Riding the COVID Waves: Clinical Trends, Outcomes, and Remaining Pitfalls of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: An Analysis of Two High-Incidence Periods at a Hospital in Northern Italy

Background. Italy was the first western country to face an uncontrolled outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The epidemic began in March 2020 within a context characterised by a general lack of knowledge about the disease. The first scientific evidence emerged months later, leading to treatment changes. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of these changes. Methods. Data from a hospital in Genoa, Italy, were analysed. Patients deceased from SARS-CoV-2 infection were selected. Data were compared by dividing patients into two cohorts: “phase A” (March–May 2020) and “phase B” (October–December 2020). Results. A total of 5142 patients were admitted. There were 274 SARS-CoV-2-related deaths (162 phase A and 112 phase B). No differences were observed in terms of demographics, presentation, or comorbidities. A significant increase was recorded in corticosteroid use. Mortality was 33.36% during phase A, falling to 21.71% during phase B. When subdividing the trend during the two phases by age, we found a difference in people aged 65–74 years. Conclusions. There is scarce evidence regarding treatment for SARS-CoV-2 (especially for severe infection). However, treatment changes improved the prognosis for people under the age of 75. The prognosis for older people remains poor, despite the improvements achieved.

“Everything Will Be All Right!” National and European Identification as Predictors of Positive Expectations for the Future During the COVID-19 Emergency

During the first national lockdown imposed in a Western country to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Italians tried to boost their spirits by hanging hand-drawn rainbows with the slogan “Everything will be all right” from their windows. To understand which processes might have nurtured their positive views about the future during the pandemic, the present study (N=846), building upon social identity research, examined the relationships among Italians’ identification with their country and with the superordinate entity of the European Union (EU), trust in the main institutions in charge of managing the crisis (i.e., the Italian government, the EU, and the scientific community), and beliefs that the COVID-19 crisis would eventually result in the improvement of society. Structural equation modeling analyses showed that identification with Italians and Europeans had positive direct associations with positive expectations about humankind. Identification with Europeans was also directly related to positive expectations about Italian leaders and the strengthening of the EU through the crisis. Trust in the Italian government and, to a lower extent, trust in the EU mediated some of these associations. These findings suggest that governments should actively promote national and European identification to help citizens counter the negative psychological impact of the pandemic and maintain positive views of the future.

Is There Really ‘Another’ Counterexample to the Secularization Thesis? Religious Dynamics in Italy Between 1910 and 2013

Background Among the modern Western countries where the issue of religiosity has been studied, the United States and Italy offer the only examples of empirically verified periods when religious practice was consolidated or even revived to some extent. A recent study, however, shows that the nature of religious exceptionalism in the United States does not constitute a real counterexample. This leaves Italy as the only country that might provide evidence of the falseness of the assumption that the secularization process is inescapable. Purpose This study seeks to enhance our knowledge about the case of Italy, where the many surveys conducted over the years have produced a wide variety of often divergent results, prompting a fervent debate among scholars. Several authors argue that the level of participation remained almost constant from 1980 to 1990. Others, on the contrary, claim that the level of participation increased between 1980 and 2000. This paper contributes to this path of study, aiming to shed light on the development of religiosity in Italy between 1910 and 2013. Methods Different data sets—time use surveys, ‘stylized surveys’, direct surveys and other kind of data—and an innovative method will be used to develop the reasoning and trace the trend of secularization. Results As will be shown, there are discontinuities in the pattern of religious practice over time. These fractures were due to attrition caused in turn by factors related to economic phenomena like migration and political/ideological subcultures, which temporarily changed the level of religious practice and, at least for a time, counterbalanced the long-term trend away from religious practice. Conclusions and Implications The trends presented suggest that secularization in Italy developed without any discontinuity, leading to confirmation that modernization and religious action ‘counteracted’ each other in an extremely regular manner. Therefore, according to the current state of knowledge, no documented modern Western country constitutes a counterexample to the secularization thesis. It can thus be claimed that modernization and secularization are inextricably linked processes.

