Readings & Audiovisual

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare stark differences in the effectiveness of public health responses across countries and communities. The United States has higher COVID-19 death rates than not only high-income peers such as Germany, Denmark, and Japan, but also lower-income countries such as Vietnam, Rwanda, and Uganda. This situation presents an opportunity to learn from global examples to improve pandemic responses, prepare for future health emergencies, and advance health equity.

The coronavirus pandemic has marked the most significant test of the way that the UK Government takes and acts on scientific advice in living memory. The scientific community—in academia, in the public sector and in industry—has risen to that challenge in extraordinary and, in many cases, unprecedented ways. This Report considers, specifically, the ways in which the Government has obtained and made use of scientific advice during the pandemic to date.

On 15 October 2020, the WHO Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Behavioural Insights and Sciences for Health held a special meeting with the WHO Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals to discuss behavioural considerations in relation to COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and uptake. The discussion focused on a series of key questions around achieving high and equitable uptake of vaccines through evidence-based and behaviourally informed strategies.

These briefs have been developed by UNICEF for the CASS, under Wellcome-DFID grant.

Our study aims to produce evidence to inform (non-pharmaceutical) interventions such as communications, quarantine, self-isolation, social distancing, travel restrictions and other public health measures for the COVID-19 pandemic.

This report is the third instalment of the ‘Social Science in Epidemics’ series, commissioned by the USAID Office of U.S. Foreign Direct Assistance (OFDA). In this series, past outbreaks are reviewed in order to identify social science ‘entry points’ for emergency interventions and preparedness activities. The aim is to determine tangible ways to address the social, political and economic dynamics of epidemics and to ensure that interventions build on the social and cultural resources of the communities they aim to support. This report explores lessons about the social dimensions of past and recent influenza epidemics and the emergence of SARS-CoV.