Natural ventilation as a healthy habit during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of the frequency of window opening in Spanish homes

Since SARS-CoV-2 spread worldwide in early 2020, many countries established lockdowns for protection. With a main transmission by aerosols, ventilation was promoted. This article analyses natural ventilation of Spanish housing during the spring 2020. An online questionnaire was launched, obtaining for this study 1502 responses. The comparative window opening before and during confinement, and households, dwellings and home activity variables, were analysed. The binary logistic regression model before pandemic indicated that ventilating properly related to: a worse perceived IAQ (OR = 1.56);thermal adaptation measures, especially those that prefer to open/close windows (OR = 1.45);not having heating system (OR = 1.15);and using power to heat water (OR = 1.60). For the confinement period, the model highlighted: being an employee (OR = 1.88);using heavy clothing in the home (OR = 2.36);and again, open/close windows for adaptation (OR = 2.24). According to specific tasks in quarantine, frequent ventilation was boosted by: an increasing use of oven (OR = 14.81);and alteration of work-habits (OR = 2.70), sport-habits (OR = 1.79), and outdoor-activities (OR = 1.60). Thus, an adequate natural ventilation pattern during the quarantine was linked to low environmental comfort in general, by virtue of indoor air quality. This is corroborated by less acoustic-thermal insulation, worse indicators of heating use, and the adaptive response to opening/closing windows when external temperature changed. © 2022 The Authors

Dwelling in times of COVID-19: An analysis on habitability and environmental factors of Spanish housing

In the wake of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO), governments urged people to stay at home. For this reason, practically all human activity took place inside the houses. The research question established if housing quality responded to people's needs in the context of confinement. Specifically, the purpose was to taxonomize the dwelling stock occupied by confined households during the first COVID-19 wave in Spain, as well as to deepen in features and subjective perceptions on Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ). As an exploratory study, an online questionnaire was disseminated in the Spring of 2020, obtaining 1,673 valid responses. A descriptive statistical analysis included sociodemographic, territorial and housing variables, related to indoor environmental quality, the availability of outdoor spaces, and the prospects for changes in. Also, a logistic regression stablished multivariate relations for the dependent variable “general dwelling satisfaction”. The results associated urban habitat, tenancy regime, higher incomes, and fewer cohabitants, with worse perceived IEQ, and lack of own outdoor space. Same variables showed relations with people's desire for domestic changes. In conclusion, it is remarkable the determining role of housing design for dwellers’ satisfaction, especially in uncertain times like COVID-19 pandemic. This not only conditioned the different ways of inhabiting and occupying dwellings, but also the people's capacity to face lockdown. The built environment, the habitat, and households’ circumstances also influenced. The latter did on people's perception of their experience, and how they lived and expressed it. Additionally, resilient building design and renovation opportunities were identified. © 2022

Longitudinal Study of an Emerging COVID-19 Stigma: Media Exposure, Danger Appraisal, and Stress

Media coverage of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has played a critical role throughout the pandemic: sharing news about the novel virus, policies and practices to mitigate it, and the race to create and distribute 4 vaccines. The media coverage, however, has been critiqued as stigmatizing. Although this critique is not new, there is limited understanding of how and why new stigmas emerge from exposure to media coverage. Drawing upon the model of stigma communication (Smith et al., 2019) and the attribution model of stigma (Corrigan et al., 2003), we investigated a novel model of stigma emergence that delineates two kinds of longitudinal processes: (a) a message-effects process, in which exposure to mediated messages about COVID-19 leads to public stigma through danger appraisal and (b) a coping process in which stress and rumination shape later perceptions of public stigma. To test the model, we tracked an emerging COVID-19 stigma with a two-wave survey of a prospective, longitudinal cohort living in one county in a mid-Atlantic state (N = 883). The results supported this model. The longitudinal processes of stigma emergence and implications for COVID-19 stigma are discussed.

An ENV-GAG MRNA vaccine protects macaques from heterologous TIER-2 SHIV infection

Background: The development of a preventive vaccine remains a critical priority for ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Critical improvements in mRNA technology, as attested by recent successes in preventing COVID-19 disease, led us to develop an mRNA platform for HIV vaccines. Methods: In this regard, we designed an mRNA vaccine with different HIV-1 envelope mRNAs from 3 different clades co-formulated with SIV gag mRNA, which can assemble virus like particles (VLPs) in vivo. Rhesus macaques were primed with a transmitted-founder clade-B Env lacking the 276 N-glycan followed by multiple glycan-repaired autologous and bivalent heterologous (clades A and C) booster immunizations. Results: Immunized animals rapidly developed autologous neutralizing antibodies and eventually, after the second heterologous boost, cross-reactive tier-2 neutralizing antibodies, albeit at low titers. Vaccinated animals were protected from repeated low-dose rectal challenges with a heterologous tier-2 simian-human immunodeficiency virus (AD8). Protection was correlated with the presence of antibodies to the CD4-binding site. Conclusion: Thus, the Gag-Env VLP mRNA platform offers a promising strategy for the development of an HIV-1 vaccine.

