Associations Between Social Media Engagement and Vaccine Hesitancy.

There has been a surge in vaccine hesitancy following the Coronavirus pandemic. This study measured the prevalence of and identified factors associated with vaccine hesitancy and social media use. An online survey was administered (n = 1050) between May and July 2021. Chi-square tests were used to examine bivariate associations with vaccine hesitancy (partially vaccinated and unvaccinated participants). Logistic regression was used to identify associations between social media use and vaccine hesitancy. Chi-square tests showed women (69.7% vs 28.2% men, padjusted = .002), African American participants (52.3% vs 17.8% white, padjusted < .001), high school diploma (54.4% vs 38.6% college degree, padjusted < .001), political unaffiliated (15.8% vs 14.5% republican, padjusted < .001), Muslim (10.0% vs 0% Jewish, padjusted < .001), and never married/single (53.9% vs 17.0% married, padjusted < .001) were more likely to be vaccine hesitant. Controlling for all demographic variables (age, race, gender, and education), more frequent use of social media for reading news was associated with lower vaccine hesitancy (OR 0.35, 99% CI 0.20, 0.63, p < 0.001). However, using social media as a source of vaccine information without any other trusted source (health department, doctor, CDC,) was associated with higher odds of being vaccine hesitant (OR 2.00, 99% CI 1.15, 3.46, p = 0.001). People who use social media without referencing trusted sources may be particularly vulnerable to disinformation or vaccine hesitant persons are more likely exposed to non-trusted social media sites as their only information source.

Community-Based SARS-CoV-2 Testing Using Saliva or Nasopharyngeal Swabs to Compare the Performance of Weekly COVID-19 Screening to Wastewater SARS-CoV-2 Signals.

Multiple studies worldwide have confirmed that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA can be detected in wastewater. However, there is a lack of data directly comparing the wastewater SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentration with the prevalence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in individuals living in sewershed areas. Here, we correlate wastewater SARS-CoV-2 signals with SARS-CoV-2 positivity rates in symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals and compare positivity rates in two underserved communities in Portland, Oregon to those reported in greater Multnomah County. 403 individuals were recruited via two COVID-19 testing sites over a period of 16 weeks. The weekly SARS-CoV-2 positivity rate in our cohort ranged from 0 to 21.7% and trended higher than symptomatic positivity rates reported by Multnomah County (1.9-8.7%). Among the 362 individuals who reported symptom status, 76 were symptomatic and 286 were asymptomatic. COVID-19 was detected in 35 participants: 24 symptomatic, 9 asymptomatic, and 2 of unknown symptomatology. Wastewater testing yielded 0.33-149.9 viral RNA genomic copies/L/person and paralleled community COVID-19 positive test rates. In conclusion, wastewater sampling accurately identified increased SARS-CoV-2 within a community. Importantly, the rate of SARS-CoV-2 positivity in underserved areas is higher than positivity rates within the County as a whole, suggesting a disproportionate burden of SARS-CoV-2 in these communities.

Alcohol outlets and violent crime in washington d.C.

OBJECTIVE: Alcohol is more likely than any other drug to be involved in substance-related violence. In 2000 violence-related and self-directed injuries accounted for an estimated $37 billion and $33 billion in productivity losses and medical treatment, respectively. A review of emergency department data revealed violence and clinically identified trauma-related injuries have the strongest correlation among alcohol-dependent injuries. At the environmental level there is a relationship between alcohol outlet density and violent crime. A limited number of studies have examined the relationship between alcohol outlet type and the components of violent crime. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the aggregate components of violent crime and alcohol outlet density by type of outlet. METHODS: For this study we used Washington, D.C. census tract data from the 2000 census to examine neighborhood characteristics. Alcohol outlet, violent crime, and population-level data for Washington, D.C. were drawn from various official yetpublicly available sources. We developed an analytic database to examine the relationship between alcohol outlet category and four types of violent crime. After estimating spatial correlation and determining spatial dependence, we used a negative binomial regression analysis to assess the alcohol availability-violent crime association, while controlling for structural correlates of violence. RESULTS: Independent of alternative structural correlates of violent crime, including the prevalence of weapons and illicit drugs, community-level alcohol outlet density is significantly associated with assaultive violence. Outlets were significantly related to robbery, assault, and sexual offenses. In addition, the relationship among on-premise and off-premise outlets varied across violent crime categories. CONCLUSION: In Washington, D.C., alcohol outlet density is significantly associated with the violent crimes. The science regarding alcohol outlet density and alcohol-related harms has clearly identified the use of limiting outlet density to reduce the associated adverse health consequences. Moreover, the disproportionate burden among poor urban and minority communities underscores the urgency to develop context-appropriate policies to regulate the functioning of current alcohol outlet establishments and to prevent the proliferation of future outlets.