Act or Wait-and-See? Adversity, Agility, and Entrepreneur Wellbeing across Countries during the COVID-19 Pandemic: ET&P

How can entrepreneurs protect their wellbeing during a crisis? Does engaging agility (namely, opportunity agility and planning agility) in response to adversity help entrepreneurs safeguard their wellbeing? Activated by adversity, agility may function as a specific resilience mechanism enabling positive adaption to crisis. We studied 3162 entrepreneurs from 20 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that more severe national lockdowns enhanced firm-level adversity for entrepreneurs and diminished their wellbeing. Moreover, entrepreneurs who combined opportunity agility with planning agility experienced higher wellbeing but planning agility alone lowered wellbeing. Entrepreneur agility offers a new agentic perspective to research on entrepreneur wellbeing.

Life satisfaction, resilience and coping mechanisms among medical students during COVID-19.

PURPOSE: Life satisfaction influences well-being. Medical students often experience more stress as compared to their counterparts in other disciplines as they are required to meet the demands of both academic workload and clinical responsibilities. However, during the current pandemic, in addition to academic changes, inability to complete clinical placements, loss of peer interaction and social connectedness and, deployment to areas in times of crisis could exacerbate their stress. This would impact their ability to cope with stress and eventually influence their life satisfaction. Students approach these challenges in various ways, either positively, religiously, or by avoiding. This study aimed to explore the association between resilience, coping mechanisms and life satisfaction in medical students during the pandemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted from undergraduate medical students from year 1 to year 5. Three instruments were used to measure life satisfaction, resilience, and coping, namely The Brief Resilience Scale, The Satisfaction with Life Scale and the COPE inventory. Mean and standard deviation were calculated for all continuous variables. Robust linear regression model was used for analysis. Hierarchical (forward) stepwise model building technique was used for final model. Alpha cut off was kept at 0.05. RESULTS: A total of 351 students (out of 500 students) completed the questionnaires. A moderately negative, slightly linear correlation between life satisfaction and avoidant coping was reported. Life satisfaction showed moderately positive, slightly linear correlation with resilience score. Three variables stayed significant in the final model: Resilience, avoidant coping, and religion coping. CONCLUSION: Life satisfaction can be improved among medical students by focusing on strategies which enhance resilience. Religion is identified as a significant coping strategy among medical students. Students coping mechanism can vary and more research is needed to assess which types of coping strategies could contribute positively to the quality of their personal and professional lives.

Do green supply chain management practices improve organizational resilience during the COVID-19 crisis? A survival analysis of global firms.

This study investigates whether green supply chain management (GSCM) practices help companies to be resilient against the buffer effect in the context of COVID-19. Building on the instrumental version of stakeholder theory, companies implementing GSCM practices should build environmental skills and competitive advantage to cope with a crisis caused by supply chain disruptions. Our survival analysis, conducted on 5,696 firms headquartered in 35 countries, shows clear evidence that GSCM companies' market prices recover quickly from the shock. Considering mounting pressure on environmental issues, this study documents the new benefits of GSCM for companies confronted with a global financial shock. By applying a large sample, the study has originality and implications for stakeholders, including investors, governments, and policymakers, to push firms to become more eco-friendly and resilient.

Act or Wait-and-See? Adversity, Agility, and Entrepreneur Wellbeing across Countries during the COVID-19 Pandemic

How can entrepreneurs protect their wellbeing during a crisis? Does engaging agility (namely, opportunity agility and planning agility) in response to adversity help entrepreneurs safeguard their wellbeing? Activated by adversity, agility may function as a specific resilience mechanism enabling positive adaption to crisis. We studied 3162 entrepreneurs from 20 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that more severe national lockdowns enhanced firm-level adversity for entrepreneurs and diminished their wellbeing. Moreover, entrepreneurs who combined opportunity agility with planning agility experienced higher wellbeing but planning agility alone lowered wellbeing. Entrepreneur agility offers a new agentic perspective to research on entrepreneur wellbeing.

