COVID-19 Vaccination Acceptance: A Case of Interplay Between Political and Health Dimensions

Vaccines are essential for the eradication of diseases. Yet for many reasons, individuals do not embrace them completely. In the COVID-19 pandemic and with the possibility of the Brazilian population's immunization against the disease, both political and health-related dimensions might have had a role in individual COVID-19 vaccination acceptance. In two studies (n = 974), we tested the hypothesis that participants' vaccination acceptance is related to their past vote in the 2018 Brazilian presidential election (being or not being a Jair Bolsonaro voter) and their different levels of perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD). We further tested whether Bolsonaro's opposition or ambiguous messages towards vaccination (vs. control) increased vaccination rejection among those who have (vs. have not) voted for him and who are low (vs. high) in PVD. Results show that Bolsonaro (vs. non-Bolsonaro) voters accepted less vaccination, with higher rejection rates when participants expressed low (vs. high) PVD. Also, when primed either with Bolsonaro's opposed or ambiguous messages towards COVID-19 vaccination, such participants accepted less vaccines (vs. participants primed with neutral information). These findings are the first to show that the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance is related to their past vote and leadership influence but also different levels of perceived vulnerability to disease. © 2023 International Society of Political Psychology.

THE ESSAY ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EDTHECS LEARNING-MARKET IN BRAZILIAN EDUCATION FROM THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The text seeks to discuss the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the educational sector considering the rise and deepening of learning-market. The spread of contagion directly affected educational systems across the globe. Remote education emerges as a solution by governments to reduce the consequences of the suspension of classes. The use of these resources in a centralized way expresses the interests of the learning market, since the financialization of education is deepened by the purchase of packages from EdTechs companies by the public sector. It appears that business sectors linked to some spheres of education, especially distance education through the sale of technological resources and with the work of EdThecs seek to carry out learning-market in an opportunistic way and without considering the future of state public education and students from popular layers.

AVALIAÇÃO DA DOSAGEM DO D-DÍMERO EM PACIENTES GRAVES COM COVID-19, INTERNADOS EM UNIDADES DE TERAPIA INTENSIVA, EM HOSPITAL PÚBLICO TERCIÁRIO DA UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE PERNAMBUCO

Materiais e métodos: Foi feito um estudo de corte transversal com 52 pacientes da UTI-COVID do Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (HC-UFPE), no período de abril a junho de 2020, para a avaliação do D-dímero como um marcador de agravamento do quadro clínico dos indivíduos afetados pela doença. Dados foram obtidos a partir dos registros médicos dos pacientes. A mediana dos valores entre os grupos foi usada para encontrar a significância estatística que justificasse o desfecho da doença, relacionado ao óbito (p < 0,05). Resultados: Ao serem comparados aos pacientes que receberam alta, os que evoluíram ao óbito apresentaram maiores valores de D-Dímero (2800 ng/mL versus 1800 ng/mL, p = 0,21). Também não houve relevância estatística entre pacientes do sexo feminino e masculino que evoluíram ao óbito ou alta da UTI. DISCUSSÃO: Visto que ainda se sabe pouco sobre a etiopatogenia do SARS-CoV-2, algumas pesquisas citam a importância de marcadores vasculares devido aos achados relacionados à coagulopatia intravascular disseminada (CIVD) em pacientes graves, principalmente com comprometimento pulmonar consequente a altas taxas de tromboembolismo venoso, explicando a razão pela qual o D-dímero se mantém cerca de 3 (três) vezes mais elevado. Conclusões: Assim, pode-se concluir que o valor do D-dímero para pacientes que receberam alta da UTI-COVID é inferior (1800 ng/mL) aos que foram a óbito (2800 ng/mL), demonstrando que altos níveis desse marcador podem indicar necessidade de cuidados intensivos em relação ao tratamento com fármacos anti-trombóticos evitando possíveis complicações disseminadas que podem levar o paciente ao óbito. Além disso, esse estudo mostra a importância de testes com esse marcador no acompanhamento do infectado para observar a necessidade de novas terapias que minimizem a formação de trombos devido à alta deposição de fibrina nos vasos.

