Question: how has COVID-19 affected Canada

Title: Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected MPs’ Representational Activities? Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has necessarily affected the operation of Canada's Parliament and, thus, the activities of Members of Parliament (MPs) (Malloy, 2020; Rayment and VandenBeukel, 2020). Here, we explore how the pandemic has affected the representational activities of individual MPs.

Title: Disruption to surgical training during Covid-19 in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australasia: a rapid review of impact and mitigation efforts Content: The global Covid-19 pandemic has the potential to lead to significant training disruptions affecting surgical residents across all specialties. There has been lively social media discussion about the impact of cancelled training activities under the twitter hashtag #NoTrainingTodayNoSurgeonsTomorrow. We present a rapid scoping review synthesising the current evidence of pandemic-related impact on surgical training in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. We describe and compare strategies that have been put in place to mitigate disruption, and reflect on how the challenges of the pandemic may present the opportunity to improve on how we select, assess and train surgeons in the future.

Title: COVID-19, extractive industries, and indigenous communities in Canada: Notes towards a political economy research agenda Content: As the economic ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to unfold, it is becoming increasingly apparent that this crisis will have significant and lasting implications for the relationship between extractive industries and Indigenous communities. Using a case study from Canada, this paper examines how the political dynamics of industry-Indigenous relations have changed and speculates about how these dynamics might continue to change in the future. The economic crisis has already intensified political conflicts and struggles between Indigenous peoples and mining, oil, and gas companies. We identify and discuss four points of conflict between Indigenous communities and extractive industries that have become more acute as a result of the current economic crisis. It is important for researchers to pay close attention to how these conflicts are affected by the pandemic, in order to help Indigenous communities develop strategies to cope with changes in industry-Indigenous relations.

Title: Severe acute respiratory syndrome and its effects on health care: how Canada has dealt with this ordeal. Content: The global epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) indirectly has affected all health care facilities in affected nations and has unaffected nations on alert. Health care practitioners need to be aware of infection control measures to prevent the spread of SARS. This article looks at this new disease and how it has affected the delivery of health care in Canada.

Title: An Evaluation of Neurosurgical Resident Education and Sentiment During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A North American Survey Content: BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a tremendous impact on the healthcare system. Owing to restrictions in elective surgery and social distancing guidelines, the training curriculum for neurosurgical trainees has been rapidly evolving. This evolution could have significant long-term effects on the training of neurosurgery residents. The objective of the present study was to assess the effects of COVID-19 on neurosurgical training programs and residents. METHODS: A survey consisting of 31 questions assessing changes to resident clinical and educational workload and their sentiment regarding how these changes might affect their careers was distributed electronically to neurosurgery residents in the United States and Canada. RESULTS: The survey respondents were from 29 states and Canada and were relatively evenly spread across all levels of residency. Nearly 82% reported that the inpatient and outpatient volumes had been either greatly (44.0%) or moderately (37.8%) reduced. Greater than 91% reported that their work responsibilities or access to the hospital had been reduced, with a significant reduction in work hours and a significant increase in resident didactics (P < 0.001). Senior residents expressed concern about their educational experience and their future career prospects as a result of the pandemic. CONCLUSION: Universally, residents have experienced reduced work hours and a reduction in their operative case volumes. Programs have adapted by increasing didactic time and using electronic platforms. It is quite possible that this remarkable period will prompt a critical reappraisal of the pre-COVID-19 adequacy of educational content in our training programs and that the enhanced educational efforts driven by this pandemic could be lasting.

Title: An Evaluation of Neurosurgical Resident Education and Sentiment During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A North American Survey Content: ABSTRACT Background The COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on the healthcare system. Due to restrictions in elective surgery and social distancing guidelines, the training curriculum for neurosurgical trainees is rapidly evolving. This evolution may have significant long-term effects on the training of neurosurgery residents. Objective To assess the impact of COVID-19 on neurosurgical training programs and residents. Methods A survey consisting of thirty-one questions assessing changes to resident clinical and educational workload and their sentiment on how these changes may affect their careers was distributed electronically to neurosurgery residents in the United States and Canada. Results The survey respondents were spread over 29 states and Canada and were relatively evenly spread across all levels of residency. Nearly 82% reported that the inpatient and outpatient volumes were either greatly (44.0%) or moderately (37.8%) reduced. Greater than 91% reported that their work responsibilities or access to the hospital had been reduced with a significant reduction in work hours and a significant increase in resident didactics (p <.001). Senior residents expressed concern about their educational experience as well as their future career prospects as a result of the pandemic. Conclusion Universally, residents have experienced reduced work hours and reduction in their operative case volumes. Programs have adapted by increasing didactic time and using electronic platforms. It is quite possible that this remarkable time period will prompt a critical re-appraisal of the pre-COVID-19 adequacy of educational content in our training programs, and that enhanced educational efforts driven by this pandemic may be lasting.

Title: Canada’s role in strengthening global health security during the COVID-19 pandemic Content: The world is confronted by the current pandemic of Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19), which is a wake-up call for all nations irrespective of their development status or geographical location. Since the start of the century we have seen five big infectious outbreaks which proved that epidemics are no more regarded as historic and geographically confined threats. The Canadian government underlined that these infectious disease outbreaks are threats to global health security and disrupt societal wellbeing and development. In this context, the Public Health Agency of Canada is proactive and has shown its preparedness for outbreaks of emerging and epidemic-prone diseases, and in dealing with these pathogens. Even before the declaration of pandemic, Canada has proved its global health leadership by ensuring collective action and multisectoral coordination which still remains a serious challenge especially for low and middle- income countries with existing poor health systems. In this article we discuss how Canada is addressing the global challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic through its leadership and practice of global health diplomacy.

Title: Optimizing Access to Heart Failure Care in Canada During the COVID-19 Pandemic Content: The traditional model of heart failure (HF) care in Canada, which relies upon a multidisciplinary team and clinic-based care processes, has been undermined as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pandemic continues, we will be challenged to improve or maintain the health status of those with HF by optimizing guideline-directed care despite physical distancing constraints and a reduction in the health care workforce. This will require development of new strategies specifically targeted at decreasing the risk of decompensation and resultant HF hospitalization. As such, we must quickly pivot to the adoption and application of novel technologies and revise usual care models, processes, and workflow. The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis has delivered the Canadian HF community a burning platform for the design and implementation of innovative approaches to support the vulnerable population we serve; born out of necessity, we now have the opportunity to explore innovative approaches that might inform the future of HF care delivery in Canada. Herein, we provide perspectives from leadership within the Canadian Heart Failure Society on how to optimize HF care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Title: Optimizing Access to Heart Failure Care in Canada during the COVID-19 Pandemic Content: The traditional model of heart failure (HF) care in Canada, which relies upon a multi-disciplinary team and clinic based care processes, has been undermined as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pandemic continues, we will be challenged to improve or maintain the health status of those with HF by optimizing guideline-directed care despite physical distancing constraints and a reduction in the healthcare workforce. This will require development of new strategies specifically targeted at decreasing the risk of decompensation and resultant HF hospitalization. As such, we must quickly pivot to the adoption and application of novel technologies and revise usual care models, processes, and workflow. The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis has delivered the Canadian HF community a burning platform for the design and implementation of innovative approaches to support the vulnerable population we serve; born out of necessity, we now have the opportunity to explore innovative approaches that may inform the future of HF care delivery in Canada. Herein, we provide perspectives from leadership within the Canadian Heart Failure Society (CHFS) on how to optimize HF care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Title: Trial by Zoom? The Response to COVID-19 by Canada's Courts Content: COVID-19 has made videoconferencing a regular occurrence in the lives of Canadians. Videoconferencing is being used to maintain social ties, run business meetings—and to uphold responsible government. On April 28, 2020, Members of the House of Commons sat virtually using Zoom. The virtual sitting was the first of what will become a stand-in for regular proceedings, allowing the Members to fulfill some of their parliamentary duties while complying with physical distancing (see Malloy, 2020). As the legislative and executive branches look to digital technology to allow the business of government to continue, what about the judicial branch of Canada's government? Courts are an essential service. This is best articulated by the Chief Justice of Nova Scotia: “The fact is, the Courts cannot close. As the third branch of government, an independent judiciary is vital for our Canadian democracy to function. It is never more important than in times of crisis” (Wood, 2020). In this analysis, we seek to understand how courts have responded to COVID-19 and the challenges of physical distancing through the use of digital technologies. This is accomplished through a systematic review of COVID-19 statements and directives issued from all levels of court across Canada. We briefly compare Canada to the United States, a jurisdiction that demonstrates greater openness to technology.

Title: Assessing the burden of COVID-19 in Canada Content: Background: The burden of COVID-19 in Canada is unequally distributed geographically, with the largest number of cases and fatalities recorded in Quebec and Ontario while other provinces experienced limited outbreaks. To date, however, no study has assessed how provincial epidemics have unfolded in a comparative perspective. This is essential to calibrate projections of the future course of the epidemic and plan health care resources for the second wave of infections. Methods: Using newly released individual-level data collected by the Public Health Agency of Canada, we assess COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality across age and gender groups at the provincial level through a combination of demographic and survival analyses. Results: Quebec has the highest absolute and per capita number of COVID-19 confirmed positive cases, hospitalizations and fatalities in all age groups. In each province, a higher number of women than men test positive for the disease, especially above age 80. Yet consistently across age groups, infected men are more likely to be hospitalized and enter intensive care than women do. These gender differences in hospitalisation rates account for the higher case fatality risk due to COVID-19 among men compared to women. Interpretation: Although health care capacity across provinces has been sufficient to treat severe cases, we find that the main factor accounting for gender differences in COVID-19-related mortality is the need for hospitalization and intensive care, especially above age 80. This suggests a selection effect of severe cases requiring to be treated in a hospital setting that needs to be further investigated.

Title: Chasing the origin of SARS-CoV-2 in Canada’s COVID-19 cases: A genomics study Content: The emergence and global spread of SARS-CoV-2 has had profound social and economic consequences and has shed light on the importance of continued and additional investment in global health and infectious disease surveillance. Identifying changes in viral genomes provides key insights into viral diversity, how viruses spread within populations, and viral strategies for evasion of host immune systems. Here we report twenty-five SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences collected from some of the first COVID-19 cases in eastern Ontario, Canada (March 18-30, 2020). The reported genomes belong to the S-clade (n=2) and G-clade (n=23) of SARS-CoV-2 and contain 45 polymorphic sites including one shared missense and three unique synonymous variants in the gene encoding the spike protein. A phylogenetic analysis enabled the tracing of viral origin and potential transmission into and within Canada. There may be as many as sixteen unique infection events represented in these samples, including at least three that were likely introduced from Europe and seven from the USA. In addition, four separate genomes are each shared by multiple patients, suggesting a common origin or community spread even during this early stage of infection. These results demonstrate how molecular epidemiology and evolutionary phylogenetics can help local health units track origins and vectors of spread for emerging diseases like SARS-CoV-2. Earlier detection and screening in this way could improve the effectiveness of regional public health interventions to prevent future pandemics.

Title: Cardiac Surgery in Canada During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Guidance Statement From the Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgeons Content: On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 was a pandemic.1 At that time, only 118,000 cases had been reported globally, 90% of which had occurred in 4 countries.1 Since then, the world landscape has changed dramatically. As of March 31, 2020, there are now nearly 800,000 cases, with truly global involvement.2 Countries that were previously unaffected are currently experiencing mounting rates of the novel coronavirus infection with associated increases in COVID-19-related deaths. At present, Canada has more than 8000 cases of COVID-19, with considerable variation in rates of infection among provinces and territories.3 Amid concerns over growing resource constraints, cardiac surgeons from across Canada have been forced to make drastic changes to their clinical practices. From prioritizing and delaying elective cases to altering therapeutic strategies in high-risk patients, cardiac surgeons, along with their heart teams, are having to reconsider how best to manage their patients. It is with this in mind that the Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgeons (CSCS) and its Board of Directors have come together to formulate a series of guiding statements. With strong representation from across the country and the support of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the authors have attempted to provide guidance to their colleagues on the subjects of leadership roles that cardiac surgeons may assume during this pandemic: patient assessment and triage, risk reduction, and real-time sharing of expertise and experiences.

Title: COVID-19 in Canada: Predictions for the future and control lessons from Asia Content: COVID-19 has spread with unequal efficiency in various parts of the world. In several European countries including Italy, the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases has followed a consistent, exponential pattern of spread. However, some countries, notably Taiwan and Hong Kong, have achieved a different outcome and have managed to bring the COVID-19 outbreak in their countries rapidly under control, without entering the exponential pattern and with very few cases. They have used several different approaches to COVID-19 outbreak control, including the innovative use of smartphone technology and the widespread use of surgical face masks. We show through our models, that Canada has followed the same, consistent COVID-19 exponential growth pattern that is seen in Italy. Both nationally and in its most heavily affected provinces, there is exponential growth of COVID-19 cases, making it possible to make predictions for the future, if no further interventions are made in public health policy. In particular, we argue for the urgent introduction of surgical face masks in health care and other settings and the harnessing of the power of smartphone technology on a national scale.