Unfolding the Mild to Moderate Short-Term Side Effects of Four COVID-19 Vaccines Used in Bahrain: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) created a global pandemic (COVID-19) that has resulted in massive health and economic losses. The current unavailability of treatments leaves vaccination as the only way to control this disease. There are four vaccines (Sinopharm, Pfizer-BioNTech, Sputnik, and AstraZeneca) available in Bahrain. This project aimed to study the most common side effects resulting from the first and second doses of these four vaccines. Data were collected through an online questionnaire answered by 311 individuals who received both doses of one of these four vaccines. The results of this study revealed that regardless of the vaccine identity, participants experienced more side effects from the second dose. Among the different side effects, pain at the site of injection was primarily observed after the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine (43%), which was followed by the AstraZeneca vaccine (31%). Moreover, fever was observed in participants after the first dose of the Sputnik vaccine (37%), while headache was mainly observed after the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine (32%). It is important to note that fatigue was observed after the first dose of all four vaccines but was reported by the highest proportion of respondents in the Pfizer group (28%). Interestingly, there are some side effects, such as pain at the site of injection, that are correlated with fever (r = 0.909). Similarly, headache is correlated with fever (r = 0.801) and pain at the site of injection (r = 0.868). Overall, it was observed that recipients of the Sinopharm vaccine reported the mildest side effects among all four vaccines. The crucial finding of this study is that the first and second dosage post-vaccination side effects were modest and predictable with no occurrences of hospitalization; this information can assist in lessening vaccine apprehension.

Prophylactic potential of honey and Nigella sativa L. against hospital and community-based SARS-CoV-2 spread: a structured summary of a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: Considering the therapeutic potential of honey and Nigella sativa (HNS) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, the objective of the study is defined to evaluate the prophylactic role of HNS. TRIAL DESIGN: The study is a randomized, placebo-controlled, adaptive clinical trial with parallel group design, superiority framework with an allocation ratio of 1:1 among experimental (HNS) and placebo group. An interim analysis will be done when half of the patients have been recruited to evaluate the need to adapt sample size, efficacy, and futility of the trial. PARTICIPANTS: All asymptomatic patients with hospital or community based COVID-19 exposure will be screened if they have had 4 days exposure to a confirmed case. Non-pregnant adults with significant exposure level will be enrolled in the study High-risk exposure (<6 feet distance for >10min without face protection) Moderate exposure (<6 feet distance for >10min with face protection) Subjects with acute or chronic infection, COVID-19 vaccinated, and allergy to HNS will be excluded from the study. Recruitment will be done at Shaikh Zayed Post-Graduate Medical Institute, Ali Clinic and Doctors Lounge in Lahore (Pakistan). INTERVENTION AND COMPARATOR: In this clinical study, patients will receive either raw natural honey (0.5 g) and encapsulated organic Nigella sativa seeds (40 mg) per kg body weight per day or empty capsule with and 30 ml of 5% dextrose water as a placebo for 14 days. Both the natural products will be certified for standardization by Government College University (Botany department). Furthermore, each patient will be given standard care therapy according to version 3.0 of the COVID-19 clinical management guidelines by the Ministry of National Health Services of Pakistan. MAIN OUTCOMES: Primary outcome will be Incidence of COVID-19 cases within 14 days of randomisation. Secondary endpoints include incidence of COVID-19-related symptoms, hospitalizations, and deaths along with the severity of COVID-19-related symptoms till 14th day of randomization. RANDOMISATION: Participants will be randomized into experimental and control groups (1:1 allocation ratio) via the lottery method. There will be stratification based on high risk and moderate risk exposure. BLINDING (MASKING): Quadruple blinding will be ensured for the participants, care providers and outcome accessors. Data analysts will also be blinded to avoid conflict of interest. Site principal investigator will be responsible for ensuring masking. NUMBERS TO BE RANDOMISED (SAMPLE SIZE): 1000 participants will be enrolled in the study with 1:1 allocation. TRIAL STATUS: The final protocol version 1.4 was approved by institutional review board of Shaikh Zayed Post-Graduate Medical Complex on February 15, 2021. The trial recruitment was started on March 05, 2021, with a trial completion date of February 15, 2022. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical trial was registered on February 23, 2021, www.clinicaltrials.gov with registration ID NCT04767087 . FULL PROTOCOL: The full protocol is attached as an additional file, accessible from the Trials website (Additional file 1). With the intention of expediting dissemination of this trial, the conventional formatting has been eliminated; this Letter serves as a summary of the key elements of the full protocol. The study protocol has been reported in accordance with the Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Clinical Interventional Trials (SPIRIT) guidelines.

