Medical Philately and the World of COVID-19 Postage Stamps: Issues of Truth, Health and Wealth

The political, social, cultural and economic worlds have been gripped by unexpected, tumultuous and ad hoc worlds since the emergence of COVID-19 on the world scene in early 2020. It is safe to acknowledge that all, or nearly all, humans on the planet have been adversely affected by its appearance, re-appearance and re-re-appearance in some and many ways. The world's states have also struggled with effective, efficient and acceptable ways to respond to the pandemic at personal, local and national scales. The visibility of COVID-19 is evident in the rise and fluctuating number of cases and deaths as they appear in daily and weekly news reports. An additional perspective of the serious nature of the virus is the appearance on postage stamp issues about diseases, a research focus of medical philately. Since early 2020 nearly 100 countries have issued stamps with a COVID-19 theme. Some countries devastated by cases and deaths and have issued a single or set of stamps with images about the negative impacts on the health and welfare of their populations, economies and environments. Others have not. Some countries have issued a low value stamp about COVID-19 while other countries have issued COVID-19 stamps that are extremely expensive and are unlikely to ever be seen or used by their population. These stamps are designed and produced by private companies for international stamp markets, which include collectors who collect stamp issues with health and disease themes. This chapter examines the COVID stamp issues through August 2021, their major themes and the costs. Stamps, as pieces of visual diplomacy, are observed to be more than reflecting a country's health or human condition, but also to generate income. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Front-Line vs Second-Line Healthcare Workers: Susceptibility Prediction to COVID-19 Infection in a Tertiary Care Teaching Institute.

Background Since the beginning of the novel coronavirus disease in Wuhan city of China in 2019 and its spreading worldwide and taking the form of a pandemic, many healthcare workers (HCWs) were affected by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. Though we have used many types of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits while taking care of COVID-19 patients, we have seen COVID-19 susceptibility in different working areas were different. The pattern of infection in different working areas depended on HCWs following COVID-19 appropriate behavior. Therefore, we planned to estimate the susceptibility of front-line HCWs and second-line HCWs to getting COVID-19 infection. Aim To determine the risk of COVID-19 in front-line healthcare workers as compared to second-line healthcare workers. Method and materials We planned a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of COVID-19-positive healthcare workers from our institute within six months. Their nature of duty was analyzed and they were divided into two groups: 1) Front-line HCWs were defined as those who were working or who have worked in screening areas of the outpatient department (OPD) or COVID-19 isolation wards within the prior 14 days and provided direct care to patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19. 2) Second-line HCWs were those who were working in the general OPD or non-COVID-19 areas of our hospital and did not have contact with COVID-19-positive patients. Results A total of 59 HCWs became COVID-19 positive during the study period, 23 as front-line and 36 as second-line HCWs. The mean (SD) duration of work as a front-line worker was 51 and as a second-line worker was 84.4 hours. Fever, cough, body ache, loss of taste, loose stools, palpitation, throat pain, vertigo, vomiting, lung disease, generalized weakness, breathing difficulty, loss of smell, headache, and running nose were present in 21 (35.6%), 15 (25.4%), 9 (15.3%), 10 (16.9%), 3 (5.1%), 5 (8.5%), 5 (8.5%), 1 (1.7%), 4 (6.8%), 2 (3.4%), 11 (18.6%), 4 (6.8%), 9 (15.3%), 6 (10.2%) and 3 (5.1%), respectively. To predict the risk of getting COVID-19 infection in HCWs, binary logistic regression with COVID-19 diagnosis as the output variable was modeled with hours of working in COVID-19 wards as front-line and second-line workers as independent variables. The results showed that there was a 1.18 times increased risk of acquiring the disease for every one-hour excess of working as a front-line worker, whereas, for second-line workers, it was slightly lower, with a 1.11 times increased risk for developing COVID-19 disease with every one hour increase in duty hours. Both these associations were statistically significant (p=0.001 for front-line and 0.006 for second-line HCWs). Conclusion COVID-19 has taught us the importance of COVID-19 appropriate behavior in preventing the spread of respiratory organisms. Our study has shown that both the front-line and second-line HCWs are at increased risk of getting the infection and proper use of a PPE kit or mask can decrease the spread of such respiratory pathogens.

