Neither Backlash Nor Convergence: Dynamics of Intracouple Childcare Division after the First COVID-19 Lockdown and Subsequent Reopening in Germany (preprint)

Using unique monthly panel data from the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) covering the immediate postlockdown period from June to August 2020, we investigate the opposing claims of widening/closing the gender gap in parental childcare during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. We contribute to the current literature by analyzing the medium-term dynamics of couples’ childcare division and by considering the prepandemic division rather than providing merely snapshots during lockdown. Our results suggest a slight shift toward a more egalitarian division in June that, however, faded out in subsequent months. Starting from a fairly “traditional” prepandemic childcare division, the lockdown stimulus was not nearly strong enough to level the playing field. A subgroup analysis differentiating between parents’ individual lockdown-specific work arrangements shows that the drivers of the observed shift were mothers who worked more than 20 hours a week and for whom remote work was not possible. Fathers’ work arrangement instead did not play a significant role. We conclude that the shift emerged out of necessity rather than opportunity, which makes it likely to fade once the necessity vanishes, thereby catapulting parents back to their initial childcare arrangements.

Neither Backlash Nor Convergence: Dynamics of Intracouple Childcare Division after the First Covid-19 Lockdown and Subsequent Reopening in Germany (preprint)

Using unique monthly panel data from the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) covering the immediate postlockdown period from June to August 2020, we investigate the opposing claims of widening/closing the gender gap in parental childcare during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. We contribute to the current literature by analyzing the medium-term dynamics of couples' childcare division and by considering the prepandemic division rather than providing merely snapshots during lockdown. Our results suggest a slight shift toward a more egalitarian division in June that, however, faded out in subsequent months. Starting from a fairly "traditional" prepandemic childcare division, the lockdown stimulus was not nearly strong enough to level the playing field. A subgroup analysis differentiating between parents' individual lockdownspecific work arrangements shows that the drivers of the observed shift were mothers who worked more than 20 hours a week and for whom remote work was not possible. Fathers' work arrangement instead did not play a significant role. We conclude that the shift emerged out of necessity rather than opportunity, which makes it likely to fade once the necessity vanishes, thereby catapulting parents back to their initial childcare arrangements.

Parents Under Stress - Evaluating Emergency Childcare Policies During the First COVID-19 Lockdown in Germany (preprint)

What are the effects of school and daycare facility closures during the COVID-19 pandemic on parental well-being and parenting behavior? Can emergency childcare policies during a pandemic mitigate increases in parental stress and negative parenting behavior? To answer these questions, this study leverages cross-state variation in emergency childcare eligibility rules during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Germany and draws on unique data from the 2019 and 2020 waves of the German AID:A family panel. Employing a DDD and IV approach we identify medium-term ITT and LATE effects and find that while emergency care policies did not considerably affect parents’ life satisfaction, partnership satisfaction or mental health, they have been effective in diminishing harsh parenting behavior. We find partly gendered effects, specifically on paternal parenting behavior. Our results suggest that decreasing parental wellbeing likely constitutes a general effect of the pandemic, whereas the observed increase in negative and potentially harmful parenting behavior is largely directly caused by school and daycare facility closures.

Susceptibility of well-differentiated airway epithelial cell cultures from domestic and wildlife animals to SARS-CoV-2 (preprint)

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread globally, and the number of cases continues to rise all over the world. Besides humans, the zoonotic origin, as well as intermediate and potential spillback host reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 are unknown. To circumvent ethical and experimental constraints, and more importantly, to reduce and refine animal experimentation, we employed our airway epithelial cell (AEC) culture repository composed of various domesticated and wildlife animal species to assess their susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we inoculated well-differentiated animal AEC cultures of monkey, cat, ferret, dog, rabbit, pig, cattle, goat, llama, camel, and two neotropical bat species with SARS-CoV-2. We observed that SARS-CoV-2 only replicated efficiently in monkey and cat AEC culture models. Whole-genome sequencing of progeny virus revealed no obvious signs of nucleotide transitions required for SARS-CoV-2 to productively infect monkey and cat epithelial airway cells. Our findings, together with the previously reported human-to-animal spillover events warrants close surveillance to understand the potential role of cats, monkeys, and closely related species as spillback reservoirs for SARS-CoV-2.

CD127 imprints functional heterogeneity to diversify monocyte responses in human inflammatory diseases (preprint)

Studies on human monocytes historically focused on characterization of bulk responses, whereas functional heterogeneity is largely unknown. Here, we identified an inducible population of CD127-expressing human monocytes under inflammatory conditions and named the subset M127. M127 is nearly absent in healthy individuals yet abundantly present in patients with infectious and inflammatory conditions such as COVID-19 and rheumatoid arthritis. Multiple genomic and functional approaches revealed unique gene signatures of M127 and unified anti-inflammatory properties imposed by the CD127-STAT5 axis. M127 expansion correlated with mild COVID-19 disease outcomes. Thereby, we phenotypically and molecularly characterized a human monocyte subset marked by CD127 that retained anti-inflammatory properties within the pro-inflammatory environments, uncovering remarkable functional diversity among monocytes and signifying M127 as a potential therapeutic target for human inflammatory disorders.

