Sea level rise poses particular risk for Asian megacities

New research highlights both natural climate variability, warming temperatures

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH/UNIVERSITY CORPORATION FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH

Sea level rise this century may disproportionately affect certain Asian megacities as well as western tropical Pacific islands and the western Indian Ocean, according to new research that looks at the effects of natural sea level fluctuations on the projected rise due to climate change.

The study, led by scientists at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and University of La Rochelle in France and co-authored by a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), mapped sea level hotspots around the globe. The research team identified several Asian megacities that may face especially significant risks by 2100 if society emits high levels of greenhouse gases: Chennai, Kolkata, Yangon, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, and Manila.

Scientists have long known that sea levels will rise with increasing ocean temperatures, largely because water expands when it warms and melting ice sheets release more water into the oceans. Studies have also indicated that sea level rise will vary regionally because shifts in ocean currents will likely direct more water to certain coastlines, including the northeastern United States.

What’s notable about the new study is the way it incorporates naturally occurring sea level fluctuations caused by such events as El Niño or changes in the water cycle (a process known as internal climate variability). By using both a computer model of global climate and a specialized statistical model, the scientists could determine the extent to which these natural fluctuations can amplify or reduce the impact of climate change on sea level rise along certain coastlines.

The study showed that internal climate variability could increase sea level rise in some locations by 20-30% more than what would result from climate change alone, exponentially increasing extreme flooding events. In Manila, for example, coastal flooding events are predicted to occur 18 times more often by 2100 than in 2006, based solely on climate change. But, in a worst-case scenario, they could occur 96 times more often based on a combination of climate change and internal climate variability.

Internal climate variability will also increase sea level rise along the west coasts of the United States and Australia.

The study drew on a set of simulations conducted with the NCAR-based Community Earth System Model that assume society this century emits greenhouse gases at a high rate. The simulations were run at the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center.

The paper stressed that the estimates of sea level rise come with considerable uncertainties because of the complex and unpredictable interactions in Earth’s climate system. But the authors said it’s critical for society to be aware of the potential of extreme sea level rise in order to develop effective adaptation strategies.

“The internal climate variability can greatly reinforce or suppress the sea level rise caused by climate change,” said NCAR scientist Aixue Hu, who co-authored the paper. “In a worst-case scenario, the combined effect of climate change and internal climate variability could result in local sea levels rising by more than 50% of what is due to climate change alone, thus posing significant risks of more severe flooding to coastal megacities and threatening millions of people.” 

The study was published in Nature Climate Change. It was supported by the French Research Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. National Science Foundation, which is NCAR’s sponsor.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a major facility sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

About the article

Title: Increased exposure of coastal cities to sea-level rise due to internal climate variability
Authors: M. Becker, M. Karpytchev, and A. Hu
Journal: Nature Climate Change

On the web: news.ucar.edu
On Twitter: @NCAR_Science

 

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JOURNAL

Nature Climate Change

DOI

10.1038/s41558-023-01603-w 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

ARTICLE TITLE

Increased exposure of coastal cities to sea-level rise due to internal climate variability

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Mar-2023

Connect to protect

Sustainability and resilience in the Eastern Tropical Pacific: what will it take?

Business Announcement

SMITHSONIAN TROPICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

On Mar. 2, the first evening of the Our Ocean Conference in Panama City, Panama, a distinguished group hosted by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the Bezos Earth Fund, Re:wild and Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy gathered at Panama’s BioMuseo to celebrate their commitment to conserve a sustainable and resilient Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean (ETP). 

 

The event recognized significant contributions by the public sector—especially the governments of Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador; the private sector; civil society, the scientific sector; together with generous philanthropists, to take ambitious steps to conserve interconnected ecosystems across the Tropical Eastern Pacific from Cocos Island in Costa Rica to the Galapagos.  

 

The event kicked off with a video announcing that a coalition of individuals, organizations, governments, indigenous groups, and scientific researchers has pledged to find $150 million in private and public funds to conserve this vibrant seascape and address daunting challenges: pollution; illegal, unlawful, and unreported (IUU) fishing; climate change; and invasive species. 

 

The Honorable John Kerry, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, shared the stage with Joshua Tewksbury, Ira Rubinoff Director of the Smithsonian in Panama (STRI); Janaina Tewaney Mancomo, Panama’s Minister of Foreign Affairs; Gustavo Enrique Miranda, Ecuador’s Minister of the Environment; and Andrew Steer, President and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund; Zdenka Piskulich, Director of Enduring Earth; and master of ceremonies, Patricia Leon, Joint Program Manager for ETP, Re:wild and the Bezos Earth Fund. 

