scholarly journals Gendered Articulations of Control and Care on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Hungary

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katinka Linnamäki

The purpose of this paper is to examine the Hungarian Fidesz-KDNP government´s discursive practices of control and care during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper researches the Hungarian government’s communication on the official Hungarian COVID-19 Facebook page during the first wave of the pandemic. Its aim is to answer the question how the Hungarian government articulated control and care to reinforce sedimented gendered division of care work and institutions of control to tackle the potential disruption of the system of care before the widespread vaccination of the elderly population was available in the country. The paper argues that the pandemic has allowed the government to exert control in areas, such as the crisis in the workforce market and health care system, as well as in the destabilized system of care work. The main finding is that in the material the government performs control over care work, whose intensified discussion during the pandemic could lead to a potential disruption within the illiberal logic on two different levels. First, physical care work related to immediate physical needs, like hunger, clothing, pain enacted by female shoppers, female health care workers and female social workers, is newly defined during the pandemic as local, family-bound and a naturally female task. Second, the government articulates care work, either as potentially harmful (for the elderly population and thus indirectly to the government’s familialist politics), or as vulnerable and in need of protection from outside influences (portrayed through the interaction of health care workers and “hospital commanders”). This enables the government to perform full state control over care workers through the mobilization of police and military masculinity and to strengthen and re-naturalize the already existing hierarchies between traditional gender roles from a new perspective during the pandemic. This state of affairs highlights the vulnerability both of the elderly population, on whom its familialism builds, and of the system of informal care work, which builds on the unpaid care work of female citizens, who paradoxically are also articulated as potential harm for the elderly and for the system.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 628-631
Author(s):  
Devangi Agrawal ◽  
Namisha Khara ◽  
Bhushan Mundada ◽  
Nitin Bhola ◽  
Rajiv Borle

In the wake of the current outbreak of novel Covid-19, which is now declared as a 'pandemic' by the WHO, people around the globe have been dealing with a lot of difficulties. This virus had come into light in December 2019 and since then has only grown exponentially. Amongst the most affected are the ones who have been working extremely hard to eradicate it, which includes the hospitals, dental fraternity and the health-care workers. These people are financially burdened due to limited practise. In the case of dentistry, to avoid the spread of the virus, only emergency treatments are being approved, and the rest of the standard procedures have been put on hold. In some cases, as the number of covid cases is rising, many countries are even trying to eliminate the emergency dental procedures to divert the finances towards the treatment of covid suffering patients. What we need to realise is that this is probably not the last time that we are facing such a situation. Instead of going down, we should set up guidelines with appropriate precautionary measures together with the use of standardised PPEs. The government should also establish specific policies to support dental practices and other health-care providers. Together, we can fight this pandemic and come out stronger.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Venkatesh U ◽  
Aravind Gandhi P

UNSTRUCTURED Telemedicine is where health care intersects with Information Technology. In India, there has been no statutory regulations or official guidelines, specific for Telemedicine practice and allied matters, so far. For the first time, Government of India has released Telemedicine Practice Guidelines for Registered Medical Practitioners on March 25, 2020, amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Through this paper, we would like to initiate the discussion on the features of the guidelines, limitations, and its significance in times of COVID-19 pandemic. The guidelines are with a restricted scope for providing medical consultation to patients, excluding other aspects of Telemedicine such as research and evaluation, and the continuing education of health-care workers. The guidelines have elaborated on the eligibility for practicing Telemedicine in India, the modes and types of Teleconsultation, delved into doctor-patient relationship, consent, & management protocols, touched upon the data security & privacy aspects of the Teleconsultation. After releasing the guidelines, Telescreening of public for COVID-19 symptoms is being advocated by the Government of India. COVID-19 National Teleconsultation Centre (CoNTeC) has been initiated, which connects the doctors across the India to AIIMS in real-time for accessing expert guidance on treatment of the COVID-19 patients.


Author(s):  
Abiodun A. Aro ◽  
Sam Agbo ◽  
Olufemi B. Omole

Background: Physical exercise plays an important role in healthy ageing, but the elderly do not engage in it regularly.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we sampled 139 residents of residential care facility. A questionnaire was used to obtain information on participants’ demography, health problems, nature, motivators and barriers to exercise. Chi-square test examined the relationship between participants’ characteristics and their engagement in regular exercise.Results: Of the 139 participants, the majority were females (71.9%), white people (82.7%), aged 70 years or more (70.5%), had at least one health problem (85.6%) and were overweight or obese (60.4%). Approximately 89.2% engaged in some form of physical activities but only 50.3% reported engaging regularly. Participant’s knowledge of the benefits of regular physical activities, opportunities to socialise, encouragement by health care workers and availability of exercise facilities and trainers promote regular physical exercise. Barriers to regular exercise included poor health status, lack of knowledge of the benefits of regular physical activities, lack of opportunities to socialise, lack of encouragement by health care workers and unavailability of exercise facilities and trainers. Factors that predicted exercise were age 60–69 years (p = 0.02), being Afrikaans speaking (p = 0.04) and completing high school (p = 0.03).Conclusion: A significant proportion of the elderly do not engage in regular physical exercise, and this behaviour is influenced by personal health status and systems-related motivators and barriers.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reem Elmaghloub ◽  
Ashraf Elbahrawy ◽  
Gamal El Didamony ◽  
Ahmed Elwassief ◽  
Abdel-Gawad Saied Mohammad ◽  
...  

AbstractBackground and ObjectivesHealth Care Workers (HCWs) are at a high risk of needle stick injuries and HBV infection in Egypt; this problem is further aggravated by low Hepatitis B (HB) vaccination coverage. Limited data are available on the prevalence of HBV infection in Egyptian HCWs. In this study, we aimed to assess the HBV infection rate and genotypes among Egyptian HCWs.MethodsFive hundred and sixty-four (564) HCWs were included. Of them, 258 (45.74%) were health care providers and 306 (54.25%) were non-health care providers. All HCWs completed both the study questionnaires and provided a blood sample for HBV testing. Indeed, all HCWs were tested for Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and antibody to Hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc), by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. HBVDNA was checked for HCWs who tested positive for HBsAg and/or anti-HBc, by nested Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). HBVDNA positive HCWs were further subjected to HBV genotyping.ResultsThe mean age of included HCWs was 33.0 ± 9.8 years, of whom 319 (56.56%) were males. The mean duration of health care work was 9.3 ± 6.7 years. The frequency of HBsAg and anti-HBc were 1.4%, and 24.5%, respectively. Old age and prolonged duration of health care work were significantly associated with anti-HBc seropositivity. Among 140 HCWs positive for HBsAg and/or anti-HBc, 14 (10 %) had positive HBVDNA by PCR. HBV/E (n= 7), HBV/D (n= 3) and co-infection with E and D (n= 4) genotypes were detected.ConclusionEgyptian HCWs have a significantly high rate of HBV exposure. The detection of HBV/E genotype among Egyptian HCWs suggests prevalent transmission of HBV/E among Egyptian populations.


2005 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elise Pechter ◽  
Letitia K. Davis ◽  
Catharine Tumpowsky ◽  
Jennifer Flattery ◽  
Robert Harrison ◽  
...  

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