Background: Solon (2019) introduced genetic bandwagoning in a very general sense: A variant sequentially 1) evaluates its holder’s quality and 2) induces its holder to relinquish resources if the holder’s quality is low. Here, I introduce a more complex form of bandwagoning in order to account for a series of phenomena considered “paradoxical” by scientists specializing in their literatures: a) depression, b) differential nurturing, c) honest signaling of quality, d) reproductive suppression, e) stress-induced anthocyanins, and f) hormesis. These literatures are characterized by the following findings: 1) Low-quality individuals incur a cost against reproductive success compared to higher-quality individuals. 2) Individuals not (yet) identified as low-quality incur a cost against their ability to survive predators and/or parasites compared to individuals that have already been identified as low-quality. 3) Females incur a cost against reproductive success compared to males. 4) Males incur a cost against their ability to survive predators and/or parasites compared to females. 5) If conditions are challenging, individuals gain in both reproductive success and their ability to survive predators and/or parasites compared to less challenging conditions; however, too-challenging conditions detract from both. For each literature, at least one of these findings is unaccommodated by existing theory when considered in the context of that literature. Despite existing theory, these patterns are remarkably persistent. Question: Can paradoxes fitting these patterns be explained by genetic bandwagoning theory? Conclusion: Here, reservation is introduced as a form of bandwagoning in which a bandwagoning variant induces its holder to reserve from (i.e., withhold) some of its ability to survive parasites or predators. Reservation would occur for the purpose of assessing a holder’s quality when conditions are sufficiently unchallenging that few individuals are chronically stressed, so it is otherwise difficult to evaluate a holder’s quality. If the holder is subsequently killed, wounded, or infected, then it is identified as lacking the quality that would allow its descendants to survive more challenging conditions. The holder loses some or all of its resources as a direct consequence of the very death, wounding, or infection that identified its low quality. That is, in reservation, the two steps of bandwagoning are accomplished simultaneously. (This way of bandwagoning is distinguished from when the two steps are accomplished sequentially, which is termed resonation.) Reservation shares numerous premises with Zahavi’s handicap principle. If conditions are challenging, individuals would downregulate reservation and also be less likely to forego resources through resonation (which accounts for (5)). Additionally, a bandwagoning variant would likely evolve to vary the reservation it induces from holder to holder as a hedge against the possibility that conditions suddenly turn severe before it can adjust the reservation. Individuals already identified as low-quality would downregulate reservation (which accounts for (2) above) and would instead forego resources through resonation (which accounts for (1)). Additionally, females would downregulate reservation (which accounts for (4)) and, as a consequence, surviving females are more likely than surviving males to forego resources through resonation (which accounts for (3)).

In Kenya, millions of children have limited access to nurturing care. With the COVID-19 pandemic, it is anticipated that vulnerable children will bear the biggest brunt of the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic. This review aimed to deepen understanding of the effects of COVID-19 on nurturing care from conception to four years of age, a period where the care of children is often delivered through caregivers or other informal platforms. The review has drawn upon the empirical evidence from previous pandemics and epidemics, and anecdotal and emerging evidence from the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Multifactorial impacts fall into five key domains: direct health; health and nutrition systems, economic, social and child protection, and child development and early learning. The review proposes program and policy strategies to guide the re-orientation of nurturing care, prevent the detrimental effects associated with deteriorating nurturing care environments, and support the optimal development of the youngest and most vulnerable children. These include the provision of cash transfers and essential supplies for vulnerable households, and strengthening of community-based platforms for nurturing care. Further research on COVID-19 and the ability of children’s ecology to provide nurturing care is needed, as is further testing of new ideas.