 

“Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica have shown the best example of management of the global commons,” said Janaina Tewaney, who added that she considers Panama’s ethnic and biological diversity as the country’s biggest treasure, and that the livelihood of all Panamanians is intimately linked to the ocean. She thanked the United States for their support and the young people who participated in the Our Ocean conference who renewed her hope for the future. 

 

Special Envoy Kerry thanked the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute for supporting the conference organizers and the BioMuseo for hosting the evening’s event. “Getting four nations to come together spontaneously to engage in multinational co-management of a resource as valuable as what those four nations—Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia and, of course, Panama, share...is really remarkable.” He went on to introduce U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse; to mention that United States signed an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with CMAR at the Summit of the Americas for regional ocean conservation; and that US Navy and Coast Guard will offer their help. “We will make this happen.” 

 

Tewksbury thanked the sectors who come together—"not as one, but as everyone”—to conserve the Eastern Tropical Pacific: civil society, the public sector—the governments, the private sector, the philanthropists, and the scientific community: “We are honored at STRI to have been a part of every proposal for marine protected areas that Panama put together over the last two decades: now 54% of all territorial waters. But we do not do this work alone, CMAR did not become a reality without all the science coming together across the region. Twenty-five years ago, it was just a theory that underwater mountain ranges connect these four countries, but now we know this is true. Thank you Héctor Guzmán and others.” 

 

A new research vessel is needed in the region for the region so that scientists can work from Cocos to Coiba to Mapelo and the Galapagos and connect with communities along the coast. The Smithsonian will build brand new marine facilities to house this effort and will train the next cohort of ocean science leaders. 

 

Ecuador’s Minister of the Environment, Manrique Miranda emphasized the importance of governance and upcoming national elections in the countries of the region, but also celebrated CMAR for its longevity and consistency even as administrations have changed. But CMAR has persevered through many governments: “8 presidents in Ecuador…5 presidents in Costa Rica, 5 presidents in Colombia and 4 presidents in Panama…CMAR belongs to the people…and CMAR is stronger than ever, and one of our most important roles is to inspire.” CMAR has big plans: for a biosphere reserve, for 9 protected areas, for a fund to support conservation in perpetuity. 

 

In the same vein, Andrew Steer, President and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund said, “Why would 15 donors, in the space of a few months, decide to give $118 million dollars to support this amazing thing?... Philanthropists have very sharp pencils: they know what they’re looking for: And when they see 10 years of brilliant science, when they see an inclusive process that takes local communities, local fishers into account and includes them in decision making, when they see leaders who are willing to struggle with extremely difficult issues and be honest about it and encourage each other…then we’re in. People sometimes say that there is not enough money to support nature, but that is not true. Money will come out of the closet very quickly if we see the kind of leadership, we see here.” 

 

And Zdenka Piskulich, Director of Enduring Earth, summed up: Two years ago, when the presidents made this commitment in Glasgow, we thought the stars had aligned. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the stars are aligning right now in this universe and the commitments that have been made in the last two days, for me, are an alignment of all the stars.” The Government of Ecuador announced an 8-mile protected area along the entire coast of the country. The Government of Costa Rica announced the creation of a blue fund for the expansion of a new marine protected area. The government of Panama led the way to expand its marine protected areas to 54 percent of its waters. CMAR expanded its area to include Clipperton Atoll. The government of Colombia has reached their 2030 goal before the deadline. Public and private supporters have committed $118 million to conservation of the Tropical Eastern Pacific. 

 

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panama City, Panama, is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, USA. The institute furthers the understanding of tropical biodiversity and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems.  

 

...and more information about the co-hosts of this event: 

 

The Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project 

 

The Pew Charitable Trusts and Dona Bertarelli created the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project, with the shared goal of establishing the first generation of ecologically significant, large, and effective marine protected areas (MPAs) around the world. Today, the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project also seeks to connect MPAs and help conserve key migratory species and entire marine ecosystems. These efforts build on more than a decade of work by Pew and the Bertarelli Foundation, led by Dona Bertarelli, to create large-scale highly or fully protected MPAs. Between them, they have helped to obtain designations or commitments to safeguard 12.6 million square kilometers (4.8 million square miles) of ocean by working with communities, local leaders, philanthropic partners, Indigenous groups, government officials, and scientists. Dona Bertarelli is a philanthropist, investor, sportswoman, and strong advocate for ocean conservation. The Pew Charitable Trusts addresses the challenges of a changing world by illuminating issues, creating common ground, and advancing ambitious projects including the need for effective marine conservation. 

