Core protocol for the adaptive Platform Trial In COVID-19 Vaccine priming and BOOsting (PICOBOO).

BACKGROUND: The need for coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination in different age groups and populations is a subject of great uncertainty and an ongoing global debate. Critical knowledge gaps regarding COVID-19 vaccination include the duration of protection offered by different priming and booster vaccination regimens in different populations, including homologous or heterologous schedules; how vaccination impacts key elements of the immune system; how this is modified by prior or subsequent exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and future variants; and how immune responses correlate with protection against infection and disease, including antibodies and effector and T cell central memory. METHODS: The Platform Trial In COVID-19 priming and BOOsting (PICOBOO) is a multi-site, multi-arm, Bayesian, adaptive, randomised controlled platform trial. PICOBOO will expeditiously generate and translate high-quality evidence of the immunogenicity, reactogenicity and cross-protection of different COVID-19 priming and booster vaccination strategies against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants/subvariants, specific to the Australian context. While the platform is designed to be vaccine agnostic, participants will be randomised to one of three vaccines at trial commencement, including Pfizer's Comirnaty, Moderna's Spikevax or Novavax's Nuvaxovid COVID-19 vaccine. The protocol structure specifying PICOBOO is modular and hierarchical. Here, we describe the Core Protocol, which outlines the trial processes applicable to all study participants included in the platform trial. DISCUSSION: PICOBOO is the first adaptive platform trial evaluating different COVID-19 priming and booster vaccination strategies in Australia, and one of the few established internationally, that is designed to generate high-quality evidence to inform immunisation practice and policy. The modular, hierarchical protocol structure is intended to standardise outcomes, endpoints, data collection and other study processes for nested substudies included in the trial platform and to minimise duplication. It is anticipated that this flexible trial structure will enable investigators to respond with agility to new research questions as they arise, such as the utility of new vaccines (such as bivalent, or SARS-CoV-2 variant-specific vaccines) as they become available for use. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12622000238774. Registered on 10 February 2022.

AGEING COLLABORATIONS: CO-DESIGNING FUTURE TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES

The Ageing experience and increased longevity presents innovation opportunity for emergent technology, e.g., mobile and wearable. In turn, these technologies can enhance quality of life and independence as we age;however, they can also increase social inequalities and exclusion. The Covid-19 pandemic affected how we interact, communicate engage and interact with people and also technologies. People - across the generations were impacted and disrupted, motivating new behaviours in how they conducted everyday tasks and activities. Co-Design approaches have previously revealed successful collaborations between older adults, students, researchers, designers and other disciplines as a means to define unmet needs. Edinburgh Napier University provided funding to the PI (Principal Investigator) as a means to mobilise a 'Creative Cross-Education Team' (CCET) consisting of undergraduate students, research assistants (post-graduate researchers) and other staff colleagues of the University. The CCET worked with members from 'Tap into IT' (a local charity based in Edinburgh with a remit and focus on enhancing and enabling digital technology access for older adults). Two CoDesign workshops were conducted online titled 'Express' & 'Create.' The aim of these workshops was to explore, identify and define unmet needs/gaps expressed by older adult participants as a catalyst to create and generate future conceptual technology opportunities. The workshops were framed around Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs). The team were broken into groups whereby they were encouraged to collectively collaborate, Express and Create with the participants. This multi-generational and transdisciplinary approach created a democratized outlook where each contributor added value through expression, commentary and creativity. The findings have generated themes which are the basis for new opportunity through education and research with a focus on future technology opportunities. © Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education: Disrupt, Innovate, Regenerate and Transform, E and PDE 2022. All rights reserved.

Precarious Hope: Situated Perspectives on the COVID-19 Pandemic from Undergraduate Students in Manchester, UK

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the lives of young people, transforming and disrupting education provision, employment opportunities, social practices, mobilities, and experiences of health and well-being. In the UK context, the pandemic can be understood as both a unique event and as a further addition to the intersecting crises—including austerity and Brexit—that are increasingly shaping and constraining youth experiences and aspirations and exacerbating precarity and inequality. In this article, seven undergraduate students from Manchester, UK, with two academic co-authors, employ a co-productive approach to reflect on our experiences of the pandemic. Our autoethnographic accounts draw attention to the situated effects of the pandemic, and its intersection with existing challenges and pressures, including the gig economy, mental and physical ill health, and transnational family networks. At the same time, our narratives capture a sense of precarious hope: hopefulness that is both a product of precarity and itself precarious, opening up new possibilities for collectively imagining and pursuing viable and meaningful futures in uncertain times. Supporting our endeavours requires the inclusion of youth voices in research, policy, and practice;work we begin here. © 2021, The Author(s).

Conformity and reactions to deviance in the time of COVID-19

We have seen massive global behavioral change as billions of people radically altered their ways of life in response to COVID-19. Here, we review how research on conformity and deviance can inform understanding of and effective responses to the pandemic. Group identities are critical for understanding who is influenced by whom, as well as how partisan divisions can obstruct cohesive and coordinated action. We identify several questions highlighted by the pandemic, including when people will react more harshly to ingroup members who violate health-protective norms (black sheep effect) or to outgroup members violating the same norms (intergroup hypocrisy). As a working hypothesis, we propose a goal-based approach, positing that differentially negative reactions to ingroup and outgroup deviants are likely influenced by the relative salience of goals to protect ingroup image, enforce group norms, maintain intergroup boundaries, and seek justice for potential victims put at risk by norm-violating behavior. © The Author(s) 2020.