Isolation Stress Increases Vulnerability to Virus. And More Science Journal News

Compiled by veteran medical journalist Brian Owens, this roundup of some of the newest science on the COVID-19 pandemic, straight from the scientific journals, is presented by Hakai Magazine in partnership with The Tyee.

Isolation may increase susceptibility to COVID-19

The stresses of enduring months of isolation and social distancing are associated with an increased vulnerability to upper respiratory viruses, possibly including the one that causes COVID-19. In previous research scientists found that people experiencing psychological and social stressors were more likely to develop a respiratory illness when exposed to eight viruses that cause cold or flu, including one coronavirus, suggesting the same may be true for the coronavirus causing the current pandemic. While this does not suggest that current preventative measures should be dropped, it does highlight the importance of social support networks during the pandemic.

Perspectives in Psychological Science, July 8, 2020

COVID-19-related discrimination mostly hits racial minorities

Discrimination against people thought to be infected with COVID-19 rose sharply in the United States in the early stages of the pandemic and was particularly experienced by racial minorities. In March 2020, 11 per cent of Asians and nine per cent of African Americans experienced discrimination by someone who perceived them as having the coronavirus, compared to four per cent of whites. In April, this increased to 16 per cent of Asians and 15 per cent of African Americans, compared to nine per cent of whites. The study also found that wearing a mask was a persistent risk factor for discrimination associated with COVID-19.

American Journal of Preventative Medicine, July 7, 2020

Gender employment gap widens during pandemic

In Canada, the economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has hit women much harder than men. In February, women’s employment trailed men’s by 0.8 percentage points for parents of school-age children. By May the gap had widened by 7.3 percentage points. For parents of preschool-aged children, the gap went from 1 to 2.5 percentage points. The change is even larger for less-educated parents. For parents of school-age children who have a high school education or less, the gap increased more than 10-fold, from 1.6 to 16.8 percentage points.

Canadian Public Policy, July 5, 2020

Did a public health campaign improve behaviour?

A public health campaign in the Netherlands has led to a two-fold increase in the odds of people properly washing their hands, and improvements in physical distancing. The campaign consisted of a news article and infographic in a large national newspaper, and a YouTube video hosted by a popular social media influencer. The strongest results were seen among those who saw both the print and video parts of the campaign.

JAMA Network Open, July 8, 2020

Desire to share interferes with critical thinking, but a nudge can help

When people are consuming news on social media their desire to share that news affects their ability to assess its accuracy. Researchers presented two groups of people with the same false headlines about COVID-19. They asked one group whether they would share the stories on social media, while the other was asked to evaluate their accuracy. The first group was 32.4 per cent more likely to say they would share the headlines than the second group was to say those headlines were accurate. But a simple reminder to think about accuracy could help. When participants were asked to rate the accuracy of a single non-COVID-19 story at the start of their session, the quality of the COVID-19 news they shared increased significantly.

Psychological Science, June 30, 2020

The huge socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the pandemic

The pandemic has caused global consumption to drop by 4.2 per cent — around US$3.8 trillion, or roughly the GDP of Germany — triggering huge job losses as well as reductions in greenhouse gases. Around 147 million jobs have been lost around the world, leading to $2.1 trillion in lost income. Greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by 2.5 gigatonnes, around 4.6 per cent — larger than any drop in human history. Other atmospheric emissions such as dangerously fine particulates, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide have also fallen significantly.

PLOS ONE, July 9, 2020

How lockdown distorts the passage of time

Your perception of how quickly time passes can vary based on your emotions, the number of daily tasks you must perform, and other factors. A survey in the United Kingdom found that more than 80 per cent of respondents reported changes to how quickly they perceived time passing during lockdown. Those who were older or less satisfied with their current levels of social interaction were more likely to report that they felt time was passing more slowly over the course of a day or week during lockdown. Slower passage of time over the course of a day was also associated with higher stress and having fewer tasks to complete each day — both situations that are more prevalent during lockdown.

PLOS ONE, July 6, 2020

Symptoms can persist long after recovery

Some symptoms of COVID-19 can persist for months after a patient has otherwise recovered. A study of patients who had been hospitalised in Italy found that just 12 per cent of those examined were symptom-free two months after symptoms first appeared, while 32 per cent still had one or two symptoms, and 55 per cent had three or more. Worsened quality of life was seen in 44 per cent of patients. Common persistent symptoms included fatigue and shortness of breath, but none of the patients reported fever or other symptoms of acute disease.

JAMA, July 9, 2020

An inconsistent immune response to COVID-19

Signs of an immune response — antibodies, memory B cells, and circulating follicular helper T cells, for example — are abundant in the blood plasma of people who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, but the ability of those antibodies and immune cells to neutralize and block the virus is inconsistent and varies widely between patients. A study in Australia found that on average the patients’ plasma could only block about 14 per cent of the interactions between the ACE2 receptor and the viral spike protein. Some of the more effective immune cells identified may be useful targets for the development of a vaccine.

Nature Medicine, July 13, 2020

Compliance with physical distancing depends on working memory

If you had trouble remembering to keep your distance from others during the early stages of the pandemic, blame your working memory. People with higher working memory capacity have an increased awareness of the benefits over costs of physical distancing and showed more compliance with recommended physical distancing guidelines during the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak. Working memory is the psychological process of holding information in the mind for a brief period, and its capacity is predictive of many mental abilities such as intelligence, comprehension and learning.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 10, 2020

The ripple of grief from COVID-19 deaths

Every death from COVID-19 will affect on average nine other surviving family members, according to a study in the United States. Despite some limitations — the number is based on national averages and may not translate perfectly to local situations — the indicator could help local officials understand the waves of grief and mental distress that may ripple through specific areas and regions of the country.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, July 10, 2020