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The COVID-19 outbreak has significantly impacted supply chains and has caused several supply chain disruptions in almost all industries worldwide. Moreover, increased transportation costs, labor shortages, and insufficient storage facilities have all led to food loss during the pandemic, and this disruption has affected the logistics in the food value chain. As a result, we examine the food supply chain, which is one of the key industries COVID-19 has detrimentally affected, impacting, indeed, on the entire business process from the supplier all the way to the customer. Retail businesses are thus facing supply issues, which affect consumer behavior by creating stress regarding the availability of food. This has a negative impact on the amount of food that is available as well as its quality, freshness, safety, access to markets, and affordability. This study examines the impact of COVID-19 on the United Arab Emirates food distribution systems and how consumer behavior changed in reaction to interruptions in the food supply chain and the food security problem. Hypothesis testing was used in the study's quantitative methodology to assess consumer behavior, and participants who were consumers were given a descriptive questionnaire to ascertain whether the availability and security of food had been impacted. The study used JASP 0.17.2 software to develop a model of food consumption behavior and to reveal pertinent connections between each construct. Results show that consumer food stress and consumption behavior are directly impacted by food access, food quality and safety, and food pricing. Furthermore, food stress has an impact on how consumers behave when it comes to consumption. Food stress, however, is not significantly influenced by food supply.
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At the start of Singapore's first year of living with COVID-19, its government was praised internationally for its ability to control the spread of the virus through high standards of testing, tracing, and isolation, the basic elements of communicable disease control. Its success strengthened both its brand as a global city and its national narrative often referred to as "The Singapore Story”. However, the first year of COVID-19 also exposed weaknesses in the Singapore system of development, governance, and policymaking. And yet, that very same system seemed, at least on the surface, sufficiently resilient to correct the immediate problems and adapt to changing circumstances. The question perhaps is whether the Singapore system is capable of further adapting in the face of intensifying volatility, uncertainly, complexity, and ambiguity, the kind of future of which COVID-19 might in fact be merely a portent. How should lapses such as the serious outbreak of infection in the migrant worker dormitories be viewed? It is reasonable to admit that no government is perfect, not even in well-governed Singapore. One can also say that crisis of this kind can be unpredictable and so all one can hope for is that the authorities did the best that they could, given what they knew and the resources that they possessed. But, from these lapses, one could also gain insight into deeper problems of a structural or systemic nature. Putting out the proverbial fires, difficult as it is to do, may distract from their real causes, which could be subterranean, or climatic, or ideological. These causes are deeper than a simple explanatory chain linking events, behaviour, decisions, responsibility, and corrections. These deeper causes are all linked in some way to neoliberal globalization and authoritarian populist responses to it. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.
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Objectives: This case intended to explore the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral approach via electronic means in treating symptoms associated with Panic Disorder and pre-occupation with health-related concerns. Design of the study: It's a single-case study design for an in-depth understanding of client and the disorder dynamics. Place and Duration of the study: The case study was done via electronic means during Covid-19, from June 2020 to October 2020 in Lahore, Pakistan. Sample and Method: Case study was done on a 24 years old female having Panic Disorder, along with sub-threshold features of Illness Anxiety Disorder. Psycho-diagnostic interview (DSM-V Criteria), CBT assessment form, Panic Disorder Checklist, HFD and TAT used in the initial phase for case conceptualization. Further, techniques from the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy were used for the client's catastrophic thoughts and cognitive distortions to alter her overestimation of threat in reducing her panic attacks. Cognitive Behavior Therapy techniques such as thought reconstruction, grounding techniques along with mindful relaxation techniques also helped the client gain control over her anxious thinking process and pre-occupation with health. Results and Conclusion: CBT techniques helped improve the client's overall functioning, panic attacks were eliminated and preoccupation with health was reduced. The results and client's recovery established that Cognitive Behavior Therapy via online means is an effective approach to treat Panic Disorder and negative thinking process.
