ABSTRACT
This essay engages with pandemic-era artistic practice, asking how digital technologies are being taken up out of desires and attempts to be intimate with, proximate to, 'contemporary' with one another. Drawing on theories of pandemic temporality and on media analysis approaches that highlight the digital's materiality, affectivity, and self-reflexivity, we think with three first-person, visual-digital works composed, circulated, and archived during the COVID-19 pandemic: Ella Comberg's research creation photo-essay on Google Street View, titled 'Eye of the Storm,' Bo Burnham's Netflix streaming special Inside, and Richard Fung's short documentary film '[ ... ],' shot on iPad. We suggest that these visual-digital pieces open onto the promises and limitations of mediated intimacies - with others, with ourselves, and with the space-time of lockdown. Their commitments to texture and tension draw out the 'impurity' (Shotwell 2016) of our digital lifeworlds, while also attuning us to possibilities for 'waiting with' (Baraitser and Salisbury 2020) one another amidst what Nadine Chan (2020) calls the 'distal temporalities' of late capitalism. To deliberately dwell in stuck or looped time and linger over the touch of distant, distal others - or what we call asynchronous encounters - is not to indulge or excuse the ways in which contemporary media platforms capitalise on affective and creative labour or surveil digital lifeworlds. Instead, we posit that the textures, glitches, and flickering bonds of mediated intimacy may offer new, multiple, reflexive and recursive pathways 'toward inhabited futures that are not so distal' (Chan 2020: 13.6).
ABSTRACT
Background/Aims During the COVID-19 pandemic rheumatology services were advised to limit face to face contact, with remote telemedicine used instead. Although suitable for some people, issues have been highlighted with telemedicine. The frequency and proportion of remote appointments during the pandemic has not been described, or the socio-demographic characteristics of those accessing remote or in-person rheumatology care. This study aims to describe rheumatology healthcare utilisation and mode of appointment (remote/in-person) in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), prior to, and during the pandemic in England. Methods A retrospective prevalent cohort study of people with RA, identified using a validated algorithm, as of 1st April 2019 using electronic health record data (OpenSAFELY). Outpatient rheumatology appointments between 1st April 2019 and 31st March 2022 were identified. For each year, the number of outpatient appointments, mode of appointment (remote/in-person) and patient socio-demographic characteristics were described. Results 130,884 people with RA were identified. Since the start of the pandemic, the proportion of people without any appointments in a 12-month period increased from 28.5% in 2019/20 to 33.3% in 2020/ 21 and has not recovered. Older people were most frequently not seen (51% of people >80 years in 2020/21 and 2021/22). Of appointments where mode was known, 54.4% of people with appointments in the year from April 2020 were only seen remotely, reducing to 35.1% in the year from April 2021 (Table 1). The proportion with all remote appointments increased with increasing age, comprising 62% of people >80 years in 2020. This age gradient persisted in 2021, though proportions of those >80 years with all-remote appointments was lower (44%). Compared to urban dwellers, a higher proportion of those living in rural areas had all remote appointments in 2020 (58% vs 53%) and 2021 (38% vs 34%). Conclusion During the pandemic, one third of people with RA were not seen at all over a 12-month period and these were more frequently older people. Over half of people were only seen remotely in 2020, decreasing to one-third in 2021. Given the limitations of remote appointments it is unknown whether this increased frequency of remote appointments will impact long-term outcomes.
ABSTRACT
Background Evidence before the pandemic suggests that school headteachers report high work-related stress and psychological/physical burden compared to other professional groups (1). There is an evidence gap exploring the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on senior leaders in schools who have experienced high demands as a result of COVID-19. This is important because in the UK, teacher retention is policy priority. Methods The COVID-19 HL: School Leadership Survey aimed to explore the burden and stress that school leaders in Wales, UK experienced during COVID-19, part of a global study with the COVID-HL network (3). 172 school leaders (62% female) from 130 primary (age 3-11) and 30 secondary schools (age 11-16) completed an online survey between July-Nov 2021, exploring topics such as work-related stress and mental health. A unique aspect is the use of data linkage using the SAIL (Secure Anonymised Information Linkage) Databank. SAIL is data repository containing individual-level, anonymised population-scale data for Wales. Results Initial descriptive findings show 54% of senior leaders have depression (WHO-5), and lower wellbeing scores compared to other UK professions. 83% report moderate-high perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale) and physical (38%) and mental (57%) work exhaustion. The next stage of this study is to perform data linkage of survey responses to health records and administrative data. Logistic regression analyses will examine wellbeing and work-related stress with outcomes including mental health (e.g. anxiety/depression) diagnosis and time off work. Conclusions Preliminary results show high levels of stress, exhaustion and low wellbeing amongst school leaders in Wales. The next part of this study will examine this in greater detail using data linkage of routine records. Data linkage allows this sample to be extrapolated to population level to theorise work-related stress for all school leaders in Wales.
ABSTRACT
Background/Aims To investigate whether inflammatory arthritis (rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS)) and/or their treatments predisposes patients with an increased risk of contracting COVID-19 and/or more severe infection. Methods A retrospective, population-based cohort study using linked, Welsh anonymised electronic health data from SAIL Databank, comprising primary care, secondary care, rheumatology clinic data, Office of National Statistics Mortality data and laboratory COVID-19-related datasets. Individuals aged 18 years or over who tested positive for COVID-19 in Wales for the period of analysis from 1st March 2020 to 12th May 2021 with READ Codes present for RA, PsA and AS in their primary care records formed the study population cases. The controls were individuals without IA codes present in their records. Results Over 3 million COVID-19 tests had been administered in Wales, UK during the study period. A total of 1966 IA patients and 166,602 controls had tested positive for COVID-19 and were included in analysis. The incidence rate was 3.5% (1966/56,914) for IA patients and 6% in controls (166,602/2,760,442) (Chi Square: p-value is<0.00001). Individuals with IA were older and significantly more comorbid compared to controls. Significantly more patients with IA were hospitalised (difference: 13.9%;95% CI: 12-15.8) or deceased (difference: 8%;95% CI: 6.7-9.5) following COVID-19 infection compared to controls. In a cox proportional hazard model, adjusted for significant covariates, IA was not associated with higher risk of death following COVID infection (HR: 0.42, 95% CI: 0.14 to 1.29). Significant risk factors associated with increased risk of death included shielded status (HR: 1.38, 95% CI: 1.27 to 1.50), increasing age (HR: 1.08;95% CI: 1.07-1.08), smoking (HR: 1.24;95% CI: 1.15-1.35), diabetes (HR: 1.31;95% CI: 1.22-1.41), hypertension (HR: 1.15;95% CI: 1.07-1.23), cancer (HR: 1.07;95% CI: 1.00-1.15) and previous serious infections (HR: 1.13;95% CI: 1.06-1.21) were associated with increased risk of death in IA patients compared to controls. Hospitalisations 1-year prior to COVID-19 were associated with a more than threefold increased risk of death in IA patients compared to controls (HR: 3.15;95% CI: 2.89-3.44). Conclusion Conclusion: IA patients had a lower risk of contracting COVID, probably as a result of shielding. IA was not directly associated with increased risk of death compared to controls following COVID-19 infection. Rather, being older and vulnerable with more comorbidities were associated with increased risk. This has implications on identifying individuals with IA most at risk. In addition, identifying those who were hospitalised 1-year prior to COVID-19 is a quick and economical way of identifying those most at risk from COVID-19.