Crisis Communications on Social Media: Insights from Canadian Officials Twitter Presence during COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic is a unique case in crisis management given its length, scale, several different response systems, and public officials' extensive social media use for crisis communication. Leveraging text mining techniques, we examine Canadian officials' presence on Twitter during the pandemic by focusing on their COVID-19-related content. We identified eight themes of discussion that unveil 37 relevant subthemes. Concentrating on the COVID-19-addressing themes, we reveal that educating citizens on the safety information and keeping them informed with the latest crisis information was the Canadian officials' primary focus during the pandemic. To fight COVID-19, Canadian officials used four policies, and to implement those, they promoted eight measures and practices. According to the volume of generated content, the evolution of COVID-19-addressing themes over time, and their coexistence;Test and trace was the most advocated policy by emphasizing screening the symptoms. To stop the spread of COVID-19, Canadian officials promoted wearing Mask, Social distancing, Hand washing, and Stay home, where Mask and Social distancing were the most frequent practices. Our study contributes to crisis communication and management by depicting how Canadian officials leveraged social media during such a big-scale crisis. © 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Analytic hierarchy clustering research of all cargo airlines based on safety information

Due to the COVID-19, air passenger transport industry is sluggishm. At the same time, based on the strong demand for freight business. Airlines focus on developing cargo sector. All-cargo airlines are gradually being established. The number of registered cargo aircraft has gradually increased in recent years,and cargo transport flight hours are gradually increasing. This leads to an increase in cargo aviation security incidents. The safety information analysis of cargo aircraft needs to be solved urgently. In this paper, a hierarchical analysis and clustering research on all-cargo airlines based on China aviaiton safety information data is carried out. The results show that all-cargo airlines security incidents are divided into three categories. The paper provides security recommendations for different incident categories. © 2022 IEEE.

Motorcycle Accident Casualties During the COVID-19 Epidemic in Taiwan

A descriptive time series study of casualties from motorcycle accidents in Taiwan between 2016 and 2020. The data on casualties were obtained from the road safety information system provided by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. Between 2016 and 2020 the casualties increased from 2,571 to 3,191 (an increase of 241% in casualty rates during the period studied). High casualty rates in 2020 were observed in Taiwan. There was a significant increase in motorcycle accident casualty rates for the country as a whole during the studied period. © 2022 IEEE.

Topics from” Food Safety Information (Chemical)” in 2020

The variety and volume of internationally traded food has increased, and the food safety issues occurred in other countries immediately become global and/or national issues. The division of food safety information have published biweekly bulletins named “Food safety information” for risk manager and public since 2003. These bulletins introduce the latest official news released from international organizations and food safety authorities in foreign countries. The present paper provides overview of some topics selected from these bulletins in 2020 (e.g. COVID-19 pandemic, New Era of Smarter Food Safety, perfluoroalkyl substances, edible insects, cultured meat). © 2021, National Institute of Health Sciences. All rights reserved.

Missing clinical trial data: the evidence gap in primary data for potential COVID-19 drugs.

BACKGROUND: Several drugs are being repurposed for the treatment of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic based on in vitro or early clinical findings. As these drugs are being used in varied regimens and dosages, it is important to enable synthesis of existing safety data from clinical trials. However, availability of safety information is limited by a lack of timely reporting of overall clinical trial results on public registries or through academic publication. We aimed to analyse the evidence gap in this data by conducting a rapid review of results posting on ClinicalTrials.gov and in academic publications to quantify the number of trials missing results for drugs potentially being repurposed for COVID-19. METHODS: ClinicalTrials.gov was searched for 19 drugs that have been identified as potential treatments for COVID-19. Relevant clinical trials for any prior indication were listed by identifier (NCT number) and checked for results and for timely result reporting (within 395 days of the primary completion date). Additionally, PubMed and Google Scholar were searched to identify publications of results not listed on the registry. A second, blinded search of 10% of trials was conducted to assess reviewer concordance. RESULTS: Of 3754 completed trials, 1516 (40.4%) did not post results on ClinicalTrials.gov or in the academic literature. Tabular results were available on ClinicalTrials.gov for 1172 (31.2%) completed trials. A further 1066 (28.4%) had published results in the academic literature, but did not report results on ClinicalTrials.gov . Key drugs missing clinical trial results include hydroxychloroquine (37.0% completed trials unreported), favipiravir (77.8%) and lopinavir (40.5%). CONCLUSIONS: There is an important evidence gap for the safety of drugs being repurposed for COVID-19. This uncertainty could cause unnecessary additional morbidity and mortality during the pandemic. We recommend caution in experimental drug use for non-severe disease and urge clinical trial sponsors to report missing results retrospectively.

Drug Information Association (DIA) Japan - 17th Annual Meeting (November 8-10, 2020 - Virtual Meeting).

As many other conferences held in 2020, the 17th Drug Information Association (DIA) Japan Annual Meeting 2020 was held virtually for the first time due to the COVID-19 crisis. The virtual platform delivered 64 sessions across 3 days and allowed participants to join the sessions flexibly, interactively participate in Q and A and connect with fellows without boundaries. The opening speech was addressed by Hajime Saijo (DIA Japan) to introduce the conference theme "Beyond Innovation" and key sessions featured discussions on future healthcare, the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) 30-year anniversary, the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) town hall, patient-focused drug development and global drug development. This meeting report covers the topics discussed from the programs featuring patient engagement, innovative drug development and new technologies.