Covid-19 Policy Convergence in Response to Knightian Uncertainty.

Domestic policy responses to COVID-19 were remarkably consistent during the early days of the pandemic. What explains this policy convergence? Our formal model suggests that the novel character of COVID-19 produced a period of maximum policy uncertainty, incentivizing political actors to converge on a common set of policies to minimize their exposure to electoral punishment. This convergence is likely to break down as policy feedback produces opinion divergence among experts and the public and as politicians recalculate the costs and benefits of various policy responses and under some conditions facing incentives to adopt extreme policies.

Political donations and the gender gap during COVID-19.

What effect has the COVID-19 pandemic had on the political donations gender gap in Canada? Drawing on data from two national surveys conducted in May and August 2020, as well as Elections Canada data from 2019 and 2020, we find an overall decline in contributions to political parties and a reduced but still significant gender gap, with women less likely to donate to political parties than men.

Does Federalism Prevent Democratic Accountability? Assigning Responsibility for Rates of COVID-19 Testing.

Does federalism prevent citizens from holding governments accountable for their actions? The pandemic represents the ideal scenario for testing the effects of federalism on democratic accountability because citizens are highly motivated to hold governments accountable for preventing or failing to prevent the rapid transmission of the virus. Previous research suggests that a number of institutional and political factors complicate the accountability function in federal systems. We add to this literature by assessing the effect of one political factor, exclusivity (measured in terms of policy variation at one level), on accountability. The coronavirus pandemic provides a unique opportunity to assess this factor given the high levels of issue saliency, media attention, and low levels of intergovernmental and interparty conflict it has generated. Drawing on original data from the May 2020 Democratic Checkup Survey and public data from the Canadian National Microbiology Laboratory, our preliminary findings suggest that interprovincial policy variation with respect to coronavirus testing is not correlated with public assessments of the adequacy of provincial testing, and so it seems that Canadians are not able to assign responsibility to the correct level of government despite ideal conditions for doing so.

Implementation of a Medication Reconciliation Assistive Technology: A Qualitative Analysis.

Objective: To aid the implementation of a medication reconciliation process within a hybrid primary-specialty care setting by using qualitative techniques to describe the climate of implementation and provide guidance for future projects. Methods: Guided by McMullen et al's Rapid Assessment Process1, we performed semi-structured interviews prior to and iteratively throughout the implementation. Interviews were coded and analyzed using grounded theory2 and cross-examined for validity. Results: We identified five barriers and five facilitators that impacted the implementation. Facilitators identified were process alignment with user values, and motivation and clinical champions fostered by the implementation team rather than the administration. Barriers included a perceived limited capacity for change, diverging priorities, and inconsistencies in process standards and role definitions. Discussion: A more complete, qualitative understanding of existing barriers and facilitators helps to guide critical decisions on the design and implementation of a successful medication reconciliation process.

Q fever diagnosis in domestic ruminants: comparison between complement fixation and commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays.

Q fever is an important zoonotic disease caused by infection with the bacterium Coxiella burnetii. Veterinary diagnostic laboratories, including the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) in England and Wales, have traditionally relied on the complement fixation test (CFT) for serological diagnosis. However, Q fever has assumed greater significance in recent years following several large human outbreaks linked to exposure to infected ruminants and it is essential that more reliable tests are introduced to detect the presence of C. burnetii infection in animals. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the performance of 3 commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) for detection of antibodies to C. burnetii and to compare the findings with the CFT using a sample panel of 548 sera from sheep, goats, and cattle, including animals of known disease status. The statistical analysis using TAGS (test accuracy in the absence of a gold standard) software and receiver operating characteristic techniques demonstrated that the 3 ELISAs all showed improved sensitivity over the CFT. The test based on ovine antigen demonstrated the best overall performance and therefore, the VLA has adopted this test for routine use.

Ovine PRNP untranslated region and promoter haplotype diversity.

The diversity and possible contribution of non-coding regions of the prion protein (PrP) gene (PRNP) to transmissible spongiform encephalopathy susceptibility and PrP regulation are not fully known. This study defined ten ovine PRNP promoters and five untranslated region (UTR) haplotypes found in atypical and classical scrapie cases and healthy control sheep. A greater diversity of promoter and UTR haplotypes was observed in conjunction with the ARQ PrP allele (seven promoter and four UTR haplotypes), while it was observed that the other alleles were linked with a limited number of haplotypes, such as ARR, found to be linked to only two promoter and one UTR haplotypes. In silico analysis identified potential transcription factor binding sites that differed in the promoter haplotype variants. Furthermore, a 5' UTR internal ribosome entry site motif was identified in exon 2 and highlights a possible role for this exon in regulating PrP expression at the translational level.

Identification of management risk factors for VTEC O157 in young-stock in England and Wales.

We conducted a cross-sectional study on 255 cattle farms in England and Wales to identify risk factors for verocytotoxin-producing E. coli O157 (VTEC). Exposure variables were collected at the levels of the farm and of the group of young-stock within the farms. On each farm a group of young-stock (6-18 months of age) was sampled to establish VTEC status. In our multiple logistic regression, farm VTEC status was associated with access to springs (OR: 0.31, CI95%: 0.12, 0.78) and assessing the wetness of the bedding material less frequently than daily (OR: 3.89 CI95%: 1.5, 10.2). At group-level we found no associated risk factors for animals housed outdoors in fields. Significant for groups housed in pens were wet bedding (wet OR: 3.43, CI95%: 1.3, 9.4; very wet OR: 4.24, CI95%: 1.2, 14.6), number of animals in the group (10-15 OR: 2.72, CI95%: 0.75, 9.9, 16-24, OR: 3.78, CI95%: 1.2, 12.3; >25 OR: 3.78, CI95%: 1.1, 12.7) and feeding straw (OR: 2.29, CI95%: 1.2, 5.5).

Possible associations between Salmonella persistence in poultry houses and resistance to commonly used disinfectants and a putative role of mar.

A putative link between Salmonella persistence in the agricultural sector and resistance to disinfectants has been sparsely investigated. Therefore, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) tests against five disinfectants commonly used in poultry premises (formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde/benzalkonium chloride compound, oxidising compound, tar oil phenol, iodophor) were performed on 286 Salmonella isolates, including 256 from Danish broiler houses, altogether representing nine serotypes. Six of these isolates were used for adaptation and de-adaptation studies involving the five disinfectants. Amongst 60 of these isolates selected for growth studies in cyclohexane (possibly associated with up-regulated efflux), only one isolate grew. From this isolate and the six isolates used in the adaptation and de-adaptation studies, mutants highly resistant to triclosan (a disinfectant linked with mar-type resistance) were selected. In addition, adaptation and de-adaptation studies with triclosan were performed. For the 286 isolates, the small variations in MICs could not be associated with Salmonella persistence in Danish broiler houses or previous use of relevant disinfectants. Adaptation and de-adaptation did not alter MICs to the five farm disinfectants. Compared to the parent isolates, MICs for the triclosan adapted and de-adapted isolates and the triclosan mutants were significantly increased to triclosan, but not to the five disinfectants. Moreover, most of the triclosan adapted and de-adapted isolates grew in cyclohexane. Thus, there was no correlation between triclosan and cyclohexane resistance on one hand and resistance to the five disinfectants on the other, suggesting that triclosan resistance is not linked with resistance to these disinfectants.