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Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) are historically significant cases of infectious disease outbreaks that have posed economic, social, reputational, and moral challenges to Singapore and its much-vaunted model. Until only in recent years, Singapore's neoliberal public health system—focused on efficiency and optimal allocation—had neglected HIV/AIDS and thus the segments of society often associated with it. This neglect had been heightened by prevailing social stigmas and stereotypes. This may shed some light on the COVID-19 pandemic, which elicited rapid, responsive, robust, and inclusive government action where mainstream Singaporean community was concerned, but at the same time failed to recognize and deal with the marginalized and possibly stigmatized segments of society, such as migrant workers, whose badly infected dormitories became an international spectacle of crisis and social injustice. COVID-19 resembled tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in terms of social stigmatization and even moral panic over the unhealthy elements in society. This resulted in the othering of—and disproportionate concern and hostility towards— teenage "spitters” who threatened to spread tuberculosis through their "defiant” behaviour, homosexuals who threatened to spread HIV/AIDS through their "immoral” behaviour and migrant workers in dormitories who were the foreign bringers of disease. The SARS crisis in 2003 was a "wake-up call” for a less-than-prepared Singapore. A subsequently more proactive government learnt key lessons from the crisis, which were systematically institutionalized in readiness for the next infectious disease outbreak. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.
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This chapter discusses social disability and impairment in childhood anxiety. The chapter starts with a discussion of clinical characteristics of the condition. Approaches to evidence-based assessment and cognitive-behavioral treatment are discussed. Future directions are highlighted. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2011, 2023. All rights reserved.
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The earthquake has long-lasting various mental and behavioral effects on children and adolescents. The aim of this review was to discuss the nature and extent of psychiatric problems, management options, and the process of organizing psychological interventions for affected children. Individuals show a range of physically, emotionally, and cognitively healthy responses that can help them cope with the aftermath of a disaster. Psychiatric symptoms such as acute stress reactions, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety disorder, increased risk of suicide, sleep disorders, substance use disorders, and psychotic disorders may develop in some children. Comorbidities and sub-clinical syndromes are also common. There are many risk factors and protective factors in the development of mental disorders. Close follow-up of children at high risk and interventions for psychosocial support may prevent the development of mental disorders. It is very important to start the intervention at the earliest period. The psychological impacts of young disaster victims can be addressed by skilled local volunteers, medical professionals, and educators in primary health care programs. With the nation's overall social and economic recovery, children can recover more quickly from traumatic experiences.Copyright © 2023, Duzce University Medical School. All rights reserved.
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Background: Corona Viruses is a group of viruses that cause diseases in both humans and mammals and are known to cause chronic respiratory diseases. The viruses among them include SARS, MERS and COVID-19. The most recent pandemic was a result of COVID-19. Older people and those with underlying medical problems are more likely to develop serious illness. Objective(s): To compare the knowledge and practices of Allied Health and Engineering students of the University of Lahore about Corona Virus Disease. Methodology: A cross-sectional questionnaire based survey was conducted on 326 students studying in Allied health Sciences and Engineering departments of UOL. The data was compiled in SPSS, version 24 for analysis. Result(s): The students of Allied Health Sciences had a better understanding and were more aware of COVID-19, its percussions and the methods to prevent its spread than of the Engineering Students. More than half of the Engineering students have found to have less understanding about the causative agent of the COVID-19 and similar trend was found in other categories. Health sciences students showed higher tendency towards hands hygiene practices than engineering students. Practical implication: Lessons learned from different outbreaks of infectious diseases suggested that knowledge and practices towards infectious diseases are associated with level of panic emotion among the population, which can further complicate attempts to prevent the spread of the disease. To facilitate outbreak management of COVID-19 in Lahore, Pakistan, there is an urgent need to understand the public's awareness of COVID-19. Keeping these considerations in mind this research was kicked-off to gauge the knowledge and practices of these medical and engineering students about Corona virus disease. Conclusion(s): The study shows that educational background plays a vital role in disease control and it will help in successful uptake of control interventions for prevention of COVID-19.Copyright © 2023 Lahore Medical And Dental College. All rights reserved.