Patchwork: The Hidden, Human Labor of AI Integration within Essential Work

This paper examines the rapid introduction of AI and automation technologies within essential industries amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on participant observation and interviews within two sites of waste labor in the United States, we consider the substantial effort performed by frontline workers who smooth the relationship between robotics and their social and material environment. Over the course of the research, we found workers engaged in continuous acts of calibration, troubleshooting, and repair required to support AI technologies over time. In interrogating these sites, we develop the concept of "patchwork": human labor that occurs in the space between what AI purports to do and what it actually accomplishes. We argue that it is necessary to consider the often-undervalued frontline work that makes up for AI's shortcomings during implementation, particularly as CSCW increasingly turns to discussions of Human-AI collaboration. © 2023 Owner/Author.

Front-Line Social Workers' Practices Under the Political and Sanitary Crisis in Chile

In October 2019, mass civil protests erupted in Chile questioning the country's vast and historically rooted inequalities and injustices. These protests, which sought structural changes to Chile's neoliberal ethos, were abruptly brought to a halt by the arrival of COVID-19 in March 2020. The political, social, and economic impacts of the pandemic have only intensified the country's historic inequalities and injustices, hitting hardest in areas with higher levels of vulnerability. Increased unemployment, food insecurity, violence, and mental health crises are only a few of the many issues social workers face in the current context. Furthermore, social distancing measures and forced quarantines have caused social programs to rapidly alter strategies to meet the needs of service users, requiring front-line professionals to adapt quickly. To examine and analyse these rapid changes in the delivery of social programs as well as their impact on front-line professionals, a mixed-methods study was undertaken that included the application of an online survey and follow-up interviews with front-line social workers. We found that social workers reported greater workloads and employment precarity within the current context, that programs were changed to meet the immediate tangible needs of individuals and families, and that changes were primarily designed in a nonparticipatory and centralised manner. This chapter analyses the study's results and discusses the challenges social work faces in the current and future context. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Effects of mindfulness decompression therapy on mental health and job burnout among nurses working in the frontline of the novel coronavirus pandemic: A retrospective study.

OBJECTIVES: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to spread worldwide, nucleic acid detection is a key step in controlling it. Psychological issues and job burnout of nurses working in nucleic acid sampling roles for long periods have become apparent. This study aimed to explore the effects of mindfulness decompression therapy on mental health and job burnout in front-line nurses working in nucleic acid sampling during the pandemic. METHODS: Nucleic acid sampling frontline nurses who were positive for burnout on both the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Scale (MBI-GS) were selected as the participants. Frontline nurses in the nucleic acid testing area who received routine psychological nursing intervention from June 2020 to April 2021 were used as the control group. Nurses who received both routine psychological nursing and mindfulness decompression therapy from May 2021 to December 2021 formed the "mindfulness" subject group. We compared the two groups' primary outcome measures of SCL-90 and MBI-GS scores. RESULTS: Before the intervention, there were no significant differences between the two groups in general data, SCL-90 scores, and MBI-GS scores. After the mindfulness decompression therapy, according to SCL-90 and MBI-GS scales, psychological distress and job burnout of nurses in the mindfulness group were significantly better than those in the control group. CONCLUSION: Mindfulness decompression therapy can effectively improve mental health and relieve job burnout in frontline nurses in nucleic acid sampling areas, which is worthy of clinical application. Randomized controlled trials are still needed, however, to fully confirm the effects of mindfulness decompression therapy.

