Researchers present wild theory: Water may be naturally occurring on all rocky planets

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN THE FACULTY OF HEALTH AND MEDICAL SCIENCES

Research News

 

The emergence of life is a mystery. Nevertheless, researchers agree that water is a precondition for life. The first cell emerged in water and then evolved to form multicellular organism. The oldest known single-cell organism on Earth is about 3.5 billion years old.

So far, so good. But if life emerged in water, where did the water come from?

"There are two hypotheses about the emergence of water. One is that it arrives on planets by accident, when asteroids containing water collide with the planet in question," says Professor Martin Bizzarro from the Centre for Star and Planet Formation at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

Together with Assistant Professor Zhengbin Deng he has headed a new study that turns the theory about the emergence of water upside down.

"The other hypothesis is that water emerges in connection with the formation of the planet. Our study suggests that this hypothesis is correct, and if that is true, it is extremely exciting, because it means that the presence of water is a bioproduct of the planet formation process," Martin Bizzarro explains.

If Martin Bizzarro and Zhengbin Deng's theory proves correct, life in planetary systems may have had better chances of developing than previously assumed.

The researchers' studies show that there was water on Mars for the first 90 million years of the planet's existence. In astronomical time, this is a long time before water-rich asteroids bombarded the planets of the inner Solar System like Earth and Mars, according to the first hypothesis. And this is very sensational', Martin Bizzarro explains.

"It suggests that water emerged with the formation of Mars. And it tells us that water may be naturally occurring on planets and does not require an external source like water-rich asteroids," he says.

The study is based on analyses of an otherwise modest black meteorite. But the meteorite is 4.45 billion years old and contains invaluable knowledge about the young solar system. Black Beauty, which is the name of the meteorite, originates from the original Martian crust and offers unique insight into events at the time of the formation of the solar system.

"It is a gold mine of information. And extremely valuable," says Martin Bizzarro. After having been discovered in the Moroccan desert, the meteorite was sold for USD 10,000 dollars per gram.

With help from funds, Martin Bizzarro managed to buy just under 50 grams for research purposes back in 2017. With the meteorite in the laboratory they are now able to present signs of the presence of liquid water on Mars at the time of its formation. First, however, they had to crush, dissolve and analyse 15 grams of the expensive rock, Zhengbin Deng explains:

"We have developed a new technique that tells us that Mars in its infancy suffered one or more severe asteroid impacts. The impact, Black Beauty reveals, created kinetic energy that released a lot of oxygen. And the only mechanism that could likely have caused the release of such large amounts of oxygen is the presence of water," Zhengbin Deng says.

Another bone of contention between researchers is how Mars with its cold surface temperature could accommodate liquid water causing the depositions of rivers and lakes visible on the planet today. Liquid water is a precondition for the assembling of organic molecules, which is what happened at least 3.5 billion years ago at the emergence of life on Earth.

The researchers' analysis of Black Beauty shows that the asteroid impact on Mars released a lot of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

According to Zhengbin Deng, 'this means that the CO2-rich atmosphere may have caused temperatures to rise and thus allowed liquid water to exist at the surface of Mars'.

The team is now doing a follow-up study examining the microscopic water-bearing minerals found in Black Beauty. The age-old watery minerals are both original and unchanged since their formation, which means that the meteorite has witnessed the very emergence of water.

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A biomimetic membrane for desalinating seawater on an industrial scale

CNRS

Research News

 

The treatment of seawater, including its large-scale desalination, is a major challenge for our society. Reverse osmosis[1] is one of the most widely used techniques for the desalination of water. Some of the membranes currently used are artificial channels of water[2] inserted into lipid layers. But their large-scale performance is not satisfactory under real osmotic pressure and salinity conditions. An international team, involving researchers from KAUST (Saudi Arabia) and Politehnico di Torino (Italy) and coordinated by scientists from the Institut Européen des Membranes (CNRS/ENSC Montpellier/University of Montpellier), has developed a hybrid strategy, which consists of combining a polyamide matrix and artificial water channels into a single structure. Their membranes, which take the form of a sponge superstructure, have been tested under industrial conditions and outperform conventional membranes. Their flow is 75% higher than that observed with current industrial membranes and they require about 12% less energy for desalination. Their work is patented[3] and was published on November 9, 2020 in Nature Nanotechnology.