Title: Cardiac Surgery in Canada During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Guidance Statement From the Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgeons Content: Abstract On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 was a pandemic. 1 At that time, only 118,000 cases had been reported globally, 90% of which had occurred in 4 countries. 1 Since then, the world landscape has changed dramatically. As of March 31, 2020, there are now nearly 800,000 cases, with truly global involvement. 2 Countries that were previously unaffected are currently experiencing mounting rates of the novel coronavirus infection with associated increases in COVID-19–related deaths. At present, Canada has more than 8000 cases of COVID-19, with considerable variation in rates of infection among provinces and territories. 3 Amid concerns over growing resource constraints, cardiac surgeons from across Canada have been forced to make drastic changes to their clinical practices. From prioritizing and delaying elective cases to altering therapeutic strategies in high-risk patients, cardiac surgeons, along with their heart teams, are having to reconsider how best to manage their patients. It is with this in mind that the Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgeons (CSCS) and its Board of Directors have come together to formulate a series of guiding statements. With strong representation from across the country and the support of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the authors have attempted to provide guidance to their colleagues on the subjects of leadership roles that cardiac surgeons may assume during this pandemic: patient assessment and triage, risk reduction, and real-time sharing of expertise and experiences. A visual abstract of the main principles underlying our recommended approach is provided in Figure 1.

Title: Impact of COVID-19 on Pediatric Gastroenterology Fellow Training in North America Content: BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed healthcare systems and training around the world. The Training Committee of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition sought to understand how COVID-19 has affected pediatric gastroenterology fellowship training. METHODS: A 21 question survey was distributed to all 77 pediatric gastroenterology fellowship program directors (PDs) in the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition program director database via email on April 7. Responses collected through April 19, 2020 were analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Fifty-one of 77 (66%) PDs from the United States, Canada, and Mexico responded to the survey. Forty-six of 51 (90%) PDs reported that they were under a “stay-at-home” order for a median of 4 weeks at the time of the survey. Two of the 51 (4%) programs had fellows participating in outpatient telehealth before COVID-19 and 39 of 51 (76%) at the time of the survey. Fellows stopped participating in outpatient clinics in 22 of 51 (43%) programs and endoscopy in 26 of 51 (52%) programs. Changes to inpatient care included reduced fellow staffing, limiting who entered patient rooms, and rounding remotely. Fellows in 3 New York programs were deployed to adult medicine units. Didactics were moved to virtual conferences in 47 of 51 (94%) programs, and fellows used various online resources. Clinical research and, disproportionately, bench research were restricted. CONCLUSIONS: This report provides early information of the impact of COVID-19 on pediatric fellowship training. Rapid adoption of telehealth and reduced clinical and research experiences were important changes. Survey information may spur communication and innovation to help educators adapt.

Title: Impact of COVID-19 on Pediatric Gastroenterology Fellow Training in North America Content: BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed healthcare systems and training around the world. The Training Committee of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition sought to understand how COVID-19 has affected pediatric gastroenterology fellowship training. METHODS: A 21 question survey was distributed to all 77 pediatric gastroenterology fellowship program directors (PDs) in the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition program director database via email on April 7. Responses collected through April 19, 2020 were analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Fifty-one of 77 (66%) PDs from the United States, Canada, and Mexico responded to the survey. Forty-six of 51 (90%) PDs reported that they were under a "stay-at-home" order for a median of 4 weeks at the time of the survey. Two of the 51 (4%) programs had fellows participating in outpatient telehealth before COVID-19 and 39 of 51 (76%) at the time of the survey. Fellows stopped participating in outpatient clinics in 22 of 51 (43%) programs and endoscopy in 26 of 51 (52%) programs. Changes to inpatient care included reduced fellow staffing, limiting who entered patient rooms, and rounding remotely. Fellows in 3 New York programs were deployed to adult medicine units. Didactics were moved to virtual conferences in 47 of 51 (94%) programs, and fellows used various online resources. Clinical research and, disproportionately, bench research were restricted. CONCLUSIONS: This report provides early information of the impact of COVID-19 on pediatric fellowship training. Rapid adoption of telehealth and reduced clinical and research experiences were important changes. Survey information may spur communication and innovation to help educators adapt.

Title: Impact of COVID-19 on Canadian medical oncologists and cancer care: Canadian Association of Medical Oncologists survey report. Content: Background The covid-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented professional and personal challenges for the oncology community. Under the auspices of the Canadian Association of Medical Oncologists, we conducted an online national survey to better understand the impact of the pandemic on the medical oncology community in Canada. Methods An English-language multiple-choice survey, including questions about demographics, covid-19 risk, use of personal protective equipment (ppe), personal challenges, and chemotherapy management was distributed to Canadian medical oncologists. The survey was open from 30 March to 4 April 2020, and attracted 159 responses. Results More than 70% of medical oncologists expressed moderate-to-extreme concern about personally contracting covid-19 and about family members or patients (or both) contracting covid-19 from them. Despite that high level of concern, considerable variability in the use of ppe in direct cancer care was reported at the time of this survey, with 33% of respondents indicating no routine ppe use at their institutions and 69% indicating uncertainty about access to adequate ppe. Of the respondents, 54% were experiencing feelings of nervousness or anxiety on most days, and 52% were having feelings of depression or hopelessness on at least some days. Concern about aging parents or family and individual wellness represented the top personal challenges identified. The management of cancer patients has been affected, with adoption of telemedicine reported by 82% of respondents, and cessation of clinical trial accrual reported by 54%. The 3 factors deemed most important for treatment decision-making were■ cancer prognosis and anticipated benefit from treatment,■ risk of treatment toxicity during scarce health care access, and■ patient risk of contracting covid-19. Conclusions This report describes the results of the first national survey assessing the impact of the covid-19 on Canadian medical oncologists and how they deliver systemic anticancer therapies. We hope that these data will provide a framework to address the challenges identified.

Title: Impact of COVID-19 on Canadian medical oncologists and cancer care: Canadian Association of Medical Oncologists survey report Content: Background: The covid-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented professional and personal challenges for the oncology community. Under the auspices of the Canadian Association of Medical Oncologists, we conducted an online national survey to better understand the impact of the pandemic on the medical oncology community in Canada. Methods: An English-language multiple-choice survey, including questions about demographics, covid-19 risk, use of personal protective equipment (ppe), personal challenges, and chemotherapy management was distributed to Canadian medical oncologists. The survey was open from 30 March to 4 April 2020, and attracted 159 responses. Results: More than 70% of medical oncologists expressed moderate-to-extreme concern about personally contracting covid-19 and about family members or patients (or both) contracting covid-19 from them. Despite that high level of concern, considerable variability in the use of ppe in direct cancer care was reported at the time of this survey, with 33% of respondents indicating no routine ppe use at their institutions and 69% indicating uncertainty about access to adequate ppe. Of the respondents, 54% were experiencing feelings of nervousness or anxiety on most days, and 52% were having feelings of depression or hopelessness on at least some days. Concern about aging parents or family and individual wellness represented the top personal challenges identified. The management of cancer patients has been affected, with adoption of telemedicine reported by 82% of respondents, and cessation of clinical trial accrual reported by 54%. The 3 factors deemed most important for treatment decision-making wereâ cancer prognosis and anticipated benefit from treatment,â risk of treatment toxicity during scarce health care access, andâ patient risk of contracting covid-19. Conclusions: This report describes the results of the first national survey assessing the impact of the covid-19 on Canadian medical oncologists and how they deliver systemic anticancer therapies. We hope that these data will provide a framework to address the challenges identified.

Title: Exploratory Analysis of COVID-19 Related Tweets in North America to Inform Public Health Institutes Content: Social media is a rich source where we can learn about people's reactions to social issues. As COVID-19 has significantly impacted on people's lives, it is essential to capture how people react to public health interventions and understand their concerns. In this paper, we aim to investigate people's reactions and concerns about COVID-19 in North America, especially focusing on Canada. We analyze COVID-19 related tweets using topic modeling and aspect-based sentiment analysis, and interpret the results with public health experts. We compare timeline of topics discussed with timing of implementation of public health interventions for COVID-19. We also examine people's sentiment about COVID-19 related issues. We discuss how the results can be helpful for public health agencies when designing a policy for new interventions. Our work shows how Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques could be applied to public health questions with domain expert involvement.

Title: Vulnerability of Aboriginal health systems in Canada to climate change Content: Abstract Climate change has been identified as potentially the biggest health threat of the 21st century. Canada in general has a well developed public health system and low burden of health which will moderate vulnerability. However, there is significant heterogeneity in health outcomes, and health inequality is particularly pronounced among Aboriginal Canadians. Intervention is needed to prevent, prepare for, and manage climate change effects on Aboriginal health but is constrained by a limited understanding of vulnerability and its determinants. Despite limited research on climate change and Aboriginal health, however, there is a well established literature on Aboriginal health outcomes, determinants, and trends in Canada; characteristics that will determine vulnerability to climate change. In this paper we systematically review this literature, using a vulnerability framework to identify the broad level factors constraining adaptive capacity and increasing sensitivity to climate change. Determinants identified include: poverty, technological capacity constraints, socio-political values and inequality, institutional capacity challenges, and information deficit. The magnitude and nature of these determinants will be distributed unevenly within and between Aboriginal populations necessitating place-based and regional level studies to examine how these broad factors will affect vulnerability at lower levels. The study also supports the need for collaboration across all sectors and levels of government, open and meaningful dialogue between policy makers, scientists, health professionals, and Aboriginal communities, and capacity building at a local level, to plan for climate change. Ultimately, however, efforts to reduce the vulnerability of Aboriginal Canadians to climate change and intervene to prevent, reduce, and manage climate-sensitive health outcomes, will fail unless the broader determinants of socio-economic and health inequality are addressed.

Title: Comparing “insider” and “outsider” news coverage of the 2014 Ebola outbreak Content: OBJECTIVES: Information provided by news media during an infectious disease outbreak can affect the actions taken to safeguard public health. There has been little evaluation of how the content of news published during an outbreak varies by location of the news outlet. This study analyzes coverage of the 2014 Ebola outbreak by one news outlet operating within a country affected by the outbreak and one country not directly affected. METHODS: A qualitative content analysis was conducted of articles published in two national news outlets, The Globe and Mail (Canada) and the Vanguard (Nigeria), between January 1 and December 31, 2014. Articles available through LexisNexis Academic were sorted by date and sampled using a stratified sampling method (The Globe and Mail n = 100; Vanguard n = 105). A coding scheme was developed and modified to incorporate emerging themes until saturation was achieved. RESULTS: There were substantial differences in outbreak coverage in terms of the topic and content of the articles, as well as the sources consulted. The Globe and Mail framed the outbreak in terms of national security and national interests, as well as presenting it as an international humanitarian crisis. In contrast, the Vanguard framed the outbreak almost exclusively in terms of public health. CONCLUSION: Our findings highlight how different geographic contexts can shape reporting on the same event. Further research is required to investigate how the political, social or economic situations of a country shape its news media, potentially influencing actions taken to control disease outbreaks.

Title: Real-time forecasts and risk assessment of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases: A data-driven analysis Content: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a public health emergency of international concern affecting 201 countries and territories around the globe. As of April 4, 2020, it has caused a pandemic outbreak with more than 11,16,643 confirmed infections and more than 59,170 reported deaths worldwide. The main focus of this paper is two-fold: (a) generating short term (real-time) forecasts of the future COVID-19 cases for multiple countries; (b) risk assessment (in terms of case fatality rate) of the novel COVID-19 for some profoundly affected countries by finding various important demographic characteristics of the countries along with some disease characteristics. To solve the first problem, we presented a hybrid approach based on autoregressive integrated moving average model and Wavelet-based forecasting model that can generate short-term (ten days ahead) forecasts of the number of daily confirmed cases for Canada, France, India, South Korea, and the UK. The predictions of the future outbreak for different countries will be useful for the effective allocation of health care resources and will act as an early-warning system for government policymakers. In the second problem, we applied an optimal regression tree algorithm to find essential causal variables that significantly affect the case fatality rates for different countries. This data-driven analysis will necessarily provide deep insights into the study of early risk assessments for 50 immensely affected countries.