 

Re:wild 

 

Re:wild protects and restores the wild. We have a singular and powerful focus: the wild as the most effective solution to the interconnected climate, biodiversity and human wellbeing crises. Founded by a group of renowned conservation scientists together with Leonardo DiCaprio, Re:wild is a force multiplier that brings together Indigenous peoples, local communities, influential leaders, nongovernmental organizations, governments, companies and the public to protect and rewild at the scale and speed we need. Learn more at rewild.org.

 

Bezos Earth Fund 

 

The Bezos Earth Fund is Jeff Bezos’ $10 billion commitment to fund scientists, activists, NGOs, and other actors who will drive climate and nature solutions. By allocating funds creatively, wisely, and boldly, the Bezos Earth Fund has the potential for transformative influence in this decisive decade. Funds will be fully allocated by 2030—the date the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals must be achieved. 

Health policy experts call for confronting anti-vaccine activism with life-saving counter narratives

A 21-person commission of public health experts convened by The Lancet urges the development of networked communities that simultaneously share information with different audiences about the health and economic benefits of vaccines

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Public and private sector health officials and public policymakers should team up immediately with community leaders to more effectively disseminate accurate narratives regarding the life-saving benefits of vaccines to counter widespread, harmful misinformation from anti-vaccine activists in the United States, according to a new Viewpoint piece in The Lancet, led by authors at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), University of California, Riverside (UCR), and The Stanford Internet Observatory Cyber Policy Center (SIO) at Stanford University.

Published in the leading international medical journal on Friday, March 3, the Viewpoint provides valuable insight into the recent developments of US-based anti-vaccine activism and proposes strategies to confront this dangerous messaging.

“Messages of health freedom gained traction during the pandemic, turning members of the public against public health messages and prevention-focused activities, including vaccination,” says second author Timothy Callaghan, associate professor of health law, policy & management at BUSPH, and who was one of three lead writers of the Viewpoint, along with lead author Richard Carpiano, public policy professor at UCR, and third author Renee DiResta, technical research manager at SIO.

In the Viewpoint, the authors and 18 other leading public health experts describe a perfect storm that allowed anti-vaccine activism, once a fringe subculture, to become a well-organized form of right-wing identity with narratives that associate refusing vaccines with personal liberty. This narrative was consistently repeated and amplified by social media influencers, pro-Donald Trump political operatives, and right-wing blogs, podcasts, and other media as the COVID-19 pandemic spread worldwide.

The authors underscore the need to consistently amplify accurate science and information through multiple communication channels, to avoid the spread of inaccurate or misleading information to people through limited sources. 

“This is a matter of life and death,” says Carpiano. “People don't always see it that way. We've forgotten how many people have died, have been sick, or continue to get sick from COVID-19 as well as many other vaccine-preventable diseases.” 

The paper comes out at a time when more than 1.1 million people have died from COVID-19, and the worldwide toll is estimated at 6.8 million. The disease continues to spread as vaccines have been found to greatly reduce illnesses that require hospitalization or result in death.

Anti-vaccination activism has existed as long as there have been vaccines. But the movement picked up steam in 1998 when British physician Andrew Wakefield published a now-discredited study that falsely claimed a link between childhood vaccines and autism.

In more recent years, however, anti-vaccine messaging shifted in large part from health-effect concerns to conservative and libertarian political identity arguments of medical freedom and parental rights. This was prompted in part by legislative efforts in several states to eliminate personal belief exemptions from school vaccination requirements in response to falling child vaccination rates and vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks. But these arguments were confined to childhood vaccines and were somewhat contained. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic affected the entire population, it brought on a vast expansion of not only anti-vaccine activism, but more broadly, anti-public health activism as people faced the inconveniences of mask-wearing, social distancing, closed restaurants and bars, and cancelations of concerts and other events that draw crowds.

Celebrities, wellness influencers, partisan pundits, and certain scientists and clinicians, among others, joined the fray, often spreading false and misleading claims about vaccinations. The increasing number of voices found larger audiences, which meant more votes for right-wing candidates, and greater monetization of right-leaning social and media outlets.

“As celebrities, influencers, and politicians started speaking out negatively about vaccination, growing segments of the American public were exposed to these messages, shifting troubling proportions of the US public who had previously vaccinated in other contexts against getting vaccinated for COVID-19,” Callaghan says.   

The result was more people becoming ill.

