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Genetics

Experts develop genetic risk score to predict heart disease in South Asia – Express Healthcare

Findings and methods developed can be used to screen large populations and high-risk individuals at a cost less than Rs 5000, according to the release

Findings of the first-ever research capturing the polygenic risk score for South Asia populations for coronary artery disease were recently published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).

Conducted by MedGenome Labs, in collaboration with researchers from Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; Narayana Health, Bangalore; Eternal Hospital, Jaipur; Madras Medical Mission, Chennai; KMCH, Coimbatore and a few other institutes, the study on Indian population validates a novel CAD-PRS (coronary artery disease-genome-wide polygenic risk score) to precisely predict the risk of developing a coronary artery disease/myocardial infarction (MI) using a persons genetic makeup.

Knowing the polygenic risk is important to individuals with a family history of CAD, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol level, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, stressful lifestyle, as CAD results from a combination of these factors. A poor lifestyle and high polygenic risk could be a fatal combination and may result in early-onset CAD.

Such findings and methods developed can be used to screen large populations and high-risk individuals at a cost less than Rs 5000.

Looking at all the available scientific evidence and our study results we are convinced that there exists a good opportunity to combine both clinical and genetic risks (polygenicrisk score based) and significantly improve the primary prevention of coronary artery disease (CAD). We firmly believe that incorporatingvalidated genetic risk scores would help in better stratification of high-risk individuals if implemented at population level,said Dr Vedam Ramprasad, CEO, MedGenome Labs.

This unique study is based on the principle of Genome-wide Polygenic Risk Score (PRS) which usesa genome-wideanalysis of an individual to quantify the risk of developing heart disease.

It was conducted on the south Asian population in 1800 confirmed CAD cases and 1163 control samples from five centres across the country with a median age between 54 and 55 years. The findings of this study have helped develop a CAD PRS that integrates information from millions of sites of common DNA variation into a single metric that can be calculated from birth and validate a scalable polygenic score framework in India. This finding lays the scientific and operational foundation for clinical implementation not just for CAD but for other diseases.

CAD PRS is a powerful genetic predictor that can be used to identify individuals at increased risk for CAD. It provides a quantified risk score based on ones genetic makeup and predicts a patients risk for having an acute coronary event, such as a heart attack, before symptoms appear. CAD PRS is an important new risk factor to help physicians stratify high-risk patients and better guide treatment decisions and lifestyle interventions, said Dr Sekar Kathiresan, CEO, Verve Therapeutics and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Cardiology Division, Massachusetts General Hospital.

According to a research paper published in theJournal of Genetics, the estimated prevalence of CAD disease in India is about 10.5 per cent of the population which extrapolates to a burden of about 32 million affected individuals. Over and above, the incidence of cardiac disorders has increased from 2 per cent to 10.5 per cent of the urban population in the past few years and early age of onset is a new countrywide trend.

South Asians no matter where they stay in India or any other country always have higher cases of CAD than Caucasians. Even if our body structure is much leaner, smaller and thus comparatively lower food consumed compared to Caucasians, we still end up with CAD. So, it can be considered that South Asians have some genetic issue that is causing high CAD cases and hence we need to identify these genetic factors so that we are able to manage the disease in our population, said Dr Ajit Mullasari, Director, Adult Cardiology, Madras Medical Mission.

The virtual press conference and announcement was also supported by several eminent cardiologists from across the country Dr Ramesh Seshadri, Dr Julius Punnen, Dr Varun Shetty, Dr Bagirath Raghuraman from Narayana Institute of Cardiac Science, Bangalore, Dr.Pradeep Narayan, RTIIS, Kolkata, Dr Rajendra N.S, Narayana Hospital, Mysore and Dr Rajeev Gupta, EHCC Jaipur.

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Experts develop genetic risk score to predict heart disease in South Asia - Express Healthcare

Human Behavior

Pandemic behavior: Why some people don’t play by the rules – The Jakarta Post – Jakarta Post

Lockdowns and social distancing measures introduced around the world to try and curb the COVID-19 pandemic are reshaping lives, legislating activities that were once everyday freedoms and creating new social norms.

But there are always some people who don't play by the rules.

Rule-breaking is not a new phenomenon, but behavioral scientists say it is being exacerbated in the coronavirus pandemic by cultural, demographic and psychological factors that can make the flouters seem more selfish and dangerous.

Here are some questions and answers on the science of human behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic:

What makes some people flout and others obey the rules?

A key factor is individualism versus collectivism.

"Some countries...tend to be higher on individualism, which is about expressing your sense of identity and who you are as an individual," said Jay Van Bavel, an associate professor of psychology at New York University.