Title: Post-Discharge Cardiac Care in the Era of Coronavirus 2019: How Should We Prepare? Content: The novel coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) pandemic has placed intense pressure on health care organizations around the world. Among other concerns, there has been an increasing recognition of common and deleterious cardiovascular effects of COVID-19 based on preliminary studies. Furthermore, patients with preexisting cardiac disease are likely to experience a more severe disease course with COVID-19. As case numbers continue to increase exponentially, a surge in the number of patients with new or comorbid cardiovascular disease will translate into more frequent and, in some cases, prolonged rehabilitation needs after acute hospitalization. This report describes the current status of post-discharge cardiac care in Canada and provides suggestions regarding steps that policymakers and health care organizations can take to prepare for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Title: Post-Discharge Cardiac Care in the Era of Coronavirus 2019: How Should We Prepare? Content: Abstract The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed intense pressure on healthcare organizations around the world. Amongst others, there has been an increasing recognition of common and deleterious cardiovascular effects of COVID-19 based on preliminary studies. Furthermore, patients with pre-existing cardiac disease are likely to experience a more severe disease course with COVID-19. As case numbers continue to increase exponentially, a surge in the number of patients with new or comorbid cardiovascular disease will translate into more frequent, and in some cases, prolonged rehabilitation needs following acute hospitalization. This manuscript describes the current status of post-discharge cardiac care in Canada and provides suggestions with regards to steps that policymakers and healthcare organizations can take to prepare for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Title: Canada needs to rapidly escalate public health interventions for its COVID-19 mitigation strategies Content: BACKGROUND: After the declaration of COVID-19 pandemic on March 11th(,) 2020, local transmission chains starting in different countries including Canada are forcing governments to take decisions on public health interventions to mitigate the spread of the epidemic. METHODS: We conduct data-driven and model-free estimations for the growth rates of the COVID-19 epidemics in Italy and Canada, by fitting an exponential curve to the daily reported cases. We use these estimates to predict epidemic trends in Canada under different scenarios of public health interventions. RESULTS: In Italy, the initial growth rate (0.22) has reduced to 0.1 two weeks after the lockdown of the country on March 8th(,) 2020. This corresponds to an increase of the doubling time from about 3.15 to almost 7 days. In comparison, the growth rate in Canada has increased from 0.13 between March 1st and 13th, to 0.25 between March 13th to 22nd. This current growth rate corresponds to a doubling time of 2.7 days, and therefore, unless further public health interventions are escalated in Canada, we project 15,000 cases by March 31st. However, the case number may be reduced to 4000 if escalated public health interventions could instantly reduce the growth rate to 0.1, the same level achieved in Italy. INTERPRETATION: Prompt and farsighted interventions are critical to counteract the very rapid initial growth of the COVID-19 epidemic in Canada. Mitigation plans must take into account the delayed effect of interventions by up to 2-weeks and the short doubling time of 3–4 days.

Title: Pandemic Parliaments: Canadian Legislatures in a Time of Crisis Content: Canadian legislatures’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have raised questions about whether and how parliaments should continue to meet during the pandemic (Reid, 2020; Thomas, 2020a). The purpose of this research note is twofold: (1) to document how Canadian legislatures have changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) to assess the effect of these responses on legislatures’ ability to fulfill their core functions. Through an analysis of parliamentary records from all elected federal, provincial and territorial legislatures in Canada, we find that the role of parliaments as sites of citizen representation has suffered the most, whereas the scrutinizing and legislative functions of parliaments have tended to be preserved, albeit in a significantly truncated form. We argue that patterns in legislatures' varied responses to the pandemic reveal which aspects of parliamentary functioning these bodies de facto prioritize and which are at risk of being eroded.

Title: How Has COVID-19 Affected Our Orthopedic Implant Industry Partners? Implications for the Surgeon-Industry Relationship in 2020 and Beyond Content: BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching societal and financial consequences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how COVID-19 has affected AAHKS industry partners and the surgeon-industry relationship, emphasizing education, resource allocation, and strategic direction for the 2nd half of 2020. METHODS: AAHKS industry partners were contacted to participate in a blinded survey and optional interview with the AAHKS Industry Relations Committee. Based on the results, a group of AAHKS member surgeons with disparate practice types were asked to postulate on how the COVID-19 pandemic has and will affect their practice and relationship with Industry. RESULTS: AAHKS industry partner responses indicated decreased resource allocation for regional, “other national,” and AAHKS annual meetings (67%, 55%, and 30%, respectively). Web-based educational content was expected to increase in 2020 and will likely remain a point of emphasis in 2021 (100% and 70% of responders). For Q3/Q4 2020, a significant emphasis was placed on site of service/outpatient TJA and COVID-19-related safety measures (70% and 90% of responders), as well as increased availability of instrumentation and implants (40% and 60%, respectively). CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the orthopedic landscape for the foreseeable future. Survey responses by AAHKS industry partners demonstrate a continued commitment to surgeon education with and increasing shift to a web-based platform. Increased resource allocation for outpatient TJA and COVID-19-related safety measures were significant. Articulating optimal mechanisms to aid industry in supporting surgeons with different practice models to meet demand during the second half of fiscal year 2020 will be critical.

Title: How Has COVID-19 Affected Our Orthopedic Implant Industry Partners? Implications for the Surgeon-Industry Relationship in 2020 and Beyond Content: BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching societal and financial consequences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how COVID-19 has affected AAHKS industry partners and the surgeon-industry relationship, emphasizing education, resource allocation, and strategic direction for the second half of 2020. METHODS: AAHKS industry partners were contacted to participate in a blinded survey and optional interview with the AAHKS Industry Relations Committee. Based on the results, a group of AAHKS member surgeons with disparate practice types were asked to postulate on how the COVID-19 pandemic has and will affect their practice and relationship with Industry. RESULTS: AAHKS industry partner responses indicated decreased resource allocation for regional, "other national," and AAHKS annual meetings (67%, 55%, and 30%, respectively). Web-based educational content was expected to increase in 2020 and will likely remain a point of emphasis in 2021 (100% and 70% of responders). For Q3/Q4 2020, a significant emphasis was placed on site of service/outpatient TJA and COVID-19-related safety measures (70% and 90% of responders), as well as increased availability of instrumentation and implants (40% and 60%, respectively). CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the orthopedic landscape for the foreseeable future. Survey responses by AAHKS industry partners demonstrate a continued commitment to surgeon education with an increasing shift to a web-based platform. Increased resource allocation for outpatient TJA and COVID-19-related safety measures were significant. Articulating optimal mechanisms to aid industry in supporting surgeons with different practice models to meet demand during the second half of fiscal year 2020 will be critical.

Title: "The storm has arrived": the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on medical students Content: In a few weeks, the global community has witnessed, and for some of us experienced first-hand, the human costs of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is incredible variability in how countries are choosing to thwart the disease's outbreak, sparking intense discussions around what it means to teach and learn in the era of COVID-19, and more specifically, the role medical students play in the midst of the pandemic. A multi-national and multi-institutional group made up of a dedicated medical student from Austria, passionate clinicians and educators from Switzerland, and a PhD scientist involved in Medical Education from Canada, have assembled to summarize the ingenious ways medical students around the world are contributing to emergency efforts. They argue that such efforts change COVID-19 from a "disruption" to medical students learning to something more tangible, more important, allowing students to become stakeholders in the expansion and delivery of healthcare.

Title: “The storm has arrived”: the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on medical students Content: In a few weeks, the global community has witnessed, and for some of us experienced first-hand, the human costs of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is incredible variability in how countries are choosing to thwart the disease’s outbreak, sparking intense discussions around what it means to teach and learn in the era of COVID-19, and more specifically, the role medical students play in the midst of the pandemic. A multi-national and multi-institutional group made up of a dedicated medical student from Austria, passionate clinicians and educators from Switzerland, and a PhD scientist involved in Medical Education from Canada, have assembled to summarize the ingenious ways medical students around the world are contributing to emergency efforts. They argue that such efforts change COVID-19 from a “disruption” to medical students learning to something more tangible, more important, allowing students to become stakeholders in the expansion and delivery of healthcare.

Title: The impact of COVID-19 on fieldwork efforts and planning in pairfam and FReDA-GGS Content: The worldwide spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the fieldwork of surveys. The data collection efforts via the face-to-face mode have been affected especially, including the ongoing surveys that were in the field during the COVID-19 outbreak and the planned surveys scheduled for fieldwork later in 2020. We provide an account of how COVID-19 has impacted two family studies in Germany: “The German Family Panel” (pairfam) and the “Generations and Gender Survey” (GGS) both of which will be part of the “Family Research and Demographic Analysis” (FReDA) infrastructure. Based on pairfam, we illustrate the effects of the pandemic on ongoing data collection and the measures taken to proceed with fieldwork, and we report on a special COVID-19 survey. Based on FReDA-GGS, we outline how COVID-19 has affected our planned survey schedules, what future challenges are expected when fieldwork becomes possible again, and how we have adapted our plans accordingly.

Title: How Has COVID-19 Affected the Costs of the Surgical Fellowship Interview Process? Content: OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of COVID-19 on the costs of the surgical fellowship interview process. DESIGN: A literature review of the historical costs of surgical fellowship interviews and a summary of how the shift to virtual interviews has unintended positive and negative effects on costs for applicants and training programs. RESULTS: Transitioning fellowship interviews to virtual platforms affects expenditures of finances and time. Each fellowship candidate saves close to $6,000 in interview travel expenses. Applicants require less time off from their residency programs during this critical time of need for frontline healthcare workers. However, applicants miss some of the live aspects of interviewing, and training programs invest more effort upfront altering their interviews to virtual formats. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 public health crisis has had a significant impact on surgical education, including how selection is conducted. Virtual recruitment has the potential for cost savings but should continue to be refined. This is an opportune time to innovate and rethink how to recruit prospective surgical residency and fellowship candidates during the current and forthcoming interview seasons.

Title: Surgical wait list management in Canada during a pandemic: many challenges ahead Content: Summary: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a massive impact on waits for elective operations, with tens of thousands of scheduled surgeries being cancelled or postponed across Canada. Provincial governments will likely not only reopen elective surgical capacity when it is deemed safe, but also target new funding to address the backlog of cases. There is a dearth of research on whether the provinces' approaches to managing wait lists are equitable from a patients' needs perspective or if they are associated with patients' perception of outcomes. The surgical cost models used in the past won't be useful to governments and hospital managers. New models based on hospitals' marginal costs, associated with running on weekends or off-hours and social distancing parameters, will be needed. Surgeon input, collaboration and leadership during the strategy development, implementation and management of surgical wait lists postpandemic will be imperative, as these decisions will significantly affect the health and lives of many Canadians.

Title: Surgical wait list management in Canada during a pandemic: many challenges ahead. Content: Summary The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a massive impact on waits for elective operations, with tens of thousands of scheduled surgeries being cancelled or postponed across Canada. Provincial governments will likely not only reopen elective surgical capacity when it is deemed safe, but also target new funding to address the backlog of cases. There is a dearth of research on whether the provinces' approaches to managing wait lists are equitable from a patients' needs perspective or if they are associated with patients' perception of outcomes. The surgical cost models used in the past won't be useful to governments and hospital managers. New models based on hospitals' marginal costs, associated with running on weekends or off-hours and social distancing parameters, will be needed. Surgeon input, collaboration and leadership during the strategy development, implementation and management of surgical wait lists postpandemic will be imperative, as these decisions will significantly affect the health and lives of many Canadians.

Title: Novel Coronavirus, Old Partisanship: COVID-19 Attitudes and Behaviours in the United States and Canada Content: The novel coronavirus reached the United States and Canada almost at the same time. The first reported American case was January 20, 2020, and in Canada it was January 15, 2020 (Canada, 2020; Holshue et al., 2020). Yet, the response to this crisis has been different in the two countries. In the US, President Donald Trump, prominent Republicans, and conservative media initially dismissed the dangers of COVID-19 (Stecula, 2020). The pandemic became politicized from the early days, and even though Trump and Republicans have walked back many of their initial claims, there continue to be media reports of partisan differences in public opinion shaped by that early response. At the same time, the response in Canada has been mostly characterized by across-the-board partisan consensus among political elites (Merkley et al., 2020).

Title: Mathematical modelling of COVID-19 transmission and mitigation strategies in the population of Ontario, Canada. Content: BACKGROUND Physical-distancing interventions are being used in Canada to slow the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, but it is not clear how effective they will be. We evaluated how different nonpharmaceutical interventions could be used to control the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and reduce the burden on the health care system. METHODS We used an age-structured compartmental model of COVID-19 transmission in the population of Ontario, Canada. We compared a base case with limited testing, isolation and quarantine to scenarios with the following: enhanced case finding, restrictive physical-distancing measures, or a combination of enhanced case finding and less restrictive physical distancing. Interventions were either implemented for fixed durations or dynamically cycled on and off, based on projected occupancy of intensive care unit (ICU) beds. We present medians and credible intervals from 100 replicates per scenario using a 2-year time horizon. RESULTS We estimated that 56% (95% credible interval 42%-63%) of the Ontario population would be infected over the course of the epidemic in the base case. At the epidemic peak, we projected 107 000 (95% credible interval 60 760-149 000) cases in hospital (non-ICU) and 55 500 (95% credible interval 32 700-75 200) cases in ICU. For fixed-duration scenarios, all interventions were projected to delay and reduce the height of the epidemic peak relative to the base case, with restrictive physical distancing estimated to have the greatest effect. Longer duration interventions were more effective. Dynamic interventions were projected to reduce the proportion of the population infected at the end of the 2-year period and could reduce the median number of cases in ICU below current estimates of Ontario's ICU capacity. INTERPRETATION Without substantial physical distancing or a combination of moderate physical distancing with enhanced case finding, we project that ICU resources would be overwhelmed. Dynamic physical distancing could maintain health-system capacity and also allow periodic psychological andeconomic respite for populations.

