key: cord-0697320-mxkputbd authors: Gautam, Ritu; Sharma, Manik title: 2019-nCoV pandemic: A disruptive and stressful atmosphere for Indian academic fraternity date: 2020-04-11 journal: Brain Behav Immun DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2020.04.025 sha: 2082f36fcc965d0bdefb532c714dae63de41c513 doc_id: 697320 cord_uid: mxkputbd nan Brain, Behavior, and Immunity journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ybrbi The zoonotic virus (2019-nCoV) has terrifically affected the world that it becomes even hard to breathe. The sharp pang of this pandemic (2019-nCoV) is exponentially sweeping across the world and is triggering chaos, fear, anxiety, and stress among the people (Montemurro, 2020) . It may cause pernicious impacts on cognitive functions, and also inflict extensive neurological disruption (Wu et al. 2020) . By April 7, 2020, more than one million (1,383,436) persons have been globally infected due to the convergence of this uncontrollable infectious disease. Most of the global population has been depressed and threatened due to the exponential growth of infection and the increasing number of fatalities (COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, 2020) . To avoid the mass spreading of this pandemic virus, the decision regarding nationwide lockdown has been taken. No doubt, this will save the masses of life. However, this lockdown is also creating chaos and huge difficulties for the people (Sharma et al., 2020) . The 2019-nCoV has shattered the lifestyle, daily routine, business, stock market and even the education system of the globe. The Indian academic fraternity has been badly affected by this pandemic. Due to scrupulous isolation measures and closedown of universities and colleges, academic fraternity is under insurmountable mental pressure which is raising the prevalence and rate of stress, anxiety and depression among them (Charnsil and Chailangkarn, 2020) . Primarily, there is a great threat of being infected. The concern of family and friends is also intensifying the stress rate. Furthermore, due to the dilemma of lockdown and to maintain the social distancing, the authorities have instructed the teaching fraternity to take their classes online (Choudhury et al., 2020) . During this pandemic, it is very tough to prepare and deliver the quality lectures to the students and the situation gets worse when the teaching is online as most of the teachers have not been trained for the effective use of web resources for teaching. Additionally, the teachers who are specialized in conventional teaching found it more difficult to cope with online methods. Moreover, the level of frustration during this pandemic would be on the higher side for the old-aged and psychologically-disordered teachers as they are more vulnerable to contamination. The liability of online classes will further intensify the stress as they are not comfortable in using electronic gadgets and online resources. Above all, some of the students are not serious in online teaching as the teachers have negligible control over students in online teaching. Additionally, the teachers residing in the remote areas are more frustrated and depressed because due to unavailability or poor internet connection, they are not able to complete their tasks (Zhang, 2020) . Most of the adhoc and contractual teachers of different colleges and universities are also worried about their job and salary. The teachers employed in small-scale institutes don't get the proper salary and to manage the daily needs of their family they normally indulge in extra works like tuition or part-time job (evening shifts). This pandemic has shut down all the sources of their income. Additionally, the level of stress and frustration is on the peak for the guest lecturers as they were paid on the basis of the lectures taken per day. The interruption in research activities during this outbreak is also being a reason of stress for the teaching community. Due to the lockdown of colleges, universities the teachers and students (particularly Science faculty) are not able to use the facilities of their laboratories. Moreover, most of the teachers are not able to access online journals as they have institutional web access only. This pandemic has also significantly affected the mental state of the students. They are also in the dilemma of being infected with this unfortunate pandemic virus. The massive transmission of the fake news over social sites (Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook) and media has created chaos and stressful atmosphere for the students. The scary atmosphere is affecting the concentration level and the learning ability of the students. The training students (MCA/MBA/B.Tech) who have joined their internship in different companies are not able to get the hand-on experience of the live projects. Some of the research scholars (Life and Applied Sciences) who have been carrying out their experiments in their institutional labs for the last couple of weeks and were about to finish their studies feel more frustrated as they have to re-conduct their experiments due to this lockdown. Furthermore, different kinds of examinations have been postponed due to this zoonotic virus and there is complete uncertainty about the examination policies i.e. how and when it will be conducted. In addition to the regular examination, most of the competitive examination has also been aborted or postponed for which students were preparing for the last couple of months or even a year. The postponement of the examinations is also causing frustration and stress among the students. These different kinds of tensions disrupt the sleep time of the students which eventually decreases the body's immunity and hence makes them more susceptible to infection. Some of the students have taken educational loan for their higher studies in abroad. The restricted transmission has delayed their joining process however; the cycle of monthly instalments is going on. Therefore, there will be an excessive financial burden on the students which will indirectly be a cause of stress or anxiety among them. Some of the researchers who have got the opportunity of post-doctorate fellowship in different International universities are under tremendous pressure about their future. Several such scholars are under high financial burden as most of them have resigned their current jobs for this fellowship. The long prevalence of this pandemic may create different types of psychological disorders among teachers and students. The consequences of this pandemic can be worsened for psychologically weak students and teachers. Finally, this pandemic has taught us that the subject of online teaching needs to be incorporated at the primary and higher level of education. Additionally, all educational institutes need to periodically organize the workshops related to the use of online learning and teaching. Likewise, a short course on stress management needs to be mandatory for all the students so that they can beat the stress in similar catastrophic events. Above all, there is a need to be Post-traumatic stress disorder and related factors in students whose school burned down; cohort study Working from Home Under Social Isolation: Online Content Contributions During the Coronavirus Shock COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic The emotional impact of COVID-19: from medical staff to common people A chaotic and stressed environment for 2019-nCoV suspected, infected and other people in India: fear of mass destruction and causality Nervous system involvement after infection with COVID-19 and other coronaviruses Thoughts on large-scale long-distance web-based teaching in colleges and universities under novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic: a case of Chengdu University Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2020.04.025.