ANÁLISE DE PADRÕES HEMATOLÓGICOS COMO FERRAMENTA PREDITIVA PARA AVALIAR O RISCO DE ÓBITO EM PACIENTES COM COVID-19

Objetivos: Desde sua ascensão no final de 2019, o SARS-CoV-2 infectou mais de 200 milhões de pessoas e causou mais de 4 milhões de mortes no mundo. Apesar das complicações no trato respiratório serem o principal sinal da infecção pelo vírus, alterações em outros sistemas corporais foram associadas à evolução da doença. Dentre elas, alterações hematológicas e imunológicas têm sido descritas e usadas para determinar o prognóstico da doença, pois achados como a linfopenia, plaquetopenia e neutrofilia parecem refletir na severidade dos pacientes. Materiais e métodos: Trata-se de um estudo transversal realizado a partir dos dados de 100 (cem) pacientes internados na UTI COVID do Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (HC-UFPE). Foram coletados, a partir de arquivos medicos, os dados referentes aos valores de hemoglobina e das contagens absolutas dos leucócitos totais, linfócitos, neutrófilos e plaquetas. Os níveis desses parâmetros foram comparados entre os pacientes que receberam alta da UTI (n = 52) ou evoluíram para o óbito (n = 48). A mediana dos valores entre os grupos foi usada para encontrar a significância estatística que justificasse o desfecho da doença, relacionado ao óbito (p < 0,05). RESULTADOS: Ao serem comparados aos pacientes que receberam alta, o grupo que evoluiu a óbito obteve valores menores na dosagem da hemoglobina (9 g/dL contra 13 g/dL, p < 0,001), valores maiores de leucócitos totais (10.770/ mm3 contra 10.170/ mm3, p=0,05) e neutrófilos (8.645/mm3 contra 7.725/mm3, p = 0,03). Apesar do grupo que evolui a óbito também apresentar menores valores de plaquetas (220.000/mm3 contra 238.500/mm3, p = 0,09) e linfócitos (710/mm3 contra 950/mm3, p = 0,07) ao comparar-se ao grupo de alta, não se observou significância estatística. DISCUSSÃO: O presente estudo mostrou que, em pacientes com Covid-19 internados em UTI, altos valores de leucócitos totais e neutrófilos e baixos valores de hemoglobina estão significativamente relacionados ao óbito. O aumento de leucócitos e neutrófilos teria sido relacionado com a co-infecção com outros patógenos hospitalares, enquanto que a diminuição da hemoglobina pode ser causada pelo aumento da IL-6, visto que, essa encontra-se aumentada na doença promovendo a elevação da hepcidina, que inibe a absorção do ferro e afeta a síntese de hemácias. Embora não tenha sido observada significância entre os valores de linfócitos de pacientes que receberam alta ou morreram, é possível observar que os linfócitos estão abaixo ou no limite inferior do valor normal, podendo ser um fator associado à gravidade geral e não ao óbito nas UTIs. CONCLUSÕES: Observamos que pacientes com Covid-19 em estado grave têm marcadas alterações hematológicas. Dentre elas, os valores baixos de hemoglobina foram os mais preditivos em pacientes que progrediram para o óbito ou alta. Sendo assim, a hemoglobina deve ser considerada na avaliação de risco dos pacientes e investigada quanto a sua participação na doença.