Pattern of COVID 19 Infection among Front line Health Workers and Contact Tracing Done among them. Our Experience in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background: A considerable number of front-line workers are under risk due to repeated infection and exposure. The pattern of COVID 19 infection among the front-line workers was important, so that more focus would be laid on protecting them. Contact tracing is one key strategy for interrupting chains of transmission of SARS-CoV-2. This study aimed to find the pattern of COVID 19 infection among front line health workers and describe the process of contact tracing. Methodology: The list of front-line workers with possible symptoms of COVID-19 or had come in direct contact with a "case" was shared with the department of community medicine for contract tracing activity as per the guidelines. The front-line workers who were categorized as High Risk were quarantined immediately and those who were categorized as Low-Risk were advised to be vigilant regarding the development of symptoms and were asked to continue with their routine duties with extra precautionary measures as they form a very vital part of the resource in this combat against COVID-19. Result(s): About 138 front line health workers were affected by COVID-19 among which staff nurses (51) amounted to the maximum number who were affected. Conclusion(s): COVID-19 was high among front-line workers and had a large number of high-risk contacts. Nurses were found to be most affected with COVID 19 infection.Copyright © 2023, Institute of Medico-legal Publication. All rights reserved.

Policing the pandemic: Frontline officers' perspectives on organisational justice

Much of the literature on the policing of the coronavirus pandemic reflects research that has been extra-organisationally focused, examining the prospective impact of the police approach to applying the public health legislation on relationships with the public and the potential impact on police legitimacy. Less research has been intra-organisationally focused;investigating the potential affect on police officers of policing during an extraordinary public health crisis, which has required them to navigate an ambiguous and constantly fluctuating legislative and policy landscape that has driven significant changes to internal working practices and operational procedures within their organisational environment. Using original empirical data from a small multi-method study within one Division of a United Kingdom police force, we examined the issue from an organisational justice perspective;exploring perceptions of intra-organisational fairness, and how these may have directly impacted upon the responses of frontline officers during the pandemic. We argue that in this period, both organisational processes and their resultant outcomes did not meet normative expectations, as they discriminated against officers with public-facing (frontline) roles. This directly impacted upon the officers' experience of the 'organisational climate'. The resulting sense of organisational injustice felt by frontline officers reduced their morale, impacted upon relationships with senior officers, and nurtured feelings that they were not being treated with respect, dignity and trust. We conclude by discussing the potential implications of the study for police organisations and their leaders, outlining opportunities for organisational learning and consider the need for the development of policy that complements notions of organisational justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Police Science & Management is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Various intelligent approaches for classification using CT-scan images: A Systematic Literature Review

COVID-19 has caused a devastating effect in every aspect across the world. The pandemic brought life to a standstill. Frontline workers are working day and night to treat patients and save lives. As critical is the timely and quick detection of this communicable disease, it necessitates the need for a diagnostic system that is automatic and as accurate as possible. The number of false negatives and hysteresis must be as low as possible. CT scans of the lungs can help in quicker detection of the presence of the virus as opposed to RT-PCR test. The purpose of this article is to present a survey of current scientific work on CT scan classification techniques, outlining and structuring what is currently available. We conduct a systematic literature review in which we compile and categorize the latest papers from top conferences to present a synopsis of CT scan images data classification techniques and their issues. This review identifies the present state of CT image classification research and decides where further research is needed. A review paper discusses different classification methods for CT scan images, including a comparative study of major classification techniques. © 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors.

Socio-ecological value chain resilience and cleaning workers

Examining the ways that industries survived the COVID-19 pandemic can teach us a great deal about the resilience of value chains, the ways value chain dynamics shape worker resilience, and the measures states can adopt to support both. In this paper we critically examine the thriving body of theory known broadly as supply chain resilience and explore a branch that embraces socio-ecological perspectives. We first develop a theoretical model that takes what we perceive to be the most fruitful elements of these literatures for industrial relations scholarship and bring it together with approaches tangential to industrial relations concerned with value chain actor and worker agency and resilience. We then apply this model in an analysis of the Australian commercial cleaning sector during the pandemic. Finally, we assess federal and state measures to assist and "buffer” employment and the economy in Australia, including JobKeeper and JobSeeker. We find that these government measures, combined with earlier restructuring of the labour market and restrictive immigration policies, provided the institutional scaffolding for the failure of the cleaning industry during the pandemic, exactly when cleaning became an essential service for the resilience of the whole of society.

