Solidarity, citizenship and social justice: perceptions of social actors about public responses to COVID-19. / Solidariedade, cidadania e justiça social: percepções de atores sociais sobre as respostas públicas à COVID-19.

This qualitative study aimed to analyze the social actors' perceptions of public responses during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted semi-structured interviews with eleven civil society representatives and social movement leaders. We also performed triangulation based on the systematization of opinion papers authored by humanitarian organizations and civil society leaders and published in large-circulation newspapers. Our analysis was inspired by the ethical principles of social justice, solidarity, and citizenship. Two main themes emerged from the thematic analysis: 1) disproportionately affected populations remain invisible to care and protection; 2) there is an intentional project to annihilate "undesirable" populations. Community movements must be incorporated as an essential part of the responses to provide care and protection and mitigate the effects during health emergencies. Care, solidarity, and social participation are central to building health protection responses within the framework of social justice. The responses to transforming the future in the aftermath of the pandemic will occur through the initiatives of civil society and community leaders within the territories.

Trata-se de uma análise qualitativa das percepções de atores sociais sobre as respostas públicas durante a pandemia de COVID-19. Foram conduzidas entrevistas semiestruturadas com 11 representantes da sociedade civil indicados por lideranças de movimentos sociais. Para garantir a análise de uma diversidade de vozes, também realizamos a sistematização de artigos de opinião de autoria de organizações humanitárias e lideranças da sociedade civil, publicados em jornais de grande circulação. Nossa análise se inspirou nos princípios éticos da justiça social, solidariedade e cidadania. Utilizamos da análise temática, na qual dois temas principais emergiram: 1) as populações desproporcionalmente afetadas seguem invisibilizadas para cuidados e proteções; 2) há um projeto intencional de aniquilamento das populações consideradas indesejáveis. Para cuidados e mitigação dos efeitos durante emergências sanitárias, os movimentos comunitários devem ser incorporados como parte essencial das respostas. Cuidado, solidariedade e participação cidadã são centrais para a construção de respostas para proteção em saúde dentro do marco da justiça social. As respostas para transformação do futuro pós-pandêmico se localizam nas iniciativas da sociedade civil e de lideranças comunitárias dentro dos territórios.

Vaccine access, equity and justice: COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination.

Although significant progress has been made in achieving goals for COVID-19 vaccine access, the quest for equity and justice remains an unfinished agenda. Vaccine nationalism has prompted calls for new approaches to achieve equitable access and justice not only for vaccines but also for vaccination. This includes ensuring country and community participation in global discussions and that local needs to strengthen health systems, address issues related to social determinants of health, build trust and leverage acceptance to vaccines, are addressed. Regional vaccine technology and manufacturing hubs are promising approaches to address access challenges and must be integrated with efforts to ensure demand. The current situation underlines the need for access, demand and system strengthening to be addressed along with local priorities for justice to be achieved. Innovations to improve accountability and leverage existing platforms are also needed. Sustained political will and investment is required to ensure ongoing production of non-pandemic vaccines and sustained demand, particularly when perceived threat of disease appears to be waning. Several recommendations are made to govern towards justice including codesigning the path forward with low-income and middle-income countries; establishing stronger accountability measures; establishing dedicated groups to engage with countries and manufacturing hubs to ensure that the affordable supply and predictable demand are in balance; addressing country needs for health system strengthening through leveraging existing health and development platforms and delivering on product presentations informed by country needs. Even if difficult, we must converge on a definition of justice well in advance of the next pandemic.

Tweets That Matter: Exploring the Solutions to Maternal Mortality in the United States Discussed by Advocacy Organizations on Twitter.

This study investigated maternal mortality solutions mentioned on Twitter by maternal health advocacy organizations in the United States. Using qualitative content analysis, we examined tweets from 20 advocacy organizations and found that the majority of the tweets focused on policy, healthcare, community, and individual solutions. The most tweeted policy solutions include tweets advocating signing birth equity, paid family leave, Medicaid expansion, and reproductive justice bills, whereas the most tweeted community solutions were funding community organizations, hiring community doulas, and building community health centers. The most tweeted individual solutions were storytelling, self-advocacy, and self-care. These findings provide insights into the perspectives and priorities of advocacy organizations working to address maternal mortality in the United States and can inform future efforts to combat this critical public health issue.

