As harsh as they are,
containment measures to avoid contagion work
. So it follows from
an investigation published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases
in which the authors conclude that the
quarantine of people with COVID-19
, together with the closure of educational centers and distancing in the workplace are effective measures to reduce the number of cases of the disease.
The study evaluates the potential effect of these actions on
Singapore, one of the first places to report imported cases
. In an analysis
published in the same magazine
, researchers Joseph A. Lewnard and Nathan C. Lo from the University of California (USA) focus on the ethical dimension of this confinement.
“It is important to emphasize that political leaders must enact policies of
quarantine and social distancing
that do not bias against any population group. The legacies of social and economic injustices perpetrated in the name of public health have lasting repercussions, “they warn.
Scientists refer to possible reductions in income and job losses that disproportionately affect the most disadvantaged populations and call for policies to reduce these damages. These most vulnerable groups include the homeless, prisoners, the elderly, people with disabilities or irregular migrants.
In health emergencies like the one we are experiencing,
social science experts strive to ensure that these types of measures leave no one behind
. “If we want to overcome this virus, we will need the experience and knowledge of a wide range of disciplines, from the social sciences and the humanities to medicine, biology and engineering,” says Hetan Shah, executive director of the British Academy.
More humane measures
In an article
published in Nature in mid-January
When the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus had not yet reached the pandemic range, Shah recalled that
epidemics are biological, but also social phenomena
and highlighted the role of anthropologist Melissa Leach in her fight against Ebola. To reduce the risk of contagion and respecting the traditions of the communities as much as possible, Leach proposed
replacing burial rituals with safer ones, rather than eliminating ceremonies
completely.
As it did? She and her team from the Ebola Response Anthropology Platform in Sierra Leone recognized the social importance of this ritual and spoke with local leaders to
replace physical ceremonies with non-face-to-face ones
, reaching an agreement to delay some traditional visits until after the crisis.
“Public health measures faltered, often for social and cultural reasons,” recalled the anthropologist after the epidemic was overcome. “We were able to nurture the emergency measures with the social sciences by helping to make them more effective,” said Leach, who heads the Institute for Development Studies (UK).
In the case of the current pandemic, like
picks up an editorial from the LSE Impact Blog
-a space for debate promoted by the London School of Economics and Political Science- the public health measures carried out to prevent the spread of the virus, from hand washing, to self-isolation or the closure of cities, require research social to be effective.
“The social sciences have a fundamental role in responding to this pandemic,” says Shah, and highlights the profiles of two professionals in these sciences:
psychologists and economists
. The former know how to promote social behaviors that reduce the spread of the virus, while the latter can advise the administration and companies to face this economic downturn.
And not only that. In this pandemic that carries a wave of hoaxes and disinformation, psychologists explain the mechanisms behind these actions and how our brain is influenced by biases and fear, which can cause us to lower our guard before hoaxes or that We misprocess the truthful content.
Lessons learned from previous epidemics
To face the current crisis, scientists recommend analyzing what was done in past epidemics. A document published by the Social Sciences in Humanitarian Action platform -promoted by UNICEF and the Institute for Development Studies- contains
15 lessons learned from flu epidemics and SARS
(a respiratory disease caused by another coronavirus in 2003).
Many of them can be applied at the moment, such as information transparency. Withholding information from the public can be very damaging since if people do not get this data from official sources, they will rely on unreliable means. The neutrality of the World Health Organization (WHO) was questioned in the 2009 A (H1N1) influenza pandemic because the public thought that the risk had been exaggerated for the benefit of pharmaceutical companies, which would benefit from the accumulation of vaccines.
To avoid this, the experts who have prepared the document
They recommend that the authorities be transparent about what is known about the epidemic.
and, also, on the limitations of the data. “Institutions, national governments or the WHO must be transparent about their commitment to experts and the pharmaceutical industry to explain how they handle conflicts of interest,” they say.
“Right now there are or should be social scientists advising governments and agencies on their strategies, as is happening within the WHO, for example,” Annie Wilkinson, co-author of the report and anthropologist at the Institute for the development.
Another aspect is to avoid stigmatizing certain groups, as happened with the Spanish in the 1918 flu, commonly called the ‘Spanish flu’. In the case of this pandemic, which originated in the province of Hubei (China), the authorities and the media have managed not to label this population, by using the names promoted by the scientific community: COVID-19 to speak disease and SARS-CoV-2 to refer to the virus.
Poverty makes confinement difficult
As we have seen, and as Manuel Franco, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Alcalá in Madrid and at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (USA), analyzed in an opinion article, the different measures to contain the spread of the virus did not they affect the entire population equally and can increase inequalities.
In this sense, health authorities and anthropologists are concerned about the incidence of this pandemic in developing countries, especially in Africa, where countries with weak health systems and without social protection abound.
The challenges of managing this pandemic are enormous on the African continent, including some of the lowest income countries on the planet and where global wealth inequalities are more pronounced, “Tamara Giles-Vernick, Head of the Unit, tells SINC Research Institute for Emergency Anthropology of Diseases of the Pasteur Institute (France) and coordinator of Sonar-Global.
To a possible increase in cases in hospital centers that jeopardize their operation, as is happening in some parts of Europe, is added the lack of water in some regions and rural areas. The lack of sewage systems, waste collection or urban cleaning that certain areas suffer from does not help either.
Despite these limitations, Giles-Vernick stresses that it is a mistake to refer to Africa as a single entity without acknowledging its diversity, and asks to avoid prejudice. “I see some articles in the press that point to ‘African culture’ as a barrier to effective confinement, but we must be extremely careful in attributing to ‘culture’ what, above all, can be a problem of poverty and its consequences, “he says.
The social sciences show that it is not culture, but poverty, the main barrier to achieving preventive measures. And that is something that viruses take advantage of.
FURTHER
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