This week’s articles explore hesitancies towards vaccines and other COVID-19 preventive behaviors and communicative strategies for encouraging uptake of these actions. Before herd immunity is reached by enough people getting vaccinated, it is important for individuals to practice recommended preventiveRead More
This week’s review of research addressing communication and COVID-19 focuses on social media, with many studies focusing specifically on Twitter. Here is what we know: Public’s Views of Social Media Social media is widely used by nearly all segments ofRead More
Age Structure and Policy This article examines the impact of age structure and government policy in response to COVID-19 in 209 countries. The variables included in the study were total cases and deaths (per million), shares of the median ageRead More
Risk Factors This meta-analysis aims to provide an overview of the major predictors of SARS-CoV-2 related mortality rates (MR). All prospective and retrospective observational studies reporting crude overall COVID-19-related MR in hospitalized patients were included in the study. There wereRead More
COVID-19 Vaccine Communication This week, The Atlantic reported how public health messaging about the COVID-19 vaccine has backfired. Instead of presenting a balanced optimism since the vaccines have been launched in the United States, the focus has been on negativityRead More
Using Communication in Multiple Ways During the Pandemic In this commentary, the authors reviewed recent literature about the health effects of quarantining during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although many of the effects may be negative, communication channels can help to re-establishRead More
Mental Health This study examined factors of mental distress among the younger population (aged 16-25) in order to further contribute to the research regarding mental health and COVID-19. Specifically, the article assessed the impact of lockdown-related changes in various lifeRead More
Characteristics of COVID-19 Spokespersons In this study, scholars studied the COVID-19 communication from 20 heads of government from around the world. Understanding the language used is important because it has been shown to affect compliance for public health recommendations. ParticularlyRead More
Strategies to Continue Encouraging COVID-19 Mitigation Behaviors Even with the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, a group of international scholars are urging health experts and government officials to not relent on persuading people to continue recommended safety precautions such as mask-wearingRead More
Contact Tracing A critical component to controlling the spread of COVID-19 has been prompt and effective contact tracing. By identifying close contacts, spread of the disease is reduced. Contact tracing is an effective disease control strategy yet little data areRead More