“Political leaders were sadly, particularly effective anti-vaccine messengers, and because of that, we now have clear disparities in COVID-19 vaccination rates across party lines” he says.

Meanwhile, pro-vaccine messaging has been based on the statements of individual public health experts, such as former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci and director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Rochelle Walensky, who the authors say are outgunned.

Callaghan, Carpiano, and DiResta were part of the Commission on Vaccine Refusal, Acceptance, and Demand in the USA that The Lancet convened to examine issues surrounding COVID-19 vaccine acceptance uptake, acceptance, and hesitancy. The membership is composed of 21 national experts from public health, vaccine science, law, ethics, public policy, and the social and behavioral sciences.  

The group recommends the development of networked communities that simultaneously share information with different audiences about the health and economic benefits of vaccines. This would preempt the well-funded messaging of the antivaccine movement.

“Without concerted efforts to counter the anti-vaccine movement, the USA faces an ever-growing burden of morbidity and mortality from an increasingly under-vaccinated, vaccine hesitant society,” the authors conclude in the paper.

**

About Boston University School of Public Health

Founded in 1976, Boston University School of Public Health is one of the top five ranked private schools of public health in the world. It offers master's- and doctoral-level education in public health. The faculty in six departments conduct policy-changing public health research around the world, with the mission of improving the health of populations—especially the disadvantaged, underserved, and vulnerable—locally and globally.

 

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JOURNAL

The Lancet

DOI

10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00136-8 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Commentary/editorial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Confronting the evolution and expansion of anti-vaccine activism in the USA in the COVID-19 era

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Mar-2023

COI STATEMENT

The Lancet Commission on Vaccine Refusal, Acceptance, and Demand in the USA is cohosted by the Yale Institute for Global Health and the Baylor College of Medicine. All authors are Commissioners. PJH is a developer of a COVID-19 vaccine construct, which was licensed by Baylor College of Medicine to Biological E, a commercial vaccine manufacturer for scale-up, production, testing, and licensure. NTB reports personal fees from WHO, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Sanofi, and Merck outside of the submitted work. RMC reports receiving research grant funding from Novo Nordisk Foundation (Denmark), outside of the submitted work. RL reports grants from Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Pasteur, and Merck, and personal fees from BIO, outside of the submitted work. YAM is a member of a Data Safety Monitoring Board for Pfizer and is a site Principal Investigator for a Pfizer vaccine trial, outside the submitted work. MMM reports personal fees from law firms representing retail pharmacies, generic drug companies, and a health insurer that have sued branded drug companies for marketing and antitrust law violations, outside of the submitted work, and serves as an adviser to Verily Life Sciences on a mobile app designed to facilitate safe return to work and school during COVID-19. DJO reports grants from the US National Institutes of Health, outside the submitted work. DAS reports personal fees from Pfizer, Janssen, and Moderna, is on advisory boards and receives compensation from these companies for time attending meetings, and reports grants from Merck, outside of the submitted work. All other authors declare no competing interests.

50 leading national organizations unite to curb infodemic of health and science misinformation and disinformation

The Coalition for Trust in Health & Science launches new long-term initiative to support the science-based health decisions of the public through credible information and enhanced trust in health and science organizations and professionals

Business Announcement

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)

The Coalition for Trust in Health & Science today announced its formation and public launch during the 2023 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. The alliance was formed to unite leading organizations from across the entire health ecosystem to advance trust and factual science-based decision-making. The partnership aims to achieve a measurable increase in the public’s willingness – and ability – to access evidence-based information necessary to make the best personally appropriate health decisions for themselves, their families and the communities in which they live and work. Enhancing the perception and reality of the trustworthiness of the health and medical system is a key element of this goal.

“The United States is experiencing a tidal wave of misinformation and disinformation, which has real-world health impacts, such as preventable misery and deaths, and is escalating already dangerously high levels of mistrust and distrust in healthcare, public health and science,” said Reed Tuckson, M.D., convener of the Coalition for Trust in Health & Science. “Addressing this infodemic is fundamental to the values of the Coalition’s members and, together, we can and will make a positive impact on the health of individuals and the nation.”

Coalition’s Focus on Supporting Americans’ Health Decisions  

The Coalition is focused on supporting Americans’ health decisions by helping them navigate the increasing amount of information available from an increasing number of sources. This is a long-term effort to address longstanding challenges around trust and new challenges brought on by the proliferation of social media.

The collective effort of the Coalition is focused on correcting misinformation and countering disinformation that decrease trust in health, healthcare, public health and science and that has the potential to harm the public’s health.

