Pandemic Playbook Posts

The Pandemic Playbook is currently under construction. New content, format and organization will continue to be created and refined.

Loud and Clear: Combatting Biases in Communicating Risk

svanderperre

Aug 17, 2020
6 min

Loud and Clear: Combatting Biases in Communicating Risk

As many parts of the world are in stages of reopening, there are varying attitudes concerning individual and societal risk. The issue of communicating risk to the population is difficult on several levels: many are growing accustomed to the new state of being, are doubtful of the risk to themselves or simply do not have the means to take the precautions. There are several psychological phenomena that are at the heart of many of the decisions being made concerning personal ris

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Behind the Curve: Understanding and Preparing for Exponential Growth

svanderperre

Aug 7, 2020
3 min

Behind the Curve: Understanding and Preparing for Exponential Growth

Following the growth of the pandemic is absolutely essential for those charged with the task of planning for the future of their communities. This role can include but is not exclusive to government officials, hospital administrative workers, health care providers, school administrators and individuals who want to track the daily growth of the pandemic. Difficulties in understanding timing particularly arise due to the logarithmic models behind epidemiology, especially expone

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Self-monitoring and Quarantine Behaviors

Final Mile

Jun 12, 2020
2 min

Self-monitoring and Quarantine Behaviors

Monitoring and Self-quarantining A huge challenge from the beginning of the pandemic has been monitoring and self-quarantining. If a person had recently come in contact with someone who had travelled to affected places or they had a recent history of extensive travel themselves, they were to take extra care in monitoring themselves and self-quarantine in cases of risky travel history. Despite warnings from authorities, we saw a lot of cases where at risk citizens did not take

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Removing Barriers to Testing and Contact Tracing

Final Mile

Jun 8, 2020
4 min

Removing Barriers to Testing and Contact Tracing

Testing and contact tracing are the tip of the spear in the fight against COVID-19. While other strategies to check the spread, such as social distancing, hygiene and use of masks are generalized and require universal action, which is difficult to achieve, testing and contact tracing are targeted and action required is centralized and therefore easier. A key challenge for countries with community transmission has been to rapidly ramp up their testing capacities, and countries

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The Unending Cycle of Stigma and its role in a Patient's Journey

nishangantayat

Jun 5, 2020
5 min

The Unending Cycle of Stigma and its role in a Patient's Journey

Stigmatization hinders health-seeking behavior, foments fear in patients suffering from the condition, causes prejudices against certain social groups, and can also lead to violence against the stigmatized groups. Multiple historical instances serve as the testament of stigma around many infectious diseases. After the outbreak of SARS, Chinese communities in New York's Chinatown were labeled as dangerous, diseased, and inferior. In the 1892 cholera epidemic, President Harriso

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Phasing and Framing of lockdowns and relaxations: What do they tell us?

Final Mile

May 27, 2020
4 min

Phasing and Framing of lockdowns and relaxations: What do they tell us?

As the COVID-19 pandemic is approaching or has surpassed it's peak intensity in a number of countries, governments are rushing to chart roadmaps to exit lockdowns. Mandatory shelter-in-place requirements and shutdowns of businesses and public activities have imposed a significant toll, not only on the economy, but also mental and emotional well-being of the public. So there is considerable pressure on governments to lift restrictions. But public health experts and epidemiolog

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Final Mile

May 5, 2020
3 min

Fatigue and coping with lockdown

Lockdown and Distancing Importance of physical distancing in a pandemic cannot be stressed enough, yet the act itself is very much against the basic nature of humans, resulting in a complex set of problems. For starters, it is relatively more difficult to obey rules imposed by others versus our own. This gets more challenging when new rules interfere with our personal space - likes of physical distancing and economic goals given we are social creatures engaged in continuous e

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The Vital Role of Essential Workers During Lockdowns

Final Mile

May 1, 2020
3 min

The Vital Role of Essential Workers During Lockdowns

During lockdowns and shelter in place orders, not everyone is afforded the opportunity to work from home. Unfortunately the majority of essential service workers are generally receiving lower pay with less health insurance benefits even though they provide us all with the essential services that our communities require to exist. Our postal workers, farmers working in the fields, transportation workers, cashiers, sanitation departments and the myriad of other individuals are c

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Risk Compensation: Mitigating “I wear mask so I can go out more often” behaviours

Final Mile

Apr 23, 2020
1 min

Risk Compensation: Mitigating “I wear mask so I can go out more often” behaviours

Risk Compensation Once the challenge of adherence to mask wearing is addressed, the next challenge is its implications on other behaviours. Like how having ABS in cars can make certain drivers more confident in driving at higher speeds, wearing masks can give a false sense of security that one is much safer now, given you are doing something that you usually would not do (especially having overcome substantial inertia). Therefore, this false sense of security can lead to comp

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Supporting the Development of a New Norm - Mask Wearing

Final Mile

Apr 22, 2020
3 min

Supporting the Development of a New Norm - Mask Wearing

We are in need of a new set of norms around wearing masks in public. Mask wearing has already been established as a norm in many East Asian countries for a variety of purposes - epidemics, air pollution, flu season as well as coping with allergies. Masks have come to symbolize solidarity and are perceived as a collective responsibility, especially with the saliency of epidemics such as SARS. There are several beliefs that have delayed the adoption and adherence of mask wearin

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Contextually Specific Visual Cues Provide Clarity in Uncertain Times

Final Mile

Apr 15, 2020
2 min

Contextually Specific Visual Cues Provide Clarity in Uncertain Times

When given the action to remain six feet apart from others in order to limit transmission of COVID-19, we are left with a new normal and a reminder that we are not good at judging distances. Visual cues for this six-foot distancing have appeared all over the world in stores, markets, polling places and community social media posts, making actionable this somewhat abstract directive. The effectiveness of these visual cues comes from the community level implementation as they h

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