Trust and Public Health Emergency Events: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review

The importance of 'dread risk' for vaccine communication

BACKGROUND

Perceptions of 'dread risk,' information source beliefs, and trust in these sources are important variables towards understanding vaccine attitudes. The main objective of this research was to learn the associations among these phenomena and, particularly, how these variables may impact our understanding of vaccine attitudes.

METHODS

In the summer of 2020, a total of 336 (Mage = 53.55; SDage = 18.58) participants answered an online Qualtrics survey about their 'dread risk' perceptions of vaccines, their information source beliefs (e.g. credible, easy-to-access, etc.), trust in information sources, and vaccine attitudes.

RESULTS

Results suggest participants had generally low levels of negative vaccine attitudes (M = 3.27; SD = 1.40). Regression analyses to predict negative vaccine attitudes found 'dread risk' perceptions to be the most significant predictor (beta = .61, p < .001), over and above information source beliefs and trust in information sources (F (9, 320) = 75.07, p < .001; adjusted R2 = .67). Age was also significantly and negatively correlated with 'dread risk' (r = -.22, p < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggest that vaccine communication efforts should continue to identify individuals' 'dread risk' perceptions about vaccines and emphasize this content in messaging. Future research should aim to understand more about the relationships between negative vaccine attitudes, 'dread risk' perceptions, information source beliefs, and trust in information sources to better predict vaccine-related decisions, (in)actions, and to support effective vaccine communication.

Trust Building in Public Health Approaches: The Importance of a "People-Centered" Concept in Crisis Response

Purpose

To argue for trust-building as a key solution for responding to public health crises in the face of political ambiguity in international health governance.

Patients and Methods

This perspective piece reviews fundamental concepts and discusses future directions using secondary data from open-access sources.

Results

The promise of learning from Covid-19 and previous public health crises, along with the growing recognition of a 'Health For All Policies' approach, clash with siloed preparations, management, and recovery plans for future emergency crises. Trust is proposed as a possible solution to overcome these limitations. It acts as a binding force that unites individuals within the community, fostering a sense of belonging and participation. Trust-building is viewed as a "People-Centered" approach in Crisis Response, aimed at creating active and resilient communities to foster preparation and readiness, respond to emergent risks, facilitate recovery, and mitigate risks. A remaining question is how to measure and identify the dimensions and determinants of trust in specific circumstances. Some ideas are systematized to highlight the pathway to build trust in public health approaches, including transparency, education, robust and equitable health systems, strengthened social capital, stakeholders' engagement, and health workforce training.

Conclusion

Trust in public health approaches can be fostered through consistent delivery of quality care, a clear, shared vision, and values underpinned by ethical standards. It requires a commitment to stakeholder well-being, including staff, and the integration of reliability, integrity, and transparency into policies, strategies, and practices. Exemplary leadership, openness in resource utilization, addressing waste or corruption, and effective communication of these principles are essential.

Expressions of pandemic fatigue on digital platforms: a thematic analysis of sentiment and narratives for infodemic insights

BACKGROUND

The infodemic accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an overwhelming amount of information, including questions, concerns and misinformation. Pandemic fatigue has been identified as a concern from early in the pandemic. With new and ongoing health emergencies in 2022, it is important to understand how pandemic fatigue is being discussed and expressed by users on digital channels. This study aims to explore and report on key narrative themes associated with expressions of pandemic fatigue by users on digital platforms.

METHODS

This paper describes the collection of publicly available data over a 3-month period from multiple online sources using the Meltwater and CrowdTangle platforms to source data from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Product Reviews, Twitch, blogs & forums. A comprehensive search strategy was developed and tested. A total of 1,484,042 social media posts were identified during the time-period that included the defined search terms for pandemic fatigue. These data were initially sorted by highest levels of engagement and from this dataset, analysts reviewed the identified posts to isolate and remove irrelevant content and identify dominant narratives. A thematic analysis was carried out on these narratives to identify themes related to expression of pandemic fatigue. Two researchers reviewed the data and themes.

RESULTS

The thematic analysis of narratives identified six main themes relating to expression of pandemic fatigue, and one theme of counter narratives against pandemic fatigue. Data volume increased concurrent with the time of the mpox emergency announcement. Emergent themes showed the different ways users expressed pandemic fatigue and how it was interlaced with issues of trust, preventative measure acceptance and uptake, misinformation, and being overwhelmed with multiple or sustained emergencies.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper has identified the different ways users express pandemic fatigue on digital channels over a 3-month period. Better understanding the implications of the information environment on user's perceptions, questions, and concerns regarding pandemic and more broadly emergency fatigue is vital in identifying relevant interventions and, in the longer term, strengthening the global architecture for health emergency preparedness, prevention, readiness and resilience, as evidenced in this paper. There are clear pathways for further research, including incorporating additional languages and reviewing these themes over longer time periods.

Trust in government actors and COVID-19 vaccination uptake among Hispanics and Latinos in the U.S

Although the federal government has made official recommendations to the public advocating vaccinations against COVID-19 various communities have decided against doing so. In this regard, various studies have indicated that trust in government to provide accurate information about vaccines during a pandemic are related to whether people get vaccinated. Various studies have investigated factors contributing to vaccine decision-making, but none specifically focus on Hispanic and Latinos in the United States. This study identifies factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination among Hispanics and Latinos using a nation-wide, phone-based survey. Using data generated by the Kaiser Family Foundation's COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor, collected in June 2021, a logistic regression on the decision to get vaccinated, trust in various governmental actors, in addition to demographic variables such as age, race, employment status, parental status, employment status, and income are observed to be significant in Hispanics' and Latinos' decision to be vaccinated against COVID-19. As a byproduct of these findings, recommendations for future research are provided that relate to expanding our understanding of these factors among different ethnicities of Latinos.

COVID-19 risk perception and restaurant utilization after easing in-person restrictions

This article investigated the influence of risk aversion and the perception of risk associated with dining inside a restaurant on restaurant utilization and expenditures in the initial re-opening phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Consistent with economic theory, risk aversion and perception decreased the use of in-person restaurant services and increased the probability of using take-out and delivery, but had no influence on total restaurant expenditures. Risk perception had a larger effect on indoor dining compared to outdoor dining, suggesting risk averting behavior within the utilization of in-person restaurant services. These findings suggest COVID-19 concerns may influence restaurant use even after states relax their policies restricting restaurant operations. Our results also highlight the importance of developing policies to support the restaurant industry as consumers adjust to the re-opening phase of the pandemic.

How Does Risk-Information Communication Affect the Rebound of Online Public Opinion of Public Emergencies in China?

The rebound of online public opinion is an important driving force in inducing a secondary crisis in the case of public emergencies. Effective risk-information communication is an important means to manage online public opinion regarding emergencies. This paper employs fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to discover which conditions are combined and may result in the rebound of online public opinion. Five conditions were selected: the type of public emergency, messengers, message attributes, audience, and information feedback. The study used a sample of 25 major public emergencies that occurred between 2015 and 2020 in China. The type of public emergency, audience, and information feedback emerged as critical influencing factors. Message attributes promote the rebound of online public opinion regarding public health emergencies, while messengers play a traction role in the rebound of online public opinion on other types of public emergencies. This study extends risk-information communication theory from the perspective of the type of emergency, explores the causes of rebounded online public opinion regarding public emergencies, and provides policies and suggestions for risk-information communication and online public-opinion governance during emergencies.