People in individualist cultures tend to reject rules and ignore attempts by public health authorities to "nudge" behavior change with risk messages or appeals for altruism.

"If you say, for example, that wearing a mask will help protect others, people in individualistic cultures just care less," said Michael Sanders, a expert at the Policy Institute at King's College London.

In collectivist cultures, people are more likely to do what's best for the group.

Are trust and fear important?

Yes. These and other instincts are significant influences on human behavior.

In societies with more political division, for example, people are less likely to trust advice from one side or the other, and also tend to form pro- and anti-camps.

Optimism and fear are also crucial. A little of both can be positive, but too much of either can be damaging.

"In a situation like a pandemic, (optimism) can lead you to take risks that are incredibly dangerous," said Van Bavel.

Why is social distancing difficult?

"We are truly social animals," said Van Bavel. "Our bodies and brains are designed for connection and the pandemic in many ways goes against our instincts to connect."

That's partly why local outbreaks can crop up in bars and nightclubs, or religious ceremonies, weddings and parties.

"People have a hard time resisting that tendency for social and group connection."

If rule-breakers are a minority, why does it matter?

"The problem is that, in a massive collective problem like the one we're facing now, if everybody breaks the rules a little bit, then it's not dissimilar to lots of people not following the rules at all," said Sanders.

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Pandemic behavior: Why some people don't play by the rules - The Jakarta Post - Jakarta Post

Human Behavior

The extremes of human behavior Mondoweiss – Mondoweiss

Of late I keep being reminded of my age. Fortunately, the impinging frailties are emotional, not physical. Emotional lability is common among octogenarians. I shudder to think of other more psychopathological explanations for the infirmity. Whatever the cause, in my rural Palestinian culture crying is not for strong men. But nowadays reading the news seems always to bring tears to my eyes.

The cases of near random brutalizing of civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories, often multiple and often to death, is a near daily occurrence. Last weeks episode in Haaretz apparently is a case of mistaken identity, a border cop shooting a man from Jenin in the back seat of a car on sight. The Israeli heroic soldiers quick finger on the trigger is in line with the a priori Talmudic license of Ifsomeonecomes tokill you,rise up andkill him first. I cried for the injured mans father visiting him in the hospital. Not only that one of his sons is in critical condition with a pointblank shot to the head but also that there is a death sentence for the other son, the intended subject of the attack. And the same newsfeed has this item as well as this, one of a mother and the other of a child, the second such incident in three months. A weekly inclusive summary of such abuses, deadly and otherwise, is the JVP Health Advisory Committee weekly report.

Then Haaretz (English print version) carried a report about the rush of so many Palestinian families including parents, children and some elderly to the shore of the Mediterranean, mostly at Jaffas beach, many of them for the first time in their lives. Not only that they had no permits but also that most of them crossed the so called Security Barrier through illegal passages and breaks in the fence with the Israeli security officials looking the other way. This surprising event and the pleasure the Palestinian children derived from wading into the sea for the first time, as is shown in one of the pictures in the report, nearly made me cry with pleasure. But what really made me cry to where I was gulping for breath is a video that a search about the topic of Israels borders eventually led me to. It shows a football game between two teams of Palestinian amputees in Gaza. Those young men didnt even touch the fence of their open-air prison, much less crossed it. Just as the unwritten permit to cross the Apartheid wall to reach the sea, shooting with intent to mutilate demonstrating youth in Gaza must have been a well-considered decision of security and political higher-ups. War crimes usually start at the top.

My home in Galilee is nearly equidistant from Jenin and Beirut. For the last five days the scenes of death, destruction and wide spread misery in the Lebanese capitals port area is shocking. For many of us, natives of the region, the shock is in proportion to Beiruts romantic place in our hearts as Paris of the Levant. The tragic scenes in the media, especially on Lebanese TV stations, are sufficient to shock the most stoic amongst us. The account of one touching human tragedy that I have seen on TV is also reported in the New York Times international edition. It is of a heroic young woman from a village in north Lebanon, a medic who had joined Beiruts fire department and died while talking to her fianc. She was buried in a typical village wedding procession with the standard wedding music and singing and with her coffin draped in white and her fianc dressed in a wedding suit and carried on his friends shoulders as befits a groom.

But the one report that brought tears to my eyes the most was a two-line sketch in Arabic on a dear friends Facebook account which went as follows (My translation):

You should be Careful. I have Corona! an injured woman in Beirut told the man trying to rescue her.

I am not letting you die, the man answered as he carried her in his arms.

The humanity of both! I just cant stop crying. I cant breathe.