Working with Youth During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Adaptations and Insights from Youth Workers.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic thrust the world's population into a crisis. Social workers and other professionals working with youth have been front-line witnesses to the accentuated negative impact of this public health emergency on youth and their families as well as to the creative adaptive strategies of youth and their families. Purpose: Because youth workers are often the first to identify and respond to the needs and desires of children and youth, it is critical to better understand the ways in which youth workers adapted, coped, and intervened within the context of this global health, social, and economic crisis. Youth workers play a central role in the lives of children and youth. Their perspective is key to recognizing both practice innovation and organizational impediments. Method: 31 youth workers in mental health, housing, primary care, and child protection participated in focus groups discussing the impact of the pandemic during waves 1 and 2 on the youth and families they work with and, consequently, on their own practice. Results: include two central domains that organize findings around adapting professional practice to crisis situations: (1) the first-person experience of working with youth during the pandemic; (2) the changing needs and risks faced by youth and their families. Discussion: These domains include discussions around participant emotions and feelings of isolation, helplessness, and fear as well as adaptability. The article concludes with recommendations to support youth workers and adapt organizational structures to help protect youth from increased risk and vulnerability during a pandemic or other crises.

Changes in Social Interventions after COVID-19: The Experience of Front-Line Social Workers

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way of delivering social services in primary care settings all over the world. In March 2020 the lockdowns in every European country forced the population to adjust their lives to the new scenario. Welfare states had to quickly respond to the urgent social and economic needs of the citizens. Therefore, social workers were compelled to modify their standard procedures to overcome the difficulties they faced during the first months after lockdown orders were issued due to COVID-19. The present research analyzes the interviews conducted with twelve Spanish social workers to find out their perceptions and concerns about the consequences of that period. Results showed great changes in the way of delivering social services (simplifying procedures and managing an increasing workload), but also demonstrated different strategies that these professionals implemented to prevent burnout or compassion fatigue (team spirit, efforts to develop interinstitutional coordination, support to civil society in non-profit initiatives). Implications in organizational aspects are discussed. © 2023 by the authors.

Is It Time to Call 'Code Blue' on Nursing Infrastructure? A Nurse's Perspective from the COVID-19 Front-line.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the significance of every role within the interdisciplinary team and has exacerbated the challenges posed to every member. From the nursing perspective, many of these challenges were present before the pandemic but have become significantly larger problems that continue to demand global attention. This has provided an opportunity to critically evaluate and learn from the challenges the pandemic has both highlighted and created. We conclude that the nursing infrastructure requires a revolution in order to support, grow and retain nurses, who are vital to the delivery of high-quality healthcare.

COVCOUGH: An Artificial Intelligence Application to Detect COVID-19 Patients through Smartphone-recorded Coughs

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected hundreds of millions of people in countries around the world. The number of new cases has reached 100,000 per day since the last wave of COVID-19 in Vietnam. It has become very apparent that the front-line employees are overworked. There are not enough PCR tests to keep up with the rate of the virus spreading in our community. In addition, the PCR test is expensive for the government, highly invasive, and time-consuming for patients, which discourages individuals from visiting the clinic for testing. Therefore, it is very necessary to have a quicker and simpler way of prescreening patients. This is the reason why the paper will introduce a new artificial intelligence application, named COVCOUGH, to early detect COVID-19 patients using cough sounds recorded by smartphones. During the recent peak of the epidemic in Vietnam, the COVCOUGH has been deployed and has more than 10,000 users. © 2022 IEEE.

Sleep quality and associated factors in the context of COVID-19, among prehospital emergency personnel, in North-Eastern Greece.

