Prevention and Control of COVID-19 Risks for Long-Term Care Facilities Based on the Prospect Theory

Given the complexity and uncertainty of the current COVID-19 risks, the elderly people in long-term care facilities are at the highest risk for infection. In order to study the prevention and control strategies of COVID-19 risks in long-term care facilities, this paper uses the prospect theory to construct the decision-making model of COVID-19 risk behavior of long-term care facilities, analyses the risk behavior strategies of the caregivers and managers, and reveals the impact of risk management cost, risk loss and external supervision on the risk behavior decision-making of the caregivers and managers. Furthermore, from the perspective of long-term care facilities, this paper analyzes the constraints that enable it to achieve optimal risk management strategy. Combined with the simulation analysis, it is found that the decision of risk behavior of the caregivers and managers is positively related to the risk behavior choice, risk loss, and supervision. Then, only when the incentives set by the supervision are within a reasonable range can the caregivers and managers be motivated to take proactive risk management strategies. The study has important theoretical and practical significance for the management of COVID-19 risks in long-term care facilities.

Photo-catalyzed TiO2 inactivates pathogenic viruses by attacking viral genome.

Previous observations have been reported that viruses were inactivated using strong irradiation. Here, new evidence was disclosed by studying the effects of nanosized TiO2 on viral pathogens under a low irradiation condition (0.4 mW/cm2 at UVA band) that mimics the field setting. We showed that photo-activated TiO2 efficiently inhibits hepatitis C virus infection, and weak indoor light with intensity of 0.6 mW/cm2 at broad-spectrum wavelength and around 0.15 mW/cm2 of UVA band also lead to partial inhibition. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that hydroxyl radicals produced by photo-activated TiO2 do not destroy virion structure and contents, but attack viral RNA genome, thus inactivating the virus. Furthermore, we showed that photo-activated TiO2 inactivates a broad range of human viral pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In conclusion, we showed that photo-catalyzed nanosized TiO2 inactivates pathogenic viruses, paving a way to its field application in control of viral infectious diseases.