This short guide includes important considerations and resources to support country programs in recognizing and working to reduce stigma around COVID-19.
Source: Disrupting COVID-19 Stigma – Technical Brief
Views 796
This is a short guide, with important steps and resources, on how country programs can track and address rumors around COVID-19 (as needed). The guide includes a number of great resources and links while also sharing nuggets from global, collective thinking around rumors.
The guide includes sections on:
Source: Technical Brief: COVID-19 Rumor Tracking Guidance for Field Teams
Views 795
The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis. Because the crisis requires large-scale behavior change and places significant psychological burdens on individuals, insights from the social and behavioral sciences can be used to help align human behavior with the recommendations of epidemiologists and public health experts.
In this article from Nature, the authors discuss evidence from a selection of research topics relevant to pandemics, including work on navigating threats, social and cultural influences on behavior, science communication, moral decision-making, leadership, and stress and coping. In each section, they note the nature and quality of prior research, including uncertainty and unsettled issues. They identify several insights for effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic and highlight important gaps researchers should move quickly to fill in the coming weeks and months.
Source: Using Social and Behavioural Science to Support COVID-19 Pandemic Response
Views 925
While the COVID-19 pandemic will increase mortality due to the virus, it is also likely to increase mortality indirectly. In this study, the authors estimate the additional maternal and under-5 child deaths resulting from the potential disruption of health systems and decreased access to food.
The results of the study show that if routine health care is disrupted and access to food is decreased (as a result of unavoidable shocks, health system collapse, or intentional choices made in responding to the pandemic), the increase in child and maternal deaths will be devastating. The authors hope these numbers add context as policy makers establish guidelines and allocate resources in the days and months to come.
Views 504
BBC Media have investigated hundreds of misleading stories during the pandemic. It’s given them an idea about who is behind misinformation – and what motivates them.
According to BBC Media, gere are seven types of people who start and spread falsehoods:
Source: Coronavirus: The Seven Types of People who Start and Spread Viral Misinformation
Views 873
This factsheet uses a sample of fact-checks to identify some of the main types, sources, and claims of COVID-19 misinformation seen so far. Building on other analyses (Hollowood and Mostrous 2020; EuVsDIS 2020; Scott 2020), the authors combine a systematic content analysis of fact-checked claims about the virus and the pandemic with social media data indicating the scale and scope of engagement.
The analysis concludes that misinformation about COVID-19 comes in many different forms, from many different sources, and makes many different claims. It frequently reconfigures existing or true content rather than fabricating it wholesale, and where it is manipulated, is edited with simple tools.
Source: Types, Sources, and Claims of COVID-19 Misinformation
Views 1000
There is now emerging a wealth of commentary on the gendered implications of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. We know that crises can spur new ways of behaving, sometimes leading to shifts in gender norms and underpinning sustained change towards gender equality. But with the fast spreading coronavirus pandemic many gender inequalities have already been intensified as existing discriminatory and harmful norms continue or worsen in the face of change such as violence against women, which has intensified globally under lockdowns and in the face of economic stress.
ALIGN is currently analysing what leads to shifts in gender norms both during and after crises to enhance knowledge and innovation among our community, and we will be sharing new resources as they become available. Highlighted on this site are resources produced by ALIGN and their partners relating to Covid-19 (and non-communicable diseases more broadly) and gender norms.
Source: Gender Norms and the Coronavirus
Views 889
The WHO mobile learning app focuses on providing frontline health workers with critical, evidence-based information and tools to improve their skills and capabilities related to the pandemic.
This COVID-19 Digital Response offers up-to-the-minute guidance, training, and virtual workshops to support health workers in caring for patients infected by COVID-19, as well as how they can protect themselves as they do their critical work.
The app was created in direct response to an online survey of health workers conducted in March and April 2020 that received 20,000 submissions. Key features include learning guidance, learning materials, and tools organized into the following COVID-19 subject matter areas:
The WHO mobile learning app is a convenient tool for accessing WHO’s rapidly expanding and evolving training materials and guidance, along with opportunities to participate in virtual classrooms and other live training in six global languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.
Source: WHO COVID-19 Learning Resources Application
Views 575
This paper focuses on adherence to behaviors required to reduce COVID-19 virus transmission. The authors argue that there is an urgent need to develop and evaluate interventions to promote effective enactment of these behaviors and provide a preliminary analysis to help guide this. This is relevant for the current phase of the pandemic and to reduce the risk of resurgence in months to come and of future pandemics.
Source: Applying Principles of Behaviour Change to Reduce SARS-CoV-2 Transmission
Views 556
This document is to support local authorities, leaders and policy-makers in cities and other urban settlements in identifying effective approaches and implementing recommended actions that enhance the prevention, preparedness and readiness for COVID-19 in urban settings, to ensure a robust response and eventual recovery. It covers factors unique to cities and urban settings, considerations in urban preparedness, key areas of focus and preparing for future emergencies.
Source: Strengthening Preparedness for COVID-19 in Cities and Urban Settings
Views 711
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.