BACKGROUND: The stressful conditions that emerged during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have had a negative impact on sleep quality in large part of the healthcare worker population. This study aimed to assess the self-reported quality of sleep among members of the Emergency Ambulance Service personnel of the National Emergency Center in the region of Thrace, Northeastern Greece, and to investigate its associations with perceived stress, feelings, and perceptions of well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The study was conducted from March to May 2021 using an online structured questionnaire, and the collected data included: socio-demographic characteristics, occupational and medical history, distress and mental health issues due to COVID-19 and the following self-administrated instruments: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), WHO-5 Well-Being Index (WHO-5), and Perceived Stress Scale-14 items (PSS-14). RESULTS: Among the 74 participants, 71 % were poor sleepers (i.e., PSQI >5). The majority (83 % of the sample) reported feelings of stigma due to their occupation, with the proportion being higher among women (100 % vs 78 % in men, p =0.05) and poor sleepers (95 % vs 65 % in good sleepers, p =0.03). Poor sleepers had significantly lower WHO-5 scores than good sleepers (13.8 ± 4.9 vs 16.9 ± 5.8, p =0.04) and were experiencing significantly more anxiety and/or sadness at the time they answered the questionnaire (69.1 % vs 35.3 %, p =0.02). Perceived stress was significantly positively correlated with the "Latency" dimension of the PSQI (p =0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Poor sleep quality and feelings of stigmatization were prevalent for most of the sample. Poor sleep quality was associated more frequently with reported feelings of stigmatization, anxiety and/or sadness, and impaired well-being. HIPPOKRATIA 2021, 25 (3):126-133.

Managers' Perspectives of Quality of Care in Service Housing and Home Care Services: A Qualitative Study.

The aim of this study was to illuminate facilitators and barriers to the quality of care in service housing and home care services, as described by managers. In total, 17 service housing and home care service front-line managers participated in this study. The interviews were conducted in Finland during October 2021 using semi-structured interviews. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. Described facilitators to the quality of care included: staff dedication and motivation, a positive psycho-social working environment, sufficient staffing, coaching management, and optimized tasks. Described barriers included: increased efficiency demands, staffing challenges, inefficient division of labor, conflicts within the working community, and disruptions due to COVID-19. The results suggest that recruiting and retaining sufficient dedicated and motivated staff is paramount to ensuring quality of care from the managerial perspective, and it seems changes in the working culture may support quality of care in a cost-efficient way.

Design and Simulation of an Automated Domestic Helper Robot for Home Isolated COVID-19 Patients

COVID-19 is a disease that is spreading exponentially worldwide. This pandemic situation proved that doctors, nurses, and front-line workers are real-life heroes. The patients and their family affected due to COVID-19 are increasing drastically. Family members who treat the patients wear all their personal protective accessories and clothes, yet, they get influenced as well. Family members can't be in direct contact with the patients frequently since the probability of spread is high. The patients need to be served with food, medicines, and other required things on a regular time basis. To reduce the spread, human force, and to maintain a strategic distance fromCOVID-19 affected patients, the best way is to utilize an COVID-19 Assist Robot (COBOT) to carry the essentials and transport it to the patient's room as per the line map given. A home environment that depicts the isolated ward with the COVID-19 affected patients is created using webots. The robots are simulated with the environment as such two robots take care of the left half and the other two robots take care of the right half of the isolated ward. © 2022 IEEE.

Socio-ecological value chain resilience and cleaning workers

Examining the ways that industries survived the COVID-19 pandemic can teach us a great deal about the resilience of value chains, the ways value chain dynamics shape worker resilience, and the measures states can adopt to support both. In this paper we critically examine the thriving body of theory known broadly as supply chain resilience and explore a branch that embraces socio-ecological perspectives. We first develop a theoretical model that takes what we perceive to be the most fruitful elements of these literatures for industrial relations scholarship and bring it together with approaches tangential to industrial relations concerned with value chain actor and worker agency and resilience. We then apply this model in an analysis of the Australian commercial cleaning sector during the pandemic. Finally, we assess federal and state measures to assist and "buffer" employment and the economy in Australia, including JobKeeper and JobSeeker. We find that these government measures, combined with earlier restructuring of the labour market and restrictive immigration policies, provided the institutional scaffolding for the failure of the cleaning industry during the pandemic, exactly when cleaning became an essential service for the resilience of the whole of society.