Coalition Aims to Provide Rapid Responses to Particularly Egregious Disinformation 

A key aspect of the Coalition’s plan is to mobilize the breadth of its network of members to facilitate rapid-cycle debunking of particularly egregious disinformation and misinformation incidents that continue to emerge with concerning frequency and that have the potential to harm the public. Additionally, the Coalition has begun the creation of an online interactive Compendium of relevant programs operated or sponsored by Coalition members for the purposes of sharing ideas; stimulating collaboration; facilitating research while also identifying research gaps; enabling research findings to inform ongoing and new initiatives; supporting the spread of effective strategies; and fostering measurement of collective impact.

“Countering dangerous disinformation quickly and effectively is essential to public health,” said Sudip Parikh, chief executive officer of AAAS and executive publisher of the Science family of journals. “We are excited to be part of the Coalition for Trust in Health & Science and to work with other organizations that share the same vision for addressing the current crisis in trust plaguing the scientific landscape, encouraging evidence-based health choices, and addressing misinformation and disinformation. This collective collaboration has the potential to achieve the vision of evidence-based decision making in healthcare far more effectively than individual action.”

50 Member Organizations Representing Diverse Interests Join Coalition

The alliance is currently comprised of 50 national organizations representing basic and applied science organizations; health academicians; health services researchers; pharmaceutical manufacturers; physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other professional disciplines; public health professionals; health insurers; health regulators; ethicists; health humanists; foundations; health consumer organizations; and health consulting, policy and communications organizations.

Members share the Coalition’s vision that “All people have equitable access to and confidence in the accurate, understandable and relevant information necessary to make personally appropriate health decisions.” Additionally, members have pledged to 1) Support efforts to advance people’s scientific and health literacy, earn public trust and improve health outcomes and health equity, and 2) Work individually and collectively to correct misinformation and counter disinformation that threatens people’s health and well-being. 

Current members include:

• AAAS
• Academy Health
• Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education
• AHIP
• American Academy of Nursing
• American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine
• American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
• Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
• American Board of Internal Medicine
• ABIM Foundation
• American College of Physicians
• American College of Preventive Medicine
• American Hospital Association
• American Medical Association
• American Nurses Association
• American Physical Society
• American Psychological Association
• American Public Health Association
• American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
• America’s Physician Groups
• Arnold Gold Foundation
• Association of American Indian Physicians
• BCG
• Berman Institute of Bioethics
• BIO
• Black Coalition Against COVID
• Council of Medical Specialty Societies
• Federation of American Hospitals
• Foundation for the National Institutes of Health
• Henry Schein Co.
• Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation
• KFF
• KPMG LLP
• LifePoint Health
• National Association for Home Care & Hospice
• National Association of Hispanic Nurses
• National Black Nurses Association
• National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners
• National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurse Associations
• National Committee for Quality Assurance
• National Council of Asian Pacific Islander Physicians
• National Health Council
• National Hispanic Medical Association
• National Medical Association
• National Pharmaceutical Association
• NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
• Real Chemistry
• Research!America
• The John A. Hartford Foundation Inc.
• The Hastings Center & PhRMA

The Coalition is managed by the Core Convening Committee, which includes the following initial members:

• Reed Tuckson, M.D., chair and co-founder, Black Coalition Against COVID (BCAC)
• Bill Novelli, Professor Emeritus, Georgetown University and former chief executive officer, AARP
• Julie Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H., chief executive officer, Foundation for the National Institutes of Health
• Mary Naylor, Ph.D., R.N., Marian S. Ware Professor, Gerontology, and director of the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
• Sudip Parikh, Ph.D., chief executive officer, AAAS
• Mary Woolley, president, Research!America
• Elaine Arkin, consultant

Documented Impact of Misinformation on Health

Misinformation has been shown to have an adverse impact on health, with a World Health Organization review in September 2022 showing that infodemics and misinformation affect people’s health behaviors.[i] For example:

• A study showed that even brief exposure to COVID-19 vaccine misinformation made people less likely to want a COVID-19 vaccine,[ii] even though it is estimated that U.S. vaccination efforts prevented more than 18 million hospitalizations and more than 3 million additional deaths.[iii]
• In South Africa, government officials reduced citizen access to antiretroviral drugs due to the false belief that HIV did not cause AIDS, a concept known as AIDS denialism. This action can be attributed to causing more than 330,000 deaths between 2000 and 2005.[iv],[v]
• In the late 1990s, an inaccurate study claimed that immunization with measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccines caused autism.[vi] Even though the study was retracted, the claim continued to be widely accepted and led to lower immunization rates in Western Europe and North America over the next 20 years.[vii]

About The Coalition for Trust in Health & Science

The Coalition for Trust in Health & Science was formed in early 2023 to combat the current infodemic of misinformation and disinformation in health, healthcare, public health and science. Currently comprised of dozens of national organizations focused on health and science, the Coalition is focused on enhancing the public’s trust in the collective health ecosystem and supporting science-based decisions that are critical to improved health outcomes and the reduction of premature deaths. For more information visit coalitionfortrustinscience.org.