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Notes

1 Reverse Osmosis is a system of purifying water through a filtering system that only allows water molecules to pass through. Salt and other impurities do not pass through the filter membrane.

2 Artificial water channels are synthetic compounds that form pores permeable to water molecules, while rejecting ions.

3 Patent FR1910152, PCT/EP2020/075162, "Membrane biomimétiques composites à canaux artificiels d'eau".

 

Cutting emissions makes North Atlantic focus of ocean heat uptake under global warming

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Research News

 

IMAGE: CUTTING EMISSIONS MAKES THE NORTH ATLANTIC THE FOCUS OF OCEAN HEAT UPTAKE UNDER GLOBAL WARMING. view more 

CREDIT: GANG HUANG

The Earth is getting warmer at a faster rate than ever. 93% of the net energy is absorbed by global ocean surface in the form of the Ocean Heat Uptake (OHU), which is the key factor modulating the rate of global warming.

The Southern Ocean (surrounding the Antarctic continent, south of 30°S ) plays a dominant role in global OHU while the North Atlantic takes a small share.

Future emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and aerosols in the 21st century will be different from those in the historical period (since 1850), according to a new study published in Science Advances on Nov. 6.

The study was conducted by researchers from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their collaborators from University of California Riverside (UCR).

The researchers revealed the effects of aerosols and GHGs on regional OHU under different future warming scenarios. Based on the target of the 2015 Paris Agreement that limits global warming of 1.5°C or 2°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100, the new study first found the hemispheric asymmetry of OHU and its reasons under a low-emission scenario.

It also found that during the 21st century, the projected OHU showed collectively positive trends in the North Atlantic and Southern Ocean under the high-emission scenario. While under the low-emission scenario, as compared to the negative long-term trend of Southern Ocean OHU, North Atlantic OHU had a positive long-term trend, which makes the North Atlantic the focus of global OHU in the future.

The opposite OHU trends in the Southern Ocean could be attributed partially to distinct GHG trajectories under the two scenarios. While the common positive OHU trends in the North Atlantic in the two scenarios were due to the total effects from anthropogenic aerosols and GHGs.

The researchers also presented that projected decline in anthropogenic aerosols induced a weakening of the AMOC and divergence of meridional ocean heat transport, which leads to enhanced OHU in the North Atlantic.

Previous studies have found that comparing to the historical period, from the middle to high emission scenarios, the North Atlantic OHU takes more and more percentages in global OHU while the Southern Ocean OHU takes less and less share even though the Southern Ocean still contributes most to global OHU. However, the regional OHU change under the low-emission scenario is not well understood.

"We discover an obvious hemispheric asymmetry in OHU under the low-emission scenario. In the long term, North Atlantic OHU keeps increasing and will become the main region of OHU. Our finding reveals the importance of aerosol effects and AMOC influences, which are helpful to the attribution of climate events," said the lead author Xiaofan Ma, a Ph.D. candidate from IAP.

"To sustain the balance of Earth's ecosystem, human societies have been taking measures to slow down the global warming. Our work shows the scientific significance of the low-warming target. It also helps us to better understand and project the climate change under low-emission scenarios," said the corresponding author Prof. Gang Huang from IAP.

Huang also noted that due to the limits of observations, these results rely on the climate model simulations. He looks forward to carrying out further studies with the development of ocean observation systems and datasets.

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Half a billion years old microfossils may yield new knowledge of animal origins

UPPSALA UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: NORTHERN GREENLAND'S PORTFJELD FORMATION, MORE THAN HALF A BILLION YEARS OLD, CONTAINS EMBRYO-LIKE MICROFOSSILS. view more 

CREDIT: JOHN PEEL

When and how did the first animals appear? Science has long sought an answer. Uppsala University researchers and colleagues in Denmark have now jointly found, in Greenland, embryo-like microfossils up to 570 million years old, revealing that organisms of this type were dispersed throughout the world. The study is published in Communications Biology.