Furloughed Employees' Voluntary Turnover: The Role of Procedural Justice, Job Insecurity, and Job Embeddedness.

During the COVID-19 lockdown period, several employers used furloughs, that is, temporary layoffs or unpaid leave, to sustain their businesses and retain their employees. While furloughs allow employers to reduce payroll costs, they are challenging for employees and increase voluntary turnover. This study uses a two-wave model (Time 1: n = 639/Time 2: n = 379) and confirms that furloughed employees' perceived justice in furlough management and job insecurity (measured at Time 1) explain their decision to quit their employer (measured at Time 2). In addition, our results confirm that furloughed employees' job embeddedness (measured at Time 1) has a positive mediator effect on the relationship between their perceived procedural justice in furlough management (measured at Time 1) and their turnover decision (Time 2). We discuss the contribution of this study to the fields of knowledge and practice related to turnover and furlough management to reduce their financial, human, and social costs.

Psychological capital, grit and organizational justice as positive strengths and resources among registered nurses: A path analysis.

AIM: To examine registered nurses' individual strengths (psychological capital and grit) and an organizational resource (organizational justice) as well as associated work-related outcomes. In a time of a global nursing shortage, there is an urgent need to identify strengths and resources that can have a positive impact on the health, well-being and retention of registered nurses. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey. METHODS: A nationwide convenience sample of 514 registered nurses responded to a survey. Data were collected using a self-reported questionnaire between March and May 2018. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multivariate path analysis. RESULTS: Participants rated their psychological capital and grit moderately high. Grit and organizational justice were found to have significant direct effects on psychological capital. Furthermore, psychological capital had positive direct effects on engagement and the perception of well-conducted everyday nursing as well as negative direct effects on burnout, the stress of conscience and the intent to leave the profession. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that nurse leaders and managers could consider improving registered nurses' well-being with two complementary approaches. It might be useful to reinforce positive, individual strengths, such as psychological capital, and at the same time create more favourable nursing work environments, for example by strengthening organizational justice. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION: Psychological capital and grit are emerging concepts in nursing workforce research. Identifying registered nurses' positive strengths and resources is important for inventing interventions that enhance nurses' engagement and well-being as well as reduce turnover intentions. IMPACT: Nurse leaders and managers play crucial roles in managing and developing registered nurses' individual strengths and organizational resources. This has gained even more importance now as the COVID-19 pandemic could have a long-term negative impact on nurses' well-being. REPORTING METHOD: The study is reported following STROBE guidelines. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution.

On order and disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this paper, we analyse the conditions under which the COVID-19 pandemic will lead either to social order (adherence to measures put in place by authorities to control the pandemic) or to social disorder (resistance to such measures and the emergence of open conflict). Using examples from different countries (principally the United Kingdom, the United States, and France), we first isolate three factors which determine whether people accept or reject control measures. These are the historical context of state-public relations, the nature of leadership during the pandemic and procedural justice in the development and operation of these measures. Second, we analyse the way the crisis is policed and how forms of policing determine whether dissent will escalate into open conflict. We conclude by considering the prospects for order/disorder as the pandemic unfolds.

COVID-19 and the ethical issues of justice and rationing in health care, with particular regard to the Italian experience / Az igazságosság és a besorolás etikai problémái az egészségügyben, különös tekintettel a COVID-19-járvány olaszországi tapasztalataira.