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The extremes of human behavior Mondoweiss - Mondoweiss

Human Behavior

What philosophers have to say about the desire to party – Malay Mail

As social animals, humans are hardwired to need the interaction provided by parties. Stock photo via ETX Studio

AUG 16 Surprising as it may seem, many philosophers have wondered about the phenomenon of partying, and attempted to explain why humankind is so eager to indulge in collective merrymaking marked by excess and occasionally impulsive conduct. At a time when social gatherings are viewed as irresponsible with regard to the pandemic, it is worth remembering that they are an essential aspect of human behaviour, which has been well-documented in literature and social sciences. Even philosophers have sought to explain why they are so deeply needed. Here is a roundup of what they had to say.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: a collective escape from constraints that allows you to forget yourself

The French thinker, who argued that human beings were naturally good but corrupted by society, saw partying as a return to an original innocence fuelled by dancing and alcohol, which offered an escape from the constraints and interests that dominate human behavior to the point where revellers even forget themselves. In the light of this view, the 18th century philosopher would have a hard time understanding people who take selfies at parties.

Mikhail Bakhtin: partying as a momentary subversion of social order

The Russian philosopher and Rabelais scholar was particularly interested in the popular phenomenon of carnivals and their disruption and suspension of the social order. For Bakhtin, the goal of partying was to temporarily do away with hierarchy and convention.

Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre: existentialist partying

France's most famous philosophical couple was keen on partying, an activity that they believed to be very much in tune with existentialist thought, which, in a nutshell, sets aside any notion of self that is not defined by action. For Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, philosophy also entailed a commitment to live life to the full. Partying, which they saw as a powerful source of energy that liberated the imagination and stimulated creativity, was an important aspect of that.

Michel Foucault: partying is the jubilant release of the collective unconscious

For the French philosopher Michel Foucault, partying provides an opportunity for the spontaneous manifestation of the collective unconscious that governs ordinary social interaction. With their authorisation of excesses and transgressions (both sexual and social), parties shed light on hidden aspects of morality and society. ETX Studio

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What philosophers have to say about the desire to party - Malay Mail

Human Behavior

Ask Amy: Wondering widower wont wait by the phone – HollandSentinel.com

Dear Amy: After 31 years with my spouse, Im now dating (Im a widower). Dating is a new thing for me.

There is a guy with whom I thought I had a good rapport. He reached out to me last week expressing an interest in getting together over the weekend. I responded that I'd like that, and gave him my availability.

I never heard back from him. I thought maybe he had an emergency, and I texted him Sunday night just to confirm that he was OK.

He replied, apologizing for the weekend getting away from him, and said that he had a work project due the next day.

I respect the fact that he takes his work seriously, but I am bothered that he did not let me know his weekend plans were changed.

I may be old-fashioned, but this situation just makes me think we are not as aligned as I thought. To me, a quick text letting me know he needed to cancel would have been common courtesy. I think he was telling me he is not that interested.

Is this how things work now, where you don't really need to let someone know if you are opting out of previously stated plans? Maybe I am out of touch. Dating Newbie

Dear Newbie: Welcome to the dating world, where no matter what era someone is always waiting by the phone.

Even though modern technology has made it possible for us to be in touch frequently and instantly basic human behavior and dynamics have stayed fairly constant over time.

If someone wants to be with you, he will leap over boundaries and deadlines to see you. And if an emergency keeps him away, you will be the first to know, because yes! you are just a text or a quick call away.

Dating is actually great practice at reading social cues.

For instance, you and he did not actually have "previously stated" plans. There was a vague and nonspecific plan-balloon floating over your weekend. (Not locking down plans is a cue.)

When this guy decided he didnt want to see you, he didnt bother letting you know. (Rudeness is a cue.)

Common courtesy is still common, and when someone is truly interested in seeing you, he will demonstrate this by being kind, polite, and eager to see you. Never supply a rationale or excuse for someone elses rudeness.

Move on. When the guy is right for you, you will know it.

Dear Amy: Every summer a group (10 to 15) of us high school classmates get together for a casual picnic. Our 50th high school reunion was canceled until next year.

Silly me, with this pandemic, I assumed that the picnic would automatically be canceled. Instead, I was notified to bring a dish to pass and meet at the usual picnic tables.

I was shocked that these people (almost 70 years old, and many with careers in the medical field, would be so oblivious to the pandemic. Many of these classmates live out of town.

I refused to go. I pointed out that group gatherings and sharing food main dishes/serving utensils, public grills during a pandemic was a very bad idea. The person planning it was quite mystified and miffed at my decision not to attend. Why are people so oblivious during a pandemic? Did I overreact? What Pandemic?!

