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The EU’s Covid-19 vaccination rollout has received intense criticism for failing to keep pace with the vaccination programmes of other countries, notably the UK. Gareth Davies argues that while the UK has undoubtedly managed to vaccinate a greater share of its population than EU states thus far, the facts are more nuanced than the headline ... Continued

GOLD MATTERS‘Exploring Transformations to Sustainability in Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM)’ is a 4-year transdisciplinary research project (2018-2022) that examines whether and how societal transformations towards sustainable mining futures are possible in ASGM. It brings together a multi-national team conducting empirical research in Brazil, Suriname, French Guiana, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry, and Uganda. The core team includes researchers from different disciplines, artists, and a community development practitioner. Closely linked are miners and community members who work with the Team.Project activities include research with miners to understand how they see the future and sustainability in gold mining. This has involved photography, painting and sculpture to find ways to express people’s lives and futures in mining. At the start, the intention was to have an exhibition that could travel and ‘pop-up’ in mining communities, including artwork created in these communities to stimulate debate about gold mining. Photos show how the exhibition began like this in Kejetia, northern Ghana, in January 2020. However, the Covid-19 pandemic put a halt to plans for the exhibition to pop up in other communities or countries. Now it pops-up virtually as the Exhibition Gold Matters. The Exhibition takes the audience down on a journey moving from ‘Exhibition of the Exhibition in Kejetia’ to visual results from all the three regions organized around the themes: Co-labouring, ARTistic and ARTisanal, In-depth terrains, Gold Lifeways and Moving Matters. The exhibition includes work by the photographer Nii Obodai and images by the painter Christophe Sawadogo. All the other visual materials result from research collaborations, often involving members of mining communities. We have taken care over consent; also, in order to protect individuals, names of people and places are not always specified. The exhibition is a collaborative effort of the Team and members of mining communities. The Gold Matters Team would like to acknowledge gratitude to the miners and community members who have made this exhibition possible.Principal curator: Sabine Luning Art Direction and Graphic Design: Rose van ZijlWeb development: Niels Hofsteenge‍Gold Matters is supported financially by the Belmont Forum and NORFACE Joint Research Programme on Transformations to Sustainability, co-funded by DLR/BMBF, ESRC, FAPESP, ISSC, NWO, VR, and the European Commission through Horizon 2020. Grant number: 462.17.201.http://gold-matters.org/@gold_mattersContributors:Sabine Luning (Principal curator), Rose van Zijl (Art Direction and Graphic Design), Eleanor Fisher (Project Lead), Cristiano Lanzano, Esther van de Camp, Marjo de Theije, Lúcia da Costa Ferreira, Jorge Calvimontes, Luciana Massaro, Januária Pereira Mello, Raíssa Resende de Moraes, Giorgio de Tomi, Carlos Henrique Xavier Araujo, Ronald Twongyirwe, Margaret Tuhumwire, Christophe Sawadogo, Nii Obodai, Alizèta Ouedraogo, Luigi Arnaldi di Balme, Romain Ronceray, Lorenzo D’Angelo & Robert Pijpers