Összefoglaló. A 2020. év elején kirobbant COVID-19-világjárvány többek között ráirányította a figyelmet az életmento-életfenntartó kezelések igazságos elosztásának érzékeny kérdésére is. Európán belül elsoként Olaszországot sújtotta a katasztrófa, a válsághelyzetben pedig az érzéstelenítés, fájdalomcsillapítás, újraélesztés és intenzív ellátás területén tevékenykedo szakemberek olasz társasága, a SIAARTI 2020. március 6-án közzétett egy 15 pontos ajánlást. E szerint utilitarista megközelítéssel a rendelkezésre álló szukös eroforrásokat azon betegek kezelésére kellene fordítani, akik túlélési esélye nagyobb, valamint több életévre számíthatnak a jövoben, mert ez biztosíthatja a leheto legtöbb ember számára a leheto legnagyobb hasznot. A javaslat komoly szakmai vitát robbantott ki, amely egyértelmuvé tette, hogy az orvosi eszközök igazságos elosztására vonatkozó diskurzust feltétlenül folytatni kell, nemcsak Olaszországon belül, hanem a pandémiától sújtott többi államban is. Orv Hetil. 2020; 161(45): 1899-1907. Summary. Among other queries, the explosion of the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of 2020 has firmly put in focus the sensitive issue of how to allocate scarcely available life-saving treatments in a fair and just manner. The first European country to face an emergency caused by the pandemic was Italy. In a rapidly escalating crisis, on 6th March 2020, the Italian Society of Anaesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation, and Intensive Care (SIAARTI) issued a series of 15 recommendations, suggesting that a utilitarian approach should be adopted in Italian health care and the extremely scarce resources should be reserved for patients with a greater probability of survival and life expectancy, in order to maximize the benefits for the largest possible number of people. The recommendations generated a heated debate among health care professionals, thereby evidencing that similar discussions must be initiated and pursued in all countries affected by the pandemic. Orv Hetil. 2020; 161(45): 1899-1907.

Locating Disability Within a Health Justice Framework.

This Article explores the connections between disability and health justice in service of further tethering the two theories and practices. The author contends that disability should shift from marker of health inequity alone to critical demographic in the analytical and practical application of health justice. This theoretical move creates a more robust understanding of the harms of health injustice, its complexities, and, remedially, reveals underexplored legal and policy pathways to promote health justice.

Green space justice amid COVID-19: Unequal access to public green space across American neighborhoods.

Countries around the world have resorted to issuing stay-at-home orders to slow viral transmission since the COVID-19 pandemic. During the lockdown, access to public park plays a central role in the public health of surrounding communities. However, we know little about how such an unprecedented policy may exacerbate the preexisting unequal access to green space (i.e., green space justice). To address this research void, we used difference-in-difference models to examine socioeconomic disparities, urban-rural disparities, and mobility disparities in terms of public park access in the United States. Our national analysis using the weekly mobile phone movement data robustly suggests the following three key findings during COVID-19: (1) The elderly, non-college-educated people, poor people, and blacks are less likely to visit public parks frequently, while unemployed people appear to be the opposite. (2) Compared to rural areas, populations in urban neighborhoods appear to visit public parks more frequently and they generally go to larger parks to minimize the risk of infection. (3) Populations in neighborhoods with higher private vehicle ownership or those with a higher density of transit stops would more frequently visit and travel a longer distance to public parks during the stay-at-home order. Our results imply that conventional inequality in green space access may still exist and even become worse during COVID-19, which could negatively impact people's health during isolation. We suggest that special attention should be paid to park-poor neighborhoods during the pandemic and in the post-pandemic recovery phase.

Improving social justice in observational studies: protocol for the development of a global and Indigenous STROBE-equity reporting guideline.

BACKGROUND: Addressing persistent and pervasive health inequities is a global moral imperative, which has been highlighted and magnified by the societal and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Observational studies can aid our understanding of the impact of health and structural oppression based on the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity, age and other factors, as they frequently collect this data. However, the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guideline, does not provide guidance related to reporting of health equity. The goal of this project is to develop a STROBE-Equity reporting guideline extension. METHODS: We assembled a diverse team across multiple domains, including gender, age, ethnicity, Indigenous background, disciplines, geographies, lived experience of health inequity and decision-making organizations. Using an inclusive, integrated knowledge translation approach, we will implement a five-phase plan which will include: (1) assessing the reporting of health equity in published observational studies, (2) seeking wide international feedback on items to improve reporting of health equity, (3) establishing consensus amongst knowledge users and researchers, (4) evaluating in partnership with Indigenous contributors the relevance to Indigenous peoples who have globally experienced the oppressive legacy of colonization, and (5) widely disseminating and seeking endorsement from relevant knowledge users. We will seek input from external collaborators using social media, mailing lists and other communication channels. DISCUSSION: Achieving global imperatives such as the Sustainable Development Goals (e.g., SDG 10 Reduced inequalities, SDG 3 Good health and wellbeing) requires advancing health equity in research. The implementation of the STROBE-Equity guidelines will enable a better awareness and understanding of health inequities through better reporting. We will broadly disseminate the reporting guideline with tools to enable adoption and use by journal editors, authors, and funding agencies, using diverse strategies tailored to specific audiences.

