Scholarly communications harmed by covid-19

Abstract

The covid-19 pandemic has accentuated an erosion in civility in academic discourse, leading to deep divisions being played out in social, mass, and professional media. 1-4 Personal attacks have increased substantially, alongside accusations impugning the integrity and motivations of fellow researchers and clinicians. 1-4 Such division is especially evident in non-academic routes of communication such as declarations, letters, petitions, and personal views. Many of the worst examples are occurring in public forums.

Use of repurposed and adjuvant drugs in hospital patients with covid-19: multinational network cohort study

“…The observed heterogeneity and rapid changes in drug use go hand in hand with the infodemic associated with covid-19. We have shown how the timings of bad science reporting, tweets, and political endorsements are aligned with changes in practice patterns and potentially influence the decisions of regulators 42. Retrospective evaluation of management and treatment practices during the pandemic are necessary43 to safeguard against the increase in use of unproven and potentially harmful treatments, during future waves of the pandemic and public health crises.…”

COVID-19 false dichotomies and a comprehensive review of the evidence regarding public health, COVID-19 symptomatology, SARS-CoV-2 transmission, mask wearing, and reinfection

“…SARS-CoV-2 infection risk depends on physical proximity, location, type of activity, and duration of contact [28], with transmission dominated by superspreading events (SSEs) or contexts 8 , crowded spaces, indoor venues, and unventilated places. There is solid evidence on the clustering and superspreading (overdispersion 9 ) potential of SARS-CoV-2, which suggests that a small part of cases (5%-29%) is responsible for the majority of transmission events (~80%) [112-114, 116, 117]. The transmission heterogeneity or superspreading of SARS-CoV-2 is both the Achilles' heel and the cornerstone of COVID-19 control efforts [35,112,118].…”

“…SSEs could be influenced by biological features (e.g., an individual with increased infectiousness inferred by viral loads), behavioral/social features (e.g., an infectious individual with high number of susceptible contacts), environmental features (e.g., high-risk settings due to high human interaction or density), and opportunistic features (e.g., singing or activities leading to increased probability of transmission and infection) [35]. 9 The dispersion parameter k quantifies the variability in the number of secondary cases and is used as a measure of the impact of superspreading. A lower k parameter indicates higher transmission heterogeneity (higher superspreading potential).…”

“…COVID-19 has stretched healthcare system capacity, negatively impacted mental health, exacerbated socioeconomic disparities, and devastated economies. Scientists across disciplines, policymakers, and journalists continue to operate on "Pandemic Standard Time"-struggling to meaningfully advance science, policy, and communication in real time with rapidly emerging data, while countering the unprecedented "infodemic" 1 , polarization, and politicization in pandemic response plans [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. The global community is not used to seeing rapidly emerging science and changing policy, and has therefore been desperate for immediate, unambiguous answers.…”

“…We also provide examples that echo the importance of interdisciplinary integration, epistemic uncertainty in Fig. 2 This infographic depicts the simplistic black-or-white framing and the scientific, political, and social polarization of the topics covered in this review: 1) Health and lives vs. economy and livelihoods, 2) Indefinite lockdown vs. unlimited reopening, 3) Symptomatic vs. asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, 4) Droplet vs. aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2, 5) Masks for all vs. no masking, and 6) SARS-CoV-2 reinfection vs. no reinfection Table 1 Key recommendations and insights of the COVID-19 topics addressed in this review and recommended articles Science, public health, policy, uncertainty, and communication aspects of COVID-19 Recommended bibliography: [5,9,11,16,17,24] • The COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of ignored yet important gaps, challenges, and opportunities in scientific communication, health education, and policy implementation.…”