One Earth, One Humanity Versus the Virus: Examining the Global COVID-19 Social Partnership Communication Networks on Social Media

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed severe challenges that require collaborative efforts from multi-sector organizations. Guided by an institutional theory framework that considers how both organizational fields and national level contexts affect organizations' social partnership communication, the current study examines the COVID-19-related social partnership communication network on social media. The cross-national study using semantic network analysis and exponential random graph models (ERGMs) first maps the meaning of COVID-19 social partnership network, and then investigates the role of organizational fields and a country's political system, economic system, educational system, and cultural system on the formation of interorganizational communication ties surrounding the relief efforts of COVID-19. Results reveal the importance of the political system-such as the presence of populist government, economic disparity, and uncertainty avoidance cultural orientation in shaping the social media-based social partnership communication network. In addition, NGOs from multiple issue areas are actively engaged in the network, whereas corporations from manufacturing and financial industries are active players.

Mask-Wearing as a Partisan Issue: Social Identity and Communication of Party Norms on Social Media Among Political Elites

This study draws on the social identity approach (SIA), to examine how political elites (i.e., members of the 116th United States Congress) communicated norms about mask-wearing on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Twitter data collected in 2020, we found that Republican members of Congress were significantly less likely to promote mask-wearing than Democratic members. We also observed some variations in norm-conforming behaviors among the members of each party. For Republicans, increased loyalty to the Trump leadership was significantly associated with a lower level of mask promotion. For Democrats, we found some evidence that loyalty to the party predicted higher levels of mask promotion. On the other hand, interactions with out-group members decreased adherence to party norms for both Republican and Democratic members of Congress. These findings allow us to better understand the social-psychological effects of party membership among political elites as well as the importance of leader-follower relationships and intergroup interactions.

[Application of oral fluid in SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid and antibody detection].

This study aimed to explore the application value of new biological specimen oral fluid in SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid and antibody detection. Oral fluid and paired respiratory and blood specimens from 7 confirmed cases of two COVID-19 cluster epidemic were collected in Beijing from October to November 2021. SARS-CoV-2 virus and IgG antibody were detected by real time PCR kits and serum antibody detection reagents, and SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody in oral fluids was detected by a new established method of magnetic particle chemiluminescence. The results showed that the nucleic acid amplification test of SARS-CoV-2 on nasopharyngeal swabs, throat swabs and oral fluid specimens from 3 confirmed cases of COVID-19 was positive, among which the Ct value for ORF1a/b and N gene of oral fluid samples in 2 cases was close to that of throat swab, and the Ct value of oral fluid sample for 1 case was higher than that of throat swab. The complete genome sequence of one oral fluid specimen was obtained, which belonged to the VOC/Delta variant strain. The SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies of the paired oral fluid and serum were all positive, and the S/CO values of oral fluid were all lower than those of serum. The series of oral fluid results showed that SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody level increased from 11 to 32 days after the onset of the disease.