Behavioral Economics Can Help Fight Coronavirus

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With thousands of newly confirmed cases and deaths worldwide each day, the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19, are impacting every corner of the planet. Using behavioral insights to design simple messages that promote healthy behavior is essential to stop contagion, manage emotions, encourage handwashing, and when the time is right, help people gradually resume normal life. This policy note describes behavioral biases people may be exhibiting during the crisis and offers recommendations for how to overcome them. Most importantly, it offers practical examples for governments, as well as infographics ready for dissemination, that can be used to fight this pandemic.

Source: Behavioral Economics Can Help Fight Coronavirus

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    Video-based messages to reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and nudge uptake

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    We show that brief video-based messages of encouragement addressing specific COVID-19 vaccine concerns increase vaccination intentions. Intentions, in turn, predict future vaccine uptake in our data. Our experiment also reveals that increased confidence in COVID-19 vaccines and perceived behavioral control to get vaccinated are the key psychological drivers influencing willingness to get vaccinated.

    Source: Video-based messages to reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and nudge uptake

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      COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: the five Cs to tackle behavioural and sociodemographic factors

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      One of the biggest hurdles to COVID-19 vaccinations is hesitancy: a delay in acceptance, or refusal despite availability. We propose five Cs to tackle vaccine hesitancy: Confidence (importance, safety and efficacy of vaccines); Complacency (perception of low risk and low disease severity); Convenience (access issues dependent on the context, time and specific vaccine being offered); Communications (sources of information); and Context (sociodemographic characteristics).

      Source: COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: the five Cs to tackle behavioural and sociodemographic factors

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        How wellness influencers are fueling the anti-vaccine movement

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        When the coronavirus vaccines started becoming available and millions of people turned to the Internet to find out more information, many found answers in the wellness groups and networks of influencers that were already a daily part of their social media diet.

        And while large accounts specifically known for spreading anti-vaccine messages can be identified and taken down, it’s harder for TikTok, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook (which owns Instagram) to police tens of thousands of smaller accounts that might mix in one or two anti-vaccine messages among their normal wellness posts.

        Source: How wellness influencers are fueling the anti-vaccine movement

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          Behavioural nudges increase COVID-19 vaccinations

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          Enhancing vaccine uptake is a critical public health challenge. Overcoming vaccine hesitancy and failure to follow through on vaccination intentions requires effective communication strategies. Here we present two sequential randomized controlled trials to test the effect of behavioural interventions on the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines.

          Source: Behavioural nudges increase COVID-19 vaccinations

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            COVID-19 outbreak and healthcare worker behavioural change toward hand hygiene practices

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            This study used an automated hand hygiene recording system to measure HCW hand hygiene on entry to and exit from patient rooms throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The correlation between hand hygiene compliance and COVID-19 epidemiological data was analysed. Analysis of variance was performed to compare compliance rate during the different periods of the epidemic.

            Source: COVID-19 outbreak and healthcare worker behavioural change toward hand hygiene practices

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              Change in Anti-COVID-19 Behavior and Prejudice against Minorities during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Evidence from Five European Countries

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              In a three-wave longitudinal study in five European countries from April to October 2020, the authors employed a latent change score model to distinguish between intra- and inter-individual changes in anti-COVID-19 behavior and prejudice.

              Source: Change in Anti-COVID-19 Behavior and Prejudice against Minorities during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Evidence from Five European Countries

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                Sustained behavior change is key to preventing and tackling future pandemics

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                Investment in research and programs to discover and apply the principles that underpin sustained behavior change is needed to address the continuing threat from COVID-19 and future pandemics and will require collaboration among behavioral, social, biomedical, public-health and clinical scientists.

                Source: Sustained behavior change is key to preventing and tackling future pandemics

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                  Community Acceptance of COVID-19 and Demystifying Stigma in a Severely Affected Population in Ghana

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                  The authors of this study conducted a cross-sectional study to assess stigma among the Tema community, then identified and implemented interventions to demystify COVID-19 stigma. They interviewed positive cases, their contacts, contact tracers, case management team members, and community members who shared their first hand experiences and knowledge on the current pandemic.

                  Source: Community acceptance of COVID-19 and demystifying stigma in a severely affected population in Ghana

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                    Raising Faith in COVID-19 Vaccines in Lesotho

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                    A rapid survey, conducted in July by the World Health Organization (WHO) the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other partners covering five of Lesotho’s 10 districts showed conspiracy theories may be driving up fear, confusion and reluctance to get vaccinated in this highly religious society.

                    With support from WHO and the Christian Council of Lesotho, the Ministry of Health is training religious leaders to spread life-saving facts on COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines.

                    Source: Raising faith in COVID-19 vaccines in Lesotho

                      Views 773