Dear What: Although this virus doesnt seem to be transmitted the way some other illnesses are on shared utensils, for instance the very act of sharing food and utensils brings people in close proximity, which gives this virus a chance to spread.

I dont know why some people are so oblivious, but you cannot control them. Your duty is to do your very best to take care of yourself. If you dont contract the virus, you wont spread it, and this is how you will help to take care of others. I hope your group gets lucky and that everybody stays safe and well.

Dear Amy: I had to laugh when I read the letter from "Screw Loose in Lucedale."

Although I don't live alone, I do work from home and am solitary with my pets most of the day.

My son has always made fun of my "narrating my own life." Pointing it out brought humor to the situation, but did not change it. Still Narrating

Dear Narrating: Judging from the huge response to this question, a lot of us have a lot to say to ourselves.

Amy Dickinson is a Tribune Media Service national columnist. Send questions via email to askamy@amydickinson.com or by mail to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068.

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Ask Amy: Wondering widower wont wait by the phone - HollandSentinel.com

Human Behavior

TOM PURCELL: The longer we’re isolated, the less productive we get – Henry Herald

Covid-19 is getting old particularly for employees whove been working from home for months.

Thats the finding of a recent article by Wall Street Journal reporter Chip Cutter, Companies Start to Think Remote Work Isnt So Great After All.

Early on, when millions stopped commuting and started working from home, many companies saw good results. Work was getting done. Most employees enjoyed it. Companies saw an opportunity to reduce future office overhead costs by making remote work part of their long-term strategy.

But that was before cracks began to emerge in the work-from-home model.

According to The Journal, initiatives now take longer. Hiring and integrating staff is harder. Employees arent bonding or growing with each other. Efforts to collaborate online are going flat.

The reporter cited one CEOs conclusion: Its important to have people in a room and see body language and read signals that dont come through a screen.

Hes exactly correct. Humans are social animals. Were at our best when we collaborate face to face. Communication theoristNick Morgan explains why in Forbes: (W)e share mirror neurons that allow us to match each others emotions unconsciously and immediately. We leak emotions to each other. We anticipate and mirror each others movements when were in sympathy or agreement with one another when were on the same side. And we can mirror each others brain activity when were engaged in storytelling and listening both halves of the communication conundrum.

As a freelance writer, working from home for years, I find myself climbing the walls many days. Too much home-office isolation makes getting things done harder.

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Though online meetings are helpful, I long for face-to-face interaction. The best ideas come from in-person brainstorming as one person jots ideas on a whiteboard and others shout out concepts. You just cant do that well in online meetings.

Furthermore, Ive worked for clients I never met in person. Such relationships are never as rich as those in which Im able to meet and work with clients in their offices over time.

In any event, as companies rediscover human natures limitations that employees isolated at home arent as productive or as engaged with colleagues they shed light on a growing problem in our society: Increasingly isolated inside our homes, particularly due to the virus, more people are interacting solely through social media and other online platforms.

And these detached means by which we communicate enable our growing incivility.

This era of smartphones and social media of nasty tweets and Facebook insults ismaking rudeness, reports Psychology Today, our new normal.

The magazine cites research, published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, that finds technology-enabled anonymity and a lack of eye contact are chief contributors to our growing incivility.

This prolonged virus is getting old, for sure, and our patience is running thin. But I hope we will learn from the lessons its teaching us.

I long for a time when pubs are fully operational and we can discuss politics civilly and with open minds over pints of Guinness, with renewed hope that well figure out how to maintain our humanity and civility in our increasingly nutty world when this pandemic is finally behind us.

Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free.Please support us by subscribing or making a contribution today.

Tom Purcell is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom at Tom@TomPurcell.com.

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TOM PURCELL: The longer we're isolated, the less productive we get - Henry Herald

Human Behavior

Frustrated? Human patterns of synchronization may be the reason – study – The Jerusalem Post