Satisfaction of patients with pharmaceutical telecare

Background and importance The current COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the need to bring medications closer to patients treated in the outpatient units (OPU), and with it pharmaceutical telecare (PT) to avoid patients visiting the hospital. Aim and objectives To analyse the degree of satisfaction of patients treated in the OPU after implementation of the PT procedure. Material and methods In April 2020, PT was performed in those patients who had been sent home mediation and who according to the pharmaceutical criteria was necessary. The PT survey included all patients who had been contacted by telephone regarding pharmaceutical criteria (initiation of treatment, second dispensing, change, complicated pattern or adhesion control). In May 2020, a closed response satisfaction survey was prepared with the following items: sex, age, pathology, opinion that deserves PT, opinion on the information provided by the pharmacist (clarity, resolution of doubts), possibility of alternating the face-to-face visit with PT and preference between phone call or video call. Responses to the degree of satisfaction were measured by an ordinal scale with five possible categories: very good, good, regular, bad and very bad. 85 patients were randomly selected. The surveys were conducted by telephone by OPU pharmacists, and clinical data were obtained from the external patient dispensing programme. The results were expressed in frequencies and percentages. Results 52.9% were men, with a median age of 53 years (10- 92). Most of pathologies were viral pathologies (29.4%) and malignant neoplasms (28.2%). 97.6% of patients considered the PT service to be 'good' or 'very good,' and 98.8% considered the information provided to be 'good' or 'very good.' 100% considered it appropriate to alternate face-to-face visits with PT. Media preference: 50.6% indifferent, 41.2% phone call, 8.2% video call. Conclusion and relevance PT and the information provided was evaluated positively by most patients. All patients considered it appropriate to alternate face-to-face visits with PT. About half of the patients would prefer a PT by phone rather than a video call.

1H, 13C, and 15N backbone chemical shift assignments of coronavirus-2 non-structural protein Nsp10.

The international Covid19-NMR consortium aims at the comprehensive spectroscopic characterization of SARS-CoV-2 RNA elements and proteins and will provide NMR chemical shift assignments of the molecular components of this virus. The SARS-CoV-2 genome encodes approximately 30 different proteins. Four of these proteins are involved in forming the viral envelope or in the packaging of the RNA genome and are therefore called structural proteins. The other proteins fulfill a variety of functions during the viral life cycle and comprise the so-called non-structural proteins (nsps). Here, we report the near-complete NMR resonance assignment for the backbone chemical shifts of the non-structural protein 10 (nsp10). Nsp10 is part of the viral replication-transcription complex (RTC). It aids in synthesizing and modifying the genomic and subgenomic RNAs. Via its interaction with nsp14, it ensures transcriptional fidelity of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, and through its stimulation of the methyltransferase activity of nsp16, it aids in synthesizing the RNA cap structures which protect the viral RNAs from being recognized by the innate immune system. Both of these functions can be potentially targeted by drugs. Our data will aid in performing additional NMR-based characterizations, and provide a basis for the identification of possible small molecule ligands interfering with nsp10 exerting its essential role in viral replication.

A Mixed Approach on Resilience of Spanish Dwellings and Households during COVID-19 Lockdown

The confinement by COVID-19 has meant a re-reading of housing for Spanish households, resulting in the only available and safe space to carry out daily activity. This complex phenomenon has generated a completely different way of inhabiting it, as well as of relating to domestic spaces. For this reason, the home perception and its characteristics must be evaluated, highlighting those perceived as deficiencies, or as preferences in such an unusual context as lockdown, where the experience was different depending on the dwelling characteristics, and the family in question. To deepen in this double perception home-dwelling, a mixed method was used, with two online forms. The first is a quantitative questionnaire, while the second asks the participants for photographs and narratives about such images. More than 1800 surveys and 785 qualitative responses were obtained. From both approaches, the joint discourse arose, allowing an exploratory analysis of the current situation of the Spanish residential park, and the resilience demonstrated in this period by both households and their usual dwellings. This study should facilitate the development of new proposals on housing in contexts similar to the COVID-19 pandemic.