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Sun exposure is physiologically necessary, yet excessive amounts can be detrimental to skin, causing photoaging, sunburn, and skin cancer. Sunburn, presenting as delayed onset erythema, has been partially characterized for Caucasians, however the impact of excessive sun exposure has been less studied across race/ethnicity and skin tones. Herein, we present findings from a survey conducted across the United States, where sunburns were examined in a racially and ethnically diverse sample of 3597 participants spanning the Fitzpatrick skin phototype (FSP) scale. Individuals reporting sunburn were probed on the signs, severity, pain level, and anatomical location of their most recent sunburn and on the associated type of activity. Over the 8-month evaluation period (January-August 2020), sunburns were self-reported at rates generally consistent with those reported annually pre-COVID, with 39% Caucasian, 20% Asian, 12% African American and 32% Latino respondents reporting at least one sunburn. While average sunburn incidence among African American is low, a closer look reveals that African Americans with lighter skin tones (FSPs I-II) report higher sunburn rates (25.5%, n = 12), thus highlighting that sunburn risk does not depend on race/ethnicity alone. Furthermore, African Americans and Hispanics self-reported a significantly higher percentage of severe sunburns compared with Caucasians (27%, 20% and 11%, respectively) and African Americans, unlike Caucasians, indicated “peeling” as the top sign of their sunburn. This work provides a better understanding of the sunburn experience across race/ethnicity and skin tones and is a step toward enabling more personalized sun safety awareness and education.
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We examine the impact of trust in combating the SARS-CoV-2 virus, that can cause COVID-19. Under normal circumstances trust is a crucial component for society to function well, but during a pandemic trust can become a double-edged sword. On the one hand, a high level of trust in society may lead to greater acceptance among citizens for public measures that aim to combat a virus. If people believe that their respective governments implement unbiased and well-informed measures, and people also believe that their fellow citizens will follow these measures, this may lead to a high general compliance in society and less people will be infected. On the other hand, trust may affect people's perception of risk and hence their behavior. If people believe that most people are trustworthy, they may be less willing to think of everyone else as a potential health threat. If people also trust the government to manage the pandemic in a competent way, their perception of the risks related to the pandemic weaken. Taken together, this may lead people in high trust societies to consider personal protective measures less important, and more people will be infected. The ambiguous effect trust may have on the outcome of a pandemic calls for a closer empirical analysis. Drawing on data from 127 countries we find that the number COVID-19 deaths decrease with trust in government and trust in science, while the number COVID-19 deaths increase with social trust. Implications of these findings for risk communication and management during a pandemic are discussed. Copyright © 2022 Reiersen, Roll, Williams and Carlsson.
RESUMEN
Background. Despite published guidelines, vaccine uptake in solid organ transplant candidates (SOTc) remains suboptimal. We established an Infectious Disease pre-transplant clinic (IDPT) to perform a wellness visit for all SOTc. The visit was conducted by a nurse practitioner (NP) primarily and included pre-transplant assessment and optimization of vaccinations. We report the preliminary results of this pilot project on vaccine uptake in SOTc. Methods. Retrospective review was done on all SOTc referred to the IDPT from January 2020 to February 2021 at Henry Ford Transplant Institute in Detroit, MI. SOTc were patients listed for different types of transplants. Sociodemographic data, comorbidities, vaccination status for influenza, pneumococcus, hepatitis B, Tdap, Td, and varicella zoster were assessed from electronic medical records and the Michigan Care Improvement Registry that includes vaccination records. Follow up was at least 3 months after IDPT visit. Binomial analysis was performed comparing vaccine uptake in a previous institutional cohort of 530 SOTc from January 2015 to December 2016 in which there was no IDPT visit. Data was analyzed using EpiInfo ver. 7.2.4.0. Results. A total of 183 SOTc were evaluated in IDPT. Baseline characteristics are shown in Table 1. Median age was 57 years, mean Charlson Comorbidity Index was 4.1. Majority of IDPT visits were done by the NP and most were video visits given the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccine uptake improved post IDPT for all vaccines and most notably for hepatitis B, varicella zoster and pneumococcal 13V vaccines (Table 2). Of the SOTc, 38 (20.8%) received their vaccines during the IDPT visit or shortly after. Compared to the prior cohort, all vaccines rates improved with the post IDPT visit (p< 0.001) (Table 3). Conclusion. IDPT clinic visits significantly improved vaccine uptake in SOTc at our institution. Approximately one in five SOTc had vaccines administered at the time of IDPT visit or shortly after. Implementation of an Infectious Diseases wellness visit as a requirement for all SOTc can provide opportunities to greatly optimize vaccine completion before transplantation.
RESUMEN
In a rapidly changing environment, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, continuous flow reactors bear the potential to increase the production of urgently needed active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) on demand. In the synthesis of remdesivir, the organometallic C-glycosylation step was identified as a limitation for the large-scale production, requiring long addition periods and cryogenic temperatures. Previous studies have focused on a Grignard-based protocol, but a flash chemistry approach, using organolithium reagents, has facilitated significant improvements. After gaining further understanding of the C-glycosylation, this step was successfully transferred to a five-stream continuous flow process, achieving 60% yield at a moderate temperature (−30 °C) in a total residence time of just 8 s. Stable processing was demonstrated for 2 h, providing an exceptionally high space−time yield of 10.4 kg L−1 h−1, in a scalable flow reactor system. © XXXX American Chemical Society