"We believe this discovery of ours improves our scope for understanding the period in Earth's history when animals first appeared - and is likely to prompt many interesting discussions," says Sebastian Willman, the study's first author and a palaeontologist at Uppsala University.

The existence of animals on Earth around 540 million years ago (mya) is well substantiated. This was when the event in evolution known as the "Cambrian Explosion" took place. Fossils from a huge number of creatures from the Cambrian period, many of them shelled, exist. The first animals must have evolved earlier still; but there are divergent views in the research community on whether the extant fossils dating back to the Precambrian Era are genuinely classifiable as animals.

The new finds from the Portfjeld Formation in the north of Greenland may help to enhance understanding of the origin of animals. In rocks that are 570-560 mya, scientists from Uppsala University, the University of Copenhagen and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland have found microfossils of what might be eggs and animal embryos. These are so well preserved that individual cells, and even intracellular structures, can be studied. The organisms concerned lived in the shallow coastal seas around Greenland during the Ediacaran period, 635-541 mya. The immense variability of microfossils has convinced the researchers that the complexity of life in that period must have been greater than has hitherto been known.

Similar finds were uncovered in southern China's Doushantuo Formation, which is nearly 600 million years old, over three decades ago. Since then, researchers have been discussing what kinds of life form the microfossils represented, and some think they are eggs and embryos from primeval animals. The Greenland fossils are somewhat younger than, but largely identical to, those from China.

The new discovery means that the researchers can also say that these organisms were spread throughout the world. When they were alive, most continents were spaced out south of the Equator. Greenland lay where the expanse of the Southern Ocean (surrounding Antarctica) is now, and China was roughly at the same latitude as present-day Florida.

"The vast bedrock, essentially unexplored to date, of the north of Greenland offers opportunities to understand the evolution of the first multicellular organisms, which in turn developed into the first animals that, in their turn, led to us," Sebastian Willman says.

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Willman, S. Peel, J. S., Ineson, J. R., Schovsbo, N. H., Rugen, E. J. & Frei, R. (2020) Ediacaran Doushantuo-type biota discovered in Laurentia. Communications Biology. DOI:10.1038/s42003-020-01381-7

 

RUDN University soil scientist: Deforestation affects the bacterial composition of the soil

RUDN UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: A SOIL SCIENTIST FROM RUDN UNIVERSITY STUDIED THE EFFECT OF FOREST CONVERSION ON THE PROPERTIES OF THE SOIL: ITS ACIDITY, CARBON AND NITROGEN RESOURCES, BACTERIAL COMPOSITION, AND THE ACTIVITY OF... view more 

CREDIT: RUDN UNIVERSITY

A soil scientist from RUDN University studied the effect of forest conversion on the properties of the soil: its acidity, carbon and nitrogen resources, bacterial composition, and the activity of microorganisms. The study can help improve the methods of soil cultivation after deforestation, namely, select the best fertilizers, prevent erosion, slow down nutrient depletion, and balance the composition of the bacterial community. The results of the study were published in the Forest Ecology and Management journal.

The demand for crop farming products grows constantly, and to satisfy it, more and more forests are converted into plantations. In these converted areas sustainable and diverse ecosystems are replaced with monocultures (crop species). Such changes in land utilization affect both the chemical content of the soil and its biological composition, that is, the structure of its microbial community. Until recently, studies had focused on either the former or the latter aspect of this process. A soil scientist from RUDN University was the first to conduct a comprehensive study and to find out how deforestation and changes in chemical factors caused by it affect the bacterial composition of the soil.

"The diversity of soil microorganisms doesn't necessarily reduce as a result of forest conversion. However, bacterial communities undergo massive transformations. The bacteria that used to dominate in forest soils can almost disappear after deforestation and planting of crops. The key factors in this process are soil acidity and carbon and nitrogen resources," says Yakov Kuzyakov, a Ph.D. in Biology, and the Head of the Center for Mathematical Modeling and Design of Sustainable Ecosystems at RUDN University.

