SPONSORED: While the medical sciences have arguably been the star of the global response to Covid-19, HigherEduGovZA found the social sciences and humanities offered invaluable insights for understanding of how the pandemic impacted people. Read more:
The Covid-19 pandemic has given researchers many things to study, and new socio-behavioural data can be the starting point for developing positive behavioural change in the future.
The key way of using this research information practically, is to start by identifying a problem and looking at the behaviours related to it. Researchers must then identify determinants that may be shaping these behaviours. Interventions should be based on this, and implemented in an ongoing process of planning and intervention.
In this example, interventions would need to be developed and adapted in such a way that they address the factors influencing risky health behaviours. This process can be tailored to a specific risk being focused on. Ultimately, scientists need to assess the success or failure of the programmes based on data for effective change. A portion of South Africans are hesitant to get Covid-19 vaccines, and innovative research helps paint a clearer picture of why, and how to shift the needle.
SAPRIN’s research follows thousands of people over long periods of time, contacting them about three times a year to note various information, including births, deaths, bio-measures and genomics. Health service, educational, and social support records are linked to this data. In terms of the willingness to vaccinate, of the 75% of those surveyed who are not yet vaccinated, about 40% said they definitely would get the jab, while 20% probably would. The rest — about 15% of people — said they probably or definitely would not vaccinate. Collinson did however say that the percentage of the most vaccine-hesitant people appears to be shrinking slightly.
Roberts added that their research also showed that certain age, race and class or spatial groups were more likely to be vaccine hesitant, such as white adults, those in suburbs, those with higher education levels, and the under-35 age group. The HSRC study found that the main reason why people were acceptant of the vaccine was because they believed they were protecting themselves and society.
Roberts said that knowledge about vaccines is crucial in terms of promoting acceptance. This information still comes through the conventional media mainly, but social media is also important, especially for younger groups. The main focus of changing attitudes should be the “moveable middle” of people who are still somewhat unconvinced of the vaccine, but may still change their minds.
Funding interventions to reduce poverty is the next hurdle. Soodyall said that the key message from their work on this is that proposed taxes will generate more revenue, but that this will not cover a comprehensive cash transfer programme. Professor Julian May, Director of the Centre of Excellence in Food Security at the University of the Western Cape, called the state of child malnutrition a slow violence “because here we are talking about changes which are often not observed, but which are damaging over a lifecycle and which are damaging to a society”.
The pandemic has impacted children and their access to food in a myriad of practical ways. This included the closure of schools and Early Childhood Development programmes, and a rise of about 14% in food prices towards the end of 2020. “And this is an important part, to understand that the pervasiveness of the pandemic is going to have a multiple rate of effect on behavior and consequences of those changes in behaviors.”
Government regulations such as lockdowns affected employment greatly during the pandemic, creating effects such as ‘employment churning’ The socioeconomic impact of the pandemic can also be seen in the data concerning grants. Women were initially not getting the level of grants that men were, despite accounting for most of the Covid-19 related job losses. This was then corrected, after some time.
“That, again, was something that was showing us a very new picture about the sociology and anthropology of this disease and the impact to it,” Daniels said.The Centre of Excellence in Human Development at the University of the Witwatersrand has supported a variety of projects during the Covid-19 pandemic, with some interesting results.
Norris said that the so-called “family meetings” with President Cyril Ramaphosa have shown to be effective, reassuring, credible, and are a decisive display of leadership. Professor Rémi Quirion, Chief Scientist of Quebec and President, International Network for Government Science Advice That is why our key international panel discussion held at Science Forum South Africa on Thursday 2 December is so timely . Moderated by Professor Himla Soodyall, CEO of the Academy of Science of South Africa , this high-level panel brings together politicians, chief science advisors, presidents of science advisory bodies and science diplomats from five continents to examine how scientific advice feeds into effective policymaking, or not.
In addition, speakers representing diverse continental views examine the pandemic’s legacy as not just a disease, but as an exemplifier of humanity’s inhumanities and interdependencies. From vaccine equity and the starkly highlighted fault-lines between rich and poor countries, the strength of international co-operation continues to be tested. .
People’s worldviews are too often reinforced by the information bubbles they now live in, which means that many only listen to people and media whose views align with their own inherent biases and ideologies. People want categorical answers. Science can rarely provide them. And social media and other non-neutral media can be effectively used to manipulate opinion, often by claiming “facts” and “truths” even when they are neither facts nor truths.
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