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1. The future of zoonotic risk prediction

   https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0358  

   Carlson, Colin J.; Farrell, Maxwell J.; Grange, Zoe; Han, Barbara A.; Mollentze, Nardus; Phelan, Alexandra L.; Rasmussen, Angela L.; Albery, Gregory F.; Bett, Bernard; Brett-Major, David M.; et al (November 2021, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)

   In the light of the urgency raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, global investment in wildlife virology is likely to increase, and new surveillance programmes will identify hundreds of novel viruses that might someday pose a threat to humans. To support the extensive task of laboratory characterization, scientists may increasingly rely on data-driven rubrics or machine learning models that learn from known zoonoses to identify which animal pathogens could someday pose a threat to global health. We synthesize the findings of an interdisciplinary workshop on zoonotic risk technologies to answer the following questions. What are the prerequisites, in terms of open data, equity and interdisciplinary collaboration, to the development and application of those tools? What effect could the technology have on global health? Who would control that technology, who would have access to it and who would benefit from it? Would it improve pandemic prevention? Could it create new challenges? This article is part of the theme issue ‘Infectious disease macroecology: parasite diversity and dynamics across the globe’. 

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2. Longitudinal Active Avian Influenza Surveillance in Bangladesh From 2017–2022 Reveals Differential IAV and H5 Infection and Viral Burden Associated With Bird Species, Sex, and Age

   https://doi.org/10.1155/tbed/5569836  

   Harrington, Walter N; Turner, Jasmine_C M; Barman, Subrata; Feeroz, Mohammed M; Hasan, Md Kamrul; Akhtar, Sharmin; Jeevan, Trushar; Mukherjee, Nabanita; Seiler, Patrick; Franks, John; et al (January 2024, Transboundary and Emerging Diseases)

   Wang, Leyi (Ed.)

   Influenza viruses are a major global health burden with up to 650,000 associated deaths annually. Beyond seasonal illness, influenza A viruses (IAVs) pose a constant pandemic threat due to novel emergent viruses that have evolved the ability to jump from their natural avian hosts to humans. Because of this threat, active surveillance of circulating IAV strains in wild and domestic bird populations is vital to our pandemic preparedness and response strategies. Here, we report on IAV surveillance data collected from 2017 to 2022 from wild and domestic birds in Bangladesh. We note evidence to suggest that male birds show a higher risk of IAV, including highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5) virus, positivity than female birds. The data was stratified to control for selection bias and confounding variables to test the hypothesis that male birds are at a higher risk of IAV positivity relative to female birds. The association of IAV and A(H5) largely held in each stratum, and double stratification suggested that the phenomena was largely specific to ducks. Finally, we show that chickens, male birds, and juvenile birds generally have higher viral loads compared to their counterparts. These observations warrant further validation through active surveillance across various populations. Such efforts could significantly contribute to the enhancement of pandemic prediction and risk assessment models. 

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3. Disease, disaster and the internet: Reconceptualizing environmental hazards in the time of coronavirus

   https://doi.org/10.1386/jem_00031_1  

   Brazier, Hayley (June 2020, Journal of Environmental Media)

   The internet is made from a vast physical system of cables that stretch unseen across prairies, mountains, oceans, under streets and within buildings. Our online information rapidly flows through this global lattice of equipment every time we send e-mails, play online games, stream Netflix or teleconference with co-workers. With a global society that has recently shifted to living, working and entertaining almost entirely online – to the point of pushing our internet’s capacity to its brink – it is worth considering the threat of disease to an industry that has traditionally prepared for a different set of environmental risks. Disasters such as earthquakes, tsunami, power outages and fishermen’s anchors have long been considered the leading environmental threats to the internet. But what about a pandemic? This article builds on a visit I took to a Seattle data centre in March 2020, when the city was beginning to go on coronavirus lockdown. As I toured the data centre’s earthquake-preparedness equipment, back-up batteries and servers sheltered within protective cages, I could not help but consider if the internet, and the thousands of employees who keep it in operation, were equipped to handle this type of ecological invader? 

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4. The Role of Emotions and Technology Use in the Psychological Impact of COVID-19

   Boira-Lopez, A.; Gujar, Y.; Fichtel, M.; Connelly, S. (April 2022, Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology Annual Conference)

   This study provides evidence of the influence of perceived threat of COVID-19 on psychological well-being, mediated by negative emotions. In addition, our results confirmed moderating effects of the use of work and non-work technology. Individuals who used technology to a larger extent, experienced more negative emotions when they perceived a higher threat of COVID-19. This study contributes to a better understanding of the factors underlying the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our mental health and stresses the importance of adopting a mindful technology use 

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5. Impact of Public Health Education Program on the Novel Coronavirus Outbreak in the United States

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.630974  

   Iboi, Enahoro; Richardson, Ariana; Ruffin, Rachel; Ingram, DeAndrea; Clark, Jailyn; Hawkins, Jala; McKinney, Maati; Horne, Nianza; Ponder, Reyla; Denton, Zoe; et al (March 2021, Frontiers in Public Health)

   null (Ed.)

   The coronavirus outbreak in the United States continues to pose a serious threat to human lives. Public health measures to slow down the spread of the virus involve using a face mask, social-distancing, and frequent hand washing. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a global campaign on the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to curtail the spread of the virus. However, the number of cases, mortality, and hospitalization continue to rise globally, including in the United States. We developed a mathematical model to assess the impact of a public health education program on the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Our simulation showed the prospect of an effective public health education program in reducing both the cumulative and daily mortality of the novel coronavirus. Finally, our result suggests the need to obey public health measures as loss of willingness would increase the cumulative and daily mortality in the United States. 

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