Objective To describe how the primary healthcare (PHC) in Iceland changed its strategy to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. Design Descriptive observational study. Setting Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. Population The Reykjavik area has a total of 233 000 inhabitants. Main outcome measures The number and the mode of consultations carried out. Drug prescriptions and changes in the 10 most common diagnoses made in PHC. Laboratory tests including COVID-19 tests. Average numbers in March and April 2020 compared with the same months in 2018 and 2019. Results Pragmatic strategies and new tasks were rapidly applied to the clinical work to meet the foreseen healthcare needs caused by the pandemic. The number of daytime consultations increased by 35% or from 780 to 1051/1000 inhabitants (p<0.001) during the study period. Telephone and web-based consultations increased by 127% (p<0.001). The same tendency was observed in out-of-hours services. The number of consultations in maternity and well-child care decreased only by 4% (p=0.003). Changes were seen in the 10 most common diagnoses. Most noteworthy, apart from a high number of COVID-19 suspected disease, was that immunisation, depression, hypothyroidism and lumbago were not among the top 10 diagnoses during the epidemic period. The number of drug prescriptions increased by 10.3% (from 494 to 545 per 1000 inhabitants, p<0.001). The number of prescriptions from telephone and web-based consultations rose by 55.6%. No changes were observed in antibiotics prescriptions. Conclusions As the first point of contact in the COVID-19 pandemic, the PHC in Iceland managed to change its strategy swiftly while preserving traditional maternity and well-child care, indicating a very solid PHC with substantial flexibility in its organisation. Funding Information: Contributors All authors contributed to the planning, conduct and reporting of the study. ELS, JSJ, MOT, HH, KL worked on acquisition of the data. ELS, ABB and JSJ drafted the manuscript with input from MOT, HH, KL and JAS which was critically reviewed by all the authors. HH performed the statistical analysis. ELS, ABB, JSJ, MOT, HH, KL, JAS read and approved the final version of the manuscript. Funding This research was supported by the Research Fund of the Icelandic College of Family Physicians. Publisher Copyright: © Peer reviewed

Objective COVID-19 has affected people’s health in various ways. University students are a particularly sensitive group for mental and physical health issues. The aim of this study was to assess and compare the mental and physical health of male and female first-year university students during and before COVID-19. Method Total of 115 first-year university students (54% male) answered questions about mental and physical health. The students were asked to estimate their physical activity, sedentary behavior, loneliness, stress, and sleep quality during COVID-19 opposed to before the pandemic. Result Males had fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression, and their self-esteem was higher than females (p<0.05). Over 50% of both genders estimated their mental health to be worse than before COVID-19. Larger proportion of males (69%) compared to females (38%) estimated that their physical health had worsened than before the pandemic. Larger proportion of females (38%) than males (14%) experience increased loneliness and stress (68% vs. 48%). Over 70% of both genders estimated increased sedentary behavior than before the pandemic, and larger proportion of males (76%), compared to females (56%), estimated that they were less physically active than before COVID-19. About 50% of participants estimated their sleep quality was worse than before COVID-19. Conclusion University students estimated their mental and physical health to have deteriorated during the pandemic. Therefore, it is important that the school and healthcare systems assist students in unwinding these negative health and lifestyle changes that have accompanied the pandemic. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Gestsdottir et al. Peer reviewed

SARS-CoV-2 continues to send shockwaves around the world. The pandemic holds us in its grip and causes pain, suffering and mounting insecurities about the future. Much has been said and written about containment measures and their impact on our world and our societies. Underneath the meta-conversations lies the immediacy of lived experience. How we respond to the pains and uncertainties, the isolation and loneliness unfolding around us. How we mourn the lives that have been lost and worry about those with symptoms. How solidarity and hope connect us. How we steer through each day and shoulder the events that mark it.I am an anthropologist and I conduct collaborative, long-term fieldwork with unhoused people in Leipzig, Germany. I accompany unhoused research collaborators through their everyday on their terms, to shed light on some of the intricacies of their lived experiences and points of view. I have adjusted, but not stopped this work during the pandemic and therefore saw its effects on those without the security of permanent housing unfolding in real-time. Additionally, I am directly involved in the COVID-19 response for people without housing and other vulnerable groups and am thus witness to dynamics, practices and emotional labour between people who live on the streets, grassroots solidarity movements, aid agencies, city and politicians.In this piece, I invite you to come along on a written walkthrough of the social world which I currently navigate. This piece connects poetry with description. It seeks to take you on a necessarily fragmented journey through some of the feelings, the words and silences, the presences and absences, the ambiguities and nuances which mark this moment. It reflects on the impact of physical distancing measures, on the hardship they cause and on the ingenuity with which some people seek to lessen their effects.