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When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, two contrasting images quickly became repre-sentative of the crisis. On the one hand, there were heroic doctors working day and night with the novel virus, risking their lives and making sacrifices to save others. On the other, there were 'anti-maskers' and 'anti-vaxxers': people doubting if the virus is real, questioning the ef-fectiveness of protective measures, suspicious that the crisis is nothing more than an elaborate plot, a scam aimed to redesign their world and to destroy the values they hold dear. Reflecting on research conducted in Ireland with people separated by the conspiratorial divide, this pa-per examines some methodological and analytical challenges of doing simultaneous research with opposing stakeholders. Analysing my own entanglements in the conflicts over vaccines and conspiracy theories in this paper I argue that the pandemic was not just a battle to secure the acceptability of specific medical technology (the COVID-19 vaccine) but was also about safeguarding respectability of science and maintaining the rule of experts. It was about pre-venting ontological turn, the end of the era of reason, a dawn of modernity.
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In neoliberal Singapore, capitalism thrives on the exploitation of low-waged migrant workers who are attracted to Singapore to earn a living building and cleaning the city and serving its residents. Their presence in this already crowded city provokes a dualistic public response that originates from a grudging acceptance of their indispensability: on the one hand, a refusal to allow them to fully integrate with Singapore society and be treated as equal human beings;and, on the other hand, a compassionate desire to help them when they are in need. The former tendency has had the effect of making migrant workers as invisible as possible, hence the profitable solution to house large numbers of them in dormitories located in the peripheral spaces of the island. Capitalism, profit maximization, and space optimization have created conditions and practices of exploitation that are, in normal times, cloaked in invisibility. The 2020 outbreak of COVID-19 in these dormitory spaces should not be surprising, unless they had been so well-hidden in the blind spots of public conscience and policy consciousness. The outbreaks also produced dualistic public reactions: moral panic and the stigmatization of infectious foreigners as dirty and dangerous folk devils, which demands further spatial segregation;and civic activism that steps up to the service of helping the vulnerable in their time of need. The solutions going forward will likely be technical rather than normative in nature, well within the segregating and exploitative logic of neoliberal globalization, with evermore-ingenious ways to extract value from migrant-worker labour, while making them and the heterotopia in which they exist as invisible and distant as possible. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.
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This paper explores the potential association between the spread of fake news and the panic buying behavior, in urban and rural UK, widely accessible on Twitter since COVID 19 was announced by the WHO as a global pandemic. It describes how consumer's behavior is affected by the content generated over social media and discuss various means to control such occurrence that results in an undesirable social change. The research methodology is based on extracting data from texts on the subject of panic buying and analysing both the total volume and the rate of fake news classification during COVID-19, through crowdsourcing techniques with text-mining and Natural Language Processing models. In this paper, we have extracted the main topics in different phases of the pandemic using term frequency strategies and word clouds as well as applied artificial intelligence in exploring the reliability behind online written text on Twitter. The findings of the research indicate an association between the pattern of panic buying behavior and the spread of fake news among urban and rural UK. We have highlighted the magnitude of the undesired behavior of panic buying and the spread of fake news in the rural UK in comparison with the urban UK.
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We look at the oil price fall in the beginning of 2020 and the effects of coronavirus and the attention towards it on these prices. Such a fall was observed at multiple markets simultaneously with the spread of coronavirus and the panic around it, and oil market wasn't an exception. Using OLS time series models, we investigate - what was the main reason behind such a fall - the coronavirus pandemic itself or rather the attention towards it. We prove the absence of straight effects of the COVID-19 itself on oil prices. At the same time we find significant negative impact of the attention towards COVID-19 on the Internet search on the oil prices. We investigate the role of the OPEC in mitigating the negative impact of coronavirus and the attention towards it. We found that after the OPEC summit both the number of Covid cases and the attention towards the disease lost its influence on oil prices. Our paper is relevant for the behavioral finance researchers, as well as for those who look at the influence of informational shocks on different markets and particularly, on the oil market and at the effect of the COVID-19 on the economy.
