Clinical and molecular practice of European thoracic pathology laboratories during the COVID-19 pandemic The past and the near future

BackgroundThis study evaluated the consequences in Europe of the COVID-19 outbreak on pathology laboratories orientated toward the diagnosis of thoracic diseases.Materials and methodsA survey was sent to 71 pathology laboratories from 21 European countries. The questionnaire requested information concerning the organization of biosafety, the clinical and molecular pathology, the biobanking, the workload, the associated research into COVID-19, and the organization of education and training during the COVID-19 crisis, from 15 March to 31 May 2020, compared with the same period in 2019.ResultsQuestionnaires were returned from 53/71 (75%) laboratories from 18 European countries. The biosafety procedures were heterogeneous. The workload in clinical and molecular pathology decreased dramatically by 31% (range, 3%-55%) and 26% (range, 7%-62%), respectively. According to the professional category, between 28% and 41% of the staff members were not present in the laboratories but did teleworking. A total of 70% of the laboratories developed virtual meetings for the training of residents and junior pathologists. During the period of study, none of the staff members with confirmed COVID-19 became infected as a result of handling samples.ConclusionsThe COVID-19 pandemic has had a strong impact on most of the European pathology laboratories included in this study. Urgent implementation of several changes to the organization of most of these laboratories, notably to better harmonize biosafety procedures, was noted at the onset of the pandemic and maintained in the event of a new wave of infection occurring in Europe

Status (Im)Mobility and the Legal Production of Irregularity: A Sociolegal Analysis of Temporary Migrants’ Lived Experiences

By combining legal analysis with data obtained through a longitudinal and qualitative fieldwork, this article looks at the impact of time and temporality on migrants’ trajectories. We find that legal insecurity is experienced by the majority of migrants residing lawfully in Belgium as a result of temporal constraints. Indeed, we argue that enforced temporariness and the conditionality of migrants’ stay increase the risk of precariousness and irregularity irrespective of migrants’ nationality. The article also looks at the consequences of legal insecurity on individuals’ trajectories. Since legal stay may be subject to disruptions, migrants with temporary status share the feeling of living in a situation of liminal legality and liminal times. However, they can find ways to overcome these temporal constraints using coping strategies. Through a sociolegal analysis, this article sheds light on temporality as a normative constraint as well as an individual experience creating immobility