In order to study the behavior of human synchronization, Dr. Moti Fridman of the Kofkin Faculty of Engineering at Bar-Ilan University, Prof. Nir Davidson of the Weizmann Institute of Science and Elad Shniderman from Stony Brook University in New York created a musical ensemble composed of 16 violinists that acted like a network. Their results were published on August 11, 2020, in the journal Nature Communications."Our research is related to epidemic control and understanding how many connections we can preserve and still prevent an epidemic from spreading," added Fridman, in the shadow of the spread of the coronavirus.The study was operated as follows: the ensemble was composed of 16 violinists wearing headphones, each of them playing a short musical phrase repeatedly, again and again, and hearing the performance, along with the performance of at least two other musicians, through their headphones. No visual information was available for the musicians who were separated from one another with partitions. All they were asked to do was to synchronize with one another according to what they heard in their headphones. However, the researchers imposed an increasing delay on what the violinists heard in their headphones. "By introducing a delay between the coupled violinists so that each violinist heard what his/her neighbors played a few seconds ago, we prevent the network from reaching a synchronized state," Fridman explained. This is called a frustrated situation and is well studied in different types of networks. According to current network theory models, in a frustrated state each node a certain violinist will try to compromise between all its inputs what this violinist heard in his headphones."Humans behave differently," Fridman explained. "In a state of frustration they don't look for a 'middle', but ignore one of the inputs. This is a critical phenomenon that is changing the dynamics of the network."According to the study, led by Fridman and his colleagues, two main innovations were enlightened: first, a methodology to measure accurately human network dynamic, and second, the two unique characteristics of a human network, namely the flexibility to change pace, and the ability to filter and ignore inputs that create frustration. These capabilities fundamentally change the dynamics of human networks relative to other networks and necessitate the use of a new model to predict human behavior."If you take humans and you study how they clap together, you have no control over who hears what. While working on this project we discovered that human networks behave differently than any other network we've ever measured. Human networks are able to change their inner structure in order to reach a better solution than what's possible in existing models. This concept is the core of our scientific and aesthetic discovery," Fridman said.The new model for stimulating human network established by this study can be applied in several fields, starting from understanding decision-making process in a wide range of fields such as politic, economics, human sciences, but it can also help to understand the behavior of people on social network when they are exposed to "fake news," and how to prevent those false information to spread.

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Frustrated? Human patterns of synchronization may be the reason - study - The Jerusalem Post

Human Behavior

Certifiably clean: Hotels, airlines and venues turn to Clorox and Lysol to vouch for their cleanliness – Kankakee Daily Journal

If you jump on a United Airlines flight, you are likely to see the Clorox logo on signs and posters as you board.

Check into a Marriott or Hyatt hotel and expect to see stickers emblazoned with the name of the Global Biorisk Advisory Council, an arm of the worlds cleaning-products industry trade group.

Customers of Delta Air Lines, Avis car rentals and Hilton hotels might run into placards and stickers touting the Lysol brand.

Trying to reassure a nervous public about their efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19, hotels, airlines, car rental companies and sports arenas have teamed up with the makers of popular cleaning products to vouch for their cleaning protocols.

These protocols focus mostly on disinfecting public spaces and high-touch surfaces, whereas medical experts note COVID-19 primarily is transmitted through the air after an infected person coughs, sneezes or exhales.

And the new partnerships and accreditation programs touted by such travel and hospitality companies do not guarantee the makers of the popular cleaning products have inspected the facilities so theyre very different from, say, restaurant letter grades, which assure local health inspectors scrutinize the eateries on a regular basis.

Also unlike government health departments, the cleaning-product makers expect to profit by charging fees to the venues or boosting sales of their products.

Venues embrace these programs for good reason, hospitality experts say, because travelers no longer are as preoccupied with getting the best price for their next trip as they are with protecting themselves from COVID-19.

Its a critical move, said Anthony Melchiorri, a hospitality expert who hosts the Travel Channel series Hotel Impossible. Not only do your guests have to feel safe but your employees must feel safe.

Although brand names can inspire confidence and comfort, human behavior is key to safety, health experts note.

What you hope hotels are doing are things like encouraging physical distancing in common spaces and limiting the number of people who are riding in elevators, said Dr. Timothy Brewer, a professor in the division of infectious diseases at UCLAs David Geffen School of Medicine. Those are things, in addition to cleaning, that will be very important in minimizing the risk of infection.

The hotels, airlines and sports arenas that are partnering with the cleaning-product makers say social distancing and wearing masks are elements of their new protocols, but the emphasis still is on disinfecting surfaces with name-brand products.

In some of the partnerships, the cleaning-product makers simply help draft cleaning standards for their business partners. In others, the cleaning specialists develop accreditation programs similar to a pass-or-fail exam the hotels and arenas must pass to earn the brands endorsement.

The Global Biorisk Advisory Council, also known as GBAC, and Ecolab Inc., a Minnesota-based maker of cleaning, sanitizing and maintenance products, each have created accreditation programs for several hotels and sports arenas.

The accreditation is not free, and it usually doesnt involve in-person inspections.

A GBAC accreditation program costs as much as $15,000 per year per facility. Ecolab declined to disclose its fees, saying only the costs vary by industry and customer, depending on the components included in the program and implementation needs.

For Lysol and Clorox, the financial benefit from such partnerships is expected to come from promoting their brands in hotels, airlines and rental car companies and from the boost in sales as the partner companies stock up on cleaning products to meet the new protocols.