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PurposeWith the advent of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to analyse the scenario of panic buying (PB) behaviour of the customers which was evident in the first wave. This paper aims to examine the PB scenario as well as the moderating effect of past buying experience (PBE) on PB in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on the theories of stimulus-organism-response model and the competitive arousal model. Based on these theories, this paper investigates how panic situation created by external stimuli such as perceived scarcity (PS), perceived risk (PR), news in media (NM) and social learning affect the perceived arousal (PA) among people which in turn influence the PB behaviour of customers. Data were collected from 253 customers from different parts of India. Structural equation modelling is used to analyse the moderating effect of PBE on the PB in the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. FindingsThe results indicate that the PS, PR and NM continue to be strong predictors of a buyer for PA. However, the PB is not reinforced by the moderation effect of PBE. Research limitations/implicationsThis paper investigates the consumers' PB behaviours in the wake of third wave of COVID-19 pandemic which add to the existing literature of COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, this study also examines how previous buying experience can moderate the PB behaviour of the customers in subsequent phases of COVID-19 pandemic. This supports the potential effectiveness of self-regulation as an intervention strategy for reducing PB behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic. Practical implicationsThis study emphasises the impact of external stimuli like PS, PR and media coverage on PB behaviour, marketers and policymakers should manage to avoid triggers. Although PBE may not moderate PB during a pandemic, it can play a significant role in future buying behaviour. Anticipating potential triggers and designing effective marketing strategies that cater to customers' needs can help manage PB behaviour during disasters or pandemics. In addition, promoting conscious consumption awareness and self-regulation practices among customers can help manage PB behaviour, benefit the environment and society and make customers more responsible buyers. Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this study examines the PB behaviour of customers during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic for the first time. This study also investigates the moderating effect of PBE on the PB behaviour of customers during a pandemic which is new and significant that extends the literature on PB behaviour during a pandemic.
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Many researchers attribute factors of identity, acculturation, sexual orientation, and substance use and other maladaptive behaviors as potential risk factors associated with increased mental illnesses reported by college students (Castillo & Schwartz, 2013;Wyatt & Oswalt, 2013). [...]the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated mental health problems in college students (Lopez Steinmetz et al., 2021;Son et al., 2020), with 71% experiencing more stress, anxiety, problems with concentration, and worry about a loved one's health as well as their own (Son et al., 2020). Approximately 75% of first-year college students with any mental illness do not seek help (Bruffaerts et al, 2019). [...]there is a growing need to address possible factors contributing to reduced help seeking and to identify vulnerable groups in college populations (Castillo & Schwartz, 2013). Men's decreased treatment utilization may be in part due to shame, stigma, and parental and peer norms toward seeking out mental health services (Seehuus et al, 2021). Given the impact that gender-related stressors play in the rise of mental illness in college students, this study aims to bridge the gap in mental health clinicians' and researchers' understanding of how diverse gender identities influence mental health-related outcomes and mental illness. [...]this study addresses two research questions: (1) Do gender differences (i.e., between cisgender men, cisgender women, and TGNC individuals) exist among college students in the prevalence of mental illness, utilization of psychological services, and mental health-related outcomes (i.e., psychological distress, stress, resilience, overall health, and loneliness)? (2) Do mental health-related variables differentially predict mental illness diagnoses among college students? METHOD Participants and Data Collection The ACHA (2020) National College Health Assessment-Ill Fall 2020 (NCHA-III) is a survey that gathers information regarding students' health.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, panic buying, price inflation, and the pollution of production processes led to economic and social unrest. In response to the current situation, the current research takes less account of the subjective perception of public panic buying and the lack of reference to the reality of effective governance. First, this paper uses prospect theory to portray the public's perceived value of goods in panic buying and non-panic buying situations. Then, drawing on the experience of effective governance in China, a tripartite evolutionary game model of local government, the public and green smart supply chain enterprises is constructed under the reward and punishment mechanism of the central government. Then, this paper analyzes the strategic choices of each game player and the stability of the system equilibrium. The structure of the study suggests the following. (1) Improving local government subsidies and penalties, the cost of positive response and the probability of response can lead to an evolutionary direction where the public chooses not to panic buy and green smart supply chain enterprises choose to ensure a balance between supply and demand and increase pollution control in the production process. (2) Our study yields three effective combinations of evolutionary strategies, of which an ideal combination of evolutionary strategies exists. Non-ideal evolutionary strategy combinations can occur due to improper incentives and penalties of local governments and misallocation of limited resources. However, we find four paths that can transform the non-ideal evolutionary strategy combination into an ideal evolutionary strategy combination. (3) The central government's reward and punishment mechanism is an important tool to stabilize the tripartite strategy, but the central government cannot achieve effective governance by replacing incentives with punishment.
