Objective. The purpose of this study is to describe the effects of a food pantry program on household food security, diet and health during COVID-19 in the greater New York City area and to understand the facilitators and barriers to accessing this vital safety-net program. Methods. This study employed a three-stage design to evaluate clinical-community food pantry program, known as the Food FARMacy program, implemented to address food insecurity in New York City. Through this program three community organizations recruited participants to receive 40 pounds of fresh produce, whole grains, beans, rice and protein on a bi-weekly basis. Analysis one was a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data to understand food security, diet, and health in those registering for the Food FARMacy program. Analysis two was a longitudinal pre-post analysis comparing baseline data with 6-month follow-up data to determine the effects of food pantry participation on food security, diet, and health. Analysis three was a qualitative case study with program participants to understand their experience participating in the program, including key facilitators and barriers to participating in a food pantry program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data Analysis. For analysis one, descriptive statistics were used to report demographic, food security, diet and health characteristics upon program enrollment. X² tests and independent t-tests as well as multivariable regression models were used to examine predictors of very low food security status and food security score at enrollment. For analysis two, Wilcoxon signed rank and McNemar’s tests were used to identify changes in food security, diet, and health from baseline to six-months follow-up. Regression models were built to examine the association between attendance and food security status. For analysis three, a subset of 24 participants were interviewed using a semi-structured interview format to understand their lived experience with the program and barriers and facilitators to participating. Results. Through this program, 492 participants were enrolled from July 2020 to April 2021 and provided with fresh, healthy food and beverages on a twice monthly basis. The majority of the enrollees reported low (42.3%) or very low (45.5%) food security status. At 6-months follow-up, the percent of those reporting very low food security status improved significantly from 45.5% to 13.2% (p < .001). Further, fruit intake two or more times per day increased from 23.7 to 35.1%, and the percent of those reporting no fruit intake decreased from 36.6 to 15.4% (p < .001). Vegetable intake two or more times in the previous day also increased from 21.5 to 41.8%, with the percent of those consuming no vegetables in the previous day declining from 32.6 to 13.2% (p < .001). The percent drinking two or more SSBs in the previous day decreased from 23.1 to 9.5% (p < .001). The percent of participants reporting excellent, very good or good health increased from 52.3 to 60.0%, while the percent reporting fair or poor health decreased from 48 to 40% from baseline to six-months follow-up (p = .017). Qualitative analysis revealed that participants valued the fresh, high-quality food that they could prepare themselves and caring customer service provided through the program. Transportation and access to childcare were reported as intermittent barriers to accessing the pantry program. Overall, participants reported very positive experiences with the program and improvements were noted in food security, diet, and health from baseline to 6-months follow-up. Conclusions. Effective and sustainable solutions are needed to curb household food insecurity. Rapid development and implementation of an emergency food pantry program through an integrated healthcare system and community organization partnership was feasible and effectively reached high-need patients and community members. Pantry programs can be an effective mechanism for addressing disparities in food access and diet among vulnerable populations.

Sjuksköterskor har genom århundraden spelat en viktig roll i vården av patienter med allt från förkylning till akut sjukdom. Den senaste aktuella pandemin Covid-19 uppstod i slutet av 2019 i Kina. Sedan dess har den spridit sig till de flesta delar av världen. Pandemin har resulterat i förändringar av vården och kastat ljus över hur bristande kunskap kan påverka vården under en pandemi. Syftet: Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att beskriva sjuksköterskors upplevelser av att vårda patienter med Covid-19 inom slutenvården i början av pandemi. Metod: En systematisk litteratursökning resulterade i elva artiklar som analyserades med en kvalitativ innehållsanalys med manifest ansats. Litteratursökningen genomfördes i databaserna Pubmed och CINAHL. Resultat: Analysen resulterade i fem kategorier; “Att det är svårt att kunna ge god vård”, “Att vara rädd att bli smittad och smitta andra”, “Att känna stort ansvar och plikt”, “Att brist på skyddsutrustning och personal innebär en inre stress” och “Att kunskap och erfarenhet saknades”. Slutsats: Början av Covid-19 pandemin förde med sig upplevelser av utmaningar, svårigheter och rädsla. Bristen på förberedelser och kunskap om viruset gjorde att sjuksköterskorna löpte stor risk att bli smittade. Ytterligare bristen på resurser bidrog till en ökad stress. Författarna drog slutsatsen att fortsatt forskning om vårdpersonalens upplevelser, bättre beredskap och psykiskt stöd från sjukhusledningen är avgörande för att framtida pandemier ska kunna bättre mötas.