Successful alternatives in the web-teaching of human physiology during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction: In Brazilian universities, with the start of the pandemic caused by the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19), traditional methods of face-to-face classes were suspended indefinitely. As an alternative to maintain the interaction of students with our university during the Covid-19 pandemic, we proposed a free online course. Objective: To describe a Human Physiology web course offered to undergraduate students and evaluate the students' perceptions about it. Methods: The course proposal included activities carried out during May 2020 and was approved by the Institutional Education Committee (IRB No. 10.069.20). We offer 50 vacancies. Students should be regularly registered in an undergraduate program of Federal University of Pampa/Brazil, and have prior approval in the Human Physiology course or equivalent. We proposed to students synchronous and asynchronous activities, using active teachig methods (flipped class) to address topics considered important for understanding and review different Human Physiology systems. For asynchronous activities, developed according to the preferred time of each student, we used different online tools and platforms, such as Lt® Plataform (ADInstruments), Socrative®, social medias, etc. To promote a real time interaction between students and teachers, synchronous activities on Zoom® and interactive questions using the Mentimeter® were proposed. Results: Considering the 50 students that started the course, 58% (n = 29) completed at least 70% of the total course, and 16% (n = 8) completed at least 60%. 40 students answered to the evaluation questionnaire. In general, the students' expectations about the course included the Human Physiology contents' review and the opportunity for new learning (about the content and the remote teaching) - in this sense, the course fully to the expectations of 85% of students (n = 34). For most students (90%;n = 36) this was the first web course with this type of method. About the different online tools and activities used during the course, the students inducated that they liked more the exercised in Lt® Platform (100%;n = 40), followed by Zoom®'s interactions (77.5%;n = 31), Mentimeter® webquizzes (60%;n = 24) and Youtube® videos (57.5%;n = 23). The dynamic used in the activities was well accepted by students and most of them considered that it contributed to their understanding of the content (85%;n = 34). Moreover, most students (80%;n = 32) considered the dynamic of the activities as important to increase their frequency of studies during the quarantine period. Considering a scale from 0 (bad) to 10 (excellent), the average grade attributed by the students to the course was 9.15 ± 1.23. Conclusions and Support: Here we report that a web course designed to review the main topics in Human Physiology during the Covid-19 quarantine was well accepted and approved by students. The methods proposed can be considered as a successful alternative to the webteach of Physiology, especially in the current moment that requires social distancing due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Incidence and lethality of COVID-19 clusters in Brazil via circular scan method

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread rapidly around the world in a frightening way. In Brazil, the third country with the highest number of infected and deaths from the disease, it is important for government health authorities to identify the federation units that stand out in cases and deaths from this disease to target resources. The circular scan statistic proposed by Martin Kulldorff allows to identify with some statistical significance the units of the federation that stand out in relation to the number of cases and deaths of COVID-19 in Brazil. Such units of federation are known as clusters. Once these clusters were identified, we used the coefficients of incidence and lethality to better describe the behavior of these clusters during three phases of the pandemic: the initial phase, the peak phase, and also the stability and fall phase. We observed changes in the location of the clusters identified in these three phases and used the R software and also the SaTScan software to obtain the maps and results, which were consistent with what was reported by the Brazilian media. © 2021, Universidade Federal de Lavras -Departamento de Estatistica. All rights reserved.

Cutaneous and clinic manifestations in patients diagnosed with COVID-19 of Amazon: serial case report

In 2019, a new obscured pneumonia was reported by Wuhan Chinese scientists. Posteriorly, SARS-Cov-2 structure was identified, furthermore the pathology caused by this virus was named asCOVID-19. The period of incubation of this disease is something about 4 or 5 days before the onset of symptoms, with 97,5% of patients having 11,5 days of symptoms nearly. Furthermore, affected patients are having cutaneous manifestations, in addition to the classic pulmonary, laboratorial, and systemic affection. Thus, the goal of the present article was the description of the clinical, cutaneous and laboratorial manifestations in adults of 18 to 59 years old affected by COVID-19 and supported by Sao Rafael hospital, localized in Altamira-Para, a region of Amazon.

The importance of nurses and their health in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: To promote the importance of nurses and their health in the face of a covid-19 pandemic. Methodology: This is a qualitative research, descriptive of an integrative literature review in the databases. The articles selected at this stage were read in full and obtained according to the eligibility criteria.

COVID-19 ORAL AND MAXILLOFACIAL IMPLICATIONS: AN INTEGRATIVE REVIEW

COVID-19 is a disease caused by the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, and declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. Clinical manifestations occur mainly in respiratory system, however some studies have reported extra-pulmonary changes, such as oral and maxillofacial implications. This study aims to verify the possible oral and maxillofacial implications of COVID-19. Therefore, an integrative literature review was carried out. Systematic searches were carried out in SciELO, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar from June 6 to 8, 2020. Inclusion criteria were studies that evaluated oral and / or maxillofacial manifestations of COVID-19 and portrayed clinical cases of patients with the disease. Exclusion criteria were studies that were unavailable for reading in full, literature reviews and letters to the editor. Twelve studies were selected, in which the main manifestations were changes in taste and smell, dry mouth, ulcers in the oral mucosa and increase in cervical and submandibular lymph nodes, which may present together with other respiratory symptoms or in isolation. Because of this, the identification of some of these changes can contribute to the early diagnosis of the disease, however more studies are needed to improve the scientific evidence on the subject, to clarify whether part of these changes are manifestations of the disease or a consequence of the immune status of the patient. patient who favors the development of opportunistic infections and neglect of oral hygiene.