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The COVID-19 outbreak has fashioned to severe threat to each and every individual in social and economic aspects in the country. This required improved wisdom to know how it is different and dominant, to diagnose and determine effective vaccines to avoid the transmission of these deadly causative agents. From this review, the probable property of these deadly transmissible viruses is related to that of SARS-CoV-2 as a fright zone of viruses. It also provides some sparks about effective and accurate diagnosis and treatment strategies. The effective management and control of panic zone of virus (PZV) and SARS-CoV-2 are more important to reduce the pandemic situation.Copyright © 2023 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
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During the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in China in 2019 and 2020, the Wuhanese suffered tremendous public stigmatization. Why and how did the general public in China develop such strong feelings against the Wuhanese? To address these questions and understand the social forces underlying this phenomenon, a moral panic analysis was conducted. Using a mixed-method design, this research examined the scale and mechanisms of the public stigmatization of the Wuhanese as ‘the folk devil' of a moral panic and identified the social factors (social media, the collective memory of SARS, and the influence of close relations) which produced and facilitated the initial panic and subsequent public stigmatization. Through its presentation and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, this article explains how public stigmatization has served as an effective social control instrument in China during the COVID-19 outbreak, used to contain the disease, garner strong public support for the government authorities, legitimize extreme methods used to implement containment policies, and monitor and restrict the population. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Contemporary China is the property of Routledge 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 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 . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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This case study draws attention on mental health sequelae that emerged in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak after recovery from hospitalization, even in subjects without personal psychiatric history. The case involves a 65-year-old male shift nurse who took SARS-COV-2 infection through a co-worker and that had been hospitalized for interstitial pneumonia from April 6 to April 17. After recovery, he developed psychiatric symptoms overlapping between different dimensions of psychiatric disorders and started to be followed by the Occupational Health Department of a Major University Hospital in central Italy. He reported a score of 28 at the Peritraumatic Distress Inventory and of 39 at the Self-Rating Anxiety State. He was treated with a combination therapy of SSRI and NaSSA antidepressants with clinical remission. In this case study, authors discuss the possible overlapping role of post-traumatic stress and anxiety symptoms in patients discharged after COVID-19 hospitalization that may deserve appropriate classification, treatment and follow up with the future goal to refine clinical management of post and long COVID syndromes of subjects who present low abnormalities in other specialty investigations.Copyright © 2022 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA.
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The COVID-19 pandemic arrived with significant hardship. The secondary impacts of the pandemic and our response with respect to pediatric mental health has been a subject of significant discussion in the lay public, media, and decision-maker groups. The initiatives to control SARS-CoV-2 have become politicized. A narrative emerged early that strategies to mitigate the spread of the virus were harming children's mental health. Position statements from professional organizations in Canada have been used to support this claim. The aim of this commentary is to provide a reanalysis of some of the data and research methodology used to support these position statements. Some of the direct claims such as "online learning is harmful," should be supported by a strong evidence base with significant consensus that speaks directly to causality. We find that the quality of the studies and the heterogeneity of the results does not support the strength of the unequivocal claims made by these position statements. In a sample of the current literature examining the issue, we find that outcomes range from improvements to deteriorations. Earlier studies relying on cross-sectional surveys typically have shown stronger negative effects than longitudinal cohort studies, which often have also shown groups of children experiencing no changes to measured mental health characteristics or groups that have experienced improvements. We argue it is imperative that policymakers use the highest quality evidence in making the best decisions. We as professionals must avoid discussing only one side of heterogeneous evidence.