The partnerships have been growing steadily in recent weeks.

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Certifiably clean: Hotels, airlines and venues turn to Clorox and Lysol to vouch for their cleanliness - Kankakee Daily Journal

Human Behavior

What happens in the next weeks will turn on how academic leaders make choices and change no longer effective behaviors (opinion) – Inside Higher Ed

Academic leaders across the nation are dealing with what will probably prove to be the most challenging time of their tenures. In the days of COVID-19, the broader consequences of leadership decisions -- for people's health, even their lives, and potentially the future existence of an institution -- have ramped up significantly, especially for provosts and presidents. Those jobs, always lonely, have become even lonelier and more pressured.

We all have never had a stronger imperative to be, in the parlance of the negotiation literature, "hard on the problems and soft on the people." The COVID-19 pandemic and its unprecedented disruptions to the operations of colleges and universities have left academic leaders and members of their communities forced to balance concerns for individual health and safety, budgetary survival, and academic quality and integrity. The decisions around those challenges pose innumerable tensions and tradeoffs that need to be managed in a context that is rapidly changing -- one in which accurate projections even a few weeks into the future are impossible.

A second historic set of challenges has also confronted our academic environments in recent months. The "Black Lives Matter" protests have resurfaced questions about campus inequities, inclusion, campus policing and whether moves made to address one set of problems -- such as moving classes online -- create new disadvantages for members of certain groups.

So much of what will happen in the next weeks and months will turn on how academic leaders make choices and the ways in which they recognize and adapt long-standing but no longer effective behaviors and habits. The very desire for a return to normalcy may result in choices that prove to be counterproductive to supporting the life and vitality of the academic environment leaders wish to preserve.

The profoundly difficult decisions ahead are exacerbated by an external environment in which policy and public health decisions are influenced by partisan political interests. Across the country people -- especially young people -- continue to avoid masks, distancing and other health and safety requirements. The safety of future policies, such as plans to reopen campuses, depend on human behavior and choices that are not always rational. Developments at the national level complicate campus decisions and the future even further.

This uncertainty has led some faculty members and students to oppose reopening campuses. At the same time, not reopening will mean financial crises that will likely entail furloughs and layoffs. Students in many fields will miss crucial educational and professional development experiences. The tradeoffs here are real and excruciating -- and someone needs to make the decisions.

Responsible leadership now entails a significant degree of flexibility and responsiveness to a changing environment. Meanwhile, students, parents and faculty members are demanding greater specificity from college leaders about future plans for reopening campuses than might be feasible. An honest answer to some questions might be, "We just don't know yet." Leaders will need to adapt to changing conditions and to be constantly ready to reverse or change strategies.

Reopening or not, plans are needed, but those plans will certainly have to change and evolve. In a situation that is based on so much uncertainty, clear principles and processes are needed: data-based decisions, meaningful consultation and transparency. Finding a way to the longer term through this dangerous period requires a balance of strategic and tactical choices. In fact, what may be a tactical decision today could significantly limit longer-term strategic options.

What does all this mean for the academic leader in the midst of such a crisis? How do you embrace responsibility and accountability for decisions that will influence the health and well-being of students, faculty, and staff at your institution? What do you do if you make choices that turn out to be wrong? We offer five recommendations.

Focus on core values. Leadership is grounded in creating a vision and guiding others through actions toward achieving that vision. Leaders need, and need to express, distinct and clearly articulated values and pursue mission-critical priorities. In higher education, those priorities include:

Can you articulate, clearly and concisely, which values are guiding choices now and, as circumstances change, in the future?

Communicate, communicate, communicate. It almost goes without saying, but it can't be said enough: communication is key. That involves:

The times do not call for a mere PR campaign: the voice and values of the leader will communicate powerfully.

Provide accessible education. This pandemic will be over one day, and we will probably return to a New Normal in ways that no one can fully predict. The confluence of the virus and the Black Lives Matter protests aims toward a reconfiguration of values -- one in which "safety" takes on many meanings and in which equity and the asymmetrical impact of policies on different groups at the institution are at the forefront.

If campuses do re-open, BLM protests will probably be part of that New Normal. The movement has broadened from a focus on violence toward African Americans, to a re-examination of racial injustice in all its forms. It is building a wider coalition to question who does and does not have access to the America Dream -- including access to quality higher education. It is inevitable that colleges and universities will be confronted with the ways in which they have fallen short.

How do leaders respond to those challenges while also coping with the health, organizational and financial challenges posed by COVID-19? Here again, a commitment to certain values, open communication, an honest assessment of the facts, and careful listening are essential.

