Chinese Anti-Westernism on Social Media

The Chinese Communist Party and its supporters are increasingly using social media platforms to shape China's public image. This online image is a means of strengthening domestic nationalism and of projecting "soft power” abroad. This paper examines various forms of anti-Westernism that are central to this image-making. It analyzes several recent topics—the Belt and Road Initiative, climate change, the COVID-19 vaccine, the Beijing Olympics, and the conflict in Ukraine—on the r/Sino subreddit page of Reddit and compares them with two online news outlets, the South China Morning Post and China Daily. The paper focuses on how these media frame the contest between a rising China and a failing West, so creating a discourse that competes with the negative portrayals of China outside the country. The paper contrasts the aggressive strengthening of China's image against the West on social media with more sober accounts of the same topics in China's official media and in commercial news outlets. The contribution of the paper is to document an emerging online anti-Westernism that is playing an increasing role in the changing geopolitical landscape. © The Author(s) 2023.

The Fiscal and Welfare Effects of Policy Responses to the Covid-19 School Closures

Based on data on school visits from Safegraph and on school closures from Burbio, we document that during the Covid-19 crisis secondary schools were closed for in-person learning for longer periods than elementary schools, private schools experienced shorter closures than public schools, and schools in poorer US counties experienced shorter school closures. To quantify the long-run consequences of these school closures, we extend the structural life cycle model of private and public schooling investments by Fuchs-Schündeln et al. (Econ J 132:1647–1683, 2022) to include private school choice and feed into the model the school closure measures from our empirical analysis. Future earnings and welfare losses are largest for children that started public secondary schools at the onset of the Covid-19 crisis. Comparing children from the top to children from the bottom quartile of the income distribution, welfare losses are 0.5 percentage points larger for the poorer children if school closures were unrelated to income. Accounting for the longer school closures in richer counties reduces this gap by about 1/4. A policy intervention that extends schools by 6 weeks generates significant welfare gains for children and raises future tax revenues sufficient to pay for the cost of this schooling expansion.

TRAJECTORY OF RECOVERY IN PULMONARY FUNCTION TESTS FOR PATIENTS WITH RESPIRATORY POSTACUTE SEQUELAE OF COVID-19 INFECTION

SESSION TITLE: Long COVID: It Can Take Your Breath Away SESSION TYPE: Original Investigations PRESENTED ON: 10/16/2022 10:30 am - 11:30 am PURPOSE: Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) infection is an area of active research, and much remains unknown about the trajectory of respiratory system recovery. While chronic dyspnea is a commonly reported PASC symptom, it is unclear how objective lung function metrics change over time. In this study, we sought to in lung function in PASC by comparing serial pulmonary function tests (PFTs) after COVID-19 infection. METHODS: Patients with prior COVID-19 infection and at least two PFTs after acute infection were identified retrospectively from our COVID-19 recovery clinic at a tertiary care center in Chicago, Illinois. PFT data and other clinical information were ed from the electronic medical record. Using a matched paired t-test, the differences between forced expiratory volume at one second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), total lung capacity (TLC), and diffusion capacity of carbon monoxide (DLCO) were compared over time. RESULTS: There were 32 patients who underwent pulmonary function testing twice after COVID-19 illness from 2020-2022, with a mean age of 56 years. The majority of the cohort were female (59%) and white (56%). 16 patients (50%) had required hospitalization for their acute COVID-19 illness, and 7 (22%) had required ICU level of care. The mean time from illness onset to first PFT was 207 days, and the mean time between the first and second PFT was 204 days. There was a statistically significant increase in FVC (2.2%, p=0.01), TLC (2.2%, p=0.01), and DLCO (2.43 mL/min/mmHg), but not in FEV1. Rate of change was calculated for each patient by dividing the difference for each parameter by the time (in years) between PFTs. TLC improved most rapidly (median 10.9% per year, IQR 0-24), followed by DLCO (median 6.6% per year, IQR -1 – 19.4). FEV1 increased by 3.9% per year (IQR -12.5 – 22), and FVC increased by 5.1% per year (IQR -4.5 – 22.7). Rate of change was calculated for each patient by dividing the difference for each parameter by the time (in years) between PFTs. TLC improved most rapidly (median 10.9% per year, IQR 0-24), followed by DLCO (median 6.6% per year, IQR -1 – 19.4). FEV1 increased by 3.9% per year (IQR -12.5 – 22), and FVC increased by 5.1% per year (IQR -4.5 – 22.7). CONCLUSIONS: There was an improvement in lung function metrics in our PASC cohort. This data describes the rate of improvement for each parameter, which may be helpful in prognostication and counselling patients about expected recovery times. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: A large number of patients with PASC experience chronic dyspnea and have persistent radiographic changes and/or abnormal pulmonary function testing. Our data suggests that for patients with abnormal PFTs, there is gradual improvement over time. With the burden of COVID-19 illness worldwide, it is crucial that we can accurately risk stratify those at high risk for persistent symptoms as well as understand the trajectory of recovery. DISCLOSURES: no disclosure submitted for Joseph Bailey;No relevant relationships by Amy Ludwig No relevant relationships by Marc Sala

THE LONG-TERM DISTRIBUTIONAL AND WELFARE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 SCHOOL CLOSURES

Using a structural life-cycle model, we quantify the heterogeneous impact of school closures during the corona crisis on children affected at different ages and coming from households with different parental characteristics. In the model, public investment through schooling is combined with parental time and resource investments in the production of child human capital at different stages in the children's development process. We quantitatively characterise the long-term consequences from a COVID-19-induced loss of schooling, and find average losses in the present discounted value of lifetime earnings of the affected children of 2.1%, as well as welfare losses equivalent to about 1.2% of permanent consumption. Because of self-productivity in the human capital production function, younger children are hurt more by the school closures than older children. The negative impact of the crisis on children's welfare is especially severe for those with parents with low educational attainment and low assets.

Modelling scenarios of the epidemic of COVID-19 in Canada

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), likely a bat-origin coronavirus, spilled over from wildlife to humans in China in late 2019, manifesting as a respiratory disease. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread initially within China and then globally, resulting in a pandemic.