La pandémie de la COVID-19 est arrivée avec des difficultés importantes. Les effets secondaires de la pandémie et notre réponse à l'égard de la santé mentale pédiatrique ont constitué un sujet de discussion significatif dans le public profane, les médias et les groupes de décideurs. Les initiatives de contrôle du SRAS-CoV-2 sont devenues politisées. Une histoire a émergé tôt disant que les stratégies pour atténuer la propagation du virus nuisaient à la santé mentale des enfants. Des énoncés de position des organisations professionnelles du Canada ont été utilisés pour soutenir cette revendication. Le présent commentaire vise à offrir une ré-analyse de certaines données et méthodologies de recherche utilisées pour soutenir ces énoncés de position. Certaines revendications directes comme « l'apprentissage en ligne est nuisible ¼ devraient être appuyées par une forte base de données probantes et un consensus significatif qui s'adresse directement à la causalité. Nous croyons que la qualité des études et l'hétérogénéité des résultats ne soutiennent pas la force des revendications sans équivoque faites par ces énoncés de position. Dans un échantillon de la littérature actuelle qui examine la question, nous constatons que les résultats vont des améliorations aux détériorations. Des études précédentes s'appuyant sur des sondages transversaux ont typiquement montré des effets négatifs plus forts que les études de cohorte longitudinales, qui ont aussi souvent montré des groupes d'enfants qui ne connaissent aucun changement des caractéristiques mesurées de la santé mentale ou des groupes qui ont connu des améliorations. Nous défendons qu'il est impératif que les décideurs utilisent les données probantes de la plus grande qualité en prenant les meilleures décisions. Nous, comme professionnels, devons éviter de ne discuter que d'un côté des données probantes hétérogènes.
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Societies often respond to a crisis by attributing blame to some groups while constructing others as victims and heroes. While it has received scant sociological attention, 'panic buying' is a critical indicator of such public sentiment at the onset of a crisis, and thus a crucial site for analysis. This article traces dynamics of blame in news media representations of an extreme period of panic buying during COVID-19 in Australia. Analysis reveals that lower socio-economic and ethnically diverse consumers were blamed disproportionately. Unlike wealthier consumers who bulk-bought online, shoppers filling trollies in-store were depicted as selfish and shameful, described using dehumanising language, and portrayed as 'villains' who threatened social order. Supermarkets were cast simultaneously as 'victims' of consumer aggression and 'heroes' for their moral leadership, trustworthiness and problem-solving. This portrayal misunderstands the socio-emotional drivers of panic buying, exacerbates stigma towards already disadvantaged groups, and veils the corporate profiteering that encourages stockpiling.
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INTRODUCTION: The front-line nurses are at risk of physical and psychological damage during an epidemic. This study aimed to investigate the level of nurses' fear in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) central hospitals in Iran. METHODS: The study is cross-sectional. The questionnaire was designed in 2 parts (demographic and the level of fear). The sampling method was quota and random. The questionnaires were completed by the same nurses after 4 weeks. RESULTS: A total of 345 questionnaires were distributed (the response rate was 89.27%). A total of 121 nurses (39.3%) were female. Most participants were in the 26-30 y group. paired t-test showed the mean fear of COVID-19 in the first and the fourth weeks was significant (P < 0.001). There was a statistical relationship between demographic variables of gender, age, marriage, number of working shifts, having children, and work experience of nurses with the level of fear. CONCLUSIONS: Health-care providers have shown resilience and a spirit of professional sacrifice to overcome problems. The nurses experienced a level of disease-related fear in close contact with COVID-19 patients. It is essential to apply strategies to optimize safe working conditions and minimize psychological harm and provide regular and intensive training to all health-care providers to improve preparedness.