Nursing care issues for frontline nurses during the covid-19 pandemic

Introduction: The philosophy of nursing makes it a member of the helping professions, which by their nature are both mentally and physically demanding. The COVID-19 pandemic showed the importance and necessity of nurses quickly and effectively coping with new and previously almost unimaginable situations. Perhaps due to their heroic efforts during the pandemic, nurses and other heal-thcare professionals were exposed to difficult and demanding situations, which had to be face daily, with little or no relief. Aim: This review study aimed to evaluate the available expert knowledge on the critical issues faced by front-line nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. This review is the starting point for future research intended to analyze the role of the nurse and nursing care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A literature search was carried out using keywords according to PICo. The search used scientific electronic databases such as EBSCOhost, SCOPUS, PubMed, and WOS. Selected documents were then analyzed and evaluated as part of the review study. Results and discussion: The results are divided into five areas: nursing care of front-line nurses, management of front-line nurse, psychological problems facing front-line nurses, post-traumatic stress disorder of front-line nurses and stress management me-chanisms of front-line nurses. Multiple studies showed that front-line nurses experienced very challenging situations during the COVID-19 pandemic, many of which significantly impacted their personal and professional lives. During the pandemic, nurses routinely faced shortages of suitable personal protective equipment, were put at high risk of infection and were often forced to live apart from their families. Instead of receiving psychological support, they experienced stress, fear, anxiety, helplessness, hopelessness, depression, and on a daily basis, faced the death of patients under their care. In addition to total exhaustion, the mentioned work-related stresses caused many nurses to experience post-traumatic syndrome. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic put all healthcare systems and healthcare professionals under unprecedented pressure and unprecedented demands. These unique situations disrupted the provision of healthcare and created shortages in healthcare pro-viders, which led to complex and unpredictable health system conditions across every country in the world. © 2022, Czech Medical Association J.E. Purkyne. All rights reserved.

Exploring Biomarker Identification and Mortality Prediction of COVID-19 Patients Using ML Algorithms

The coronavirus pandemic led to the collapse of the healthcare systems of several countries worldwide, including the highly developed ones. The sudden rise in hospitalization requirements for the patients suffering from the disease, caused a tremendous pressure not only on the healthcare system but also on the frontline workers. So, for early diagnosis and prognosis of the patients, identification of the biomarkers pertaining to the coronavirus disease became an essential requirement. Thus, a machine learning (ML) based mortality prediction model was developed that was able to predict the mortality of the patients using a combination of only six features. The six selected features included, four identified biomarkers, namely, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), neutrophils percentage (NP), fibrin degradation products (FDP), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR);and, other two features as age and the coronavirus detection test. The developed model with a novel semiautomated method of medical data handling technique, achieved an accuracy of over 98%, and was able to predict the final outcome of the patients on an average of 8 days in advance. The corresponding work was carried out with the intent to ease the burden on the healthcare system, by providing a faster and accurate clinical assessment of the patients suffering from the coronavirus disease. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

A Deeper look into the process of Developing-Safe Box, An Automated Sterilization Chamber

Covid-19 has shaken the entire globe. In the fight against this pandemic, the doctors and frontline workers are the real heroes who are facing an unseen enemy. The Masks, PPE Kits, and other protective wearables are used by patients, doctors, and other front-line workers for only one time. This leads to increased costs and supply issues, and also leads to huge environmental pollution. That is the problem that the product 'Safe Box' Addresses. The proposed system sterilizes Masks, PPE Kits, and other wearables making them reusable. 'Safe Box' plays a vital role in aiding hospitals, laboratories, clinics, and other healthcare facilities where non-reusable kits like masks, PPE, and other wearables are widely used. © 2022 IEEE.