Title: Mathematical modelling of COVID-19 transmission and mitigation strategies in the population of Ontario, Canada Content: BACKGROUND: Physical-distancing interventions are being used in Canada to slow the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, but it is not clear how effective they will be. We evaluated how different nonpharmaceutical interventions could be used to control the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and reduce the burden on the health care system. METHODS: We used an age-structured compartmental model of COVID-19 transmission in the population of Ontario, Canada. We compared a base case with limited testing, isolation and quarantine to scenarios with the following: enhanced case finding, restrictive physical-distancing measures, or a combination of enhanced case finding and less restrictive physical distancing. Interventions were either implemented for fixed durations or dynamically cycled on and off, based on projected occupancy of intensive care unit (ICU) beds. We present medians and credible intervals from 100 replicates per scenario using a 2-year time horizon. RESULTS: We estimated that 56% (95% credible interval 42%-63%) of the Ontario population would be infected over the course of the epidemic in the base case. At the epidemic peak, we projected 107 000 (95% credible interval 60 760-149 000) cases in hospital (non-ICU) and 55 500 (95% credible interval 32 700-75 200) cases in ICU. For fixed-duration scenarios, all interventions were projected to delay and reduce the height of the epidemic peak relative to the base case, with restrictive physical distancing estimated to have the greatest effect. Longer duration interventions were more effective. Dynamic interventions were projected to reduce the proportion of the population infected at the end of the 2-year period and could reduce the median number of cases in ICU below current estimates of Ontario's ICU capacity. INTERPRETATION: Without substantial physical distancing or a combination of moderate physical distancing with enhanced case finding, we project that ICU resources would be overwhelmed. Dynamic physical distancing could maintain health-system capacity and also allow periodic psychological and economic respite for populations.

Title: Long time frames to detect the impact of changing COVID-19 control measures Content: Background: Many countries have implemented population-wide interventions such as physical distancing measures, in efforts to control COVID-19. The extent and success of such measures has varied. Many jurisdictions with declines in reported COVID-19 cases are moving to relax measures, while others are continuing to intensify efforts to reduce transmission. Aim: We aim to determine the time frame between a change in COVID-19 measures at the population level and the observable impact of such a change on cases. Methods: We examine how long it takes for there to be a substantial difference between the cases that occur following a change in control measures and those that would have occurred at baseline. We then examine how long it takes to detect a difference, given delays and noise in reported cases. We use changes in population-level (e.g., distancing) control measures informed by data and estimates from British Columbia, Canada. Results: We find that the time frames are long: it takes three weeks or more before we might expect a substantial difference in cases given a change in population-level COVID-19 control, and it takes slightly longer to detect the impacts of the change. The time frames are shorter (11-15 days) for dramatic changes in control, and they are impacted by noise and delays in the testing and reporting process, with delays reaching up to 25-40 days. Conclusion: The time until a change in broad control measures has an observed impact is longer than is typically understood, and is longer than the mean incubation period (time between exposure than onset) and the often used 14 day time period. Policy makers and public health planners should consider this when assessing the impact of policy change, and efforts should be made to develop rapid, consistent real-time COVID-19 surveillance.

Title: Effects of memory on the shapes of simple outbreak trees Content: Genomic tools, including phylogenetic trees derived from sequence data, are increasingly used to understand outbreaks of infectious diseases. One challenge is to link phylogenetic trees to patterns of transmission. Particularly in bacteria that cause chronic infections, this inference is affected by variable infectious periods and infectivity over time. It is known that non-exponential infectious periods can have substantial effects on pathogens’ transmission dynamics. Here we ask how this non-Markovian nature of an outbreak process affects the branching trees describing that process, with particular focus on tree shapes. We simulate Crump-Mode-Jagers branching processes and compare different patterns of infectivity over time. We find that memory (non-Markovian-ness) in the process can have a pronounced effect on the shapes of the outbreak’s branching pattern. However, memory also has a pronounced effect on the sizes of the trees, even when the duration of the simulation is fixed. When the sizes of the trees are constrained to a constant value, memory in our processes has little direct effect on tree shapes, but can bias inference of the birth rate from trees. We compare simulated branching trees to phylogenetic trees from an outbreak of tuberculosis in Canada, and discuss the relevance of memory to this dataset.

Title: Can India stay immune enough to combat COVID‐19 pandemic? An economic query Content: The COVID‐19 pandemic has affected different sectors of the economy in an unprecedented way, and this article is an attempt to analyze the economic effect of the outbreak in India. However, before we assess the economic cost associated with the pandemic, we economists fully consider the outbreak as a human tragedy. There has not been any econometric technique that can account the countless human sufferings that the crisis has brought. Through this article, we address several important research questions and demonstrate India's strength to stay immune to combat COVID‐19 pandemic. The research questions are as follows. First, what will be the effect of COVID‐19 on the Indian economy and how does it affect the different sectors of the economy? Second, how does the pandemic affect the bilateral trade relation between India and China? Third, we question the role of the public health system in dealing with the outbreak of the virus in India. This article also presents the growth projection of the Indian economy by different economic agents. We finally conclude the article by mentioning a few policy recommendations for the Indian economy.

Title: Resilience in the time of pandemic: The experience of community pharmacists in Ontario during COVID-19 Content: BACKGROUND: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant disruption of the practice of pharmacy. Importantly, in many parts of the world, this disruption occurred literally overnight, requiring pharmacists to demonstrate significant adaptability and resiliency in order to manage continuing and in some cases expanding needs of patients. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this research was to characterize how community pharmacy in Ontario (Canada) responded to the COVID-19 pandemic of winter/spring 2020, in particula in understanding what factors may influence or predict resiliency of individual practitioners and their workplaces. METHODS: One-on-one interviews mediated through technology (Microsoft Teams) were used, following a semi-structured interview protocol. Verbatim transcripts were produced and analyzed by two independent researchers, using an inductive coding process to identify and characterize themes. RESULTS: A total of 21 pharmacists participated in this study. Six themes were identified: a) use of and comfort with technology; b) early adoption of corporate and professional guidance; c) workplaces that emphasized task-focus rather than multi-tasking were more resilient; d) scheduling methods and practices in the workplace are important for personal resilience; e) dedicated specialty staff allowed pharmacists to focus on their work; and f) provision of personal protective equipment was essential. CONCLUSIONS: Traditionally, resilience in professional practice has been characterized as a personal, not a workplace, issue. This study suggests that personal resiliency for pharmacists requires substantial workplace support; further work in this area is required to better understand how pharmacists adapt to complex and difficult situations such as pandemics.

Title: Resilience in the time of pandemic: The experience of community pharmacists during COVID-19 Content: BACKGROUND: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant disruption of the practice of pharmacy. Importantly, in many parts of the world, this disruption occurred literally overnight, requiring pharmacists to demonstrate significant adaptability and resiliency in order to manage continuing and in some cases expanding needs of patients. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this research was to characterize how community pharmacy in Ontario (Canada) responded to the COVID-19 pandemic of winter/spring 2020, in particular in understanding what factors may influence or predict resiliency of individual practitioners and their workplaces. METHODS: One-on-one interviews mediated through technology (Microsoft Teams) were used, following a semi-structured interview protocol. Verbatim transcripts were produced and analyzed by two independent researchers, using an inductive coding process to identify and characterize themes. RESULTS: A total of 21 pharmacists participated in this study. Six themes were identified: a) use of and comfort with technology; b) early adoption of corporate and professional guidance; c) workplaces that emphasized task-focus rather than multi-tasking were more resilient; d) scheduling methods and practices in the workplace are important for personal resilience; e) dedicated specialty staff allowed pharmacists to focus on their work; and f) provision of personal protective equipment was essential. CONCLUSIONS: Traditionally, resilience in professional practice has been characterized as a personal, not a workplace, issue. This study suggests that personal resiliency for pharmacists requires substantial workplace support; further work in this area is required to better understand how pharmacists adapt to complex and difficult situations such as pandemics.

Title: Precautions and Procedures for Coronary and Structural Cardiac Interventions during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Guidance from Canadian Association of Interventional Cardiology Content: Abstract The globe is currently in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. This pandemic has placed considerable stress on health care resources and providers. This document from the Canadian Association of Interventional Cardiology - Association Canadienne de Cardiologie d'intervention, specifically addresses the implications for the care of patients in the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory (CCL) in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. The key principles of this document are to maintain essential interventional cardiovascular care while minimizing risks of COVID-19 to patients/staff and maintaining the overall healthcare resources. As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, procedures will be increased or reduced based on the current level of restriction to health care services. While some consistency across the country is desirable, provincial and regional considerations will influence how these recommendations are implemented. We believe the framework and recommendations in this document will provide crucial guidance for clinicians and policy makers on the management of coronary and structural procedures in the CCL as the COVID-19 pandemic escalates and eventually abates.

Title: Precautions and Procedures for Coronary and Structural Cardiac Interventions During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Guidance from Canadian Association of Interventional Cardiology Content: The globe is currently in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. This pandemic has placed considerable stress on health care resources and providers. This document from the Canadian Association of Interventional Cardiology- Association Canadienne de Cardiologie d'intervention, specifically addresses the implications for the care of patients in the cardiac catheterization laboratory (CCL) in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. The key principles of this document are to maintain essential interventional cardiovascular care while minimizing risks of COVID-19 to patients and staff and maintaining the overall health care resources. As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, procedures will be increased or reduced based on the current level of restriction to health care services. Although some consistency across the country is desirable, provincial and regional considerations will influence how these recommendations are implemented. We believe the framework and recommendations in this document will provide crucial guidance for clinicians and policy makers on the management of coronary and structural procedures in the CCL as the COVID-19 pandemic escalates and eventually abates.

Title: Canadian banks’ responses to COVID-19: a strategic positioning analysis Content: The Canadian banking system is among the best in the world. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is challenged and banks are expected to rescue society. Businesses are revising, repurposing, and reinventing their products and services to address people’s needs. In this context, this article seeks to understand how Canada’s banks are supporting their clients and communities, during the current health crisis. Content analysis was conducted to analyse Canada’s ten largest banks’ supporting actions towards the pandemic, leading to 125 documents and 19 different actions consulted. Based on the data, a combination of hierarchical clustering and multidimensional scaling was conducted. Following a CSR approach, three clusters of banks are identified: sweeping actions, cautious actions, and wait & see, highlighting that while most banks are doing little to help their stakeholders, three of them have a proactive and strong commitment to their clients and communities in these times of need.

Title: Tracking the origin of early COVID-19 cases in Canada Content: The original coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, China has become a global pandemic. By tracking the earliest 118 COVID-19 cases in Canada, we produced a Voronoi treemap to show the travel origins of the country's earliest COVID-19 cases. By March 11, 2020, even though the majority (64.1%) of the world's COVID-19 confirmed cases still had their origin in China, only 7.6% of Canada's first 118 COVID-19 cases arose due in travelers to China. The most commonly reported travel history among the 118 cases originated from the Middle East, the United States, and Europe. Thus, in retrospect, broadening of early screening tools and travel restrictions to countries and regions outside China may help control global COVID-19 spread.

Title: Tracking the origin of early COVID-19 cases in Canada Content: Abstract The original coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, China has become a global pandemic. By tracking the earliest 118 COVID-19 cases in Canada, we produced a Voronoi treemap to show the travel origins of the country’s earliest COVID-19 cases. By March 11, 2020, even though the majority (64.1%) of the world’s COVID-19 confirmed cases still had their origin in China, only 7.6% of Canada’s first 118 COVID-19 cases arose due in travelers to China. The most commonly reported travel history among the 118 cases originated from the Middle East, the United States, and Europe. Thus, in retrospect, broadening of early screening tools and travel restrictions to countries and regions outside China may help control global COVID-19 spread.

Title: COVID-19 and careers: On the futility of generational explanations Content: It is common to broadly group people of different ages into "generations" and to speak of distinctions between such groups in terms of "generational differences." The problem with this practice, is that there exists no credible scientific evidence that (a) generations exist, (b) that people can be reliably classified into generational groups, and (c) that there are demonstrable differences between such groups. We have already noted an emerging generationalized rhetoric that has characterized how people of different ages have been affected by and reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic. These narratives have been especially present in discussions of how work and careers will be affected by this crisis. In this essay, we outline problems with applying the concept of generations, especially for researchers seeking explanations for how COVID-19 will affect careers and career development. We urge researchers to eschew the notion of generations and generational differences and consider alternative lifespan development theoretical frameworks that better capture age-graded processes.