Moreover, a key part of the New Normal will be an upsurge in online and blended instruction models, not as a temporary emergency measure but as a continuing effort to provide access to a diverse and global student body. These instructional trends were already underway and have now accelerated, and with them come important questions. Temporarily teaching at a distance on an emergency basis is not the same as fundamentally redesigning a course into online or blended formats. What does it mean to teach in this way, with quality and innovation? Who is best served through these alternative approaches, and who is disadvantaged? (For example, consider students in areas with poor Wi-Fi connectivity or students without support structures at home.) What are some of the broader institutional and budgetary implications of more online teaching -- and who does it?

Establish an environment of excellence. Another aspect of the New Normal will be an acceleration in already existing tendencies for people to teach and work from home. What does that mean for promoting a sense of unity, community and collegiality? What does it mean for evaluating work? What does it mean for educational activities where work must be done in a particular place, and together? What does it mean for formal meetings? As a leader, how do you run an online meeting while ensuring active participation and shared decision-making? Even after the virus is behind us, many of these patterns of activity will persist -- and indeed, we are learning to appreciate some of the ways that some aspects of non-face-to-face practices have their own benefits.

At the same time, true excellence also includes commitments to diversity and inclusion. Every means of expanding access for some may entail challenges to access for others. Good intentions do not guarantee good outcomes for all. We must all pay attention to how our words and actions affect those around us, and take responsibility for doing better when we fall short./p>

Recognize real and often profound impacts. We must be honest and direct about the emotional toll these changes are having on people, including on leaders themselves:

Similar observations apply to the Black Lives Matter movement. Real feelings and experiences must be considered. How things look from a leader's perspective will not always tell you how they appear from those of disparate groups. Passion, anger and fears drive behavior. Groups that have long felt left out or neglected are now demanding attention. Every policy response to the virus must be examined through the lens of differential impact.

Leaders are part of the campus community and suffer from all the same kinds of stresses and anxieties that other people feel -- often more so. They need to care for themselves and build their own networks of personal connection and support. And they must prepare themselves for the inevitability that some of the decisions made today, with the best available information and the best intentions, will turn out later to have been mistaken -- and second-guessed. That has always gone with the territory, and the stakes are higher now. Principled, values-based decisions, communicated in the leader's own authentic voice, are powerful and necessary tools.

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What happens in the next weeks will turn on how academic leaders make choices and change no longer effective behaviors (opinion) - Inside Higher Ed

Human Behavior

Some people listen to health experts, others ignore them: What it means for America’s future with COVID-19 – USA TODAY

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has "no problem" wearing a mask and urged Americans to wear theirs, too. The comments are a major change in tone for the president, who spent months resisting wearing a mask in public. (July 21) AP Domestic

Since COVID-19 arrived in the U.S. earlier this year, the virushas sickened more than 5 million Americans, claimed at least 167,000 lives and wrought financial ruin.

Some Americans have been dutifully following the recommendations of public health experts forgoingtouch, cancelling travel, holingup at home with young kids while attempting work. Others have balked at the most basic precautions, refusing to wear masks and continuing to gather in large groups.

Psychology and public health experts say variations in how people respond to public health recommendations can be attributed to differences in how theynavigate threats as well as social and cultural factors. These factors may also influence whether people are able to sustain behavior changes for the long haul ahead exhausted parents, frayed frontline workers, the millions of Americans worn down by isolation.

"It is easy to think that people dont follow the recommendations because they dont want to, but there are also systemic and situational issues at play that affect peoples behavior," said Stephen Broomell, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies judgment and decision making under uncertainty. "These can range from problems with communication, comprehension and personal risk assessment."

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While many countries have successfully halted the spread of COVID-19, the U.S. on Thursday reported the most COVID-19-related deaths in one day since May. Successfully fighting the pandemic, experts say, requires large-scale cooperation for much longer than anyone anticipated.

"Until we get a vaccine, our only real tools are behavioral. We have to think through the lens of behavioral science. What can we do to nudge and encourage and cajole and motivate people to do the right thing?"said Jay Van Bavel, an associate professor of psychology andneural science at New York University.

"I think many people were hoping we would shut everything down for two weeks ...and thengo back to normal. But since we didn't do it well enough originally, we are in this ongoing nightmare."

A 2016 study found that changinghealth-related behavior is neither obvious nor common sense, but rather "requires careful, thoughtful work that leads to a deep understanding of the nature of what motivates people and the pressures that act upon them."

Human behavior is complicated. Telling people what they ought to do to keep themselves and others safe seems basic,but behavior changes don't happen in a vacuum. They occur in the context of the societies in which people live and the groups to which they belong.