 

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[i] Borges do Nascimento IJ, Pizarro AB, Almeida JA et al. Infodemics and misinformation: a systematic review of reviews. Bull World Health Organ. 2022;100(9):544-561. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9421549/

Accessed February 10, 2023.

[ii] Loomba S, de Figueiredo A, Piatek SJ, de Graaf K, Larson HJ. Measuring the impact of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on vaccination intent in the UK and USA. Nature Human Behavior. 2021;5:337-348.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01056-1. Accessed February 10, 2023.

[iii] Fitzpatrick MC, Moghadas SM, Pandey A, Galvani AP. Two years of U.S. COVID-19 vaccines have prevented millions of hospitalizations and deaths.  The Commonwealth Fund. December 13, 2022. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2022/two-years-covid-vaccines-prevented-millions-deaths-hospitalizations. Accessed February 10, 2023.

[iv] Chigwedere P, Seage GR, Gruskin S, Lee TH, Essex M. Estimating the lost benefits of antiretroviral drug use in South Africa. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2008:49(4):410-415. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19186354/10.1097/qai.0b013e31818a6cd5. Accessed February 10, 2023.

[v] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK572166/. Accessed February 13, 2023.

[vi] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK572166/. Accessed February 13. 2023.

[vii] Hussain A, Ali S, Ahmed M, Hussain S. The anti-vaccination movement: a regression in modern medicine. Cureus. 2018;10(7):32919. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6122668/. Accessed February 13, 2023.

COVID-19 pandemic increased rates and severity of depression, whether people were infected or not

Reports and Proceedings

INTERMOUNTAIN HEALTHCARE

 

IMAGE: A NEW STUDY OF NEARLY 136,000 PATIENTS FROM INTERMOUNTAIN HEALTH IN SALT LAKE CITY FOUND THAT DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AND SEVERITY OF DEPRESSION WAS SIGNIFICANT AMONG ALL PATIENTS IN THE STUDY EXAMING IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEY WERE INFECTED WITH COVID-19 OR NOT. view more 

CREDIT: INTERMOUNTAIN HEALTH

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted just about every part of people’s lives. Quarantining, social distancing, societal disruptions and an ever-shifting, uncertain landscape of rules and restrictions and variants created stress and isolation that impacted the mental health of millions of Americans.

Now, in a new study of nearly 136,000 patients from Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City, researchers found that depressive symptoms and severity of depression was significant among all patients in the study, regardless of whether they were infected with COVID-19 or not.

In the study, results of which were presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 2023 scientific session in New Orleans on March 4, Intermountain researchers found that depression symptoms rose significantly during the pandemic, with more than half of all patients reporting some degree of clinically-relevant depressive symptoms.

“It didn’t matter if a patient was positive or negative for the virus. We found increased rates of depression and depression severity across the board,” said Heidi T. May, PhD, cardiovascular epidemiologist at Intermountain Health and principal investigator of the study. “As poor mental health can impact chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, screening for and treating mental health is a critical part of any overall patient care process right now. Doing so will both help patients in this moment, and protect their future health.” 

In the Intermountain study, researchers examined 135,864 patients who completed their first Patient Healthcare Questionnare-9 (PHQ-9), which is used to screen for depression, in a primary care setting from January 1, 2016, to April 20, 2022.

They then looked at how those scores, which categorize patients’ depression into none (<10), mild (10-14), moderate (15-19) and severe (>20), over time.

The researchers found a significant increase in PHQ-9 scores, with the mean PHQ-9 score rising by 1.5 points.

They also found that before the pandemic, about 45% of patients reported some degree of depression. Starting in 2021, that changed to 55% of patients showing at least some degree of depression. There was no significant difference in scores among COVID positive and negative patients.  

Depression, anxiety, stress, and PTSD are linked to higher rates of high blood pressure and higher levels of cortisol, which can lead to calcium buildup in the arteries, metabolic disease, and heart disease, according to the CDC.

