the Guardian and Daily Mirror newspapers in the UK published details of how Dominic Cummings, senior aide to the British prime minister, had broken lockdown rules by travelling 420km to a family estate with his wife (who had suspected COVID-19) and child. Whilst some other officials and senior figures had also broken the lockdown rules, this was the first transgression that was not immediately followed by an apology and resignation. The event prompted media condemnation with concerns about transparency, accountability, and equality 1 , and many scientists spoke out about the effect of Cummings' actions and the government's defence of Cummings in undermining essential public health messaging 1,2 . But it is only now with the benefit of hindsight provided by systematic data that we can see these negative effects in stark detail. New analyses of over 220,000 surveys from more than 40,000 individuals between 24 April and 11 June completed as part of the UCL COVID-19 Social Study show that these events undermined confidence in the government to handle the pandemic specifically.

BackgroundDespite media claims that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is uniting societies and countries in shared experience, there has been concern that the pandemic is in fact exposing and widening existing inequalities within societies. Data have shown these differences for cases and fatalities, but data on other types of adversities are lacking. Therefore, this study explored the changing patterns of adversity relating to the COVID-19 pandemic by socioeconomic position (SEP) during the early weeks of lockdown in the UK.MethodsData were from 12 527 UK adults in the University College London COVID-19 Social Study (a panel study that involves online weekly data collection from participants during the COVID-19 pandemic). We analysed data collected from 25 March to 14 April 2020. The sample was well-stratified and weighted to population proportions of gender, age, ethnicity, education and country of living. We used Poisson and logit models to assess 10 different types of adverse experiences depending on an index of SEP over time.ResultsThere was a clear gradient across the number of adverse events experienced each week by SEP. This was most clearly seen for adversities relating to finances (including loss of employment and cut in income) and basic needs (including access to food and medications) but less for experiences directly relating to the virus. Inequalities were maintained with no reductions in discrepancies between socioeconomic groups over time.ConclusionsThere were clear inequalities in adverse experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in the early weeks of lockdown in the UK. Results suggest that measures taken to try to reduce such adverse events did not go far enough in tackling inequality.

Bacterial cell wall peptidoglycan is a dynamic structure requiring hydrolysis to allow cell wall growth and division. Staphylococcus aureus has many known and putative peptidoglycan hydrolases, including two likely lytic transglycosylases. These two proteins, IsaA and SceD, were both found to have autolytic activity. Regulatory studies showed that the isaA and sceD genes are partially mutually compensatory and that the production of SceD is upregulated in an isaA mutant. The expression of sceD is also greatly upregulated by the presence of NaCl. Several regulators of isaA and sceD expression were identified. Inactivation of sceD resulted in impaired cell separation, as shown by light microscopy, and "clumping" of bacterial cultures. An isaA sceD mutant is attenuated for virulence, while SceD is essential for nasal colonization in cotton rats, thus demonstrating the importance of cell wall dynamics in host-pathogen interactions.

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