The Research Imagination During COVID-19: Rethinking Norms of Group Size and Authorship in Anthropological and Anthropology-Adjacent Collaborations

This article explores some of the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has served as a collective critical event for anthropologists and other social scientists, examining how it has promoted new configurations of the research imagination. We draw on our own experiences of participating in a team of 17 researchers, hailing from anthropology and anthropology-adjacent disciplines, to research social life in Aotearoa/New Zealand during the pandemic, examining how our own research imaginations were transformed during, and via, the process of our collaboration. When our project first began, many of us had doubts reflective of norms, prejudices and anxieties that are common in our disciplines: that the group would be too large to function effectively, or that it would be impossible to develop an approach to authorship that would allow everyone to feel their contributions had been adequately recognised. In practice, the large group size was a key strength in allowing our group to work effectively. Difficulties with authorship did not arise from within the group but from disconnects between our preferred ways of working and the ways authorship was imagined within various professional and publishing bodies. We conclude that large-scale collaborations have many points in their favour, and that the research imaginations of funders, journals, universities and professional associations should be broadened to ensure that they are encouraged, supported and adequately rewarded. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

HIV-1 DIAGNOSES in NORTH CAROLINA, 2018-21: INCIDENT INFECTIONS and DRUG RESISTANCE

Background: Knowing the true incidence of HIV-1 infections (recent infections) among people newly diagnosed is pivotal to monitoring the course of the epidemic. We have developed a Primer ID Next Gen Sequencing (PID-NGS) assay to identify recent infection by measuring within-host viral diversity over multiple regions of the HIV-1 genome. We implemented a state-wide project to identify recent infections and transmitted drug resistance mutations (DRMs) in diagnostic samples in near real time. Methods: Serum samples from individuals with newly HIV-1 diagnoses (diagnostic sample collected within 30 days of diagnosis) were sequenced. PID-NGS libraries were constructed covering the coding regions for protease, a portion of reverse transcriptase, integrase, and the env gene. The use of the PID-NGS strategy allows for significant error correction and also a definition of the sampling depth of the viral population. Recent infection was defined as within 9-month of infection. DRMs were summarized at detection sensitivities of 30%, 10% and 1% based on viral population sampling depth. Results: From Jan 2018 to Jun 2021, we successfully sequenced partial genomes from 743 individuals with new diagnoses. Year 2020 had the lowest number of new diagnoses (Fig 1a, red bar). Overall, 39.2% of samples were inferred to have represented infection within the previous 9 months. Percent of recent infection varied significantly over the years, increasing from 29.6% in late 2018 to 50.9% in early 2020, but decreasing significantly to 32.7% in 2021 (Fig 1a, blue lines). Individuals younger than 30 y/o were more likely to be identified with recent infection (p<0.01). NNRTI DRMs, especially K103N, were the most abundant DRMs. Fig 1b shows the trend of DRMs over the four years. We observed a trend of decrease in the overall NNRTI DRMs and an increase in the NRTI DRMs in the population. Further analysis suggests that the increase in NRTI DRMs were from TAMs and their revertants, while clinically important NRTI DRMs (K65R and M184) were low (<1%). Conclusion: We have demonstrated a state-wide, all-in-one platform to monitor HIV-1 recency and DRMs in new diagnoses. The number of new diagnoses decreased significantly in 2020 in concert with the COVID-19 pandemic which suggests a decrease in overall HIV testing. The decline in the percentage of recent infections in early 2021 signals a return to broader HIV-1 testing and diagnosis. The increase of other NRTI DRMs suggests ongoing evolution at these sites within the viral population.

