Lower Rates of Self-isolation Observed in Low Income Areas
Researchers at HSE and Lomonosov Moscow State University analyzed data on Russians’ movements during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their analysis showed that residents of lower-income municipalities self-isolated less compared to residents of higher-income cities. The findings were published in the journal Environment and Planning A.
Restrictions on population mobility reduce the frequency with which infected people come into contact with uninfected individuals, thereby reducing infection rates and the consequences of the pandemic. However, the effectiveness of these measures depends on the extent to which they are observed. The most reliable way to determine this was to assess residents’ levels of mobility.
The researchers decided to find out what impact the level of wages has on citizens’ mobility. To do this, they analyzed Yandex data on the share of people leaving the immediate vicinity of their homes from early March to late June. The sample included 308 Russian municipalities, which were divided into 10 groups according to residents’ level of wages.
At the end of March, a regime of “non-working days” was introduced in Russia, followed by the closure of most companies and public transport. Already in the first week, the main mobility trend emerged: residents of the richest cities moved around the city 1.5-2 times less compared to residents of the poorest municipalities in the sample.
After the "non-working days" period was extended by a month, isolation rates in high- and middle-income cities fell by a third and the gap between rich and poor municipalities narrowed. It is likely that residents of wealthier areas also started looking for ways to maintain their incomes rather than staying at home. In poorer cities, the decline in mobility was smaller but lasted much longer. This can be explained by the fact that these areas have greater shares of residents working in the public sector, and employees of this sector received compensation from the state for their loss of wages.
When the national “non-working days” period ended, the trend reversed, with residents in wealthy cities returning more quickly to pre-isolation levels of mobility than those in poorer municipalities. As a result, the mobility curve of residents of poor areas is U-shaped, characteristic of protracted crises, while the curves of wealthy medium-sized municipalities are more like V-shaped.
The authors cite weak state assistance for citizens and businesses as a possible reason for these trends.
‘The more vulnerable areas were de facto deprived of the opportunity to maintain a safe routine due to the need to maintain a minimum wage level on their own,’ says Ruslan Dokhov, Senior Lecturer at HSE University.
See also:
HSE Biologists Explain Mechanism behind Coronavirus Evolution
A team of researchers, including scientists of the HSE Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology, have analysed the evolutionary path of the coronavirus from the Wuhan variant to Omicron. Their findings indicate that many genomic mutations in SARS-CoV-2 are shaped by processes occurring in the intestines and lungs, where the virus acquires the ability to evade the inhibitory effects of microRNA molecules. The study findings have been published in the Journal of Medical Virology.
Russian Researchers Explain Origins of Dangerous Coronavirus Variants
HSE researchers, in collaboration with their colleagues from Skoltech and the Central Research Institute for Epidemiology, have uncovered the mechanisms behind the emergence of new and dangerous coronavirus variants, such as Alpha, Delta, Omicron, and others. They have discovered that the likelihood of a substitution occurring at a specific site of the SARS-CoV-2 genome is dependent on concordant substitutions occurring at other sites. This explains why new and more contagious variants of the virus can emerge unexpectedly and differ significantly from those that were previously circulating. The study’s findings have been published in eLife.
HSE Biologists Prepare Strategy for Universal COVID Test
Russian researchers have developed a strategy to create a cheap and rapid COVID-19 test based on isothermal amplification. According to their publication in Applied Biochemistry and Microbiology, use of this strategy will make it possible to create universal test systems for any of the COVID-19 variants.
People’s Values Affect Their Attitudes to COVID-19 Restrictions
HSE social and political analysts have established which value models and circumstances promote support for restrictive government policies aimed at combatting the coronavirus pandemic. The research is published in Plos One.
Model of Predator-Prey Relationship Helps Predict Spread of COVID-19
Researchers from the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences have proposed a mathematical model that describes the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, taking into account the restrictions applied in different countries. The model will help governments make reasonable and timely decisions on introducing or lifting restrictions. The paper was published in Eurasian Economic Review.
HSE University Classes to Be Held On Site for All Students
Classes in the new academic year will take place on site for students of all HSE University campuses. Existing COVID safety precautions will remain in effect.
Russian Scientists Investigate the Immune Response to SARS-CoV-2 Variants
HSE University researchers assessed the effectiveness of the T-cell immune response to 11 variants of SARS-CoV-2. Their findings have been published in Nucleic Acids Research.
First-year Students Will Be Able to Get COVID Shots at HSE University
The new regulations ‘On the Organization of Studies for the 2021/2022 Academic Year’ feature in detail what will change for first-year students in the new academic year. HSE University will be organizing a vaccination drive in September for students aged 18 and over who are unvaccinated. Younger students will be eligible for vaccination once they turn 18.
New Safety Measures to Be Introduced at HSE University
Starting September 1, 2021, HSE University-Moscow is introducing new safety policies on campus to prevent the spread of COVID-19. They apply to students over 18 years old who have not had COVID during the last six months, have not been vaccinated (with a Russian or a foreign vaccine), nor have a medical exemption from vaccination. Free vaccination will be available on campus to all arriving students.
HSE University Creates the Viral Genealogy Simulator to Model the Spread of COVID-19
Researchers of HSE Tikhonov Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (MIEM), in cooperation with their colleagues from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), and The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), have developed software to model the spread of the COVID-19 global pandemic. This is the world’s fastest Viral Genealogy Simulator (VGsim). For more details about this scalable simulator, read the reprint on medRxiv. The code is freely available at GitHub.