Occurrence of Cardiovascular Complications Associated with SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Systematic Review

Cardiovascular Diseases represent the main cause of death in the world, and are associated with risk factors that cause serious complications in cases of infections, such as those of the respiratory tract. In March 2020 the World Health Organization declared a pandemic for SARS-CoV-2, a new coronavirus causing severe pneumonia, which emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The objective is to investigate the occurrence of cardiovascular complications associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. It is a systematic review, quantitative, in the databases, PubMed and Science direct, including primary studies with hospitalized patients confirmed for COVID-19 and who presented cardiovascular complications, the form used tools for evaluation of quality and evidence, following the PRISMA recommendations. Results: 12 studies were included. The occurrence of cardiovascular complications was: 27.35% of the sample of 3,316 patients. Types: Acute cardiac injury 17.09%;Thromboembolism 4.73%;Heart failure 3.43%;Arrhythmias 1.77%;stroke 0.33%. Mean age 61 years. Conclusions: This study showed that there are several cardiovascular complications associated with SARS-CoV-2, that the main one is acute cardiac injury, which causes several instabilities in the cardiopulmonary system, and that it is associated with mortality.

ATR-FTIR spectroscopy for virus identification: A powerful alternative

In pandemic times, like the one we are witnessing for COVID-19, the discussion about new efficient and rapid techniques for diagnosis of diseases is more evident. In this mini-review, we present to the virological scientific community the potential of attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy as a diagnosis technique. Herein, we explain the operation of this technique, as well as its advantages over standard methods. In addition, we also present the multivariate analysis tools that can be used to extract useful information from the data towards classification purposes. Tools such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Successive Projections Algorithm (SPA), Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Linear and Quadratic Discriminant Analysis (LDA and QDA) are covered, including examples of published studies. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy are emphasized, as well as future prospects in this field of study that is only growing. One of the main aims of this paper is to encourage the scientific community to explore the potential of this spectroscopic tool to detect changes in biological samples such as those caused by the presence of viruses.

Survival and predictors of deaths of patients hospitalised due to COVID-19 from a retrospective and multicentre cohort study in Brazil.

This study aimed to analyse the survival of patients admitted to Brazilian hospitals due to the COVID-19 and estimate prognostic factors. This is a retrospective, multicentre cohort study, based on data from 46 285 hospitalisations for COVID-19 in Brazil. Survival functions were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier's method. The log-rank test compared the survival functions for each variable and from that, hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated, and the proportional hazard model was used in Cox multiple regression. The smallest survival curves were the ones for patients at the age of 68 years or more, black/mixed race, illiterate, living in the countryside, dyspnoea, respiratory distress, influenza-like outbreak, O2 saturation <95%, X-ray change, length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), invasive ventilatory support, previous heart disease, pneumopathy, diabetes, Down's syndrome, neurological disease and kidney disease. Better survival was observed in the influenza-like outbreak and in an asthmatic patient. The multiple model for increased risk of death when they were admitted to the ICU HR 1.28, diabetes HR 1.17, neurological disease HR 1.34, kidney disease HR 1.11, heart disease HR 1.14, black or mixed race of HR 1.50, asthma HR 0.71 and pneumopathy HR 1.12. This reinforces the importance of socio-demographic and clinical factors as a prognosis for death.

Attitudinal Positioning, Perception of Vulnerability and Concern on getting COVID-19

This research program aimed to test a set of hypotheses in order to show how Attitudinal and Political Positions, Attitudes towards Diseases, Personality Traits and the religiosity of Brazilians are related to their perception of vulnerability and concern in contracting COVID-19. To do this, two studies were carried out. In the first, the Attitude Positioning of internet users was identified in 2.000 comments on a statement made by the President of Brazil about the new coronavirus and COVID-19. Study 2, on the other hand, resulted in the proposition of an explanatory model with good adjustment rates [x(2) = 67.72;g = 24;x(2)/gl = 2.6;CFI = 0.94;TLI = 0.9;RMSEA = 0.06 (CI90%: 0.04-0.08)], demonstrating that Political Positions, Attitudes towards Diseases and Conscientiousness predict the perception of vulnerability and the concern to get COVID-19. In short, such findings may support future studies and interventional models in social dynamics to contain the current pandemic.