Online Education in Human Parasitology during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Wuhan: Our Experiences, Challenges, and Perspectives

Traditional face-to-face teaching in medical schools has been suspended during the global COVID-19 pandemic, and remote online learning has consequently been implemented as an emergency measure. This study aims to share our experiences in exploring online teaching of human parasitology and to discuss the possible advantages, challenges and perspectives that we observed during Wuhan’s lockdown due to the pandemic. The application of online education is likely to be an indispensable component of post-COVID-19 interactive online parasitology courses. Our experience might provide an example for the future development of interactive online medical courses.

Constitutional silence on election postponement in Ethiopia amidst a pandemic: A critique of constitutional interpretation

Election postponement in Ethiopia, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has raised critical constitutional questions that have never been really thought before in the countrys constitutional law jurisprudence. This is because the state of emergency measure in Ethiopia, due to the spread of COVID-19, is in conflict with constitutional deadlines for elections. The constitutional lacuna is complicated by the absence of explicit constitutional provisions that indisputably govern election postponement. Although any legal measures to postpone election schedule and pass constitutional deadlock is far from simple, the Ethiopian government has suggested four possible options to the constitutional dilemma: dissolving the parliament, declaring state of emergency, amendment of the Constitution and constitutional interpretation. Finally, the House of Federation (HoF), the Ethiopian upper House entrusted to interpret the constitution decided and postponed the election indefinitely until the pandemic no longer poses a risk to public health confirmed by the parliament which has direct vested interest in the outcome. This research investigates whether the constitutional interpretation option adheres to the premises of the Ethiopian Constitution or is it extra constitutional. Accordingly, the HoF provided superficial analysis and fallacious reasoning and failed to meaningfully grapple with the serious constitutional issues. The constitutional interpretation is not constitutionally bound and is defective. The manner the HoF managed the constitutional vacuum concerning election postponement, indisputably, was constitutional interpretation by name but a political decision in practice.

The Normative Structure of the State of Epidemic under Polish Law

This article analyses normative structure of a key anti-epidemic emergency measure under Polish law – a State of Epidemic. It is defined as a legal situation introduced in a given area in connection with an epidemic in order to undertake anti-epidemic and preventive measures specified in the Act of 5 December 2008 on preventing and combating infections and infectious diseases to minimize the effects of the epidemic. The Act and this complex measure is authorised by Article 68(4) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 2 April 1997. It requires public authorities to “combat epidemic illnesses and prevents the negative health consequences of degradation of the environment“. The purpose of this article is also to explain why Poland reacted to the SARS-CoV-2 crisis declaring the nationwide State of Epidemic on 20 March 2020 and not by other extraordinary measures.

Lasso move risks worsening tensions in Ecuador

Significance A spate of deadly prison uprisings has accompanied a more general rise in crime, especially in the coastal region, which has seen homicides soar. Lasso's emergency measure, which has prompted increased military and police deployments, comes amid national demonstrations, raising suspicions that the president is attempting to contain protests and advance unpopular economic reforms. Impacts International investor concern over rising crime and disorder will increase the pressure on Lasso to tackle the crisis. Human rights organisations will monitor the situation and demand that the government respect citizens’ right to protest. Unless Lasso accelerates prisoner releases, tougher anti-crime measures will place even more pressure on Ecuador’s overcrowded prisons.

Emotional distress in the early stages of the COVID-19 related lockdowns depending on the severity of the pandemic and emergency measures: a comparative online-survey in Germany, Austria and Italy