Post-COVID-19 vaccine Guillain-Barré syndrome; first reported case from Qatar.

INTRODUCTION: Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an immune-mediated peripheral neuropathy that was reported following meningococcus, polio, influenza and rabies vaccines. However, an association with the COVID-19 vaccine is yet to be established. PRESENTATION OF CASE: We present the case of an elderly gentleman with no history of SARS-CoV-2 infection or any recent viral or bacterial illnesses who presented with GBS 20 days after the second dose of COVID-19 vaccination. The diagnosis was established based on physical examination, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the spine, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis and electromyography (EMG). DISCUSSION: Due to the occurrence of GBS after certain types of infections, molecular mimicry has become widely acceptable as the underlying pathophysiology. The reported cases of GBS following vaccination further supported this theory, however proving a causal relationship between vaccines and GBS on the molecular level remains a challenge. CONCLUSIONS: To the best of our knowledge this is the first reported case in the state of Qatar. It is important to mention that more research is needed to establish an association between COVID-19 vaccine and GBS. In our opinion, the benefits of COIVID-19 vaccine largely outweigh its risks.

Continent-Wide Analysis of COVID 19: Total Cases, Deaths, Tests, Socio-Economic, and Morbidity Factors Associated to the Mortality Rate, and Forecasting Analysis in 2020-2021.

BACKGROUND: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first reported in China in December 2019 and has become a pandemic that resulted in more than one million deaths and infected over 35 million people worldwide. In this study, a continent-wide analysis of COVID-19 cases from 31st December 2019 to 14th June 2020 was performed along with socio-economic factors associated with mortality rates as well as a predicted future scenario of COVID-19 cases until the end of 2020. METHODS: Epidemiological and statistical tools such as linear regression, Pearson's correlation analysis, and the Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model were used in this study. RESULTS: This study shows that the highest number of cases per million population was recorded in Europe, while the trend of new cases is lowest in Africa. The mortality rates in different continents were as follows: North America 4.57%, Europe 3.74%, South America 3.87%, Africa 3.49%, Oceania and Asia less than 2%. Linear regression analysis showed that hospital beds, GDP, diabetes, and higher average age were the significant risk factors for mortality in different continents. The forecasting analysis since the first case of COVID-19 until 1st January 2021 showed that the worst scenario at the end of 2020 predicts a range from 0 to 300,000 daily new cases and a range from 0 to 16,000 daily new deaths. CONCLUSION: Epidemiological and clinical features of COVID-19 should be better defined, since they can play an import role in future strategies to control this pandemic.

Disinfection of corona virus in histopathology laboratories.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS CoV-2/COVID-19) is a highly contagious and deadly disease caused by a virus belonging to the coronaviridae family. Researchers working in histopathology laboratories, dealing with morbid samples, are particularly vulnerable to infection unless they have very strong immunity. Hence, a proper precautionary protocol is required for the safety of the laboratory staff. The current review highlights the biological and physical agents that can be used to inactivate the virus and disinfect the surrounding environment in the laboratory.

Hemorrhagic stroke in setting of severe COVID-19 infection requiring Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO).

OBJECTIVE: To highlight the increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke secondary to postulated COVID-19 mediated vasculopathy with concomitant ECMO related bleeding complications. BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has shown to be a systemic illness, not localized to the respiratory tract and lung parenchyma. Stroke is a common neurological complication. In particular, critically ill patients on ECMO are likely at higher risk of developing hemorrhagic stroke. CASE PRESENTATION: 38-year-old man presented with fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Due to severe respiratory failure, he required ECMO support. Subsequently, he was found to have left temporal intraparenchymal hemorrhage. Overall, his clinical course improved, and he was discharged with minimal neurological deficits. CONCLUSION: Although intracranial hemorrhage is a known complication of ECMO, patients with COVID-19 infection may be at a higher risk of cerebrovascular complications due to vasculopathy.