“We know depression is a risk factor for chronic disease, so given these findings, it’s really important to mitigate some of the effects of depression so these patients can lead healthier and happier lives right now, and in the future,” said Dr. May.

 

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

21ST CENTURY ALCHEMY

Biologists, chemical engineers collaborate to reveal complex cellular process inside petunias

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PURDUE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: A PURDUE UNIVERSITY TEAM LED BY NATALIA DUDAREVA, DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF BIOCHEMISTRY IN PURDUE’S COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, AND JOHN MORGAN, PROFESSOR IN THE DAVIDSON SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, HAVE PUBLISHED NEW DETAILS ABOUT MOLECULAR PROCESSES THAT ALLOW PETUNIAS TO EMIT SCENT CHEMICALS CALLED VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS. view more 

CREDIT: PURDUE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS/TOM CAMPBELL

Biologists, chemical engineers collaborate to reveal complex cellular process inside petunias

Once upon a time, prevailing scientific opinion might have pronounced recently published research in Nature Communications by a team of Purdue University scientists as unneeded. Now, climate change implications have heightened the need for this line of research.

Flowers emit scent chemicals called volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Earlier this year, the Purdue team published the paper identifying for the first time a protein that plays a key role in helping petunias emit volatiles. The article was selected for the “plants and agriculture” section of the journal’s editors’ highlights webpage.

Natalia Dudareva, who led the study, and her longtime collaborator John Morgan had suggested years ago in grant proposals that molecular processes could be involved in VOC emission. Both times the grant reviewers said there was nothing to look for because simple diffusion was the answer.

“We failed twice because people did not believe us,” said Dudareva, director of the Center for Plant Biology and Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry. “We decided we have to have proof that it’s not simple diffusion, that molecular mechanisms are involved.”

The new work builds on findings that the Dudareva-Morgan collaboration announced in 2015 and 2017 showing how biology helps control the release of scent compounds from plants. The latest paper, chiefly funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, focuses on how volatiles cross the cell wall, the barrier that separates the cellular interior from a plant’s outermost protective layer, the cuticle.

“We were looking at whether or not there are proteins that facilitate the transport of these small organic molecules across the cell wall layer,” said Morgan, a professor of chemical engineering.

“The best analogy is to the transport of oxygen in muscle tissue by a protein called myoglobin.”

Volatile organic chemicals are small molecules that have low water solubility. The cell wall, however, is a water-filled environment. This slows the diffusion rate of VOCs because their concentrations cannot build up very high.

“What happens is a protein can bind a lot of these molecules inside a non-waterlike cavity, and it improves or increases the net transport rate,” Morgan explained.

The work has significant practical implications, ranging from the health of the planet to industrial operations. Plants now emit 10 billion metric tons of carbon annually, a quantity that will increase with continued global warming. Floral volatiles also help to protect plants against environmental stresses and are heavily used in the cosmetics industry and in aromatherapy.

“And our diet depends on insect-pollinated plants,” Dudareva said. With global warming, flowers may start blooming earlier, before insects are ready to begin pollination.

The team’s 2015 paper published in the journal Trends in Plant Science reported calculations that had determined the concentration of volatiles needed to sustain the experimentally measured floral emission rate. The concentration reached the millimolar range, a scale that chemists use to quantify substances containing huge numbers of molecules or atoms.

“These compounds will accumulate inside membranes and such high concentration will destroy membranes and destroy the cell,” Dudareva said. This left a clear-cut conclusion: simple diffusion would be impossible.

The initial work had been calculated for snapdragons. But the Purdue researchers focused on petunias for their latest study because, unlike snapdragons, they can be genetically modified to study how particular genes affect the emission process.

“It’s much easier to work with petunias because emission is high, especially during the night,” said Pan Liao, a lead co-author and former Purdue postdoctoral scientist, now an assistant professor of biology at Hong Kong Baptist University. “The emission is strongly regulated in a diurnal pattern.”

Additional co-authors were Itay Maoz, a former Purdue postdoctoral scientist now of Israel’s Agricultural Research Organization; Meng-Ling Shih, PhD 2022, chemical engineering; Xing-Qi Huang, a postdoctoral scientist working in Dudareva’s lab; and Ji Hee Lee, a graduate student in biochemistry. The co-authors contributed a complementary blend of skills and expertise to the work that has become a hallmark of the longstanding collaboration between the Dudareva and Morgan research groups.

Dudareva’s group generated the transgenic plants and handled the cellular biology needed to determine whether a given protein contributes to the volatile emissions. There is no way, however, to detect the level of proteins in a cell or how their concentration changes across a cell wall.

