Don't bring COVID home for Christmas - analysing emerging themes during COVID-19 through lenses of care homes and universities in Finland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Sweden.

BACKGROUND: In autumn of 2020, the UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care pleaded with young people to 'not kill your gran' when returning home, after he confirmed the surge in coronavirus cases at that time was associated with students away from home for the first time. Meanwhile residents continued to die in care homes across the NPA Region. AIMS: To examine the impact of COVID-19 on communities through the twin lenses of University Campuses and Care Homes from November 2020 to March 2021.To generalise findings to society as a whole through the NPA Covid-19 themes of clinical aspects, health and wellbeing, technology solutions, citizen engagement/community response and economic impacts. METHODS: Surveys and 1:1 interviews via zoom or telephone gathered data. Informed consent was obtained from all participants including students, care home residents, the families of care home residents and care home workers. They were recruited via flyers and completing a Survey Monkey questionnaire. RESULTS: Mistakes made at Government level is also a common feature. In Scotland and Northern Ireland this was centred around the movement of people from hospital into the care home sector without sufficient testing, preparedness (PPE/isolation) or resources, whilst in Sweden and Finland it focused more on a reliance on soft law. The project was selected to be presented virtually at the European Regions week as well as at the the Arctic Circle Assembly in Iceland in October 2021. DISCUSSION: Among students, there was little awareness that they might be asymptomatic and could infect vulnerable contacts by bringing COVID home for Christmas In care homes, residents continued to die, and experiments took place using digital interventions to monitor social distancing and afford more access for family members.

Beyond a Zero-Sum Game: How Does the Impact of COVID-19 Vary by Gender?

Epidemics and pandemics, like COVID-19, are not gender neutral. Much of the current work on gender, sex, and COVID-19, however, has seemed implicitly or explicitly to be attempting to demonstrate that either men or women have been hardest hit, treating differences between women and men as though it is not important to understand how each group is affected by the virus. This approach often leaves out the effect on gender and sexual minorities entirely. Believing that a more nuanced approach is needed now and for the future, we brought together a group of gender experts to answer the question: how are people of different genders impacted by COVID-19 and why? Individuals working in women's, men's, and LGBTQ health and wellbeing wrote sections to lay out the different ways that women, men, and gender and sexual minorities are affected by COVID-19. We demonstrate that there is not one group "most affected," but that many groups are affected, and we need to move beyond a zero-sum game and engage in ways to mutually identify and support marginalized groups.

Chemical Composition, Antibacterial Activity, and Antibiotic Potentiation of Boswellia sacra Flueck. Oleoresin Extracts from the Dhofar Region of Oman.

The emergence of MDR bacterial pathogens has directed antibiotic discovery research towards alternative therapies and traditional medicines. Boswellia sacra oleoresin (frankincense) was used to treat bacterial infections in traditional Arabian and Asian healing systems for at least 1000 years. Despite this, B. sacra extracts have not been rigorously tested for inhibitory activity against gastrointestinal pathogens or bacterial triggers of autoimmune diseases. Solvent extracts were prepared from Boswellia sacra oleoresins obtained from three regions near Salalah, Oman. MIC values were quantified against gastrointestinal pathogens and bacterial triggers of selected autoimmune diseases by disc diffusion and broth dilution methods. The antibacterial activity was also evaluated in combination with conventional antibiotics, and the class of interaction was determined by ΣFIC analysis. Isobolograms were used to determine the optimal ratios for synergistic combinations. Toxicity was evaluated by ALA and HDF cell viability bioassays. The phytochemical composition of the volatile components of all extracts was identified by nontargeted GC-MS headspace analysis. All methanolic extracts inhibited the growth of all of the bacteria tested, although the extracts prepared using Najdi oleoresin were generally more potent than the Sahli and Houjari extracts. Combinations of the methanolic B. sacra extracts and conventional antibiotics were significantly more effective in inhibiting the growth of several bacterial pathogens. In total, there were 38 synergistic and 166 additive combinations. Approximately half of the synergistic combinations contained tetracycline. All B. sacra extracts were nontoxic in the ALA and HDF cell viability assays. Nonbiased GC-MS headspace analysis of the methanolic extracts putatively identified a high diversity of monoterpenoids, with particularly high abundances of α-pinene. The antibacterial activity and lack of toxicity of the B. sacra extracts indicate their potential in the treatment and prevention of gastrointestinal and autoimmune diseases. Furthermore, the extracts potentiated the activity of several conventional antibiotics, indicating that they may contain resistance-modifying compounds.

