Safe but lonely? Loneliness, mental health symptoms and COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has led governments worldwide to implement unprecedented response strategies. While crucial to limiting the spread of the virus, “social distancing” may lead to severe psychological consequences, especially in lonely individuals. We used cross-sectional (n=380) and longitudinal (n=74) designs to investigate the links between loneliness, mental health symptoms (MHS) and COVID-19 risk perception and affective response in young adults who implemented social distancing during the first two weeks of the state of epidemic threat in Poland. Loneliness was correlated with MHS and with affective response to COVID-19’s threat to health. However, increased worry about the social isolation and heightened risk perception for financial problems was observed in lonelier individuals. The cross-lagged influence of the initial affective response to COVID-19 on subsequent levels of loneliness was also found. Thus, the reciprocal connections between loneliness and COVID-19 response may be of crucial importance for MHS during COVID-19 crisis

SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza Vaccines in People with Excessive Body Mass—A Narrative Review

In the face of a growing number of overweight people and two widely known viral diseases, SARS-CoV-2 and influenza, it is crucial to be aware of the impact of excess body weight on immunisation against these diseases. The aim of this review is to show the effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza vaccines in overweight and obese patients. Excessive adipose tissue releases cytokines and maintains local hypoxia, which causes persistent low-grade inflammation. These factors make excess body mass patients’ immune systems weaker. Under such conditions, the humoral response becomes less efficient, leading to a weakened ability to fight against infection and an increased risk of developing lower antibody titres. Vaccines help to reduce morbidity both in normal-weight and excess body mass people, although most studies show that patients with higher BMI tend to lose the antibodies produced more quickly. It is shown that the most effective vaccines (in terms of preventing the infection and potential post-illness complications) are the BNT162b2 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 and the inactivated influenza vaccine against influenza among both obese and non-obese subjects