A benchmarking study of SARS-CoV-2 whole-genome sequencing protocols using COVID-19 patient samples (preprint)

The COVID-19 pandemic is a once-in-a-lifetime event, exceeding mortality rates of the flu pandemics from the 1950's and 1960's. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of SARS-CoV-2 plays a critical role in understanding the disease. Performance variation exists across SARS-CoV-2 viral WGS technologies, but there is currently no benchmarking study comparing different WGS sequencing protocols. We compared seven different SARS-CoV-2 WGS library protocols using RNA from patient nasopharyngeal swab samples under two storage conditions. We constructed multiple WGS libraries encompassing three different viral inputs: 1,000,000, 250,000 and 1,000 copies. Libraries were sequenced using two distinct platforms with varying sequencing depths and read lengths. We found large differences in mappability and genome coverage, and variations in sensitivity, reproducibility and precision of single-nucleotide variant calling across different protocols. We ranked the performance of protocols based on six different metrics. Our results indicated that the most appropriate protocol depended on viral input amount and sequencing depth. Our findings offer guidance in choosing appropriate WGS protocols to characterize SARS-CoV-2 and its evolution.

The hydroalcoholic extract of Uncaria tomentosa (Cat's claw) inhibits the replication of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in vitro (preprint)

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a serious problem for public health since it was identified in the province of Wuhan (China) and spread around the world producing high mortality rates and economic losses. Nowadays, WHO recognizes traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine for treating COVID-19 symptoms. Therefore, we investigated the antiviral potential of the hydroalcoholic extract of Uncaria tomentosa stem bark from Peru against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. The antiviral activity of U. tomentosa against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro was assessed in Vero E6 cells using cytopathic effect (CPE) and plaque reduction assay. After 48h of treatment, U. tomentosa showed an inhibition of 92.7 % of SARS-CoV-2 at 25.0 g/mL (p<0.0001) by plaque reduction assay on Vero E6 cells. In addition, U. tomentosa, induced a reduction of 98.6 % (p=0.02) and 92.7 % (p=0.03) in the CPE caused by SARS-CoV-2 on Vero E6 cells at 25 g/mL and 12.5 g/mL, respectively. The EC50 calculated for U. tomentosa extract by plaque reduction assay was 6.6 g/mL (4.89 - 8.85 g/mL) for a selectivity index of 4.1. The EC50 calculated for U. tomentosa extract by TCID50 assay was 2.57 g/mL (1.05 - 3.75 g/mL) for a selectivity index of 10.54. These results showed thatU. tomentosa known as Cat's claw has antiviral effect against SARS-CoV-2 observed as a reduction in the viral titer and CPE after 48h of treatment on Vero E6 cells. Therefore, we hypothesized that U. tomentosa stem bark, could be promissory to the development of new therapeutic strategies against SARS-CoV-2.

Protective efficacy of a SARS-CoV-2 DNA Vaccine in wild-type and immunosuppressed Syrian hamsters (preprint)

A worldwide effort to counter the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in hundreds of candidate vaccines moving through various stages of research and development, including several vaccines in phase 1, 2 and 3 clinical trials. A relatively small number of these vaccines have been evaluated in SARS-CoV-2 disease models, and fewer in a severe disease model. Here, a SARS-CoV-2 DNA targeting the spike protein and delivered by jet injection, nCoV-S(JET), elicited neutralizing antibodies in hamsters and was protective in both wild-type and transiently immunosuppressed hamster models. This study highlights the DNA vaccine, nCoV-S(JET), we developed has a great potential to move to next stage of preclinical studies, and it also demonstrates that the transiently-immunosuppressed Syrian hamsters, which recapitulate severe and prolonged COVID-19 disease, can be used for preclinical evaluation of the protective efficacy of spike-based COVID-19 vaccine.

Germany's Capacities to Work from Home (preprint)

We propose an index of working from home (WFH) capacity for the German economy, drawing on rich survey and administrative data. We find that 56 percent of jobs are WFH feasible, most of which are located in urban areas and in highly digitized industries. Using individual-level data on tasks and work conditions, we show that heterogeneity in WFH feasibility is largely explained by differences in task content. WFH feasible jobs are typically characterized by cognitive, non-manual tasks, and PC usage. We compare our survey-based measure with popular task-based measures of WFH capacity, which usually rely on determining tasks that are incompatible with WFH, and show that task-based approaches capture variation in WFH capacity across occupations quite accurately. Finally, we demonstrate that our WFH index constitutes a strong predictor of actual WFH outcomes during the Covid-19 crisis and discuss applications in the context of the pandemic and the future of work.

Germany's Capacities to Work from Home (preprint)

Due to the COVID-19 crisis and the related "social distancing" measures, working from home (WfH) has suddenly become a crucial lever of economic activity. This paper combines survey and administrative data to compute measures for the feasibility of working from home among German employees. Breaking down the data by occupation, region, industry, and employee characteristics, we document considerable variation in the potential to WfH across all dimensions. We find that WfH is feasible for roughly 56 percent of the overall German workforce, while less than half of this potential was exploited in the pre-pandemic economy.