This website offers tips and tools for creating COVID-19 materials for low-literate audiences.
It provides examples of materials, offers a checklist for making sure that materials meet the criteria for low literate audiences, and offers an assessment of one’s own materials to check for reading level.
Source: Designing COVID-19 Materials for Low Literate Settings
Views 751
This document provides members of the primary health care (PHC) community with foundational messages to use in communication and advocacy efforts about how and why countries, global decision-makers and donors can – and must – center PHC as a key component of the COVID-19 response in the weeks and months to come.
Source: Key Messages: COVID-19 and Primary Health Care
Views 574
This article states that a key part of the problem of coronavirus misinformation is that the public is effectively presented with various sources of information, through different digital media platforms, sometimes from anonymous sources and other times from figures claiming to have some degree of authority or credibility. It can be difficult to discern fact from fiction. And most worryingly this happens with alarming regularity, and spurious claims can gain incredible traction with huge swathes of the public in matter of days, even hours.
The upshot is that evidence-based science is more important than ever. In the absence of a vaccine or validated antiviral treatments, information and public health measures are the only tools we have at our disposal to stop transmission of the virus, prevent deaths and keep our health systems running.Online surveys revealed that information overload and conflicting guidance are among the biggest concerns for the public during the current coronavirus outbreak.
Views 575
This Technical Brief presents workarounds—tips and tricks to use digital platforms—to conduct pretests virtually. In this document, two instances for virtual presenting are presented: the development of SBC materials and the development of job aids. Both use similar processes, but with specific differences that are highlighted in this document.
Source: Virtual Presenting During COVID-19
Views 512
The World Health Organization (WHO) is presenting a framework for managing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infodemic. Infodemiology is now acknowledged by public health organizations and the WHO as an important emerging scientific field and critical area of practice during a pandemic.
From the perspective of being the first “infodemiolgist” who originally coined the term almost two decades ago, the author posts four pillars of infodemic management:
Source: How to Fight an Infodemic: The Four Pillars of Infodemic Management
Views 998
A World Health Organization (WHO) technical consultation on responding to the infodemic related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic was held, entirely online, to crowdsource suggested actions for a framework for infodemic management.
The first version of this framework proposes five action areas in which WHO Member States and actors within society can apply, according to their mandate, an infodemic management approach adapted to national contexts and practices. Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and the related infodemic require swift, regular, systematic, and coordinated action from multiple sectors of society and government. It remains crucial that we promote trusted information and fight misinformation, thereby helping save lives.
Views 604
Very little is known about how factors like fear, misinformation, stress, and social norms are shaping behaviors that affect transmission of COVID-19. Even less is understood about what might lead people to ignore government recommendations altogether.
To fill in these gaps, a consortium of more than 100 behavioral researchers on five continents is currently working around the clock to measure the full social and material consequences of this pandemic. Our goal is simple: to demonstrate in real time what is working—and what isn’t.
The study is designed in three phases. The first consists of a 20-minute-long survey taken weekly that gauges how human beings are coping during this unprecedented crisis. Questions focus on individual thoughts, feelings, concerns and motivations, and how COVID-19 affects everything from faith in leaders to attitudes toward migrants. More than 45,000 people in 100 countries have taken the survey in 22 languages, and the study leaders are registering additional respondents every day.
Source: How Behavioral Science Can Help Contain the Coronavirus
Views 618
An existing hotline in Cambodia has been scaled up for COVID-19 Digital Response, going from 500-600 calls per day to 18,000 calls on peak days. Roughly 75% of callers access the health education menu and 25% are reporting suspect COVID-19 cases/symptoms.
Cambodia CDC is using the hotline as a primary first point of contact for all potential COVID-19 cases in the country – surveillance officers have staffed up to answer calls around the clock, screen callers, and direct them to appropriate rapid response teams/contract tracing teams for verification and testing.
As testing is still very limited, this approach is helping them reduce the overall burden on the health system – trying to give people the education and screening they need remotely.
Expanding the 115 Hotline has allowed the Cambodian government to efficiently and effectively implement a response to the outbreak in their country. The ability to respond quickly, and reduce the burden of wasting critical time looking for or developing new solutions is just one of many.
This article lists several reasons for the success of the hotline.
Source: Cambodia’s 115 Hotline: Successful COVID-19 Digital Response
Views 522
Social media platforms have long been recognised as major disseminators of health misinformation. Many previous studies have found a negative association between health-protective behaviours and belief in the specific form of misinformation popularly known as ‘conspiracy theory’. Concerns have arisen regarding the spread of COVID-19 conspiracy theories on social media.
All three studies found a negative relationship between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and COVID-19 health-protective behaviors, and a positive relationship between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and use of social media as a source of information about COVID-19. Studies 2 and 3 also found a negative relationship between COVID-19 health-protective behaviors and use of social media as a source of information, and Study 3 found a positive relationship between health-protective behaviors and use of broadcast media as a source of information.
The conclusion of the authors is that, when used as an information source, unregulated social media may present a health risk that is partly but not wholly reducible to their role as disseminators of health-related conspiracy beliefs.
Views 863
As countries around the world wrestle with the issue of how best to contain the virus, physical distancing (or social distancing, as it is often referred to) has emerged as one of the leading public health recommendations for limiting infection rates. Developed and developing countries alike are adopting this as a policy, as seen through a succession of state- and country-wide ‘lockdowns’ and ban on mass gatherings.
Physical distancing is essential in areas where public health systems are weaker and access to healthcare is more limited. And yet, population density in informal settlements, low literacy levels and poor WASH facilities mean that it is in precisely these areas that physical distancing is hard to achieve.
This guide is the product of a one-hour virtual working session, hosted by The Curve and attended by leading practitioners, donors and civil servants working in developing countries across the world. It outlines 9 pragmatic ways in which public health communications might promote both the understanding of, and adherence to, physical distancing measures in developing countries.
This document is not intended to be an exhaustive study or a complete answer to the question. Rather, it is a contribution to a vibrant sector-wide discussion including publications and perspectives by the Hygiene Hub and many others. The recommendations are a set of pragmatic advice based on the contributors’ experience that is intended to complement and invigorate the broader conversation.
Source: How Might We Use Communication to Encourage Physical Distancing in Developing Countries
Views 806
This website is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Breakthrough ACTION Cooperative Agreement #AID-OAA-A-17-00017. Breakthrough ACTION is based at Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP).The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of Breakthrough ACTION and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the United States Government, or Johns Hopkins University.