FACTORS PREDICTING INDIVIDUAL HEALTH BEHAVIORS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Background: Covid - 19 is a global pandemic, affecting all areas of social life in every country. In the current conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic, individual health behaviors are of primary importance. Each citizen consciously implements their health behaviors not only to prevent them from being infected, but also to help the country's prevention of Covid-19 effective. The study of factors predicting people's health behaviors in the community will help managers come up with appropriate measures to improve public health and to quickly repel the pandemic. Objectives: The research analyzes factors predicting personal health behaviors during the Covid-19 pandemic in Vietnam, including: pandemic awareness, self-assessment of the possibility of becoming infected, fear of disease, quality of life, and mental health (anxiety). Methods: This was a cross-sectional quantitative study. Data were collected from a convenient sample of 572 people in Vietnam (118 males, 451 females;M age =27.0 (sd = 10.0)) by a means of an online questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was constructed based on the YouGov Behavior Change questionnaire;the Fear of Coronavirus-19 Scale (FCV-19), WHOQOL-BREF, the Moral Foundation Questionnaire, and Knowledge of Covid-19. This study performed multivariate regression analysis to explore effects of moral, quality of life, knowledge and fear of Coronavirus-19 on health behaviors of participants. Result: The result showed that fear and sex factors explain 4% (R2-adj = 4%) of health behavior change in the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, there is a significant relationship between health behaviors and fear, age, gender, and occupation. Conclusion: People's health behaviors are particularly concerned during the Covid-19 pandemic. Community healthcare activities for the people should be tailored to suit different population groups such as gender, age or emotional experiences. More indepth studies are needed to find out the causes of these differences, thereby proposing practical solutions to help people practice more effective health behaviors, contributing to preventing and combating the outbreak.

'Safer communities horizontal ellipsis together'? Plural policing and COVID-19 public health interventions in Aotearoa New Zealand

International media have praised Aotearoa New Zealand for its response to the coronavirus pandemic. While New Zealand Police played a fundamental role in enforcing pandemic control measures, the policing landscape remained plural. This article employs Loader [2000. Plural policing and democratic governance. Social and legal studies, 9 (3), 323-345] model of plural policing to understand responses to public health emergencies. It identifies two forms of policing which were evident in Aotearoa during the COVID-19 lockdown that should be added to Loader's model. First, we argue that contexts with colonial history require that the model not only includes by-government and below-government policing but also next-to-government policing by Indigenous peoples - such as the 'community checkpoints' run by Maori. Second, and further developing Loader's model, we argue that the category of below-government policing be expanded to include 'peer-to-peer policing' in which government responsibilizes members of the public to subject each other to large-scale surveillance and social control. Since plural forms of policing affect each other's functionality and legitimacy, we argue that what happens at the synapses between policing nodes has profound implications for the process of community building. Because community building is essential to fighting pandemics, we conclude that the policing of pandemic intervention measures may require an expanded understanding and practice of plural policing to support an optimal public health strategy.

From social distancing to social containment: reimagining sociality for the coronavirus pandemic

This essay develops an anthropological critique of 'social distancing'. While the 2020 coronavirus pandemic requires us to reconfigure established forms of sociality, distancing regimes such as 'lockdowns' can profoundly disrupt the provision of care and support, creating practical difficulties and existential suffering. I advocate instead for strategies of 'social containment', outlining several of the containment arrangements people in England have developed to reconcile relational obligations with public health imperatives during the pandemic. I end by addressing some of the steps anthropologists must take when translating such ideas into policy.

The Intention to Study Using Zoom During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic

The Covid 19 pandemic has strongly influenced different social aspects such as economic, political, cultural, and social issues. The education industry also cannot avoid the severe damage that has caused educational administrators to find out many solutions to improve the teaching and learning system during the pandemic. Zoom is one of the most effective online training tools to overcome the limitations of communications caused by social distancing in response to the Coronavirus spreading. This study uses the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) model combined with both Corvid 19 risk perception and online security risk perception variables to examine the intention to employ Zoom - a web-based platform - for online learning of students in a university of Vietnam. 185 students from Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City were interviewed and data from the interview results were used to evaluate the model's hypotheses. The results show that the combination of the TRA model and risk perception is a very good choice to assess the intention to adopt Zoom for distancing learning.

Covid-19 Risk Perception and Food Hoarding Intention: Evidence from Vietnam

This paper uses the expanded theory of planned behavior (TPB) model to evaluate risk perception and the intention to hoard food during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In this study, questionnaires were used to obtain information from respondents in order to conduct a quantitative investigation of COVID-19 risk perception and food hoarding intention. The responses of the respondents to the surveys were the principal instrument for the collation of information and the primary tool to obtain data. The survey included questions regarding the determinants for the intention to hoard food during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 86 consumers living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam with the intention to hoard food were selected as the respondents. The data showed that higher risk perception was associated with a greater tendency toward hoard food. These findings indicate that high levels of risk perception, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic or other periods of civil unrest, resulting in intentions to purchase goods that are no longer based on common sense. © 2020 Innovare Academics Sciences Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.