Reports and Studies Archives - Page 14 of 16 - COVID-19 Communication Network

Building Trust while Influencing Online COVID-19 Content in the Social Media World

Because of COVID-19’s strict physical distancing measures, people are heavily reliant on maintaining connectivity using global digital social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter, to facilitate human interaction and information sharing about the virus.

In this article, the authors discuss some ways in which social media has undermined effective responses to COVID-19. They consider how various groups could respond to these challenges—especially government leaders, social media companies, and healthcare providers. Ultimately, these actors each have roles to play in preventing social media from being weaponised to sow distrust and further endanger public health, while also ensuring that social media can fulfill its essential civic function of facilitating good faith political expression and discourse.

Source: Building Trust while Influencing Online COVID-19 Content in the Social Media World

Social Media Rumour Bulletin

May 28, 2020/in Reports and Studies Standby Task Force, Translators Without Borders Global English Rumors and Misinformation Response Organizations, SBC Professionals/by Shane Harper

Internews works with Translators without Borders and Standby Task Force to collect and analyse rumours and misinformation related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 disease. Data is being collected in six languages across Asia including: Simplified Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Thai, Bahasa Indonesia and Urdu. These bulletins are intended for use by journalists and community workers.

This bulletin relies on social media data collected by monitors working for Internews and partner organisations. Data is collected both manually and with the use of specialist monitoring platforms. Content will focus based on key trends in social media data collected in our target language groups and aims to provide tools and resources to help journalists and community workers to respond to misinformation in their work.

Source: Social Media Rumor Bulletin

Promoting Social Distancing in a Pandemic: Beyond the Good Intentions

May 26, 2020/in Reports and Studies OSF Preprints Global English Prevention, Social/Physical Distancing Response Organizations, SBC Professionals/by Shane Harper

Reminders to promote social distancing have been ubiquitous throughout the COVID-19 crisis, but little is known about their effectiveness. Existing studies find positive impacts on intentions to comply, but no evidence exists of actual behavioural change.

The authors conducted a randomized controlled trial with a large representative sample of Danish residents who received different versions of a reminder to stay home as much as possible at the height of the crisis.

They found that the reminder significantly increases people’s intentions to stay home when it emphasises the consequences of non-compliance for the respondent or his/her family, while it has not impact when the emphasis is on other people or the country as a whole. Changes in intentions, however, translate into weaker changes in actions that are not statistically significant.

This is consistent with the existence of important intention-to-action gaps. Only people who are in relatively poor health are significantly more likely to stay home after receiving the reminder with an emphasis on personal and family risks. This shows that while reminders may be useful to protect groups at risk by increasing their own compliance with social distancing, such a tool is unable to change the behavior of those who face limited personal risks but could spread the disease.

Source: Promoting Social Distancing in a Pandemic: Beyond the Good Intentions

YouTube as a Source of Information on COVID-19: A Pandemic of Misinformation?

May 22, 2020/in Reports and Studies British Medical Journal Global English Rumors and Misinformation Response Organizations, SBC Professionals/by Shane Harper

The COVID-19 pandemic is this century’s largest public health emergency and its successful management relies on the effective dissemination of factual information. As a social media platform with billions of daily views,

YouTube has tremendous potential to both support and hinder public health efforts. However, the usefulness and accuracy of most viewed YouTube videos on COVID-19 have not been investigated. A YouTube search was performed on 21 March 2020 using keywords ‘coronavirus’ and ‘COVID-19’, and the top 75 viewed videos from each search were analysed.

The result was that over one-quarter of the most viewed YouTube videos on COVID-19 contained misleading information, reaching millions of viewers worldwide. As the current COVID-19 pandemic worsens, public health agencies must better use YouTube to deliver timely and accurate information and to minimise the spread of misinformation. This may play a significant role in successfully managing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: YouTube as a Source of Information on COVID-19: A Pandemic of Misinformation?

Public Health Communication in Time of Crisis: Readability of On-Line COVID-19 Information

May 19, 2020/in Reports and Studies Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness Global English Risk Communication and Messaging Response Organizations, SBC Professionals/by Shane Harper

The purpose of this study was to assess the readability of information on the Internet posted about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to determine how closely these materials are written to the recommended reading levels.