Title: COVID-19 and careers: On the futility of generational explanations Content: Abstract It is common to broadly group people of different ages into “generations” and to speak of distinctions between such groups in terms of “generational differences.” The problem with this practice, is that there exists no credible scientific evidence that (a) generations exist, (b) that people can be reliably classified into generational groups, and (c) that there are demonstrable differences between such groups. We have already noted an emerging generationalized rhetoric that has characterized how people of different ages have been affected by and reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic. These narratives have been especially present in discussions of how work and careers will be affected by this crisis. In this essay, we outline problems with applying the concept of generations, especially for researchers seeking explanations for how COVID-19 will affect careers and career development. We urge researchers to eschew the notion of generations and generational differences and consider alternative lifespan development theoretical frameworks that better capture age-graded processes.

Title: COVID‐19 and Indigenous Peoples: An imperative for action Content: Every person on Earth has been affected in some way by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. However, there is a marked inequity in the impact and threat of the disease for the 370 million Indigenous Peoples worldwide. While honouring diversity in peoples and cultures, this editorial (written by a collaborative of Indigenous nurses from Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Canada, the United States of America and Central America), explores contemporary issues raised for Indigenous communities by this latest public health emergency. Please note, while we may describe a situation about a specific Indigenous group, readers can be assured that the issues we raise are endemic across colonised Indigenous communities globally.

Title: Fear, affective semiosis, and management of the pandemic crisis: Covid-19 as semiotic vaccine? Content: The COVID-19 pandemic represents an extraordinary challenge to clinicians, health care institutions and policymakers. The paper outlines a psychoanalytically grounded semiotic-cultural psychological interpretation of such a scenario. First, we underline how the actual emotional reaction (mainly of fear) of our society is a marker of how the mind functions in conditions of affective activation related to heightened uncertainty: it produces global, homogenizing and generalizing embodied interpretations of reality, at the cost of more fine-grained and differentiated analytical thought. Such a process, called affective semiosis, represents an adaptive response to the emergency in the short-term. Second, we argue that this adaptive value provided by affective semiosis will be reduced when we have to deal with the process of managing the transition to the post-crisis and the governance of the medium and long-term impact of the crisis. Third, we suggest that, in order to manage the pandemic crisis on a longer temporal frame, affective semiosis has to be integrated with less generalized and more domain-specific ways of interpreting reality. To this end, semiotic capital (i.e., culturally-mediated symbolic resources) should be promoted in order to enable people to interiorize the supra-individual and collective dimension of life. Accordingly, COVID-19 is proposed as a semiotic vaccine, a disruption in our everyday life routines which has the potential of opening the way to a semiotic re-appropriation of the collective dimensions of our experience.

Title: Talk COVID to Me: Language Rights and Canadian Government Responses to the Pandemic Content: Since the COVID-19 outbreak, a gradual loosening of linguistic obligations in public institutions and governments has been observed in various jurisdictions in Canada. This article argues that in addition to legal requirements to provide minority language services, it is not justifiable for governments to suspend or curtail such services in an emergency situation, for reasons pertaining to public safety and public health. After performing a survey and analysis of government actions against their constitutional, legislative, and policy language obligations to highlight best practices and deficiencies, we discuss the policy implications of these actions. In conclusion, the article considers how governments could better uphold their language obligations in times of emergency.

Title: Analysis of Outbreak and Global Impacts of the COVID-19 Content: Corona viruses are a large family of viruses that are not only restricted to causing illness in humans but also affect animals such as camels, cattle, cats, and bats, thus affecting a large group of living species The outbreak of Corona virus in late December 2019 (also known as COVID-19) raised major concerns when the outbreak started getting tremendous While the first case was discovered in Wuhan, China, it did not take long for the disease to travel across the globe and infect every continent (except Antarctica), killing thousands of people Since it has become a global concern, different countries have been working toward the treatment and generation of vaccine, leading to different speculations While some argue that the vaccine may only be a few weeks away, others believe that it may take some time to create the vaccine Given the increasing number of deaths, the COVID-19 has caused havoc worldwide and is a matter of serious concern Thus, there is a need to study how the disease has been propagating across continents by numbers as well as by regions This study incorporates a detailed description of how the COVID-19 outbreak started in China and managed to spread across the globe rapidly We take into account the COVID-19 outbreak cases (confirmed, recovered, death) in order to make some observations regarding the pandemic Given the detailed description of the outbreak, this study would be beneficial to certain industries that may be affected by the outbreak in order to take timely precautionary measures in the future Further, the study lists some industries that have witnessed the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on a global scale

Title: The Coronavirus 2019 pandemic in Canada: the impact of public health interventions on the course of the outbreak in Alberta and other provinces Content: Background: The SARS-CoV-2 disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has spread across the world with varying impact on health systems and outcomes. We assessed how the type and timing of public- health interventions impacted the course of the outbreak in Alberta and other Canadian provinces. Methods: We used publicly-available data to summarize rates of laboratory data and mortality in relation to measures implemented to contain the outbreak and testing strategy. We estimated the transmission potential of SARS-CoV-2 before the state of emergency declaration for each province (R0) and at the study end date (Rt). Results: The first cases were confirmed in Ontario (January 25) and British Columbia (January 28). All provinces implemented the same health-policy measures between March 12 and March 30. Alberta had a higher percentage of the population tested (3.8%) and a lower mortality rate (3/100,000) than Ontario (2.6%; 11/100,000) or Quebec (3.1%; 31/100,000). British Columbia tested fewer people (1.7%) and had similar mortality as Alberta. Data on provincial testing strategies were insufficient to inform further analyses. Mortality rates increased with increasing rates of lab- confirmed cases in Ontario and Quebec, but not in Alberta. R0 was similar across all provinces, but varied widely from 2.6 (95% confidence intervals 1.9-3.4) to 6.4 (4.3-8.5), depending on the assumed time interval between onset of symptoms in a primary and a secondary case (serial interval). The outbreak is currently under control in Alberta, British Columbia and Nova Scotia (Rt <1). Interpretation: COVID-19-related health outcomes varied by province despite rapid implementation of similar health-policy interventions across Canada. Insufficient information about provincial testing strategies and a lack of primary data on serial interval are major limitations of existing data on the Canadian COVID-19 outbreak.

Title: Cybercrime in America amid COVID-19: the Initial Results from a Natural Experiment Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has radically altered life, killing hundreds of thousands of people and leading many countries to issue “stay-at-home” orders to contain the virus’s spread. Based on insights from routine activity theory (Cohen & Felson 1979), it is likely that COVID-19 will influence victimization rates as people alter their routines and spend more time at home and less time in public. Yet, the pandemic may affect victimization differently depending on the type of crime as street crimes appear to be decreasing while domestic crimes may be increasing. We consider a third type of crime: cybercrime. Treating the pandemic as a natural experiment, we investigate how the pandemic has affected rates of cybervictimization. We compare pre-pandemic rates of victimization with post-pandemic rates of victimization using datasets designed to track cybercrime. After considering how the pandemic may alter routines and affect cybervictimization, we find that the pandemic has not radically altered cyberroutines nor changed cybervictimization rates. However, a model using routine activity theory to predict cybervictimization offers clear support for the theory’s efficacy both before and after the pandemic. We conclude by considering plausible explanations for our findings.

Title: Caring for Frail Older Adults During COVID-19: Integrating Public Health Ethics into Clinical Practice Content: During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, principles from both clinical and public health ethics cue clinicians and healthcare administrators to plan alternatives for frail older adults who prefer to avoid critical care, and for when critical care is not available due to crisis triaging. This article will explore the COVID-19 Ethical Decision Making Framework, published in British Columbia (BC), Canada, to familiarize clinicians and policy makers with how ethical principles can guide systems change, in the service of frail older adults. In BC, the healthcare system has launched resources to support clinicians in proactive advance care planning discussions, and is providing enhanced supportive and palliative care options to residents of long-term care facilities. If the pandemic truly overwhelms the healthcare system, frailty, but not age alone, provides a fair and evidence-based means of triaging patients for critical care and could be included into ventilator allocation frameworks.

Title: Caring for Frail Older Adults During COVID‐19: integrating public health ethics into clinical practice Content: During the COVID‐19 pandemic, principles from both clinical and public health ethics cue clinicians and health care administrators to plan alternatives for frail older adults who prefer to avoid critical care, and for when critical care is not available due to crisis triaging. This paper will explore the COVID‐19 Ethical Decision Making Framework, published in British Columbia, Canada, to familiarize clinicians and policy makers with how ethical principles can guide systems change, in the service of frail older adults. In British Columbia, the health care system has launched resources to support clinicians in proactive advance care planning discussions, and is providing enhanced supportive and palliative care options to residents of long term care facilities. If the pandemic truly overwhelms the healthcare system, frailty, but not age alone, provides a fair and evidence‐based means of triaging patients for critical care and could be included into ventilator allocation frameworks. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Title: It can be dangerous to take epidemic curves of COVID-19 at face value Content: During an epidemic with a new virus, we depend on modelling to plan the response: but how good are the data? The aim of our work was to better understand the impact of misclassification errors in identification of true cases of COVID-19 on epidemic curves. Data originated from Alberta, Canada (available on 28 May 2020). There is presently no information of sensitivity (Sn) and specificity (Sp) of laboratory tests used in Canada for the causal agent for COVID-19. Therefore, we examined best attainable performance in other jurisdictions and similar viruses. This suggested perfect Sp and Sn 60-95%. We used these values to re-calculate epidemic curves to visualize the potential bias due to imperfect testing. If the sensitivity improved, the observed and adjusted epidemic curves likely fall within 95% confidence intervals of the observed counts. However, bias in shape and peak of the epidemic curves can be pronounced, if sensitivity either degrades or remains poor in the 60-70% range. These issues are minor early in the epidemic, but hundreds of undiagnosed cases are likely later on. It is therefore hazardous to judge progress of the epidemic based on observed epidemic curves unless quality of testing is better understood.

Title: Flattening the curves: on-off lock-down strategies for COVID-19 with an application to Brazi Content: The current COVID-19 pandemic is affecting different countries in different ways. The assortment of reporting techniques alongside other issues, such as underreporting and budgetary constraints, makes predicting the spread and lethality of the virus a challenging task. This work attempts to gain a better understanding of how COVID-19 will affect one of the least studied countries, namely Brazil. Currently, several Brazilian states are in a state of lock-down. However, there is political pressure for this type of measures to be lifted. This work considers the impact that such a termination would have on how the virus evolves locally. This was done by extending the SEIR model with an on / off strategy. Given the simplicity of SEIR we also attempted to gain more insight by developing a neural regressor. We chose to employ features that current clinical studies have pinpointed has having a connection to the lethality of COVID-19. We discuss how this data can be processed in order to obtain a robust assessment.

Title: The impact of COVID‐19 on food retail and food service in Canada: Preliminary assessment Content: COVID‐19 has imposed a series of unique challenges on the food retail and food service sectors in Canada. Almost overnight, the roughly 30% of the food dollar that Canadians have been spending on food away from home has shifted to retail.

Title: The COVID‐19 Pandemic: Anticipating its Effects on Canada's Agricultural Trade Content: With the deep recession now forecast for the world economy, trade can be expected to fall even more steeply. Agricultural trade will be less significantly affected, being insulated by its relatively low income elasticities of demand. However, a drop in the range of 12 to 20 percent in real trade value should be expected. Canada can be expected to share in this, but, within agricultural exports, cereals will be least affected. This minimal expected impact to cereals stems from the risk of wheat export bans by Russia and Kazakhstan, due to the resulting increase in wheat prices. Livestock, pulses, and horticulture can be expected to face a larger decline in trade prospects and revenues. An equally large threat to falling incomes in our trade partners is their policy responses, particularly the potential increase in import restrictions. These may take the form of more costly inspections, tightened SPS and food safety regulations, and protectionist measures from competing domestic producers. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Title: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on marginalized populations in the United States: A research agenda Content: Abstract International and national crises often highlight inequalities in the labor market that disproportionately affect individuals from marginalized backgrounds. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting changes in society due to social distancing measures, has showcased inequities in access to decent work and experiences of discrimination resulting in many of the vulnerable populations in the United States experiencing a much harsher impact on economic and work-related factors. The purpose of this essay is to describe how the COVID-19 pandemic may differentially affect workers of color, individuals from low-income backgrounds, and women in complex ways. First, this essay will discuss disproportionate representation of workers from low-income and racial/ethnic minority backgrounds in sectors most affected by COVID-19. Second, it will discuss the lack of decent work for low-income workers who perform “essential” tasks. Third, this essay will highlight economic and work-related implications of increased discrimination Asian Americans are experiencing in society. Finally, role conflict and stress for women who are managing additional unpaid work, including caretaking responsibilities, while needing to continue to engage in paid work will be examined. A research agenda will be set forth throughout the essay, calling for vocational psychologists to engage in research that fully examines how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting vulnerable communities.