People underestimate the errors made by algorithms for credit scoring and recidivism prediction but accept even fewer errors

This study provides the first representative analysis of error estimations and willingness to accept errors in a Western country (Germany) with regards to algorithmic decision-making systems (ADM). We examine people’s expectations about the accuracy of algorithms that predict credit default, recidivism of an offender, suitability of a job applicant, and health behavior. Also, we ask whether expectations about algorithm errors vary between these domains and how they differ from expectations about errors made by human experts. In a nationwide representative study (N = 3086) we find that most respondents underestimated the actual errors made by algorithms and are willing to accept even fewer errors than estimated. Error estimates and error acceptance did not differ consistently for predictions made by algorithms or human experts, but people’s living conditions (e.g. unemployment, household income) affected domain-specific acceptance (job suitability, credit defaulting) of misses and false alarms. We conclude that people have unwarranted expectations about the performance of ADM systems and evaluate errors in terms of potential personal consequences. Given the general public’s low willingness to accept errors, we further conclude that acceptance of ADM appears to be conditional to strict accuracy requirements.

Exploring the dark-side of E-HRM: a study of social networking sites and deviant workplace behavior

PurposeRapid technological advancements and the ever-increasing demand for Internet and social networking sites worldwide have increased the opportunity for extensive use and misuse of these platforms. Research and practice have typically focused on the brighter side of social networking sites due to the adoption of EHRM (Electronic Human Resource Management). However, less is known about the dark side of EHRM, especially the drawbacks associated with the use of social networking (SNs) platforms in organisations. In addition, most of such studies have primarily involved the western country context, and in an emerging country scenario, these kinds of studies are limited. Hence, the study aims to investigate the complexities of the use of SNs as an e-HRM strategy in organisations in an emerging country context.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on 26 in-depth interviews of HR practitioners and analysing their narratives surrounding employees' use of social networking (both enterprise social networks [ESNs] and social networking sites [SNSs]), this study illuminates the dark or the adverse side of EHRM. Specifically, it focuses on the link between employees' deviant workplace behaviour and their usage of social networking (SN) platforms in organisations (i.e. SNs at workplaces influencing employee's unethical behaviour at work).FindingsThe empirical findings reveal the subtle intentional and unintentional indulgence of employees via SNs in various types of deviant behaviours such as sharing confidential information, bullying, harassment, breaching colleagues' privacy, etc., at the workplace in the emerging market context of India. Utilising the social networking perspective and the 4Ps of deviant theory, this article describes deviance behaviours in detail and explains the inadvertent complexities of leveraging SNs as an EHRM tool at the workplace. These insights then provide a starting point for discussing the theoretical and managerial implications of the research findings.Research limitations/implicationsDerived from the current research, this model offers an integrative frame-work for understanding DWBs in SNs platforms in general. This also shows that use of SNs at workplace often leads the employee engaging in non-productive activity. Hence future studies can explore the application of this framework in organizations in detail, thus further highlighting the usefulness of EHRM to understand the employee behaviours at the workplace by the organisations.Practical implicationsThe research offers several managerial implications concerning the use of SNs as EHRM strategy at the workplace, which is perceived as a global challenge nowadays. Primarily it offers suggestions for the social media professionals and HR practitioners regarding the use of SNs in organisations.Originality/valueThe study's findings highlight the complex process that explains how SNs as an EHRM strategy affect employee deviance behaviours in the workplace. Till date, no known study has considered the possible effect of SNs on deviance behavior at the workplace in an emerging country context.

Anti-COVID-19 Vaccination in Patients with Autoimmune-Autoinflammatory Disorders and Primary/Secondary Immunodeficiencies: The Position of the Task Force on Behalf of the Italian Immunological Societies

