Depression

‘’Adjustment to a “New Normal:” Coping Flexibility and Mental Health Issues During the COVID-19
Pandemic’’
Cecilia Cheng, Hsin-yi Wang, Omid V. Ebrahimi

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is an unprecedented health crisis in terms of the
scope of its impact on well-being. The sudden need to navigate this “new normal” has compromised the
mental health of many people. Coping flexibility, defined as the astute deployment of coping strategies to
meet specific situational demands, is proposed as an adaptive quality during this period of upheaval. The
present study investigated the associations between coping flexibility and two common mental health
problems: COVID -19 anxiety and depression. The respondents were 481 Hong Kong adults (41% men;
mean age = 45.09) who took part in a population-based telephone survey conducted from April to May
2020. Self-report data were assessed with the Coping Flexibility Interview Schedule, COVID-19-Related
Perception and Anxiety Scale, and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Slightly more
than half (52%) of the sample met the criteria for probable depression. Four types of COVID-19 anxiety
were identified: anxiety over personal health, others' reactions, societal health, and economic problems.
The results consistently revealed coping flexibility to be inversely associated with depression and all four
types of COVID-19 anxiety. More importantly, there was a significant interaction between perceived
likelihood of COVID-19 infection and coping flexibility on COVID-19 anxiety over personal health.
These findings shed light on the beneficial role of coping flexibility in adjusting to the “new normal”
amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.626197/full

Acceptance
‘’Public acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines: cross-national evidence on levels and individual-level
predictors using observational data’’
Marie Fly Lindholt, Frederick Jørgensen, Alexander Bor, Michael Bang Petersen

A vaccine against COVID-19 is a ‘vital tool’ in the management of the current pandemic. Accordingly,
extraordinary resources have been invested into vaccine development with unprecedented speed. Yet,
even as approved vaccines become available, societies across the world still face another challenge:
vaccine scepticism. As of late 2020, researchers estimated that up to 82% of a country’s population may
need to be vaccinated in order to reach herd immunity against SARS-CoV-2,2 3 and the emergence of
new virus variants implies that individuals may need to get vaccinated repeatedly. However, general
vaccine hesitancy has been on the rise in recent years in many countries. This has been the case for many
non-COVID-19 vaccine programmes and is likely to pose a challenge for COVID-19 vaccines.
Consistent with this, initial cross-national survey evidence suggests that substantially fewer people
worldwide are willing to get vaccinated than would be necessary, and that some countries for example,
Russia, Poland and France—face strikingly high levels of scepticism. Thus, a key challenge for pandemic
management is for health authorities across the world to encourage people to accept approved COVID-19
vaccines through careful approval procedures and effective health communication. This latter challenge
emphasises the importance of understanding why people are hesitant about taking vaccines. Such
knowledge is crucial for guiding communication in a way that increases vaccine acceptance and for
understanding how to prepare for future health emergencies.
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/6/e048172

Anger
‘’Anxious and Angry: Emotional Responses to the COVID-19 Threat’’
David Abadi, Irene Arnaldo, Agneta Fischer

The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic elicits a vast amount of anxiety. In the
current study, we investigated how anxiety related to COVID-19 is associated with support for and
compliance with governmental hygiene measures, and how these are influenced by populist attitudes,
anger at the government, and conspiracy mentalities. We conducted an online survey in April 2020 in
four different countries (Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK; N = 2,031) using a cross-sectional
design. Results showed that (1) anxiety related to COVID-19 is associated with conspiracy beliefs, anger
at the government, and populist attitudes, and (2) support for and compliance with hygiene measures are
both positively predicted by anxiety related to COVID-19; however, (3) support for hygiene measures is
also predicted by populist attitudes and negatively by conspiracy mentalities, whereas compliance with
hygiene measures is more strongly predicted by anger at transgressors (anger at people transgressing the
hygiene measures). Consequently, although anxiety related to COVID-19 concerns the health of
individual people, it also has political and social implications: anxiety is associated with an increase in
anger, either at transgressors or the government.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.676116/full

Denial
‘’Denial of Justification for Vaccination: Its Multiple Related Variables and Impacts on Intention to Get
Vaccinated against COVID-19’’
Yen-Ju Lin, Wen-Jiun Chou, Yu-Ping Chang, Cheng-Fang Yen

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused significant harm to people worldwide. Vaccines
have been developed in a short period and have led people tohave great expectations for them to suppress
the spread of COVID-19. Researchers estimated that the herd immunity threshold for COVID-19 requires
that approximately 67% of a population be vaccinated. However, hesitancy to get vaccinated against
COVID-19 is prevalent worldwide [12–15]. Vaccine hesitancy may render it a challenge to reach the herd
immunity threshold for COVID-19 through vaccination. Examining people’s beliefs about vaccination
against COVID-19 and related variables is important for developing intervention programs to stop the
spread of COVID-19. People may reject vaccination by denying the need for, value of, and justification
for vaccination. Such individuals may deny the justification for vaccination on the basis of religious or
philosophical objections, such as a desire to live a natural life.
Deniers may also object to vaccines for safety reasons, such as the concern regarding a vaccine–autism
connection, which was based on unethical medical practices and fraudulent science. Difficulties in
accessing or affording a vaccine are not the main concerns of individuals who deny the justification for
vaccination. Therefore, such denial is a unique cause and form of vaccine hesitancy and warrants specific
intervention. As it may impede efforts to reach the herd immunity threshold for COVID-19 through
vaccination, further study is needed to examine the variables related to denial of vaccination justification
and its relationships with risk perception and the intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/vaccines/vaccines-09-00822/article_deploy/vaccines-09-00822.pdf?
version=1627208367

Bargaining
‘’Collective Bargaining during Times of Crisis: Recommendations from the COVID-19 Pandemic’’
Daniel L. Fay, Adela Ghadimi

The global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted many aspects of normal life,
including the work processes and responsibilities of public employees. Many in the public sector
workforce have been on the front lines as first responders, directly dealing with those infected with
COVID-19 and enforcing government protective orders. Others have been forced to rethink how to
effectively accomplish their job responsibilities virtually while adhering to protective orders. Every public
employee has faced challenges, uncertainty, and anxiety as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic affecting
their day-to-day and long-term employment. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 37.2
percent of public sector employees, including police officers, firefighters, and teachers, are covered by
union or employee association collective bargaining agreements (BLS 2020). Public sector unions use
collective action to improve the working conditions of workers during normal operations, but
emergencies that disrupt normal operations underscore the role of collective bargaining in protecting the
public workforce and negotiating new impact agreements to protect employees during times of
uncertainty. In March 2020, one of the authors participated in impact bargaining for a unit of a large state
education union: UFF-FSU-GAU, a union of graduate assistants (GAs) that is a unit of the statewide
United Faculty of Florida. The union propose
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ffanyv88.com%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fonlinelibrary.wiley.com%2Fdoi%2Ffull
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