Integrating Public Health Research and Teaching With Social Justice Activism: Lessons From 80 Years of Practice.

In this commentary, we reflect on the lessons we have learned from our successes and failures in aligning the roles of scholars and activists. Our hope is to provide insights that can guide public health students, faculty, practitioners, and activists seeking to chart their professional, political, and personal futures in today's polarized and catastrophe-burdened world. Several experiences motivate us to write this commentary now. In the last few years, inspired in part by the new activism against systemic racism sparked by the murder of George Floyd and others, growing climate emergencies, the COVID pandemic, anti-immigrant politics, increasing anti-Asian acts of violence, gun bloodshed, attacks on the right to reproductive and sexual health, resurgence of interest in worker organizing, and the ongoing quest for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTQI+) rights, we are impressed by the number of young people engaged in activism to defend and expand their rights and show that another world is possible.

Civic Engagement to Empower Young People to Impact Health and Well-Being.

Civic engagement is positively associated with important health and developmental benefits for participating adolescents and young adults. As illustrated by youth political participation, social activism, and rallies for racial justice during the COVID-19 pandemic, youth civic engagement is often inspired by and responsive to problems that are salient to a young person's lived experiences. Providers can empower youth and encourage civic engagement by eliciting issues that are important to them and directing them to community resources and opportunities for civic participation that can help them address these issues.

Pandemic justice: fairness, social inequality and COVID-19 healthcare priority-setting.

A comprehensive understanding of the ethics of the COVID-19 pandemic priorities must be sensitive to the influence of social inequality. We distinguish between ex-ante and ex-post relevance of social inequality for COVID-19 disadvantage. Ex-ante relevance refers to the distribution of risks of exposure. Ex-post relevance refers to the effect of inequality on how patients respond to infection. In the case of COVID-19, both ex-ante and ex-post effects suggest a distribution which is sensitive to the prevalence social inequality. On this basis, we provide a generic fairness argument for the claim that welfare states ought to favour a healthcare priority scheme that gives particular weight to protecting the socially disadvantaged.

Advancing Environmental Health and Justice: A Call for Assessment and Oversight of Health Care Waste. (APHA Policy Statement Number 20224, Adopted November 2022).

Health care waste adversely affects society in ways that have been overlooked for decades, an issue that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has accelerated significantly. This policy statement addresses the human impacts that occur as health care waste is processed, transported, landfilled, or incinerated. With limited federal tracking and lack of regulation, patterns of environmental racism persist. Communities of color and low-income communities most often experience the greatest environmental health burdens through the disposal of waste in their communities. Many communities have called for action for decades, as our massive health care industry contributes greatly to these harms. Centering these communities, public health professionals must advocate for (1) evidence-based federal policies with transparent, accessible data about health care waste generation, type, and fate; (2) leadership within the health care industry (e.g., from hospitals, accrediting bodies, and professional organizations) to address environmental health and justice issues related to waste; (3) health impact assessments, cost-benefit analyses, and circular economy research with health care systems and communities to identify cost-effective, feasible, and just solutions; and (4) federal initiatives to prioritize funding toward mitigation of cumulative exposures and impacts, reparation for harms, and investment in well-being for communities exposed to waste, health care or otherwise. Some public health experts anticipate that we may be entering a "pandemic age," which suggests that, without intervention, intersecting issues of infectious disease, climate change, waste, and environmental health and justice will remain and reoccur.