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In the U.S., health officials are asking people to think about the collective good in a country rooted in individualism. Countries thatemphasizethe importance of duty and obligation, such as Asian societies, have an easier time motivating people to do what's right over what's desirable.

"If you look at countries that are more collectivistic ... people feel more pressure to go along with what's good for the group," Van Bavel said. "Here we have traditions of individualism, which most of the time are great, but in a context of a pandemic are not so great, and often very dangerous for everybody."

Some people also may want to follow the recommendations but can't. They may live with someone who isn't adhering to CDC guidelines, or they have a job, particularly a low-wage one, where they can't social distance or take paid sick leave. People who are homeless can't shelter in place. Some trauma survivors may have a difficult time wearing masks.

Experts say what happens in the early days of a crisis can be key to how well people respond to what's being asked of them.

Earlier this year, Trump said the coronavirus is very much under control."In February he said cases were going to be down to close to zero.

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Trump's statements often contracted ones from Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who has repeatedly emphasized the need for behavior changes to curb the spread of COVID-19. Research shows people are more likely to adopt public health recommendations when they areclearly and consistently communicated.

Masks, for example, weren't initially a recommendation, and even once they became one, there were conflicting messages from the White House on their importance. The president wore a mask for the first time in July.

"Unfortunately, wearing a mask wasnt one of the behaviors that people adopted in the first weeks of the pandemic," Broomellsaid. "Because of this, most people experienced surviving the start of the pandemic without a mask. Only the small proportion that encountered the virus and got sick had the correct feedback that their behaviors were not actually as effective as they thought."

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, removes his Washington Nationals protective mask during a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing on July 31, 2020 in Washington, DC.(Photo: Pool, Getty Images)

America is deeply polarized. One of the most persistent gaps in adherence to social distancing, hand washing, masks, soonvaccines is the difference between Democrats and Republicans.

A recent Galluppoll found 81% of Democrats are willing to be vaccinated if a free and FDA-approved one were available, while 47% of Republicans say the same.

So-called filter bubbles where people only encounter information that aligns with their existing beliefs can create alternate realities around risks and actions necessary to mitigate them. Social media is ripe for conspiracy theories and misinformation, making it difficult for some people who get their news online to separate fact from fiction.

Van Bavel says to encourage cross-pollination of good health-related behaviors, people should focus more on their shared sense of national identity.

"To appeal to somebody who's different from you politically, appeal to ... your sense of shared purpose," he said.

Shame and humiliation are not effective tactics to change behavior, experts say.If you want to convince a Republican to wear a mask, Van Bavel said,show them the recent pictures of Trump wearing one, or the one of Dick Cheney that went viral.

Health experts say to win the fight against COVID-19, widespread vaccination is essential, but the Gallop poll found overall one in three Americans say they won't get the vaccine when it becomes available.

Different strategies will be needed to address different causes of vaccine hesitancy.People concerned about safety will need reassurance; people of color will need to be engaged in a process that builds trust; and people worried about government overreach will need to be heard, said MonicaSchoch-Spana, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Visible leadership will be key.

"You're going to need people like the president getting a shot of the vaccine in a press conference," Van Bavel said. "That's the type of leadership you need. Role modeling, showing the right norms, illustrating that it's easy and harmless, that he trusts the process."

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People are more likely to cooperate when they believe others are cooperating.

"Even if you don't agree with something like wearing a mask, if you see everybody around you in your community or in your neighborhood doing it, you're more likely to do it," Van Bavel said. "That's part of human nature, and there's lots of evidence that norms matter for our behavior in lots of different situations."

Everyone has the ability to exert influence the president, the media, individual community members. Peer pressure can be an effectivenudge.

"We all exert influence on others around us," Van Bavel said. "What we wear, how we act, what we post on social media, those provide clues for other people about how to behave."

Broomell says if people think about some changes as the new normalversus a responseto a temporary crisis it maypromote the healthy behaviors experts want to see.

"Exhaustion can come from, among other things, having to pay special attention to your behaviors, waiting for the day you no longer need to perform them, and not knowing when it will end. For certain behaviors, one way to help people maintain vigilance is to establish a norm for their performance," he said.

People are resilient, and experts say it's worth reminding Americans what the country has already survived, including two brutal World Wars.

To weather this crisis, people need to be reminded that their actions matter that those actions are whatwill see the country through the pandemic with fewer lives lost.

"If we all pull together for six more months, the vaccines look to be on track and we might be through this," Van Bavel said. "We might not have to lose our grandparents or colleagues or neighbors. Can you just pull through for six more months doing the right things? Because we're going to look back and be really devastated if we've lost loved ones because we just couldn't be patient enough."

Contributing: Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY

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