His team compared soil samples taken from a forest and four plantations in Hunan Province in South-Eastern China. Five years before that the whole territory had been covered with a pristine forest. The scientists measured the acidity of the soil, as well as the levels of carbon and nitrogen in it. All these indicators are associated both with soil fertility and bacterial activity. Microorganisms play a role in the circulation of soil carbon and also 'fix' nitrogen, making it accessible for plants. It turned out that soil acidity reduces after deforestation, and the levels of organic nitrogen and carbon drop by 83%. According to the team, this may be due to the reduction of vegetative cover and soil erosion. However, to the team's surprise, bacterial diversity in plantation soils turned out to be 6.8% higher than in forest soils.

The scientists believe this might be due to the fertilization of plantations. Fertilizers contain a lot of nutrients, thus increasing microbial diversity. Moreover, cultivated soil is enriched in carbon and other substances that also support intensive bacterial growth. Reduced acidity might be another factor to promote microbial and especially bacterial diversity. Different bacteria turned out to dominate in forest and plantation soils. For example, deforestation created perfect conditions for photosynthesizing bacteria. They transform sunlight into energy, which is a much more difficult task in shady forests.

"We found out that changes in the bacterial composition of the soil are mainly due to soil acidity and the levels of organic carbon and nitrogen. Therefore, efficient soil management methods should be developed for monoculture plantations to improve fertilization, prevent soil erosion, slow down the depletion of nutrients, and support microbial activity after deforestation," added Yakov Kuzyakov.

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How ancient dust from the sea floor helps to explain climate history

A research team led by geoscientists of the University of Oldenburg, Germany, analyzed sediment cores from the South Pacific

UNIVERSITY OF OLDENBURG

Research News

 

IMAGE: 18 SEDIMENT CORES FROM THE SEABED WERE BROUGHT ON BOARD THE RESEARCH VESSEL "POLARSTERN " BY MEANS OF PLUNGERS AND GRAVITY SOUNDERS. view more 

CREDIT: KATHARINA PAHNKE / UNIVERSITY OF OLDENBURG

During the last Ice Age about 20,000 years ago, iron-containing dust acted as a fertilizer for marine phytoplankton in the South Pacific, promoting CO2 sequestration and thus the glacial cooling of the Earth. But where did the dust come from? Researchers led by Dr. Torben Struve, geoscientist at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, have investigated this open question of climate history, which is also relevant with respect to current climate change.

Using sediment cores from the sea floor, they found that a large part of the dust deposited in the southern South Pacific at that time had travelled an extremely long way. Up to 80 percent of the dust came from what is now north-west Argentina, from where it was transported almost completely around the globe by the prevailing westerly winds. After a voyage of up to 20,000 kilometres, it contributed significantly to the increased input of iron into the glacial South Pacific. The dust input from Australia, which dominates in the South Pacific today, played only a minor role. The research team has published these new insights into the mechanisms of natural iron input into the Southern Ocean in the journal Nature Communications.

"We have analysed the chemical fingerprint of the dust and compared it with geological data from several continents. This was laborious work, like a jigsaw puzzle," says Struve, a post-doctoral scientist in the research group "Marine Isotope Geochemistry" at the University's Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM). The team included researchers from his group as well as colleagues from the Alfred Wegener Institute - Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven (Germany), and from Columbia University, New York (USA).

The researchers sampled 18 sediment cores from the South Pacific between Antarctica, New Zealand and Chile, a study area which is roughly the size of Russia. Subsequently, they investigated the chemical composition of the dust contained in the samples. "This dust ultimately stems from rock, which has characteristic properties depending on its place of origin and geologic history so that each source has its own signature," Struve explains.

The researchers focused on trace metals, in particular rare earth elements and specific isotopes, that is variants of different weight, of the elements neodymium, lead and strontium. This signature is preserved over millions of years and thus provides reliable information about the origin of rock particles even after 20,000 years.

At that time, the last Ice Age was at its peak. According to the results, westerly winds blew dust particles from the eastern side of the central Andes in South America across the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. As such, the iron-bearing dust was transported once around the globe before being deposited in the middle latitudes of the South Pacific. Since algae in these waters usually lack iron as a crucial nutrient for growth, iron-containing dust acts as a natural fertiliser until today.