Ett budskap uppfattas olika beroende på avsändare. Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) beskriver hur människor kan bearbeta ett budskap på olika sätt, centralt eller perifert, beroende på motivationsnivå. Framing sker när människor tillskriver egna bedömningar av olika ord, vilket kan påverka deras beslutfattande och beteende. Med en experimentell design undersöktes hur ett budskap relaterat till Covid-19 med en forskare eller en influencer som förment avsändare kan uppfattas av individer med olika grad av motivation. 136 studenter (80 kvinnor och 56 män) besvarade en webbbaserad enkät. En tvåvägs variansanalys visade, i strid med ELM, att deltagarna instämde i högre utsträckning i ett budskap när avsändaren var en forskare än när avsändaren var en influencer oavsett motivationsnivå. Högmotiverade deltagare uppfattade däremot budskapets språkliga kvalitet som högre än lågmotiverade. Högmotiverade deltagare gjort en skillnad mellan forskare och influencer. Framing kan vara en förklaring till varför deltagarna instämmer mer eller mindre med forskaren och influencern.

Denna uppsats undersöker hur debatten såg ut i media kring Sveriges implementering av Folkhälsomyndighetens strategi för att hindra smittspridningen av Covid-19, varför debatten blev så infekterad och vilka breda diskurser debatten har präglats av genom tillämpning av en diskursanalys. Urvalet utgjordes av 52 artiklar från samtliga tidningar som innehåller utvalda sökord som publicerats i Sverige under tidsperioden 1 februari 2020 till 1 april 2022, då Covid-19 betecknades som samhällsfarlig. Uppsatsen behandlar Jürgen Habermas teori om det kommunikativa handlandet och belyser även relevant tidigare forskning från både det nationella och det internationella fältet rörande politisk kommunikation. De diskursiva argumenten härleds till de giltighetsanspråk som Habermas redogör för och utgjorde en central del av analysen. Utöver detta kan debatten generellt relateras till det som Habermas benämner som “den offentliga sfären”. Vidare ​utifrån materialet kunde tre huvudsakliga diskurser utvinnas för analys; en vetenskaplig diskurs, en politisk diskurs och en politiserande vetenskapsdiskurs. Den vetenskapliga diskursen behandlar giltighetsanspråket om sanning där materialet visar på hur experterna i debatten argumenterar mot varandra om vilken vetenskaplig sanning som stämmer. Den politiska diskursen kunde förklara hur politikerna argumenterar för att man borde gjort annorlunda utan att gå in på vilket tillvägagångssätt som borde ha tillämpats, och där giltighetsanspråket om normativ riktighet kunde bidra till förklaringen. Den politiserande vetenskapsdiskursen beskriver hur politiker i debatten använt vetenskapen för politiska ändamål och där giltighetsanspråket om uppriktighet applicerades. Vidare har förklaring funnits till hur den officiella debatten sett ut kring implementeringen av coronastrategin. Dessutom härleder studien det infekterade i debatten till att det kommunikativa handlandet i slutändan har misslyckats. Slutligen förs en diskussion om vad som händer med samtalet när talaren inte uppfattas som sann, normativt riktig eller uppriktig av lyssnaren.

The thesis explores how some undocumented Latinx immigrants thrive and understand their personhood and security in the current “immigration crisis” in the U.S. Using ethnographic tools such as interviews and participant observation, I gathered undocumented Latinx immigrants’ narratives about living in Orlando, Florida. I concluded that American immigration policies use lack-of-freedom strategies to limit their experiences and rights as human beings, also as a means to deter future immigrants. Through the lens of undocumented Latinx immigrants’ stories, I analyze the relationship between freedom, power, and identity in the social hierarchy of privileges in the United States to understand how their experiences are negatively affected by intersectional issues. The COVID-19 pandemic was a breaking point that made more visible the structural inequality and vulnerability of undocumented migrants alongside other marginal populations. In this research, I expand an anthropological discussion to think through more just alternatives of life and humanizing immigration policies in the United States. I raise both anthropological and philosophical questions for addressing these social justice matters.