Background The first wave of the COVID-19-pandemic hit different countries with varying degrees of severity, so that differences in the type and level of emergency measures were also necessary. It can be assumed that the psychological burden was higher in countries subjected to a more severe course of the pandemic (Italy) than in countries subjected to a less severe one (Germany, Austria). Objective To investigate and contrast the wellbeing of the population in Italy, Austria, and Germany in the early phase of the first lockdown. Method Online survey on N = 4289 individuals. The questionnaire comprised a self-administered section, exploring the dimensions: perceived severity of COVID-19, perceived risk of disease, concerns related to COVID-19, emergency measure acceptance and emotional distress due to emergency measures; and standardized scales to record emotional state and coping: Stress-Coping-Style Questionnaire, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, State-Trait-Anxiety-Inventory. Results The three countries displayed significant differences in all investigated dimensions (p < .001). Italian participants assessed the COVID-19 virus as much more dangerous (p < .001), but despite the prevalence of the virus, the subjective risk of disease was perceived to be lower in Italy (p < .001). This could be a positive effect of the restrictive curfews set by the government in Italy. The emergency measures were generally perceived to be very effective in all three countries, but due to the duration and the severity of the measures, the fear and stress-reaction were the strongest among Italian participants (p < .001). Conclusion The stricter measures in Italy prevented an application of many positive stress processing strategies, which, in turn, fostered the perpetuation of stresses and fear.

1285Distinctive variations in accident and suicide mortality rates among Japanese elderly in 2020

Background In April 2020, the Japanese government requested that people stay home except when unavoidable for their livelihood, as a COVID-19 emergency measure. Especially, elderly people refrained from going out. We investigated mortality rates from external causes in 2020 among Japanese elderly people. Methods The monthly mortality rates from accidents (V01-X59), traffic accidents (V01-V99) and suicides (X60-X84) among elderly from 2015 to November 2020 were analyzed. Ordinary monthly expected values and reference ranges (RR: 95% range) were calculated by cause and sex and compared with the observed values. Results All accidents: Abnormal increases (beyond the RR) occurred in August for both sexes. Traffic accidents: Extreme decreases (below the RR) occurred in at least 3 months from March to October for each sex. Suicides: Extreme decreases occurred in at least 2 months from February to May for each sex. Abnormal increases occurred in November for males, and in September to November for females. Conclusions Extreme decreases in traffic accident mortalities can be explained by people staying home. Abnormal increases in accident mortalities in summer might be explained by the heat. The increases might also be related to wearing face masks. Suicide results suggest that females are especially vulnerable to the social environment created by the preventive measures against COVID-19. Key messages COVID-19 measures might have affected the physical, mental, and social well-being of elderly people. Acknowledgements This study was supported by Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Welfare Foundation.

An Emergency Measure Completeness Evaluation Method Based on UGC Data

Complete emergency measures are one of the important guarantees for effective emergency response. An evaluation method based on User-Generated Content (UGC) data is proposed to assess the completeness of emergency measures. To implement this method, UGC data comprising emergency needs from the users and emergency plans comprising emergency measures for specific emergency were firstly collected using a crawler program. A feature template was then established to identify relationships between different features, and a Conditional Random Field (CRF) model was used to extract emergency measures from the emergency plan and emergency needs from UGC data. The Siamese network was applied thereafter to compute the similarity between the emergency measures and emergency needs. The missing emergency measures were obtained based on the similarities, and a quantitative method to calculate the completeness was defined. Finally, using province A as a case study, the emergency measure completeness was evaluated and the emergency measures that need to be strengthened and improved were identified.

THE EFFECT OF COVID-19 EPIDEMIC ON DIGITALIZATION

When the COVID-19 epidemic hit Europe at the end of February 2020, most countries enforced a lock down period. In terms of public services, that means that citizens could rely only on digital services provided by the Government or local authorities. In countries with a low level of digitalization, the lock down generated a freeze of some public sectors. One of those countries was Romania, which since March 2020 has had a mixed approach to the bureaucratic challenges that were brought by COVID-19 global pandemic. In March 2020, with an almost nonexistent and underdeveloped digital infrastructure, Romania could only take emergency measure in terms of public services. More precisely, all non-urgent services were frozen or postponed while the validity date of official documents (e.g. medical certificates, identity cards) was extended. Starting with May, some public institution managed to provide some sort of digital services, though most of them do not comply with the data protection regulations.