Like all plants, phytoplankton - microscopic algae - absorbs carbon by means of photosynthesis and thus reduces the proportion of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. According to Struve, the greatly increased input of iron-bearing mineral dust into this marine region, primarily from South America, could help to explain "how the Earth could have become so cold at all at that time".

It was already known that the iron input during the last ice age was much higher than during the present warm period. "But we were surprised to find that the sources and transport routes of the dust were completely different from today and also different from what we would have expected."

The research team concludes that the unusually high dust emissions from South America must have made a significant contribution to the reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere of the Ice Age. The input of iron-bearing mineral dust reduced the CO2 level of the atmosphere by up to 40 ppm ("parts per million"). This corresponds to almost half of the natural CO2 variation in the atmosphere over the last 400,000 years amounting to 100 ppm. To put this into perspective, since the beginning of industrialisation, anthropogenic emissions have increased the CO2 level from around 280 to around 415 ppm.

Today, no dust from South America can be detected in the study area. "Global warming has changed the winds and environmental conditions in the source regions," Struve says, who continues to study the sediment cores. Together with his colleagues, he wants to find out how the composition of the dust has changed since the peak of the ice age and how this may have contributed to climate change.

CAPTION

The individual sections of one of the investigated sediment cores. As the latter can be up to 30 metres long, they are usually dissected.

 

COVID Misinformation a Roadblock to Curbing Pandemic

Doctors are key in communicating facts to patients

UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

Research News

 

IMAGE: HDFS PROFESSOR VALERIE EARNSHAW'S NEW RESEARCH CONFIRMS THAT STIGMA AROUND COVID-19 MAY LEAD PEOPLE TO AVOID TESTING AND THAT PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE COVID CONSPIRACIES WILL BE LESS LIKELY TO SUPPORT... view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY ELIZABETH ADAMS

The World Health Organization calls the spread of false information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) an "infodemic," and the results are broadly visible across society. The refusal of some people to wear a mask or socially distance, or self-quarantine when exposed to the virus, is often motivated by false information or conspiracy theories that are popular on social media.

So what are public health officials to do?

In a pair of newly published studies, University of Delaware researchers shed new light on the stigma, stereotypes and conspiracy theories that have spread alongside the novel coronavirus.

Understanding the impact of misinformation "is important for identifying potential barriers to public health efforts" to combat the virus, said Valerie Earnshaw, associate professor in UD's Department of Human Development and Family Sciences and lead author on both studies.

"Evidence suggests that people are more likely to believe conspiracy theories when they feel anxious, powerless, and unable to control their outcomes, as well as in times of crisis and when faced with large-scale events with serious consequences," she said. "Pandemics such as COVID-19 are powerful contexts wherein individuals may turn to conspiracy theories in an attempt to restore feelings of safety and control."

Ultimately, the more prominent the misinformation, the more difficult it will be for communities to bring the pandemic under control.

The first study, "Anticipated Stigma, Stereotypes, and COVID-19 Testing," which appeared in the journal Stigma and Health, suggests that stereotypes and anticipated stigma may be barriers to COVID-19 testing efforts. The results, Earnshaw said, are very similar to previous studies about HIV and Ebola stigma.

"We know from studies on mental illness and HIV that stigma will keep people from getting tested," said Earnshaw. "And stereotypes are one way that people experience stigma. Stereotypes are how stigma gets into our heads and shapes our views. Stereotypes help people feel safe. Stereotypes help people believe that those who get COVID, or HIV, are unlike them or doing the wrong thing. Stereotypes can sometimes give people a false security blanket."

Participants who anticipated more stigma, and those who endorsed more harmful stereotypes, reported that they would be less likely to get tested for COVID-19. By contrast, participants who demonstrated greater knowledge of COVID-19 reported that they would be more likely to get tested.

The second study, "COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, health behaviors, and policy support," which appeared in the journal Translational Behavioral Medicine, found that one-third of participants believed in one or more conspiracies about COVID-19, and the results suggest that belief in conspiracy theories makes a person less likely to support public health policies designed to slow the spread of the virus. Participants who believed in conspiracy theories said that they were less likely to get vaccinated and trusted public health experts less.