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has represented an unprecedented challenge for humankind from health, economic, and social viewpoints. In February 2020, Italy was the first western country to be deeply hit by the pandemic and suffered the highest case/fatality rate among western countries. Brand new anti-COVID-19 vaccines have been developed and made available in <1-year from the viral sequence publication. Patients with compromised immune systems, such as autoimmune-autoinflammatory disorders (AIAIDs), primary (PIDs) and secondary (SIDs) immunodeficiencies, have received careful attention for a long time regarding their capacity to safely respond to traditional vaccines. The Italian Immunological Societies, therefore, have promptly faced the issues of safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy/effectiveness of the innovative COVID-19 vaccines, as well as priority to vaccine access, in patients with AIADs, PIDs, and SIDs, by organizing an ad-hoc Task Force. Patients with AIADs, PIDs, and SIDs: (1) Do not present contraindications to COVID-19 vaccines if a mRNA vaccine is used and administered in a stabilized disease phase without active infection. (2) Should usually not discontinue immunosuppressive therapy, which may be modulated depending on the patient’s clinical condition. (3) When eligible, should have a priority access to vaccination. In fact, immunizing these patients may have relevant social/health consequences, since these patients, if infected, may develop chronic infection, which prolongs viral spread and facilitates the emergence of viral variants.

The sooner the better: lives saved by the lockdown during the COVID-19 outbreak. The case of Italy

Summary This paper estimates the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions – mainly, the lockdown – on the COVID-19 mortality rate for the case of Italy, the first Western country to impose a national shelter-in-place order. We use a new estimator, the augmented synthetic control method (ASCM), that overcomes some limits of the standard synthetic control method (SCM). The results are twofold. From a methodological point of view, the ASCM outperforms the SCM in that the latter cannot select a valid donor set, assigning all the weights to only one country (Spain) while placing zero weights to all the remaining. From an empirical point of view, we find strong evidence of the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions in avoiding losses of human lives in Italy: conservative estimates indicate that the policy saved in total more than 21,000 human lives.

Male Sexual Health and Sexual Behaviors during the First National COVID-19 Lockdown in a Western Country: A Real-Life, Web-Based Study

Restriction measures enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic had severe effects on male sexual and reproductive health. We aimed to investigate the real-life impact and perception of sexual function in 2020 in Italy, as the first Western country experiencing a national lockdown by measuring relative search volume for keywords pertaining to sexual health and behaviors provided by Google Trends and sales data for pro-erectile treatments. No significant change was observed for erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation. Interest towards most phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors decreased significantly during lockdown (e.g., sildenafil, p = 0.0002; tadalafil p = 0.0016), then reverted to pre-lockdown levels (e.g., sildenafil, p < 0.0001; tadalafil p < 0.0001), mirroring a concomitant sales decrement (p = 0.0292). A subsequent recovery to previous levels at the end of the social confinement was also found (e.g., after vs. before lockdown, sildenafil, p = 0.8459; tadalafil p = 0.1166). During lockdown, interest towards pornography significantly increased during restrictions (p = 0.0053) and remained high (after vs. before lockdown, p = 0.0004), whereas interest towards paid and casual sex declined (p = 0.0015 and p = 0.049, respectively), then reverted to previous levels (after vs. before lockdown, p = 0.3969 and 0.8373, respectively). During the first Italian lockdown, we observed a transient but measurable decrease of sexual health-seeking behaviors and changes in sexual behaviors, with unknown impact for sexual medicine and public health.

Shanghai and the Chinese utopia in the early 20th century as presented in “The New Story of the Stone”

The novel The New Story of the Stone (新石头记, Xinshitouji [1908] 2016), by Wu Jianren, is one of the most representative Chinese utopian works of the late Qing dynasty, or the early 20th-century. The novel is evenly divided into two parts. The first 20 chapters probe into the political and social conditions of late Qing China through the depictions of the protagonist’s travels to cities such as Shanghai, Wuhan and Beijing where the relations with the West had been established. The last 20 chapters, which are antithetical to the first part, depict a utopia – the Civilized World. There is a twisted mirror-image relationship between Shanghai and the Civilized World. The Civilized World alludes to civilized Shanghai with advanced hospitals, factories, museums, schools for women, trading markets and so on. Based on the image of Shanghai, the highly westernized and modernized Chinese metropolis, the author works out this “genuine civilized country” in the hope of competing with the “false civilized Western country”. Therefore, by making the geographic location of “the Civilized World” both fictional and real, the author finds his way to imagining a unique Chinese utopia which might surpass the Western civilization in the late Qing China.