This paper starts from an empirical assessment of different dimensions of social capital in the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The level of social capital is lower in CEE-CIS countries compared to other countries in Europe and beyond. We then use a unique data source to carefully investigate the impact of social capital on individual self-reported health for eight countries from the Commonwealth of Independent States (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine). We rely on three indicators for social capital -individual degree of trust, participation in local organisations, social isolation -and employ alternative procedures to consistently estimate the impact of social capital on health. We attempt to circumvent the endogeneity problems by using instrumental variable estimates. Our results show that, in the overall sample comprising all eight countries, the individual degree of trust is positively and significantly correlated with health, either in pooling estimation or when we rely on IV estimators with community fixed effects. Similarly, social isolation is negatively and significantly associated with health, irrespective of the procedure of estimation. On the other hand, the effect of being member of a Putnamesque organisation is more ambiguous and usually not significantly related to health. Finally, country-estimates suggest that the impact of social capital on health varies across the eight countries. We argue that the positive effect of membership on health is conditional on the quality of the political institutions and civil liberties, while trust and social isolation seem to influence health independently of those institutional factors.ξ Views expressed in this paper are exclusively those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the organisations they are affiliated with.

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Objective Alterations in thyroid function tests (TFTs) have been recorded during SARS-CoV-2 infection as associated to either a destructive thyroiditis or a non-thyroidal illness. Methods We studied 144 consecutive COVID-19 patients admitted to a single Center, in intensive or subintensive care Units. Those with previous thyroid dysfunctions or taking interfering drugs were excluded. Differently from previous reports, TSH, FT3, FT4, thyroglobulin (Tg), anti-Tg autoantibodies (TgAb) were measured at baseline and every 3-7 days. C-reacting protein (CRP), cortisol and IL-6 were also assayed. Results The majority of patients had a normal TSH at admission, usually with normal FT4 and FT3. Low TSH levels were found either at admission or during hospitalization in 39% of patients, associated with low FT3 in half of the cases. FT4 and Tg levels were normal, and TgAb negative. TSH and FT3 were invariably restored at discharge in survivors, whereas were permanently low in most deceased cases, but only FT3 levels were predictors of mortality. Cortisol, CRP and IL-6 levels were higher in patients with low TSH and FT3 levels. Conclusions: Almost half of our COVID-19 patients without interfering drugs had normal TFTs both at admission and during follow up. In this series, the transient finding of low TSH with normal FT4 and low FT3 levels, inversely correlated with CRP, cortisol and IL-6 and associated with normal Tg levels, is likely due to the cytokine storm induced by SARS-Cov-2 with a direct or mediated impact on TSH secretion and deiodinase activity, and not to a destructive thyroiditis.

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