The results of both studies were derived from an online survey of 845 U.S. adults that was conducted in April 2020. The survey was posted to Amazon Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing marketplace that researchers use to "collect rapid, high-quality data for psychological studies," said Earnshaw.

Despite the prevalence of misinformation, both studies suggest that people trust their personal doctor, regardless of their conspiracy beliefs. In the first study, most participants agreed that they would get tested if ordered by their doctor. In the second study, over 90% said they trusted information about COVID-19 from their doctor.

"Medical doctors are highly trusted sources of medical information," said Earnshaw. "Doctors can play a leading role in combating misinformation because even people who believe conspiracy theories still believe information about COVID from their doctors."

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$1 million to support manufacturing of COVID-19 treatments, vaccines at uOttawa, Ottawa Hospital

UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE TEAM (CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT): DR. DUNCAN STEWART, DR. CAROLINA ILKOW, DR. BERNARD THÉBAUD, DR. JOHN BELL (DR. DAVID COURTMAN, NOT PICTURED). view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA

Researchers from the University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital have been awarded $1,050,000 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to support facilities for manufacturing innovative treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.

The funding will support new equipment and infrastructure at The Ottawa Hospital's Biotherapeutics Manufacturing Centre (BMC), which has been successfully manufacturing therapies using cells, genes and viruses for clinical trials in Canada and abroad for more than 10 years.

The funding will enhance the BMC's ability to support projects related to COVID-19, including:

• A clinical trial of a cell-based therapy for severely ill COVID-19 patients. It is hoped that this experimental therapy may be able to dampen an overactive immune response and help repair lung damage patients with severe COVID-19 infections;

• Antibody-based treatments for high-risk individuals who have been exposed to COVID-19;

• Vaccines for COVID-19, including a home-grown vaccine inspired by research on cancer-fighting viruses.

"Our Biotherapeutics Manufacturing Centre has already played a crucial role in launching more than 15 world-first clinical trials," said Dr. Duncan Stewart, Executive Vide-President of Research at The Ottawa Hospital and a professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine.

"Today's funding will now allow us to harness this success to help in the global fight against COVID-19."

The funding was announced by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, as part of a national announcement of more than $28 million for infrastructure related to COVID-19 research.

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Recommendations for fair and regulated access to a COVID-19 vaccine

Joint position paper of the Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO), the German Ethics Council and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina on ethical, legal and practical framework conditions

LEOPOLDINA

Research News

 

The first COVID-19 vaccines could be authorised as early as the start of 2021. However, in all likelihood, there will not be sufficient vaccine doses in the beginning for all the people willing to undergo vaccination. This is why prioritisation will be necessary. In the position paper published today, medical-epidemiological aspects of infection prevention are presented alongside ethical, legal and practical considerations. On this basis, the authors develop a framework for action for the initial prioritisation of vaccination measures against COVID-19.

Prioritisation helps with decisions on who should receive which vaccine first. However, prioritisation should not be based on medical-epidemiological findings alone. It is rather the case that ethical and legal considerations should play a decisive role, too.

According to the experts, decisive results on the characteristics of the vaccines from the ongoing clinical trials (phase 3) are not yet available. Consequently, a detailed recommendation by STIKO concerning priority groups for vaccination is still not possible at the present time. However, the ethical and legal principles according to which prioritisation is to be undertaken have already been established. In addition to self-determination, they are non-maleficence and protection of integrity, justice, fundamental equality of rights, solidarity and urgency.

These ethical and legal principles are reflected in concrete vaccination goals: prevention of severe courses of COVID-19 (hospitalisation) and deaths; protection of persons with an especially high work-related risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 (occupational indication); prevention of transmission and protection in environments with a high proportion of vulnerable individuals and in those with a high outbreak potential; maintenance of essential state functions and public life.

