To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? The role of personality.

This article presents findings on the personality traits of individuals who identified as either Vaxxers (V) or Anti-Vaxxers (AV) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study administered measures of Dark Triad traits (Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy), trait emotional intelligence, and personality to a sample of 479 participants (283 Vs and 196 AVs) recruited via mTurk. Results indicated that Vaxxers scored higher on HEXACO Honesty and Conscientiousness while Anti-Vaxxers scored higher on the Dark Triad and trait emotional intelligence. These findings contribute to the understanding of personality differences between Vaxxers and Anti-Vaxxers during a public health crisis.

A test combining multiplex-PCR with pooled antibiotic susceptibility testing has high correlation with expanded urine culture for detection of live bacteria in urine samples of suspected UTI patients.

We evaluated whether multiplex polymerase chain reaction (M-PCR) detects viable micro-organisms by comparing micro-organism identification with standard urine culture (SUC) and expanded quantitative urine culture (EQUC). Of the 395 organisms detected by M-PCR, EQUC detected 89.1% (p = 0.10), whereas SUC detected 27.3% (p < 0.0001 vs. M-PCR and p < 0.0001 vs EQUC). M-PCR identified 260 nonfastidious bacteria, EQUC detected 96.5% (p = 0.68), whereas SUC detected 41.5% (p < 0.0001). Common nonfastidious bacteria missed by SUC included Escherichia coli (72.5% detected), Klebsiella pneumoniae (66.7% detected), Enterococcus faecalis (34.6% detected) and Enterococcus faecium (0% detected). M-PCR identified 135 fastidious bacteria and EQUC 101 (74.8%, p = 0.01), whereas SUC failed to detect any (0%, p < 0.0001). Clinical samples evaluated using EQUC and M-PCR yielded very similar findings, indicating that most microbes identified by M-PCR represented viable organisms, and validating M-PCR as a diagnostic tool for UTIs.