Title: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on marginalized populations in the United States: A research agenda Content: International and national crises often highlight inequalities in the labor market that disproportionately affect individuals from marginalized backgrounds. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting changes in society due to social distancing measures, has showcased inequities in access to decent work and experiences of discrimination resulting in many of the vulnerable populations in the United States experiencing a much harsher impact on economic and work-related factors. The purpose of this essay is to describe how the COVID-19 pandemic may differentially affect workers of color, individuals from low-income backgrounds, and women in complex ways. First, this essay will discuss disproportionate representation of workers from low-income and racial/ethnic minority backgrounds in sectors most affected by COVID-19. Second, it will discuss the lack of decent work for low-income workers who perform "essential" tasks. Third, this essay will highlight economic and work-related implications of increased discrimination Asian Americans are experiencing in society. Finally, role conflict and stress for women who are managing additional unpaid work, including caretaking responsibilities, while needing to continue to engage in paid work will be examined. A research agenda will be set forth throughout the essay, calling for vocational psychologists to engage in research that fully examines how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting vulnerable communities.

Title: Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Approaches Needed to Determine Impact of COVID-19 on Older Adults and Aging: CAG/ACG and CJA/RCV Joint Statement Content: The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent state of public emergency have significantly affected older adults in Canada and worldwide. It is imperative that the gerontological response be efficient and effective. In this statement, the board members of the Canadian Association on Gerontology/L’Association canadienne de gérontologie (CAG/ACG) and the Canadian Journal on Aging/La revue canadienne du vieillissement (CJA/RCV) acknowledge the contributions of CAG/ACG members and CJA/RCV readers. We also profile the complex ways that COVID-19 is affecting older adults, from individual to population levels, and advocate for the adoption of multidisciplinary collaborative teams to bring together different perspectives, areas of expertise, and methods of evaluation in the COVID-19 response.

Title: Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Approaches Needed to Determine Impact of COVID-19 on Older Adults and Aging: CAG/ACG and CJA/RCV Joint Statement Content: The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent state of public emergency have significantly affected older adults in Canada and worldwide. It is imperative that the gerontological response be efficient and effective. In this statement, the board members of the Canadian Association on Gerontology/L'Association canadienne de gérontologie (CAG/ACG) and the Canadian Journal on Aging/La revue canadienne du vieillissement (CJA/RCV) acknowledge the contributions of CAG/ACG members and CJA/RCV readers. We also profile the complex ways that COVID-19 is affecting older adults, from individual to population levels, and advocate for the adoption of multidisciplinary collaborative teams to bring together different perspectives, areas of expertise, and methods of evaluation in the COVID-19 response.

Title: It can be dangerous to take epidemic curves of COVID-19 at face value Content: During an epidemic with a new virus, we depend on modelling to plan the response: but how good are the data? The aim of our work was to better understand the impact of misclassification errors in identification of true cases of COVID-19 on epidemic curves. Data originated from Alberta, Canada (available on 28 May 2020). There is presently no information of sensitivity (Sn) and specificity (Sp) of laboratory tests used in Canada for the causal agent for COVID-19. Therefore, we examined best attainable performance in other jurisdictions and similar viruses. This suggested perfect Sp and Sn 60–95%. We used these values to re-calculate epidemic curves to visualize the potential bias due to imperfect testing. If the sensitivity improved, the observed and adjusted epidemic curves likely fall within 95% confidence intervals of the observed counts. However, bias in shape and peak of the epidemic curves can be pronounced, if sensitivity either degrades or remains poor in the 60–70% range. These issues are minor early in the epidemic, but hundreds of undiagnosed cases are likely later on. It is therefore hazardous to judge progress of the epidemic based on observed epidemic curves unless quality of testing is better understood. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.17269/s41997-020-00367-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Title: Syndromic Surveillance for COVID-19 in Canada Content: Background: Syndromic surveillance through web or phone-based polling has been used to track the course of infectious diseases worldwide. Our study objective was to describe the characteristics, symptoms, and self-reported testing rates of respondents in three different COVID-19 symptom surveys in Canada. Methods: Data sources consisted of two distinct Canada-wide web-based surveys, and phone polling in Ontario. All three sources contained self-reported information on COVID-19 symptoms and testing. In addition to describing respondent characteristics, we examined symptom frequency and the testing rate among the symptomatic, as well as rates of symptoms and testing across respondent groups. Results: We found that 1.6% of respondents experienced a symptom on the day of their survey, 15% of Ontario households had a symptom in the previous week, and 44% of Canada-wide respondents had a symptom in the previous month over March-April 2020. Across the three surveys, SARS-CoV-2-testing was reported in 2-9% of symptomatic responses. Women, younger and middle-aged adults (versus older adults) and Indigenous/First nations/Inuit/Metis were more likely to report at least one symptom, and visible minorities were more likely to report the combination of fever with cough or shortness of breath. Interpretation: The low rate of testing among those reporting symptoms suggests significant opportunity to expand testing among community-dwelling residents of Canada. Syndromic surveillance data can supplement public health reports and provide much-needed context to gauge the adequacy of current SARS-CoV-2 testing rates.

Title: Post-Covid-19 Education and Education Technology ‘Solutionism’: a Seller’s Market Content: The Covid-19 pandemic and the social distancing that followed have affected all walks of society, also education. In order to keep education running, educational institutions have had to quickly adapt to the situation. This has resulted in an unprecedented push to online learning. Many, including commercial digital learning platform providers, have rushed to provide their support and ‘solutions’, sometimes for free. The Covid-19 pandemic has therefore also created a sellers’ market in ed-tech. This paper employs a critical lens to reflect on the possible problems arising from hasty adoption of commercial digital learning solutions whose design might not always be driven by best pedagogical practices but their business model that leverages user data for profit-making. Moreover, already before Covid-19, there has been increasing critique of how ed-tech is redefining and reducing concepts of teaching and learning. The paper also challenges the narrative that claims, ‘education is broken, and it should and can be fixed with technology’. Such technologization, often seen as neutral, is closely related to educationalization, i.e. imposing growing societal problems for education to resolve. Therefore, this is a critical moment to reflect how the current choices educational institutions are making might affect with Covid-19 education and online learning: Will they reinforce capitalist instrumental view of education or promote holistic human growth? This paper urges educational leaders to think carefully about the decisions they are currently making and if they indeed pave the way to a desirable future of education.

Title: Reduced COVID-19-Related Critical Illness and Death, and High Risk of Epidemic Resurgence, After Physical Distancing in Ontario, Canada Content: We explored the impact of physical distancing measures on COVID-19 transmission in the population of Ontario, Canada using a previously described age- and health-status stratified transmission model. The model was fit to confirmed cases occupying intensive care unit (ICU) beds and mortality among hospitalized COVID-19 cases for the time period 19 March to 26 April 2020. We projected that mortality would have been 4.6-fold what was observed had physical distancing measures not been implemented in the province. Relaxation of physical distancing measures without compensatory increases in case detection, isolation, and/or contact tracing was projected to result in resurgence of disease activity. Return to normal or near-normal levels of contact would rapidly result in cases exceeding ICU capacity. Maintaining physical distancing for a longer period of time, allowing for the initial wave of infections to subside, delayed this resurgence, but the level of contacts post-restrictive distancing was the major factor determining how quickly ICU capacity was expected to be overwhelmed. Using a model, we demonstrate the marked impact strong public health measures had in reducing ICU admissions and mortality in Ontario. We also show that this hard-earned success is tenuous: relaxation of physical distancing measures in the near-term is projected to result in a rapid resurgence of disease activity.

Title: How long will social distancing take to work? Experts weigh in on Canada's COVID-19 response Content:

Title: How long will social distancing take to work? Experts weigh in on Canada's COVID-19 response. Content:

Title: Proceedings of the OMS COVID-19 Response Conference Content: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the world in unprecedented ways. It is clear that this pandemic, unlike any public health challenge in recent memory, has the potential to fundamentally alter the delivery of many healthcare services, including the practice of oral and maxillofacial surgery. In response to this global health crisis, the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS) COVID-19 Response Conference was held virtually on April 9, 2020, organized by oral and maxillofacial surgeons (OMSs) and administrators from multiple institutions to provide a forum for OMSs to discuss how COVID-19 has affected the specialty. As evidence-based information on COVID-19 continues to emerge, the present report serves as a method to disseminate the current opinions and management strategies from a variety of experts in OMS.

Title: Letter to the editor in response to: COVID-19 pandemic and challenges for socio-economic issues, healthcare and national programs in India (Gopalan and Misra) Content: Article by Gopalan and Misra is very informative and covers the current challenges arising due to COVID-19. Further, authors has attempted to explore the various socioeconomic and medical aspects affected during this COVID-19 pandemic. It starts with the economic issues, social impacts, cultural influences, and the health related national programs which are regularly getting impacted owing to the ongoing epidemic. The paper throws light on how the pandemic has strongly affected the jobs, businesses transportation, travel, and other sectors which ultimately influence the social-economic balance of the society. This has further led to the decrease in the GDP of the country. The daily wagers and the local business personnel are the most affected ones during this period.

Title: The Impact of Social Media on Panic During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Iraqi Kurdistan: Online Questionnaire Study Content: BACKGROUND: In the first few months of 2020, information and news reports about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were rapidly published and shared on social media and social networking sites. While the field of infodemiology has studied information patterns on the Web and in social media for at least 18 years, the COVID-19 pandemic has been referred to as the first social media infodemic. However, there is limited evidence about whether and how the social media infodemic has spread panic and affected the mental health of social media users. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to determine how social media affects self-reported mental health and the spread of panic about COVID-19 in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. METHODS: To carry out this study, an online questionnaire was prepared and conducted in Iraqi Kurdistan, and a total of 516 social media users were sampled. This study deployed a content analysis method for data analysis. Correspondingly, data were analyzed using SPSS software. RESULTS: Participants reported that social media has a significant impact on spreading fear and panic related to the COVID-19 outbreak in Iraqi Kurdistan, with a potential negative influence on people’s mental health and psychological well-being. Facebook was the most used social media network for spreading panic about the COVID-19 outbreak in Iraq. We found a significant positive statistical correlation between self-reported social media use and the spread of panic related to COVID-19 (R=.8701). Our results showed that the majority of youths aged 18-35 years are facing psychological anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: During lockdown, people are using social media platforms to gain information about COVID-19. The nature of the impact of social media panic among people varies depending on an individual's gender, age, and level of education. Social media has played a key role in spreading anxiety about the COVID-19 outbreak in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Title: The Impact of Social Media on Panic During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Iraqi Kurdistan: Online Questionnaire Study Content: BACKGROUND: In the first few months of 2020, information and news reports about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were rapidly published and shared on social media and social networking sites. While the field of infodemiology has studied information patterns on the Web and in social media for at least 18 years, the COVID-19 pandemic has been referred to as the first social media infodemic. However, there is limited evidence about whether and how the social media infodemic has spread panic and affected the mental health of social media users. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to determine how social media affects self-reported mental health and the spread of panic about COVID-19 in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. METHODS: To carry out this study, an online questionnaire was prepared and conducted in Iraqi Kurdistan, and a total of 516 social media users were sampled. This study deployed a content analysis method for data analysis. Correspondingly, data were analyzed using SPSS software. RESULTS: Participants reported that social media has a significant impact on spreading fear and panic related to the COVID-19 outbreak in Iraqi Kurdistan, with a potential negative influence on people's mental health and psychological well-being. Facebook was the most used social media network for spreading panic about the COVID-19 outbreak in Iraq. We found a significant positive statistical correlation between self-reported social media use and the spread of panic related to COVID-19 (R=.8701). Our results showed that the majority of youths aged 18-35 years are facing psychological anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: During lockdown, people are using social media platforms to gain information about COVID-19. The nature of the impact of social media panic among people varies depending on an individual's gender, age, and level of education. Social media has played a key role in spreading anxiety about the COVID-19 outbreak in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Title: Evidence‐Loving Rockstar Chief Medical Officers: Female Leadership Amidst COVID‐19 in Canada Content: This paper presents a feminist poststructuralist inquiry perspective on how news and social media discourse around the COVID‐19 pandemic is presenting a potential shift in hegemonic representations of masculine leadership. I am informed by organizational rules and sensemaking theories, and consider how Canadian and international female leaders are showing resilience, emotion, and vulnerability as they help lead their countries through these uncertain times. I reflexively ground my observations in my own sensemaking and personal experiences. Despite reservations, I am hopeful. There are indications that the “rules of the game” are starting to be challenged, and feminine frameworks that question traditional gender roles are disrupting conceptions around “business as usual.”

