital) and those who did not (treatment newly initiated in the hospital or never initiated). METHODS: In a cohort study of 1179 patients with SARS-CoV-2, record review was used to assess demographics, laboratory measurements, comorbid conditions, and time from admission to death, ICU admission, or discharge. Using marginal structural Cox models, we estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for death and ICU admission. RESULTS: Among 1179 patients, 676 (57%) were male, 443 (37%) were >65 years old, and 493 (46%) had a body mass index ≥30 (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared). Inpatient statin use reduced the hazard of death (HR, 0.566; P=.008). This association held among patients who did and those who did not use statins before hospitalization (HR, 0.270 [P=.003] and 0.493 [P=.04], respectively). Statin use was associated with improved time to death for patients aged >65 years but not for those ≤65 years old. CONCLUSION: Statin use during hospitalization for SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with reduced 28-day mortality rates. Well-designed randomized control trials are needed to better define this relationship.

Scientific Collaboration on COVID-19 Amidst Geopolitical Tensions between the US and China

As the threat of COVID-19 and US-China tensions are increasing, this study focused on this intensifying intersection between geopolitics and global science in the midst of a pandemic. This scientometric study examined the US’ and China’s international collaboration patterns on science and engineering (S&E) COVID-19 articles through the lenses of scientific nationalism and scientific globalism. While scientific nationalism would assume that the current political rhetoric and protectionist policies would lead to a decrease in international collaboration, our findings showed the reverse. The world’s proportion of international collaborations generally increased. Findings also revealed that despite geopolitical tensions, the highest number of internationally coauthored S&E COVID-19 articles between two countries involve the US and China. Their collaboration rate on COVID-19 is higher than during the past five-years as well as on non-COVID-19 articles published during 2020.

Neo-Racism and the Criminalization of China

In another study, Brendan Cantwell and I (2010) identified ways that Asian postdocs are systematically channeled to unsecure, short-term contracts while White nationals are groomed toward faculty positions. [...]examples over the past 2 years are as follows: * Sweeping political rhetoric of Chinese researchers and graduate students as spies * Visa limits for Chinese graduate students in high-tech fields to 1-5 years * Visa exclusions for those with ties to the Chinese Community Party and Chinese military * FBI-University protocols to monitor Chinese scientists and scholars (Lee & Haupt, 2020a, 2020b) In response, there have been mounting calls from major organizations and university leaders that the federal government is engaging in racial profiling. According to Margaret Lewis (2020), a negative stereotype is being built and reinforced that stigmatizes anyone who has any quality of being "likeChina" (Zhang, 2020, para 5). There also have been several high-profile cases of Chinese scientists being wrongfully accused of spying, and although these charges were dropped or the scientists were exonerated, such attempts led to "devastating effects" on the individuals' careers as well as the broader Chinese American scientific community (Committee of 100, 2019).