ABSTRACT
Social media platforms often become environments of information ambiguity during crisis events. We studied the discussion around four”cures” for COVID-19 in India, where the highest number of cases were recorded between 2020 and May 2021, focusing on the role played by high network accounts on social media such as those of journalists, politicians, and celebrities. We find that information scarcity and anxiety among citizens enabled non-experts, particularly the aforementioned social media influencers. We find that this undermined institutional sources of information and led to massive spikes in online interest around unproven cures during the peak of the crisis. © 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The death of Indian film star Sushant Singh Rajput at the peak of the COVID lockdown triggered chaos on the news cycle in India with a range of conspiracy theories that led to a witch hunt of sorts, and the hounding of several entertainers and public figures in the months that followed. Using data from Twitter, YouTube, and an archive of debunked misinformation stories, we examine the drivers and consequences of social media outrage in this case. We analyse these patterns from the framework of conspiracy and astroturfing and contextualize our findings to the socio-political background currently prevalent in India. Primarily, retweet rates on Twitter suggest that commentators benefited from talking about the case, which got higher engagement than other topics. Moreover, we report evidence of political hands in the way the discourse has shaped online, but more importantly that the story bears warnings for the shape and impact of witch-hunts in the backdrop of a fractured media environment. In conclusion, we consider the effects of Rajput's outsider status as a small-town implant in the film industry within the broader narrative of systemic injustice, as well as the gendered aspects of mob justice that have taken aim at his former partner in the months since. © 2022 ACM.
ABSTRACT
Social media has witnessed an unprecedented growth in users based in low-income communities in the Global South. However, much remains unknown about the drivers of misinformation in such communities. To fill this gap, we conducted an interview-based study to examine how rural and urban communities in India engage with misinformation on WhatsApp. We found that misinformation led to bitterness and conflict - rural users who had higher social status heavily influenced the perceptions and engagement of marginalized members. While urban users relied on the expertise of gatekeepers for verification, rural users engaged in collective deliberations in offline spaces. Both rural and urban users knowingly forwarded misinformation. However, rural users propagated hyperlocal misinformation, whereas urban users forwarded misinformation to reduce their efforts to assess information credibility. Using a public sphere lens, we propose that the reactions to misinformation provide a view of Indian society and its schisms around class, urbanity, and social interactions. © 2022 ACM.
ABSTRACT
The internal behavior of Deep Neural Network architectures can be difficult to interpret. Certain architectures achieve impressive feats in a particular dataset while failing to show comparable performance in other datasets. Developing an architecture that performs well on a dataset can be a time-consuming affair and computationally intensive process. This study explains the effect of transfer learning by fine-tuning already available state-of-the-art architectures in different datasets and using them to classify Chest X-Ray images with high accuracy. Using transfer learning helps the model learn problem-specific features in a short period. It further shows that different models perform differently in a particular setting for a dataset. Ablation studies show that a combination of smaller structures that gives an overall better result may not give the best result in the combined model. In addition, the 'belief' of the model for selecting a particular class is visualized in this study. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Background: There is more than twofold rise in prevalence of mucormycosis cases in India during the COVID-19 pandemic which needs to be evaluated. Aims: The study aimed to document the spectrum of cases of mucormycosis seen at our Institute during COVID-19 times. Methods: The study is a retrospective observational study carried out at our Institute from May 2021 to mid-June 2021. All patients with biopsy-proven mucormycosis were enrolled in the study. The patients were subjected to complete history taking, ophthalmological examination, and imaging studies. The patients were treated with a multidisciplinary approach with antifungal therapy as well as surgical intervention when needed. Results: Ten patients (n=10) were seen, with a mean age of 50.3 years. The major risk factors included recent use of steroids, uncontrolled diabetes, and CKD. The most common presentation was swelling of unilateral eye and ptosis, followed by loss of vision. Inflammatory marker (CRP) and d-dimer were raised at presentation in all cases. Imaging showed the spread of infection from paranasal sinus to orbit and brain via cavernous sinus, which was a poor prognostic factor. Intravenous Amphotericin-B was given to all patients for at least 4 weeks. Two patients were discharged after completion of treatment and mortality was seen in three patients. Conclusion: We present an array of COVID-associated-mucormycosis (CAM) cases from Eastern India. CAM is presenting with rhino-orbito-cerebral involvement. There is poor outcome with cerebral involvement and high incidence of adverse effects with deoxycholate formulation of amphotericin-B. The causal association of COVID-19 with mucormycosis needs to be unearthed but possible preventive role of anticoagulation should be evaluated. © 2021 Journal of Association of Physicians of India. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Since its first identification in December 2019, in WUHAN (CHINA), SARS-COV-2, causative agent of Corona virus pandemic, has affected millions of people worldwide, causing thousands of death. There is much speculation about the interplay between ACEI/ARB and Corona virus infection, as for internalization into host cell SARS-COV-2 binds through S spike protein to ACE-2, aided TMPRSS2. METHODS: A record based observational study has been conducted (data obtained from the clinics of fourteen physicians) in two worst affected districts of West Bengal, to find out the association of ACEI/ARB on patients, suffering from Corona virus infection. The study-protocol has already been approved by Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine. (IEC Ref. No: CREC-STM/2020-AS-37) Results: Increasing age, male sex and presence of co-morbidities (viz. Diabetes, COPD) are significantly associated with the occurrence of moderate and severe disease. Drugs (viz. ACEI/ARB), though are associated with less severe disease, have not achieved statistical significance, in the present study. CONCLUSION: Drugs, like ACEI/ARB, should be continued in patients suffering from COVID-19 infection, (if they are already on these drugs). © Journal of the Association of Physicians of India 2011.
ABSTRACT
Background: Since its first identification in December 2019, in WUHAN (CHINA), SARS-COV-2, causative agent of Corona virus pandemic, has affected millions of people worldwide, causing thousands of death. There is much speculation about the interplay between ACEI/ARB and Corona virus infection, as for internalization into host cell SARS-COV-2 binds through S spike protein to ACE-2, aided TMPRSS2. Methods: A record based observational study has been conducted (data obtained from the clinics of fourteen physicians) in two worst affected districts of West Bengal, to find out the association of ACEI/ARB on patients, suffering from Corona virus infection. The study-protocol has already been approved by Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine. (IEC Ref. No: CREC-STM/2020-AS-37) Results: Increasing age, male sex and presence of co-morbidities (viz. Diabetes, COPD) are significantly associated with the occurrence of moderate and severe disease. Drugs (viz. ACEI/ARB), though are associated with less severe disease, have not achieved statistical significance, in the present study. Conclusion: Drugs, like ACEI/ARB, should be continued in patients suffering from COVID-19 infection, (if they are already on these drugs). © 2021 Journal of Association of Physicians of India. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic which started in late 2019 is still continuing unabated, rather with resurgence of cases in certain areas globally. Even with the emergency use authorization of several vaccines and extensive vaccination programs, we are yet to bring the pandemic to its knees. The present scenario has more than ever highlighted the importance of face masks in controlling the infection and transmission of the SARS CoV2 virus. In this review article, we discuss the evidence available to date to support the use of masks as a protective barrier to limitvirus entry. We also discuss how masks indirectly help stimulate protective immune responses and provide a comparative glimpse on the characteristics of various masks.
ABSTRACT
We present three patients of COVID19 who presented to the emergency with neurological derangements. On admission fever, cough, sorethroat or contact history were notably absent in the first two that led to initial confusion about the diagnosis. We hereby stress on keeping SARSCoV2 infection in the differential diagnosis if patients present during this pandemic with neurological symptoms.