Title: Psychiatric Training During a Global Pandemic: How COVID-19 Has Affected Clinical Care, Teaching, and Trainee Well-Being. Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has altered many aspects of personal and professional life, including how psychiatry is practiced and how trainees are taught. This Open Forum outlines the challenges faced by psychiatric training directors in adult as well as child and adolescent psychiatry in meeting the educational needs of trainees amid this international crisis. Prioritizing trainee protection and education as well as high-quality treatment for patients, the authors discuss effective communication strategies, rapid telepsychiatry expansion into clinical practice, curricular adjustments, and the importance of well-being. This Open Forum concludes with reflections and considerations for training directors as they prepare for subsequent stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Title: Psychiatric Training During a Global Pandemic: How COVID-19 Has Affected Clinical Care, Teaching, and Trainee Well-Being Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has altered many aspects of personal and professional life, including how psychiatry is practiced and how trainees are taught. This Open Forum outlines the challenges faced by psychiatric training directors in adult as well as child and adolescent psychiatry in meeting the educational needs of trainees amid this international crisis. Prioritizing trainee protection and education as well as high-quality treatment for patients, the authors discuss effective communication strategies, rapid telepsychiatry expansion into clinical practice, curricular adjustments, and the importance of well-being. This Open Forum concludes with reflections and considerations for training directors as they prepare for subsequent stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Title: COVID-19's Impact on Italian Urology. Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our lives, our habits and our healthcare system. Italy is one of the countries affected first and more aggressively from the outbreak. Our rapidity has been guide for other healthcare systems from around the World. We describe the impact of COVID-19 on Urology, how the Urological scientific community responded to the emergency and our experience in a high-volume Roman University hospital. The aim of our work is to share our experience providing suggestions for other global hospitals on how to manage the COVID-19 emergency.

Title: COVID-19's Impact on Italian Urology Content: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our lives, our habits and our healthcare system. Italy is one of the countries affected first and more aggressively from the outbreak. Our rapidity has been guide for other healthcare systems from around the World. We describe the impact of COVID-19 on Urology, how the Urological scientific community responded to the emergency and our experience in a high-volume Roman University hospital. The aim of our work is to share our experience providing suggestions for other global hospitals on how to manage the COVID-19 emergency.

Title: Public health in Canada: Evolution, meaning and a new paradigm for respiratory therapy Content: Chronic disease burden in Canada poses an imminent public health threat. The impact of respiratory disease in Canada alone is significant, affecting one in five and leading any other cause of repeat hospitalization in all age groups. Public health action is considered to be an important means of addressing these issues. Historical understanding of health has evolved to support the adoption of paradigms by professions that recognize the limitations of medical intervention in addressing the fundamental basis of disease when compared with the broader public health perspective. Several key historical events have shaped this understanding in the Canadian context including the Lalonde and Epp reports, and public health emergencies such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in 2003. The profession of respiratory therapy has historically existed within a medicalized paradigm of practice; however, forces both internal and external to the profession are pressuring it to consider adopting broader social-and population-based approaches. As a rapidly evolving profession, there is a need to explore emerging areas of practice opportunities in the discipline. Investigating alternative knowledge and ideology can ensure that effective strategies for addressing the contemporary respiratory heath needs of Canadians are undertaken. The present article explores the rationale for a public health- and population-based approach to health in general, and its applicability to the respiratory therapist’s role in addressing respiratory health-related issues in Canada.

Title: Coronavirus: Where Has All the Health Economics Gone? Content: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to unfold there is an untold number of trade-offs being made in every country around the globe. The experience in the United Kingdom and Canada to date has not seen much uptake of health economics methods. We provide some thoughts on how this could take place, specifically in three areas. Firstly, this can involve understanding the impact of lockdown policies on national productivity. Secondly, there is great importance in studying trade-offs with respect to enhancing health system capacity and the impact of the mix of private-public financing. Finally, there are key trade-offs that will continue to be made both in terms of access to testing and ventilators which would benefit greatly from economic appraisal. In short, health economics could - and we would argue most certainly should - play a much more prominent role in policy-making as it relates to the current as well as future pandemics.

Title: Mathematical modeling of COVID-19 transmission and mitigation strategies in the population of Ontario, Canada Content: Background: We evaluated how non-pharmaceutical interventions could be used to control the COVID-19 pandemic and reduce the burden on the healthcare system Methods: Using an age-structured compartmental model of COVID-19 transmission in the population of Ontario, Canada, we compared a base case with limited testing, isolation, and quarantine to scenarios with: enhanced case finding;restrictive social distancing measures;or a combination of enhanced case finding and less restrictive social distancing Interventions were either implemented for fixed durations or dynamically cycled on and off, based on projected ICU bed occupancy We present median and credible intervals (CrI) from 100 replicates per scenario using a two-year time horizon Results: We estimated that 56% (95% CrI: 42-63%) of the Ontario population would be infected over the course of the epidemic in the base case At the epidemic peak, we projected 107,000 (95% CrI: 60,760-149,000) cases in hospital and 55,500 (95% CrI: 32,700-75,200) cases in ICU For fixed duration scenarios, all interventions were projected to delay and reduce the height of the epidemic peak relative to the base case, with restrictive social distancing estimated to have the greatest effect Longer duration interventions were more effective Dynamic interventions were projected to reduce the proportion of the population infected at the end of the two-year period Dynamic social distancing interventions could reduce the median number of cases in ICU below current estimates of Ontario's ICU capacity Interpretation: Without significant social distancing or a combination of moderate social distancing with enhanced case finding, we project that ICU resources would be overwhelmed Dynamic social distancing could maintain health system capacity and also allow periodic psychological and economic respite for populations ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest ### Funding Statement The research was supported by a grant to DNF from the Canadians Institutes for Health Research (2019 COVID-19 rapid researching funding OV4-170360) ### Author Declarations All relevant ethical guidelines have been followed;any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained and details of the IRB/oversight body are included in the manuscript Yes All necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials gov I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance) Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable Yes Data are available from the corresponding author on request

Title: The legal extension of the role of pharmacists in light of the COVID-19 global pandemic Content: BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 epidemic has affected every area of life. The greatest challenge has been to adapt the functioning of the health service to prevent the spread of the epidemic and to help infected patients. This has required the involvement of not only doctors and nurses, but also pharmacists. In the face of this pandemic, governments in many countries have granted pharmacists greater authority. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this paper is to review the legal extension of the role of pharmacists in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The review considers recent changes in European countries, Canada, and the United States. METHODS: A literature review was performed to summarise knowledge about the extension of the role of pharmacists during the pandemic period. Key articles were retrieved mainly from PubMed and Google Scholar, using the terms "COVID-19", "2019-nCoV", "coronavirus", and "pandemic" in combination with "pharmacist" as keywords for our search. We included scientific publications from February 1, 2019 to May 15, 2020. RESULTS: Pharmacists have been given numerous opportunities so that they can actively join in the fight against the virus. Some of the novel legal extensions aimed at aiding overloaded healthcare systems are as follows: authorisation to prepare hand and surface disinfectants, eligibility to renew chronic treatment prescriptions, as well as filling pro auctore and pro familia prescriptions by pharmacists, performing COVID-19, influenza, and Group A Streptococcus screening tests, and vaccine administration. Moreover, many countries have facilitated Internet services, such as virtual medical consultations, e-prescriptions, and home drug delivery - to promote social distancing among patients. To mitigate drug shortages, the following strategies have been implemented: alternative sourcing, strength, generic, or therapeutic substitution, and preparing compounded formulations at the pharmacy. CONCLUSIONS: Novel legal extensions have allowed exploitation of the full potential ofpharmacists worldwide, aiding the limited resources of overloaded healthcare systems.

Title: The legal extension of the role of pharmacists in light of the COVID-19 global pandemic Content: BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 epidemic has affected every area of life. The greatest challenge has been to adapt the functioning of the health service to prevent the spread of the epidemic and to help infected patients. This has required the involvement of not only doctors and nurses, but also pharmacists. In the face of this pandemic, governments in many countries have granted pharmacists greater authority. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this paper is to review the legal extension of the role of pharmacists in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The review considers recent changes in European countries, Canada, and the United States. METHODS: A literature review was performed to summarise knowledge about the extension of the role of pharmacists during the pandemic period. Key articles were retrieved mainly from PubMed and Google Scholar, using the terms “COVID‐19”, “2019‐nCoV”, “coronavirus”, and “pandemic” in combination with “pharmacist” as keywords for our search. We included scientific publications from February 1, 2019 to May 15, 2020. RESULTS: Pharmacists have been given numerous opportunities so that they can actively join in the fight against the virus. Some of the novel legal extensions aimed at aiding overloaded healthcare systems are as follows: authorisation to prepare hand and surface disinfectants, eligibility to renew chronic treatment prescriptions, as well as filling pro auctore and pro familia prescriptions by pharmacists, performing COVID-19, influenza, and Group A Streptococcus screening tests, and vaccine administration. Moreover, many countries have facilitated Internet services, such as virtual medical consultations, e-prescriptions, and home drug delivery – to promote social distancing among patients. To mitigate drug shortages, the following strategies have been implemented: alternative sourcing, strength, generic, or therapeutic substitution, and preparing compounded formulations at the pharmacy. CONCLUSIONS: Novel legal extensions have allowed exploitation of the full potential ofpharmacists worldwide, aiding the limited resources of overloaded healthcare systems.

Title: Do Quarantine Experiences and Attitudes Towards COVID-19 Affect the Distribution of Mental Health in China? A Quantile Regression Analysis Content: While quarantine has become a widely used control strategy during the outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), empirical research on whether and to what extent quarantine and attitudes towards COVID-19 affect mental health is scant. Using a cross-sectional online survey, this paper is the first from the Chinese outbreak to investigate how quarantine experiences and attitudes towards COVID-19 are related to mental health, and how these relationships change across the distribution of mental health scores. Using quantile regression analysis, we found that home self-quarantine is associated with a decrease in depression and an increase in happiness, while community-level quarantine is associated with decreased happiness, especially for those in the lower happiness quantile. We also found that favorable attitudes towards COVID-19 regarding the credibility of real-time updates and confidence in the epidemic control are associated with lower levels of depression and higher levels of happiness. These effects are stronger in the upper quantile of depression and the median quantile of happiness.

Title: Research preparedness paves the way to respond to pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza virus. Content: The international community has been preparing for an influenza pandemic because of the threat posed by H5N1 avian influenza. Over the past several years, Canada has dedicated funding to boost capacity for research, and public health and health care system readiness and response in the event of a pandemic. The current H1N1/09 influenza pandemic is now testing our readiness. From a research perspective, the present commentary discusses how have we prepared, along with the research gaps. We conclude that: sources of pandemics are not always predictable; investment in the past few years has paid off in a rapid response to pandemic H1N1/09 virus in Canada; and research to meet the challenges of infectious diseases has to be done on an ongoing long-term basis, and its funding has to be flexible, available and predictable to maintain capacity and expertise. In addition, new vaccine technologies are needed to develop and produce vaccines for public health emergencies in a timely fashion.

Title: Uptrend in distress and psychiatric symptomatology in pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic. Content: INTRODUCTION Prenatal maternal distress has a negative impact on the course of pregnancy, fetal development, offspring development and later psychopathologies. The study aimed to determine the extent to which the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may aggravate pregnant women prenatal distress and psychiatric symptomatology. MATERIAL AND METHODS Two cohorts of pregnant volunteer women were evaluated, one that was recruited before the COVID-19 pandemic (n=496) through advertisements in prenatal clinics in Quebec, Canada, from April 2018 to March 2020; the other (n=1258) was recruited online during the pandemic from April 2 to April 13 2020. Prenatal distress and psychiatric symptomatology were measured with the Kessler Distress Scale (K10), Post-traumatic Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-II) and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). RESULTS The 1754 pregnant women (Mage =29.27, SD=4.23) were between 4 and 41 gestational weeks (M=24.80, SD=9.42), were generally educated (91.3% had post-high school training) and financially well-resourced (85.3% were above the low-income cut-off). A multivariate analysis of covariance controlling for age, gestational age, household income, education and lifetime psychiatric disorders showed a large effect size (ES) in the difference between the two cohorts on psychiatric symptoms (Wilks' λ=0.68, F6,1400 =108.50, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.32). According to post-hoc analyses of covariance, the COVID-19 women reported higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms (ES=0.57), dissociative symptoms (ES=0.22 and 0.25), symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (ES=0.19), negative affectivity (ES = 0.96) and less positive affectivity (ES=0.95) than the pre-COVID-19 cohort. Women from the COVID-19 cohort were more likely than pre-COVID-19 women to present clinically significant levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms [OR=1.94, χ2(1)=10.05, p=.002]. Multiple regression analyses indicated that COVID-19 pregnant women having a previous psychiatric diagnosis or low income would be more prone to elevated distress and psychiatric symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Pregnant women assessed during the COVID-19 pandemic reported more distress and psychiatric symptoms than pregnant women assessed before the pandemic, mainly in the form of depression and anxiety symptoms. Given the harmful consequences of prenatal distress on mothers and offspring, the presently observed upsurge of symptoms in pregnant women calls for special means of clinical surveillance.