The paper points out that the distribution of the initially scarce vaccines touches on relevant ethical values and values pertaining to basic rights, and therefore necessitates clear legal regulation. Furthermore, vaccine distribution is to be organised in such a way as to ensure that the vaccination goals are achieved. This requires suitable new structures. Uniform, transparent distribution is needed that inspires confidence and ensures acceptance. This argues in favour of a vaccination strategy that relies not on individual general practitioners but on vaccination centres mandated by the state.

In principle, informed, voluntary consent is required for vaccination. Therefore, prioritisation criteria must be presented to the population in a comprehensible way. Furthermore, the authors of this position paper also rule out undifferentiated, general compulsory vaccination.

Experts are of the opinion that a self-determined decision about vaccination is dependent on ongoing, transparent information and education of the population regarding both the efficacy of vaccination and the associated risks. In order to identify and minimise vaccination risks at an early stage, the timely nationwide recording of all vaccinations and an evaluation of adverse events must be established in parallel to vaccination. To this end, the authors call for the product-based recording of COVID-19 vaccinations in a central database, also for the purpose of exactly determining vaccination coverage rates.

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The position paper is available online at:

http://www.stiko.de

http://www.ethikrat.org

http://www.leopoldina.org/en

 

Efforts needed to better integrate family caregivers into health care teams

Study outlines ways to provide more support to family caregivers

RAND CORPORATION

Research News

 

Integrating family caregivers into a patient's health care team can help improve care quality and the quality of life for both patients and their families, yet family caregivers face significant barriers coordinating their efforts with the formal health care team, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

New policies and approaches may be needed to overcome those hurdles, such as rules to identify and record information on family caregivers, and incentives to encourage providers to engage with family caregivers.

Additional efforts suggested by researchers are investing in programs that provide supportive services for family caregivers, as well as expanding access to and funding for care coordinators to support caregivers and connect them to a family member's clinical information.

"Family caregivers too often are treated as secondary members of the care team, with little direct access to the formal health care providers," said Esther M. Friedman, lead author of the report and a sociologist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "We hope our research helps start a conversation about ways to better integrate family caregivers into the health care team."

Other strategies recommended by researchers are implementing training programs for providers and caregivers to facilitate effective communication, and encouraging leaders to develop technologies that foster caregiver-provider care integration and information sharing.

An estimated 53 million family and friends provide care assistance to loved ones in the United States, an increase of 9.5 million caregivers from 2015 to 2020. These family members typically provide assistance with everyday activities such as eating, bathing, dressing, driving and taking medications.

Family caregivers have direct and frequent access to loved ones with caregiving needs. More than one-third of care recipients live with their family caregiver and 55 percent of caregivers visit the care recipient more than once a week.

These regular interactions allow family caregivers to monitor changes in health and care needs on a more regular basis than would be possible for formal health care providers.

To better understand the barriers that face family caregivers and how to mitigate those obstacles, RAND researchers reviewed the research literature and interviewed 13 experts from diverse stakeholder groups. The study is among the first to focus in depth on integrating family caregivers into the health care team by incorporating interviews with payers, providers and caregiver advocates.

RAND researchers defined family caregiver integration to include communication, collaboration and coordination with providers, broadly defined as individuals or organizations that deliver care or health care services or help coordinate care for people with caregiving needs. The health care team may include physicians, nurses, social workers, care coordinators, and private sector health and care service providers.

"The goal of this study is to identify promising policy directions and provide a blueprint for assessing, developing and implementing policies to improve integration of family caregivers into the health care team," said study co-author Patricia K. Tong, a RAND economist.

The report found that barriers to integration fell under four themes: identifying caregivers, communication and information-sharing, time limitations and competing demands, and trust and cultural barriers.

Researchers say that future work is needed to expand and assess policy approaches through stakeholder engaged consensus methods, assess the availability of evidence-based research, assess each approach on metrics of feasibility and impact, evaluate approaches for their cost effectiveness, and build consensus on how best to implement the most-promising choices.

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The study was sponsored by Seniorlink, a tech-enabled health services company that builds care collaboration solutions.

The study, "A Framework for Integrating Family Caregivers into the Health Care Team," is available at http://www.rand.org.

RAND Health Care promotes healthier societies by improving health care systems in the United States and other countries.