Why they willingly complied: Ordinary people, the big environment, and the control of COVID-19 in China

Understanding the Factors Driving Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Gene-Edited Foods in China

Gene editing contributes to enhancing food security through the creation of novel foods. However, public perception of gene-edited (GE) foods is crucial to their acceptance and adoption. This study expanded the knowledge-attitude-practice model and constructed an integrated framework comprising four dimensions: demographic factors, scientific literacy and beliefs, social trust, and perceptions of gene technology, aimed at explaining the public's attitudes toward GE foods. A questionnaire survey was conducted (N = 649), revealing a positive attitude toward GE foods, with over 80% expressing a certain willingness to pay (WTP) for them. Factors such as income level, subjective knowledge, scientific beliefs, trust in scientists, trust in government, and trust in national technological capabilities and perceived benefits positively correlated with WTP. Conversely, objective knowledge, perceived risks, and perceived ethical concerns were negatively correlated with WTP. The impact of objective knowledge on attitudes toward GE foods demonstrated a significant, nonlinear relationship. Additionally, it is noteworthy that the Chinese public currently exhibits relatively low trust in national technological capabilities, necessitating vigilance against the emergence of conspiracy theories akin to those surrounding genetically modified foods. This research contributes theoretical insights into the public communication of GE foods.

Spatiotemporal Dynamics of COVID-19 Pandemic City Lockdown: Insights From Nighttime Light Remote Sensing

The global COVID-19 outbreak severely hampered the growth of the global economy, prompting the implementation of the strictest prevention policies in China. Establishing a significant relationship between changes in nighttime light and COVID-19 lockdowns from a geospatial perspective is essential. In light of nighttime light remote sensing, we evaluated the spatiotemporal dynamic effects of COVID-19 city lockdowns on human activity intensity in the Zhengzhou region. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, nighttime light in the Zhengzhou region maintained a significant growth trend, even under regular control measures. However, following the October 2022 COVID-19 lockdown, nighttime light experienced a substantial decrease. In the central area of Zhengzhou, nighttime light decreased by at least 18% compared to pre-lockdown levels, while in the sub-center, the decrease was around 14%. The areas where nighttime light decreased the most in the central region were primarily within a 15 km radius, while in the sub-center, the decrease was concentrated within a 5 km radius. These changes in both statistical data and nighttime light underscored the significant impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on economic activities in the Zhengzhou region.

The Potential Mechanisms of Arrhythmia in Coronavirus disease-2019

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) leads to coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) which can cause severe cardiovascular complications including myocardial injury, arrhythmias, acute coronary syndrome and others. Among these complications, arrhythmias are considered serious and life-threatening. Although arrhythmias have been associated with factors such as direct virus invasion leading to myocardial injury, myocarditis, immune response disorder, cytokine storms, myocardial ischemia/hypoxia, electrolyte abnormalities, intravascular volume imbalances, drug interactions, side effects of COVID-19 vaccines and autonomic nervous system dysfunction, the exact mechanisms of arrhythmic complications in patients with COVID-19 are complex and not well understood. In the present review, the literature was extensively searched to investigate the potential mechanisms of arrhythmias in patients with COVID-19. The aim of the current review is to provide clinicians with a comprehensive foundation for the prevention and treatment of arrhythmias associated with long COVID-19.

Who We Test For: Aligning Relational and Public Health Responsibilities in COVID-19 Testing in Scotland

COVID-19 testing programs in the UK often called on people to test to "protect others." In this article we explore motivations to test and the relationships to "others" involved in an asymptomatic testing program at a Scottish university. We show that participants engaged with testing as a relational technology, through which they navigated multiple overlapping responsibilities to kin, colleagues, flatmates, strangers, and to more diffuse publics. We argue that the success of testing as a technique of governance depends not only on the production of disciplined selves, but also on the program's capacity to align interpersonal and public scales of responsibility.

Public attitudes toward COVID-19 prevention and control in China

Based on the data of the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2021, this study aims to investigate the public attitudes toward COVID-19 prevention and control in China. The household survey CGSS 2021 contains 8,148 valid samples gathered from 320 communities across 19 provinces in China. The logistic regression model is adopted to examine the relationship between public attitudes and influencing factors. The results show that the vast majority of respondents firmly believe that the government has the authority to implement strict measures; their confidence in the government and in the healthcare system has increased; and they willingly choose to be vaccinated. The regression results suggest that gender, age, health condition, political affiliation, source of information, sense of fairness, socio-economic status, and place of residence are significantly associated with individuals' attitudes toward COVID-19 prevention and control. These findings highlight the importance for the government to design epidemic or pandemic policies based on data and to tailor them toward specific demographics.

Seesaw Precarity: Journaling Anxious Hope on a Chinese University Campus During Covid-19

In this article, we examine the Covid-19 experiences of a group of Chinese university students studying in the city of Guangzhou. We draw on journal entries that Chinese students submitted to the Pandemic Journaling Project between March and May 2022, along with follow-up responses in July and December 2022, to argue that these students spent most of their undergraduate years living in a state of "seesaw precarity." We define seesaw precarity as a protracted period during which many Chinese were unable to predict from one day to the next whether they would be free to engage in the quotidian activities of everyday life. We trace student reactions and adaptations as they struggled to attend class, buy food, and see friends and family in the midst of unpredictable swings between openness and closedness. The seesaw nature of restrictions spurred considerable anxiety among the students we followed, but also produced an optimistic mindset we refer to as "anxious hope." Participants accepted the necessity of Covid controls and felt it was incumbent upon them as individuals to adjust to this reality. They saw themselves as responsible for actively cultivating a positive mindset. Our findings suggest that the promotion of emotional self-care and anxious hope during the pandemic may have supported the viability of long-term controls as well as the acceptability of their sudden abandonment, while muting the possibility of resistance.

The coordination of collective and individual solutions in risk-resistant scenarios

ABSTRACT

Human societies are constantly coping with global risks. In the face of these risks, people typically have two options, that is, to respond together as a whole (collective solution) or to respond independently (individual solution). Based on these two solutions, individuals have a variety of behavioral strategies. On the other hand, various regulatory bodies supported by the population limit people's choices and punish individuals who do not contribute to collective solutions. So with different risks, how do the two solutions, the various individual strategies, and the constraints from regulators affect the group's response to risk? This paper proposes an extended public goods game model involving opportunists and the regulator to explore the effectiveness of collective and individual solutions against risks. The results show that requiring individuals to invest more in the collective solution reduces the group' s success in resisting risk. To improve the group's ability to resist risk, investment in individual solution should be at least no less than that in collective solution. The establishment fund and punishment intensity of the regulatory agency have no significant effect on the success of collective and individual solutions. This inspires us to contemplate the role and measures of various types of authorities in coping with global risks.