BePrepared project
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments introduced a range of prevention measures to reduce transmission of the coronavirus and avoid overburdening healthcare and preventable deaths. However, prevention measures such as minimizing social contacts may also negatively affect people’s well-being (social, mental, physical, financial) and liberties. This, in turn, can influence whether people support prevention policies and adhere to prevention measures.
This social and behavioural sciences project seeks to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic to improve future pandemic preparedness. We review the international literature, analyze existing data, and interviews citizens and policymakers to learn how in the future, pandemic policies can better designed, targeted, monitored, and used in models to predict and manage a pandemic. The project advances science and delivers concrete results for a toolkit for public health professional policy-makers in public health.