It then fell to Morgan’s group to perform the calculations that quantified the protein contributions and conduct computer simulations to verify the experimental data.

“It’s important to have feedback between the modeling predictions and the actual data,” Morgan said. “Sometimes it starts with the data, then we go do math, and then we go back and compare to the data.”

Xing-Qi Huang, a postdoctoral scientist in the Dudareva laboratory, tags a petunia that will bloom in the next 24 hours. Researchers select flowers that have just bloomed to extract volatiles at their peak.

Ji Hee Lee, a graduate student in biochemistry, prepares an experiment to extract floral volatiles from fresh petunia blooms.

Petunia placed in a glass container in preparation for extraction of floral volatiles.

CREDIT

Purdue Agricultural Communications/Tom Campbell

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-36027-9 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Emission of floral volatiles is facilitated by cell-wall non-specific lipid transfer proteins

Oregon State develops catalyst that purifies herbicide-tainted water and produces hydrogen

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers in the Oregon State University College of Science have developed a dual-purpose catalyst that purifies herbicide-tainted water while also producing hydrogen.

The project, which included researchers from the OSU College of Engineering and HP Inc. is important because water pollution is a major global challenge, and hydrogen is a clean, renewable fuel.

Findings of the study, which explored photoactive catalysts, were published today in the journal ACS Catalysis.

“We can combine oxidation and reduction into a single process to achieve an efficient photocatalytic system,” OSU’s Kyriakos Stylianou said. “Oxidation happens via a photodegradation reaction, and reduction through a hydrogen evolution reaction.”

A catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change.

Photocatalysts are materials that absorb light to reach a higher energy level and can use that energy to break down organic contaminants through oxidation. Among photocatalysts’ many applications are self-cleaning coatings for stain- and odor-resistant walls, floors, ceilings and furniture.

Stylianou, assistant professor of chemistry, led the study, which involved titanium dioxide photocatalysts derived from a metal-organic framework, or MOF.

Made up of positively charged metal ions surrounded by organic “linker” molecules, MOFs are crystalline, porous materials with tunable structural properties and nanosized pores. They can be designed with a variety of components that determine the MOF’s properties.

Upon MOFs’ calcination – high heating without melting – semiconducting materials like titanium dioxide can be generated. Titanium dioxide is the most commonly used photocatalyst, and it’s found in the minerals anatase, rutile and brookite.

Stylianou and collaborators including Líney Árnadóttir of the OSU College of Engineering and William Stickle of HP discovered that anatase doped with nitrogen and sulfur was the best “two birds, one stone” photocatalyst for simultaneously producing hydrogen and degrading the heavily used herbicide glyphosate.

Glyphosate, also known as N-phosphonomethyl glycine or PMG, has been widely sprayed on agricultural fields over the last 50 years since first appearing on the market under the trade name Roundup.

“Only a small percentage of the total amount of PMG applied is taken up by crops, and the rest reaches the environment,” Stylianou said. “That causes concerns regarding the leaching of PMG into soil and groundwater, as well it should – contaminated water can be detrimental to the health of every living thing on the planet. And herbicides leaching into water channels are a primary cause of water pollution.”

Among an array of compounds in which hydrogen is found, water is the most common, and producing hydrogen by splitting water via photocatalysis is cleaner and more sustainable than the conventional method of deriving hydrogen – from natural gas via a carbon-dioxide-producing process known as methane-steam reforming.

Hydrogen serves many scientific and industrial purposes in addition to its energy-related roles. It’s used in fuel cells for cars, in the manufacture of many chemicals including ammonia, in the refining of metals and in the production of plastics.

“Water is a rich hydrogen source, and photocatalysis is a way of tapping into the Earth’s abundant solar energy for hydrogen production and environmental remediation,” Stylianou said. “We are showing that through photocatalysis, it is possible to produce a renewable fuel while removing organic pollutants, or converting them into useful products.”

The collaboration that included graduate student Emmanuel Musa, postdoctoral researcher Sumandeep Kaur and students Trenton Gallagher and Thao Mi Anthony also tested its photocatalyst against water tainted by two other often-used herbicides, glufosinate ammonium and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. It worked on water containing them as well – even water with those two compounds plus PMG.

The research was funded by the OSU Department of Chemistry, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.

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JOURNAL

ACS Catalysis

DOI

10.1021/acscatal.3c00265 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Two Birds, One Stone: Coupling Hydrogen Production with Herbicide Degradation over Metal–Organic Framework-Derived Titanium Dioxide

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Mar-2023