Former research has shown a strong relationship between anxiety and various negative reactions to trauma, including widespread traumatic events such as natural disasters, war, and pandemics. COVID-19 has been an ongoing, potentially traumatic event for individuals all over the world. Even individuals who have not experienced serious traumatic consequences because of the pandemic have likely had some negative experiences regarding the mandated quarantine and social distancing. This study seeks to find possible personality predictors for negative reactions, whether they be behavioral or cognitive. Participants completed several questionnaires that test personality constructs, including trait anxiety, need for affiliation, extraversion, and autonomy. Following this, the participants completed a questionnaire divided into two subscales evaluating cognitive and behavioral reactions to quarantine, developed from the list of immediate and delayed reactions to trauma created by the Center for Abuse Treatment in the United States. The most significant finding from this study is the correlation between these negative reactions- both cognitive and behavioral- and trait anxiety. Along with this, extraversion was found to correlate with negative behavioral reactions, and a need for affiliation was found to correlate with negative cognitive reactions. Each item within the reactions scale was tested in correlation with these three constructs which showed significance. These items provide implications that could potentially allow us to prevent these negative thoughts and behaviors provided that the pandemic continues extensively or in the event that another widespread traumatic event occurs in the future.

In this paper, we study various examples of dynamical systems found in nature and extract the necessary concepts to build upon. Then, we develop and propose a new deterministic model for COVID-19 propagation. Our model should serve two purposes. First, we will approximate the infected and deceased individuals after a given time during the pandemic. Then, using a linearized subsystem describing infectious compartments about the disease- free equilibrium (DFE), we will determine the basic reproductive number (R0) by the next-generation matrix method.

The goal of this thesis is to explore the various forms of rhetoric utilized in digital communities pertaining to COVID-19. The body of this thesis synthesizes social media data with original human subjects research, supplemented by a review of the literature surrounding digital communication. The analysis of these freestanding communities highlights the differences in communication throughout these spaces, as well as discusses their differences in reaction to disordered information. Through rhetorical analysis of the language employed by COVID-19 denialist communities on Twitter and a review of the experiences of COVID-19 “long-haulers” in COVID-19 related online communities (such as Facebook and Reddit), this project offers novel insights into COVID-19 communication and the spread of misinformation.

The United States, as of October 2021, is the country with the most reported COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 deaths in the world. Since the first case was confirmed, Registered Nurses working in the acute care setting have been at the forefront of this public health crisis. As the pandemic has continued, studies have been conducted to collect, analyze, and reveal the effect of COVID-19-related stress on Registered Nurses in the United States. This critical literature review takes eleven published studies related to this topic, discusses the commonalities between them, addresses limitations in the literature and offers recommendations for future research. This review discusses five themes among the studies: the impact of inadequate PPE supply, COVID-19-related stress from direct contact with COVID-19 patients, stress levels reported by those working in the ICU setting, nurses self-isolating and the fear of infection or infecting others with COVID-19, and continued exposure to stressful work conditions during the pandemic, resulting in long-term effects, including chronic stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The databases used for this project were CINAHL Plus with Full Text, APA PsychInfo, and MEDLINE. This literature review suggests that COVID-19-related stress in the nursing profession in the United States produced acute and chronic stress responses. Nurses experienced various negative emotions, including burnout, stress, anxiety, and depression. Additional findings included insomnia, fatigue, and feelings of not being supported adequately by hospital administration. Based on the results, the researcher identified several recommendations to aid future research exploring the topic of COVID-19-related stress among registered nurses in the United States and how this research can be utilized when considering ways to address work-related stress and PSTD among acute care nurses in the future.

This study looked at First Time in College (FTIC) students’ overall college adjustment and whether modality of instruction during students’ senior year of high school relates to subsequent college adjustment. Those high school seniors who completed the entire year virtually experienced greater social isolation and restrictions that may have further limited navigation of developmental tasks and experiences that prepare students for college. Due to the novelty of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is the first cohort where such a marked split in high school experiences could impact future college adjustment. College students (N=294) attending a large public university completed the College Adjustment Test (Pennebaker, 1990), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), and COVID-19 Fear Scale (Ahorsu et. al, 2020). The results of this study may increase awareness of how students from the high school graduating class of 2021 are adjusting to college during these unprecedented times, and help to identify if a particular type of high school senior year experience presents greater risk in relation to subsequent college adjustment. The results of this study may inform institutions of higher education on what can be done to facilitate the college adjustment of this unique cohort of FTIC students.