Using the search term “coronavirus,” information posted on the first 100 English language websites was identified. Using an online readability calculator, multiple readability tests were conducted to ensure a comprehensive representation would result.

The authors concluded that messages about COVID-19 must be readable at an “easy” level, and must contain clear guidelines for behavior. The degree to which individuals seek information in response to risk messages is positively related to the expectation that the information will resolve uncertainty. However, if the information is too complex to interpret and it fails to lead to disambiguation, this can contribute to feelings of panic.

Source: Public Health Communication in Time of Crisis: Readability of On-Line COVID-19 Information

A Coordinated Public-Private Sector Response in Liberia to COVID-19

May 13, 2020/in Reports and Studies Health Policy Plus Liberia English Risk Communication and Messaging Policy Makers, SBC Professionals/by Shane Harper

In February 2020, the Healthcare Federation of Liberia (HFL) was officially launched and elected its first governing board. The HFL will provide coordination among all private health stakeholders across Liberia and act as a consolidated voice to advocate for improved quality of care and increased collaboration with the Ministry of Health.

The launch of the federation followed an assessment of Liberia’s private health sector, conducted by the USAID-funded Health Policy Plus project in 2019, which identified the need for a unifying body as a vehicle to improve the private health system. The HFL’s organizational strategy was to focus on strengthening standards within—and accreditation of—private facilities, providing access to business financing and supplies of essential commodities, such as for family planning.

However, on March 16, 2020, Liberia recorded its first COVID-19 case. As of April 10, Liberia has recorded 37 cases and five deaths. The most important task for the HFL in its first month of operation, therefore, became coordinating an effective private sector response to COVID-19. This report tells the story of how Liberia responded to the pandemic.

Source: A Coordinated Public-Private Sector Response in Liberia to COVID-19

Using Social and Behavioural Science to Support COVID-19 Pandemic Response

May 13, 2020/in Reports and Studies Nature Human Behavior Journal Global English Risk Communication and Messaging Policy Makers, SBC Professionals/by Shane Harper

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

Responding to COVID-19 in Africa: Using Data to Find a Balance

May 13, 2020/in Reports and Studies, Web Resources Partnership for Evidence-based Response to COVID-19 Africa English COVID-19 Response, Research/Monitoring and Evaluation, Testing, Treatment Policy Makers, Response Organizations/by Shane Harper

In this report, the Partnership for EvidenceBased Response to COVID-19 (PERC), a consortium of global public health organizations and private sector firms, brings together findings from a survey conducted March 29-April 17, 2020 in 28 cities across 20 AU Member States, along with epidemiological measures of disease transmission and indicators of population movements and unrest, among others. Synthesized, these data provide a first-of-its-kind snapshot of baseline conditions in Africa during this rapidly evolving pandemic.

The following recommendations are made:

While caseloads remain low, build public health capacity to test, trace, isolate, and treat cases—the necessary foundation for reopening society
Monitor data on how PHSMs meet local COVID-19 conditions and needs, and to determine when and how to lift them in a way that balances lives and livelihoods
Engage communities to adapt PHSMs to the local context and effectively communicate about risk to sustain public support, achieve widespread adherence, and shield vulnerable populations.

Source: Responding to COVID-19 in Africa: Using Data to Find a Balance

Early Estimates of the Indirect Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Maternal and Child Mortality in Low-income and Middle-income Countries: A Modelling Study

May 13, 2020/in Reports and Studies The Lancet Global English Other health in COVID-19 context, Vulnerable Populations Policy Makers, Response Organizations/by Shane Harper

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.

Source: Early Estimates of the Indirect Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Maternal and Child Mortality in Low-income and Middle-income Countries: A Modelling Study

Coronavirus: The Seven Types of People who Start and Spread Viral Misinformation

May 13, 2020/in Reports and Studies, Web Resources BBC Media Global English Rumors and Misinformation General Public, SBC Professionals/by Shane Harper

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:

The joker
The scammer
The politician
The conspiracy theorist
The insider
The relative
The celebrity

Source: Coronavirus: The Seven Types of People who Start and Spread Viral Misinformation

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