Crisis and the welfare state: the role of public employment services for job placement and the Danish flexicurity system during COVID-19

Denmark is a Nordic welfare state with local government autonomy in public service provision related to workfare policies. We use a policy experiment that re-opened on-site public employment services after the first COVID-19 lockdown in a spatially staggered manner to provide evidence on the effect of public employment services on job placement during a crisis. Early re-opening of on-site public employment services is associated with a better local labour market performance. It particularly benefits low-skilled unemployed and rural areas with specific sector mixes and demographic structures, why workfare-oriented welfare state arrangements remain important to counter social and regional imbalances.

Epidemic–economic complexity of COVID-19 policies across skill groups and geographies

The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened public health and socio-economic activities across societal groups and geographies. We analyse the complex interplay between epidemic and economic factors using a structural panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) approach for Danish municipalities. Findings indicate that the pandemic shock and associated public health interventions led to significant increases in unemployment rates. Wage compensations reduce regional unemployment through both a direct local effect and indirect spatial spillovers. Decomposing the unemployment rate by skill, we find that the response to an increase in wage compensations is only significant for low-skilled persons and that it is larger in urban compared with rural settings. © 2023 Regional Studies Association.

Drive De-fossilisation and Avoid De-industrialization: Possible, but Difficult

The German economy is in difficult waters. Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, there has been no end to the challenges posed by interruptions in production and supply problems. Despite the need for crisis management, politicians have pledged not to lose sight of environmental sustainability. In addition, our community itself must take more responsibility for strengthening the resilience of supply, value and innovation chains. All of this will only succeed with a greater focus on economic performance;this requires a supply-side economic policy. Drawing insight from this crisis will allow for a successful transition management and a comprehensively transformed economy. © 2022, Der/die Autor:in.

Supporting decision making on public health and social measures in response to COVID-19- The PHSM calibration tool : Dominic Cocciolone

Public health and social measures (PHSM) are preventative measures taken by individuals, communities and government institutions at national and local levels to prevent and reduce transmission of an infectious disease - in this instance SARS-CoV-2. The decision to introduce, adapt or lift PHSM should be based primarily on a situational assessment of the intensity of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the capacity of the health system to respond to subsequent increases in hospital admissions, but must also consider the effects these measures may have on the general welfare of society and individuals. The WHO Regional Office for Europe developed an online public health and social measures (PHSM) calibration tool to assist Member States in decision-making relating to PHSM implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The tool, designed to be used primarily by policy-makers in national and local government authorities, provides guidance based on a situational-level assessment framework that is determined by the level of community transmission and the overall capacity of health systems and public health services within a country or region to respond. By using a combination of country-reported and user-input data, the tool automatically generates a situational assessment and corresponding PHSM guidance for users, summarized in a downloadable report. Reference https://phsm.euro.who.int/calibrationTool

Implementing public health and social measures: an integral part of the health emergency management cycle : Tanja Schmidt

Public health and social measures (PHSM) have been utilized as a tool to reduce the infection rates and disease burden throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to play an important role even with vaccination campaigns well underway in preventing severe disease. In order to systematically track, analyze and report qualitative and quantitative data o PHSM implementation across the European Region and assist countries in the COVID-19 response, the COVID-19 Incident Management Support team at the WHO Regional Office for Europe developed PHSM Severity Index and PHSM Dashboard. The PHSM Severity Index captures the types, severity and timing of PHSMs implemented by a country across six main indicators. By providing standardized data on PHSM implementation, the PHSM Severity Index can support and inform the development of policy at country and regional levels. PHSM data, severity methodology and policy tools developed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic should be adapted to provide a foundation for preparedness for future large-scale health emergencies. In addition, discerning the epidemiological impact of specific PHSM and their combinations currently is a priority for policy-makers and can guide countries’ transition strategies. Analysing the impact of PHSM on COVID-19 transmission is of critical importance, especially as variants of concern bring new waves of COVID-19 cases and may challenge countries’ vaccination and response strategies. Reference PHSM in Response to COVID-19 (who.int)

Effects of covid-19 confinement on physical activity and health-related quality of life in rehabilitation patients

› Aim: This article investigates the influence of the confinement from March 14th, 2020 until mid-May 2020 induced by the Co-vid-19 outbreak on the exercise behavior of rehabilitation patients and their health-related quality of life (HRQoL). › Methods: A total of 118 rehabilitation patients completed a fully standardized online survey. The Short Form 12 Health Survey (SF-12) and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire in its short form (IPAQ) was used to assess HRQoL and weekly physical activity (PA) energy expenditure before and during the confinement. › Results: Vigorous PA decreased by 64.7% (p=.001, r=.31) during confinement. There was also a decrease in moderate PA of 29.6% (p=.017, r=.20) and a decrease in total PA of 21.9% (p=.001, r=.31). Both physical and psychological HRQoL domains changed sig-nificantly during the confinement: the value of the physical component scale (PCS) decreased by 14.4% (p=<.001, r=.73), the value of the mental component scale (MCS) by 0.05% (p=.018, r=.22). Correlation analysis showed significant associations between vigorous PA and PCS value (p<.001), and between total PA and PCS value (p<.05) during the confinement. There were neither significant relationships between moderate PA and PCS nor between walking and PCS. Furthermore, no correlations between any PA intensities and MCS values were observed. › Conclusion: The confinement induced a significant decrease of weekly physical activity (PA) energy expenditure, especially vigorous PA, in rehabilitation patients. Both total PA (p<.05) and vigorous PA (p<.001) show significant positive correlations with the PCS values of the SF-12 questionnaire. © 2021, Dynamic Media Sales Verlag. All rights reserved.

