COVID-19 Vaccines, Healthcare Policies and Stock Markets: Are There Winners and Losers?

Purpose: This paper focuses on the stock market performance of a set of biopharmaceutical companies listed in the US stock exchange in response to news about the unfolding of the COVID pandemic and the development of COVID-19 vaccines. Methods: We analyze the short-term impact of some episodes by means of event analysis. We consider two categories of events: news related to the expansion of the pandemic and information about the development of COVID-19 vaccines. Results: We find that the impact during the first months of the pandemic news impacted the returns of the pharmaceutical firms, but the effect was not large, in general. The only exceptions are two small biotechnological firms, Moderna and Novavax, are exceptions since they registered large positive abnormal returns, which vanished over time. Encouraging announcements about the success of Phase III results had a positive impact the share prices of Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax. Our results also suggest that the emergency authorization provided by the US regulatory agency to the Pfizer vaccine was anticipated several days in advance and welcomed by the market. The announcement of a deal to supply vaccines between Moderna and the European Commission have generated large positive returns for this company. Conclusion: Our findings have policy implications. First, financial markets have supported and reinforced government strategies to fight the pandemic, characterized by funding of promising projects, building diversified vaccine portfolios and expediting approvals by regulatory agencies. Second, our findings suggest that not all drug developers have automatically obtained large profits from the design and manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines, according to the behaviour of stock prices. These results cast doubts over attempts to discredit the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines with the argument that they are primarily a means to obtain large and quick profits by pharmaceuticals, or than vaccination campaigns are driven by economic goals rather than by public health considerations.

Teaching Disruption by COVID-19: Burnout, Isolation, and Sense of Belonging in Accounting Tutors in E-Learning and B-Learning.

This study examines burnout syndrome, feelings of isolation, and sense of belonging in a sample of accounting tutors enrolled in e-learning and b-learning modalities before and after COVID-19 disruption. The study also includes several sociodemographic and labour variables to better understand the three dimensions. The participants were tutors enrolled in two accounting courses at higher education during the academic years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. Our results do not show high levels of tutor burnout syndrome, neither before COVID-19 disruption nor after COVID-19 disruption. Findings also reveal that the isolation perception of accounting tutors is not high in both periods, while the sense of belonging of the teaching community is high in both periods. The evidence also suggests some variations in dimension scores according to sociodemographic and labour variables, but the evidence should be interpreted with caution due to the sample size. Despite this limitation, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that evaluates burnout, feelings of isolation, and sense of belonging in a tutor collective in e-learning and b-learning before and after COVID-19 disruption.

Cervical cancer screening cotesting with cytology and MRNA HPV E6/E7 yields high rates of CIN2+ lesions in young women.

BACKGROUND: European guidelines recommend primary HPV testing for cervical cancer screening. However, the starting age remains to be defined, with an undecided window between 30 and 35 years. This pilot study compares the effectiveness of primary HPV testing to that of cytology for the detection of high-grade (CIN2+) lesions stratified by age. METHODS: Cotesting with LBC cytology and APTIMA® HPV (AHPV) was performed in 5053 women aged 25-65 in an opportunistic screening program in Madrid. AHPV-positive cases were referred to colposcopy and genotyped for HPV16 and 18/45 (AHPV-GT). Results were analyzed stratified in four age groups. RESULTS: 454 cases (9.0%) were AHPV-positive. Women under 35 had a 30.2% CIN2+ rate, compared to 21.9% and 20.4% for women aged 35-44 or 45-54. There was a significant increase (P < .05) in the rate of CIN2+ in AHPV-GT-positive women when compared to that for other HPV types (AHPV-other), being 43.3% versus 15.7%. AHPV-GT-positive women under 35 had significantly higher rates of CIN2+ lesions than any other age-group. The sensitivity of cytology for cervical CIN2+ in APHV-positive women was 60.6%. All 4 carcinomas, including one AHPV-negative endometrial adenocarcinoma, had abnormal cytology. All cervical CIN2+ lesions biopsied were AHPV-positive. CONCLUSIONS: Aptima HPV shows a significantly higher sensitivity for cervical CIN2+ lesions than cytology alone. Unexpectedly, AHPV-positive women under 35 had the highest incidence of CIN2+ lesions, particularly when they are HPV16/18/45-positive. Reconsidering HPV primary screening before the recommended age of 35 is warranted.