Scientific research and innovation response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru.

Background: COVID-19 has shaken countries at all levels, putting public health at risk. Global efforts have allocated funding for the development of research for the development of vaccines, digital tools, epidemiologic, social, and economic studies. Although these efforts have been developed worldwide, not all countries have prioritized the same topics, and may have a different impact on solving problems and containing the spread of COVID-19. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted with secondary data of "Special Projects COVID-19" in order to analyze the prioritization of proposals and projects to Peruvian needs in the face of pandemic. Two calls were made by the Peruvian research council (CONCyTec); the first with five areas and second with seven. The global amounts financed by each call were 342,857 USD (1,200,000 soles) and 700,000 USD (1,750,000 soles), respectively. Results: A total of 1,101 research projects were presented, 600 (54.5%) in the first call. In this call, 176 (29.3%) projects were from the technological development and innovation and 29 were winners (with a global budget of 1,711,907.25 USD /6,077,270.75 soles). In the second call, 120 (23.9%) projects were from the area of Social and economic research and 21 were winners (global budget of 1,284,002.25 USD/558,208.55 soles) (p=0.043). The largest proportion of winning projects in both calls was 12 (41.4%) in Technological developments and innovation, then five (17.2%) each in telehealth and mobile health, and epidemiological and social studies. Across both calls, 214 (55.8%) and 160 (51.9%) projects were of private organizations and universities, respectively. Conclusions: This research shows ~2% of rapid response "Special Projects COVID-19" were financed by the CONCyTec call with over a million dollars of funds. Although the main topics were technological innovation, detection systems, and vaccines, these priorities have not had a global impact on the epidemiological development of the pandemic in Peru.

Other ways of communicating the pandemic - memes and stickers against COVID-19: a systematic review.

Background: In the midst of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there are many ways to communicate hygiene measures, such as memes and stickers that are widely used on social networks. We carried out a systematic review in order to determine the impact of stickers and memes as tools to face the COVID-19 pandemic, following the PRISMA guide. Methods: The search was carried out in scientific databases (MEDLINE / PubMed, ScientiDirect, Scielo, LILACS, and Latindex), and in public pre-publication servers (bioRxiv, SocArXiv, medRxiv and Preprints). The publications were identified using the terms (((meme) OR (sticker)) AND ((COVID-19) OR (SARS-COV-2)) AND (WhatsApp)) and the corresponding translations for Spanish and Portuguese. Results: In the initial search, 8434 studies were obtained, 7749 in Preprints, 446 in SocArXiv, 145 in ScientDirect, 82 in medRxiv, and 12 in PubMed. No studies were found in LILACS, Latindex, Scielo, or bioRxiv. Of the 51 studies included as eligible, all were eliminated for not meeting the study inclusion criteria. The majority (40 studies) were eliminated as studies were publications related to the social aspects related to COVID-19, but did not develop an analysis of stickers or memes. Conclusions: No studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria related to the role of stickers and memes as tools to face the COVID-19 pandemic. More studies are needed to estimate its role as a means of communication in health.

Objetivos inherentes prescindidos al analizar las reacciones físicas y psicológicas de estudiantes ante la disección cadavérica / Inherent objective ignored when analyzing the students' physical and psychological reactions in corpse dissection

He leído con interés el artículo "Reacciones físicas y psicológicas de los estudiantes de medicina ante la disección cadavérica en el curso de Anatomía Humana de una universidad peruana" de Paredes Orué y otros, publicado en esta revista.1) Coincido con los objetivos del estudio, que evalúa las reacciones físicas y psicológicas que afectan a los estudiantes de medicina humana ante la disección de cadáveres. Sus autores tienen el mérito de evidenciar las mínimas o "nulas" reacciones que puede tener un estudiante ante dicha actividad en el Perú; sin embargo, considero los siguientes puntos como discutibles a priori(AU)