Assessing COVID-19 Impacts on College Students via Automated Processing of Free-form Text

In this paper, we report experimental results on assessing the impact of COVID-19 on college students by processing free-form texts generated by them. By free-form texts, we mean textual entries posted by college students (enrolled in a four year US college) via an app specifically designed to assess and improve their mental health. Using a dataset comprising of more than 9000 textual entries from 1451 students collected over four months (split between pre and post COVID-19), and established NLP techniques, a) we assess how topics of most interest to student change between pre and post COVID-19, and b) we assess the sentiments that students exhibit in each topic between pre and post COVID-19. Our analysis reveals that topics like Education became noticeably less important to students post COVID-19, while Health became much more trending. We also found that across all topics, negative sentiment among students post COVID-19 was much higher compared to pre-COVID-19. We expect our study to have an impact on policy-makers in higher education across several spectra, including college administrators, teachers, parents, and mental health counselors.

COVID anticks: Not all infiltrates are COVID related

Introduction: Anaplasma phagocytophilum causes human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA). We present a case of ARDS due to HGA, highlighting the importance of maintaining a broad differential and thorough history taking even in the midst of a pandemic. Case: A 43 year-old man with a history of alcohol and tobacco use presented in late November 2020 in the midst of a regional COVID-19 surge with two weeks of progressive shortness of breath, chest pain, fevers, and altered mental status. Admission labs were notable for hepatocellular injury, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia with absolute lymphopenia, and elevated creatinine. The patient's hypoxemia progressed to the point of requiring mechanical ventilation despite broad spectrum antibiotics. SARS-CoV-2 PCR x3, blood, viral, and fungal cultures were negative. Patient's PaO2/FiO2 ratio of <200, extensive bilateral infiltrates, and low suspicion for heart failure was consistent with ARDS (Figure). Given continued hypoxia, the patient underwent the prone positioning protocol. A peripheral smear was obtained for thrombocytopenia/leukopenia and demonstrated inclusions within the neutrophils consistent with Anaplasma. Upon further history taking, the spouse confirmed that the patient had recently found several ticks on his body after returning from a hunting trip in northern Minnesota. Anaplasma was confirmed with PCR testing. The rarity of ARDS due to anaplasmosis limits insight into therapeutic options aside from antibiotics. However, in addition to receiving doxycycline, the patient was started on dexamethasone, which has demonstrated possible symptomatic benefit through small case studies. The dosage of Dexamethasone administered ranged from 4-20 mg, totaling 5 doses. The patient improved and was discharged home. Discussion: Human granulocytic anaplasmosis is caused by Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Ticks are the main vectors for this zoonotic disease, specifically the Ixodes tick. Like other tick-borne infections, it presents most commonly as a febrile illness. Our patient had several classic manifestations including leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and elevated transaminases. Pulmonary symptoms are infrequently described aside from some reports of interstitial pneumonia and, rarely, ARDS. Doxycycline is the gold standard treatment for HGA. A few case reports have demonstrated clinical improvement with the addition of steroids when ARDS was present. Our patient saw improvement with the combination of corticosteroids, doxycycline, and ARDS evidencebased practices (i.e. pronation and low tidal volume ventilation). Similar management should be considered in other patients presenting with severe ARDS caused by HGA. Finally, although an atypical season for ticks, this case highlights the importance of a thorough social history and broad differentials, especially in patients presenting with severe illness.

Recovery Loses Momentum - Economy and Politics Still Shaped by the Pandemic

The corona pandemic has left substantial marks on the German economy and its impact is more persistent than presumed in the spring. In their autumn reports, leading German economic research institutes have revised their economic outlook downwards by roughly one percentage point for both this and next year. They now expect gross domestic product to fall by 5.4% in 2020 (previously 4.2%) and to grow by 4.7% (5.8%) in 2021 and 2.7% in 2022. The downgrade of the forecast follows a more pessimistic assessment of the recovery, which is being held back by those sectors that are particularly dependent on social contacts. The precrisis level of output will not be reached until the end of 2021 with GDP remaining at 2.5% below the level that would have prevailed without the pandemic. Despite massively falling back on shorttime working schemes, an estimated 820,000 jobs were lost due to the crisis. The government will run a record high budget deficit of 183 billion euros in 2020. In 2021 and 2022, deficits will remain substantial at 118 billion euros and 92 billion euros, respectively. © 2020, Der/die Autor(en).