Physician burnout is a universal dilemma that is seen in healthcare professionals, particularly physicians, and is characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a feeling of low personal accomplishment. In this review, we discuss the contributing factors leading to physician burnout and its consequences for the physician’s health, patient outcomes, and the healthcare system. Physicians face daily challenges in providing care to their patients, and burnout may be from increased stress levels in overworked physicians. Additionally, the healthcare system mandates physicians to keep a meticulous record of their physician-patient encounters along with clerical responsibilities. Physicians are not well-trained in managing clerical duties, and this might shift their focus from solely caring for their patients. This can be addressed by the systematic application of evidence-based interventions, including but not limited to group interventions, mindfulness training, assertiveness training, facilitated discussion groups, and promoting a healthy work environment.

In Dec 2019, a novel pathogen emerged, and within weeks, led to the emergence of the biggest global health crises seen to date. The virus called ‘SARS-CoV-2’, causes coronavirus disease which was named ‘COVID-19’ by the World Health Organization (WHO). The speedy spread of this infection globally became a source of public worry and several unknowns regarding this new pathogen created a state of panic. Mass media became the major source of information about the novel coronavirus. Much like the previous pandemics of SARS (2003), H1N1 (2009), and MERS (2012), the media significantly contributed to the COVID-19 infodemics. In this review, we analyze the role of mass media and public health communications from December 31, 2019 to July 15, 2020, and make scientific inferences. The COVID-19 pandemic highlights multiple social, cultural, and economic issues arising from the media’s arguable role. The racial prejudices linked to the origin of the virus prevented collaborations among scientists to find a solution. Media coverage of coronavirus news during geographical lockdowns, extended quarantines, and financial and social hardships induced fear and caused psychological stress. Domestic and elderly abuse upsurged. The unscientific cures and unverified medicines endorsed by the politicians and fake doctors proved harmful. The media played a worldwide role in coronavirus disease tracking and updates through live updates dashboard. The media allowed for timely interventions by the Center For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), enabling a rapid and widespread reach of public health communications. We saw an upward trend for the promotion of health and hygiene practices worldwide by adaption of safe health practices such as increased hand washing, use of face coverings, and social distancing. Media reinforced illness-preventing guidelines daily, and people were encouraged to use telehealth to meet their healthcare needs. Mass media has an imperative role in today’s world and it can provide a unified platform for all public health communications, comprehensive healthcare education guidelines, and robust social distancing strategies while still maintaining social connections. It can enable equal access to healthcare, end discrimination, and social stigmatization. The role of media and public health communications must be understood and explored further as they will be an essential tool for combating COVID-19 and future outbreaks.

Vaccines offer life-saving protection against diseases and keep us safe from the harmful effects. The speedy development of vaccines during COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the coronavirus’s transmissibility and severity. COVID-19 vaccine development was challenging but the global scientific collaboration and use of resources including extensive funding made it possible. COVID-19 vaccines were deployed in controlled phases for general public use, initially offering them to the first responders and those vulnerable to life threatening effects of virus. However, it was observed that the general population has widespread vaccine hesitancy. Mass media plays a critical role in influencing people’s attitudes and practices. A common man cannot comprehend correlation from causation and jumps to conclusions. Media has the power to unite the world on one platform for a common cause. It is a source for the public to seek information, but like a double ended sword, this platform that provides information, also gives misinformation. On one hand, the public uses the media to seek information for vaccine safety and efficacy and on the other hand, to propagate unverified conspiracies against vaccines. In this review, we analyze the role of mass media and public health communications in COVID-19 vaccination from December 11, 2020, to September 15, 2021, and draw scientific inferences. We have discussed vaccine hesitancy and some prominent reasons that instil fear among the public, including the implausible claims of vaccines being the carriers of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) microchips, impairing the reproductive systems, converting humans to hybrids, and the misconceptions about herd immunity. A consequential role of media was observed in keeping the world updated and motivated by tracking the vaccine number, distribution and deployment through live dashboards. We saw an upward trend in vaccination numbers with media campaigns, social media vaccination surveys, and socio-medico evidence. Thus, we have proposed a model for developing public awareness and health promotion using media as a tool for better distribution and administration of COVID-19 vaccines. With this, health organizations can gain widespread public trust, manage anti-vaccine movements, overcome threats faced due to vaccine conspiracy theories and eventually overcome the COVID-19 and future pandemics.

SHBG (males: p<0.0001, females: p¼0.008). After adjusting for age and AD, BD was associated with reduced testosterone (p<0.0001) in males and reduced testosterone (p¼0.0002) and reduced SHBG (p<0.0001) in females; BDep was associated with estradiol only in females without AD (p¼0.03).Conclusions: These findings suggest that testosterone and SHBG are independently associated with BDep and AD. However, estradiol is only associated with BDep among females without AD, suggesting that depression in female AD patients may not be regulated by these hormones.

MIT Science Policy Review spoke with Mr. Ryan Morhard about the ties between bioeconomy development and pandemic preparedness. Mr. Morhard is the Director of Policy and Partnerships at Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston-based synthetic biology company. He obtained a J.D. at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. Formerly, Mr. Morhard has served as the Head of COVID Action Platform and Lead of Global Health Security at the World Economic Forum. From 2014 to 2016, he was the Branch Chief of International Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he engaged with international partners to improve collective capacities and handle public health emergencies. We spoke with Mr. Morhard’s about his professional experience in biosecurity, insights in capacity building, and outlooks about leveraging advancements in biotechnology and the growing bioeconomy to address future pandemics and other significant societal and environmental challenges.