The association of nursing home quality ratings and spread of COVID-19.

OBJECTIVES: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has severely affected nursing home residents. Given the continued high incidence of COVID-19, and the likelihood that new variants and other infectious agents may cause future outbreaks, we sought to understand the relationship of nursing home quality ratings and measures of COVID-19 outbreak severity and persistence. DESIGN: We analyzed nursing home facility-level data on COVID-19 cases and deaths, county-level COVID-19 rates, and nursing home data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), including ratings from the CMS Nursing Home Five-Star Quality Rating System. We used regression analysis to examine the association between star ratings and cumulative COVID-19 incidence and mortality as well as persistent high resident incidence. SETTING: All nursing homes in the CMS COVID-19 Nursing Home Dataset reporting data that passed quality assurance checks for at least 20 weeks and that were included in the January 2021 Nursing Home Care Compare update. PARTICIPANTS: Residents of the included nursing homes. MEASUREMENTS: Cumulative resident COVID-19 incidence and mortality through January 10, 2021; number of weeks with weekly resident incidence of COVID-19 in the top decile nationally. RESULTS: As of January 10, 2021, nearly all nursing homes (93.6%) had reported at least one case of COVID-19 among their residents, more than three-quarters (76.9%) had reported at least one resident death, and most (83.5%) had experienced at least 1 week in the top decile of weekly incidence. In analyses adjusted for facility and county-level characteristics, we found generally consistent relationships between higher nursing home quality ratings and lower COVID-19 incidence and mortality, as well as with fewer high-incidence weeks. CONCLUSION: Nursing home quality ratings are associated with COVID-19 incidence, mortality, and persistence. Nursing homes receiving five-star ratings, for overall quality as well as for each domain, had lower COVID-19 rates among their residents.

Men and COVID-19: the aftermath.

The global pandemic as a result of the SARS-CoV2 virus has seen over 16 m people infected and over 650,000 deaths, with men at double the risk of both developing the severe form of the disease and mortality. There are both biological (sex) and socio-cultural (gender) factors, compounded by socio-economic factors and ethnicity, that impact on the aftermath of what has occurred over the short time that this novel coronavirus has been circulating the world. The potential life-long morbidity as a result of the infection and as a consequence of highly invasive critical care treatment needs to be factored into the rehabilitation of survivors. There are also many men whose lives will have been severely affected both physically and emotionally by the pandemic without ever contracting the disease, with the widespread disruption to normal existence and its impact on their social world and the economy. The implications of the closure of many healthcare services over the initial lockdown will also have both a shorter- and longer-term impact on other diseases due to missed early diagnosis and disrupted treatment regimes. Getting effective public health messages out to the population is critical and this current pandemic is demonstrating that there needs to be a more focused view on men's health behavior. Without effective public support for preventative action, the more likely the disease will continue its path unabated. This review explores the wider ramifications of the disease both for those men who have survived the disease and those that have been affected by the wider social effects of the pandemic. The pandemic should be a wake-up call for all involved in the planning and delivery of health and social care for the greater attention to the central role of sex and gender.

COVID-19: biological factors in men's vulnerability

The reasons behind the disproportionately higher number of deaths among men compared with women as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic may not be clear for some time. Here the authors discuss some of the potential biological explanations for why men seem to succumb more readily to the deadly effects of the virus.