Title: Statistical and Network-Based Analysis of Italian COVID-19 Data: Communities Detection and Temporal Evolution Content: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak started in Wuhan, China, and it has rapidly spread across the world. Italy is one of the European countries most affected by COVID-19, and it has registered high COVID-19 death rates and the death toll. In this article, we analyzed different Italian COVID-19 data at the regional level for the period 24 February to 29 March 2020. The analysis pipeline includes the following steps. After individuating groups of similar or dissimilar regions with respect to the ten types of available COVID-19 data using statistical test, we built several similarity matrices. Then, we mapped those similarity matrices into networks where nodes represent Italian regions and edges represent similarity relationships (edge length is inversely proportional to similarity). Then, network-based analysis was performed mainly discovering communities of regions that show similar behavior. In particular, network-based analysis was performed by running several community detection algorithms on those networks and by underlying communities of regions that show similar behavior. The network-based analysis of Italian COVID-19 data is able to elegantly show how regions form communities, i.e., how they join and leave them, along time and how community consistency changes along time and with respect to the different available data.

Title: Personal Protective Equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic and operative time in cesarean section: retrospective cohort study. Content: INTRODUCTION The covid-19 pandemic has meant a change in working protocols, as well as in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Obstetricians have had to adapt quickly to these changes without knowing how they affected their clinical practice. The aim of the present study was to evaluate how COVID-19 pandemic and PPE can affect operative time, operating room time, transfer into the operating room to delivery time and skin incision to delivery time in cesarean section. METHODS This is a single-center retrospective cohort study. Women with confirmed or suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection having a cesarean section after March 7th, 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic were included in the study. For each woman with confirmed or suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection, a woman who had a cesarean section for the same indication during the COVID-19 pandemic and with similar clinical history but not affected by SARS-CoV-2 was included. RESULTS 42 cesarean sections were studied. The operating room time was longer in the COVID-19 confirmed or suspected women: 90 (73.0 to 110.0) versus 61 (48.0 to 70.5) minutes; p < .001. The transfer into the operating room to delivery time was longer, but not statistically significant, in urgent cesarean sections in COVID-19 confirmed or suspected women: 25.5 (17.5 to 31.75) versus 18.0 (10.0 to 26.25) minutes; p = .113. CONCLUSIONS There were no significant differences in the operative time, transfer into the operating room to delivery time and skin incision to delivery time when wearing PPE in cesarean section. The COVID-19 pandemic and the use of PPE resulted in a significant increase in operating room time.

Title: The impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome on the use of and requirements for filters in Canada. Content: This article begins with a brief look at the epidemiology of SARS in Canada and then discusses barrier use and potential containment strategies that could be applied to the respiratory equipment and supportive procedures that have been implicated in the spread of SARS or other respiratory infections. The article ends with a discussion of how practice and regulations have changed in Canada since SARS and some suggestions on how practice or regulations could further improve.

Title: Uptrend in distress and psychiatric symptomatology in pregnant women during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic Content: INTRODUCTION: Prenatal maternal distress has a negative impact on the course of pregnancy, fetal development, offspring development, and later psychopathologies. The study aimed to determine the extent to which the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may aggravate the prenatal distress and psychiatric symptomatology of pregnant women. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Two cohorts of pregnant volunteer women were evaluated, one that was recruited before the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 496) through advertisements in prenatal clinics in Quebec, Canada, from April 2018 to March 2020; the other (n = 1258) was recruited online during the pandemic from 2 April to 13 April 2020. Prenatal distress and psychiatric symptomatology were measured with the Kessler Distress Scale (K10), Post-traumatic Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-II), and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). RESULTS: The 1754 pregnant women (Mage = 29.27, SD = 4.23) were between 4 and 41 gestational weeks (M = 24.80, SD = 9.42), were generally educated (91.3% had post-high-school training), and financially well-resourced (85.3% were above the low-income cut-off). A multivariate analysis of covariance controlling for age, gestational age, household income, education, and lifetime psychiatric disorders showed a large effect size (ES) in the difference between the two cohorts on psychiatric symptoms (Wilks' λ = 0.68, F6,1400 = 108.50, P < .001, partial Î·2 = 0.32). According to post-hoc analyses of covariance, the COVID-19 women reported higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms (ES = 0.57), dissociative symptoms (ES = 0.22 and ES = 0.25), symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (ES = 0.19), and negative affectivity (ES = 0.96), and less positive affectivity (ES = 0.95) than the pre-COVID-19 cohort. Women from the COVID-19 cohort were more likely than pre-COVID-19 women to present clinically significant levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms (OR = 1.94, χ2 [1] = 10.05, P = .002). Multiple regression analyses indicated that pregnant women in the COVID-19 cohort having a previous psychiatric diagnosis or low income would be more prone to elevated distress and psychiatric symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Pregnant women assessed during the COVID-19 pandemic reported more distress and psychiatric symptoms than pregnant women assessed before the pandemic, mainly in the form of depression and anxiety symptoms. Given the harmful consequences of prenatal distress on mothers and offspring, the presently observed upsurge of symptoms in pregnant women calls for special means of clinical surveillance.

Title: Increased risk of endemic mosquito-borne diseases in Canada due to climate change. Content: There are currently over 80 species of mosquito endemic in Canada-although only a few of these carry pathogens that can cause disease in humans. West Nile virus, Eastern equine encephalitis virus and the California serogroup viruses (including the Jamestown Canyon and snowshoe hare viruses) are mosquito-borne viruses that have been found to cause human infections in North America, including in Canada. Over the last 20 years, the incidence of most of these endemic mosquito-borne diseases (MBD) has increased approximately 10% in Canada, due in large part to climate change. It is anticipated that both the mosquito lifecycle and virus transmission patterns will be affected by climate change, resulting in an increase in both the range and local abundance of several important mosquito species. Laboratory studies and mathematical modelling suggest that increased ambient temperatures, changes in precipitation and extreme weather events associated with climate change will likely continue to drive mosquito vector and MBD range expansion, increasing the duration of transmission seasons and leading to MBD-related epidemics. Furthermore, Canada's endemic MBDs have complex transmission cycles, involving multiple reservoir hosts (birds and mammals), multiple pathogens and multiple mosquito species-all of which may be sensitive to climate and other environmental changes, and making forecasting of potential emerging trends difficult. These expected climate-induced changes in mosquitoes and MBDs underline the need for continued (and expanded) surveillance and research to ensure timely and accurate evaluation of the risks to the public health of Canadians.

Title: Controlling SARS: a review on China’s response compared with other SARS‐affected countries Content: Objective To summarise the major control measures implemented by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)‐affected countries and to compare distinctive features of the Chinese approach to other affected Asian countries and Canada. Method Literature review. Results The realisation in March 2003 that SARS was spreading led affected countries to introduce measures such as rapid dissemination of information, early case detection and isolation, tracing and quarantining of SARS contacts, traveller screening, raising public awareness of risk and institution of stricter infection control in health care settings. SARS became a notifiable disease in China in mid‐April 2003, after which introduction of efficient nationwide control measures led to containment within 2 months. Countries differed in the timeliness of implementing control measures, the mode and extent to which these were enforced and in the resources available to do so. Conclusion SARS challenged the political and public health systems of all affected countries. It demanded rapid and decisive action to be taken, yet the comparison shows how difficult this was for an unknown new disease. Guangdong reacted rapidly but this pace was not continued by China for some time, which facilitated national and international spread. Once the Chinese government changed its policy, it developed an impressive control strategy involving the public which culminated in containment. The significance of timely information was perhaps the main lesson which the SARS epidemic taught.

Title: How is the lockdown affecting vet students? Content: Like most other professions in the UK, the veterinary profession has been hit hard by Covid-19. But how has it impacted on students? Alexia Yiannouli investigates.

Title: In the shadow of HIV & TB: A commentary on the COVID epidemic in South Africa Content: While COVID-19 has become a global pandemic that has spread to all regions of the globe, local historic, health, and socio-environmental factors shape the epidemiological contours, response, and social challenges present within each affected nation. Thus, while countries like China, Italy, Iran, Brazil, and the United States have all been hard hit by the pandemic, there are critical differences across these nations in a number of variables (e.g. demographic features, health histories, healthcare systems, infection case rates, case fatality rates, national responses). In other words, within the global pandemic there are multiple importantly distinct national epidemics. Overcoming the grave threats to public health presented by COVID-19 requires both international cooperation and country-specific efforts that reflect local histories, needs, and resources. Already concerns are being expressed among health officials about how COVID-19 might be devastating in Africa. Currently, South Africa has the highest number of diagnosed COVID-19 cases on the continent and has been identified as being at high risk in the pandemic. This paper examines the public health response to the COVID-19 threat, how the prior and ongoing HIV and TB epidemics shape the COVID-19 epidemic and influence the response, and the potential ramifications of the response.

Title: In the shadow of HIV & TB: A commentary on the COVID epidemic in South Africa. Content: While COVID-19 has become a global pandemic that has spread to all regions of the globe, local historic, health, and socio-environmental factors shape the epidemiological contours, response, and social challenges present within each affected nation. Thus, while countries like China, Italy, Iran, Brazil, and the United States have all been hard hit by the pandemic, there are critical differences across these nations in a number of variables (e.g. demographic features, health histories, healthcare systems, infection case rates, case fatality rates, national responses). In other words, within the global pandemic there are multiple importantly distinct national epidemics. Overcoming the grave threats to public health presented by COVID-19 requires both international cooperation and country-specific efforts that reflect local histories, needs, and resources. Already concerns are being expressed among health officials about how COVID-19 might be devastating in Africa. Currently, South Africa has the highest number of diagnosed COVID-19 cases on the continent and has been identified as being at high risk in the pandemic. This paper examines the public health response to the COVID-19 threat, how the prior and ongoing HIV and TB epidemics shape the COVID-19 epidemic and influence the response, and the potential ramifications of the response.

Title: Statistical and network-based analysis of Italian COVID-19 data: communities detection and temporal evolution Content: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak started at Wuhan, China, and it has rapidly spread across China and many other countries. Italy is one of the European countries most affected by the COVID-19 disease, and it has registered high COVID-19 death rates and the death toll. In this article, we analyzed different Italian COVID-19 data at the regional level for the period February 24 to March 29, 2020. The analysis pipeline includes the following steps. After individuating groups of similar or dissimilar regions with respect to the ten types of available COVID-19 data using statistical test, we built several similarity matrices (reported in Supplementary file). Then, we mapped those similarity matrices into networks where nodes represent Italian regions and edges represent similarity relationships (edge length is inversely proportional to similarity). Then, network-based analysis was performed mainly discovering communities of regions that show similar behaviour. Then, network-based analysis was performed by running several community detection algorithms on those networks and by underlying communities of regions that show similar behaviour. The network-based analysis of Italian COVID-19 data is able to elegantly show how regions form communities, i.e. how they join and leave them, along time and how community consistency changes along time and with respect to the different available data.

Title: Risk of a second wave of Covid-19 infections: using artificial intelligence to investigate stringency of physical distancing policies in North America. Content: PURPOSE Accurately forecasting the occurrence of future covid-19-related cases across relaxed (Sweden) and stringent (USA and Canada) policy contexts has a renewed sense of urgency. Moreover, there is a need for a multidimensional county-level approach to monitor the second wave of covid-19 in the USA. METHOD We use an artificial intelligence framework based on timeline of policy interventions that triangulated results based on the three approaches-Bayesian susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR), Kalman filter, and machine learning. RESULTS Our findings suggest three important insights. First, the effective growth rate of covid-19 infections dropped in response to the approximate dates of key policy interventions. We find that the change points for spreading rates approximately coincide with the timelines of policy interventions across respective countries. Second, forecasted trend until mid-June in the USA was downward trending, stable, and linear. Sweden is likely to be heading in the other direction. That is, Sweden's forecasted trend until mid-June appears to be non-linear and upward trending. Canada appears to fall somewhere in the middle-the trend for the same period is flat. Third, a Kalman filter based robustness check indicates that by mid-June the USA will likely have close to two million virus cases, while Sweden will likely have over 44,000 covid-19 cases. CONCLUSION We show that drop in effective growth rate of covid-19 infections was sharper in the case of stringent policies (USA and Canada) but was more gradual in the case of relaxed policy (Sweden). Our study exhorts policy makers to take these results into account as they consider the implications of relaxing lockdown measures.