Covid-19 and University Distance Learning in Spain. The Practical Case of Journalism and Communication Degrees

The coronavirus crisis modified work routines in all professional fields, including university education with the temporary closure of academic buildings. Spanish universities continued to function despite the restriction of movement (State of Alarm Decree of 14 March 2020) as the teaching staff modified their routines by adjusting their theoretical and practical teaching procedures to the requirements of non-classroom teaching. This article is an approach to the perceptions and experience of university lecturers during the pandemic and the post-pandemic stage. Methodologically, it compares the case study previously carried out in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication of Pontevedra (Gomez Lopez and Alende Castro, 2022) with the findings of the present publication provided by lecturers from the universities of Navarra, Pontificia de Salamanca, Complutense de Madrid, Salamanca, Pompeu Fabra, La Laguna, Santiago de Compostela and A Coruna. The study involves a mixed methodology, with data collected from a standard questionnaire and an interview. The results show that the efforts made by Spanish teachers and higher education centres made up for the limitations of the physical classroom during the pandemic but transferred to the virtual classroom the resources of the face-to-face methodology. However, no significant progress was made in new teaching methodologies that would allow progress to be made towards more flexible educational models.

Neonatal late-onset sepsis caused by SARSCoV2: a case report

INTRODUCTION: The disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, also known as COVID-19, is a recently identified disease with mainly respiratory involvement in adults. Reported Latin- American cases of COVID-19 in neonates are scarce. Clinical manifestations are unspecific in this age, with respiratory involvement around 40%. CLINICAL CASE: We report a hospitalized patient at the neonatal intensive care unit due to meconium aspiration and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy sequelae, in whom is diagnosed COVID-19 at 18 days of life. He presented fever and late onset neonatal sepsis and was considered as an acquired-hospital infection. CONCLUSION: The purpose of this report is to contribute to the clinical description of this entity and highlight the SARS-CoV-2 infection in the differential diagnosis in late onset neonatal sepsis, even in hospitalized patients, to detect and contain opportunely this disease. © 2023 Instituto Nacional de Pediatria. All rights reserved.

The Two-faced Nature of the State of Alert and the Dilemma of Rights Limiting-Suspension

The state of alert was considered an instrument of dubious utility. To fight natural, health or technological crises, the sector-specific legislation provided for several extraordinary measures that, according to the doctrine, made it unnecessary to resort to this regime. The preventions set out in its legal regulation hindered its use in situations of social conflict. The state of alert, however, was declared in December 2010, to reestablish the essential public service of air transportation —which had been cut by the strike of the air traffic controllers working for AENA— and in March and October 2020, to control the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Both situations have evinced the limitations and inadequacies of the legal regulation of this regime, both regarding the critical situations that allow to declare it and the measures that can be adopted. This work delves into the two-faced nature of the state of alert and the interpretation difficulties arising from its activation to tackle social conflicts and other emergencies that go beyond its legal framework. There is also an analysis of the problem of differentiating between limiting and suspending rights that lies behind the catalog of measures of this regime, the criticisms to its declaration in 2010 and the intense doctrinal debate resulting from the restrictions to the freedom of movement, the lockdown and the violation of other connected rights such as the right to reunion, to protest and to vote during the critical COVID-19 crisis. © 2020 All Rights Reserved