Factors associated with contact tracing compliance among communities of color in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

RATIONALE: The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color has raised questions about the unique experiences within these communities not only in terms of becoming infected with COVID-19 but also mitigating its spread. The utility of contact tracing for managing community spread and supporting economic reopening is contingent upon, in part, compliance with contact tracer requests. OBJECTIVE: We investigated how trust in and knowledge of contact tracers influence intentions to comply with tracing requests and whether or not these relationships and associated antecedent factors differ between communities of color. METHOD: Data were collected from a U.S. sample of 533 survey respondents from Fall (2020) to Spring 2021. Multi-group SEM tested quantitative study hypotheses separately for Black, AAPI, Latinx, and White sub-samples. Qualitative data were collected via open-ended questions to inform the roles of trust and knowledge in contact tracing compliance. RESULTS: Trust in contact tracers was associated with increased intentions to comply with tracing requests and significantly mediated the positive relationship between trust in healthcare professionals and government health officials with compliance intentions. Yet, the indirect effects of trust in government health officials on compliance intentions were significantly weaker for the Black, Latinx, and AAPI samples compared to Whites, suggesting this strategy for increasing compliance may not be as effective among communities of color. Health literacy and contact tracing knowledge played a more limited role in predicting compliance intentions directly or indirectly, and one that was inconsistent across racial groups. Qualitative results reinforce the importance of trust relative to knowledge for increasing tracing compliance intentions. CONCLUSIONS: Building trust in contact tracers, more so than increasing knowledge, may be key to encouraging contact tracing compliance. Differences among communities of color and between these communities and Whites inform the policy recommendations provided for improving contact tracing success.

Mental health of diplomatic personnel: scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Diplomatic personnel frequently relocate as part of their roles, requiring them to adapt to various cultural and political conditions; many are also at risk of experiencing trauma from being deployed to high-threat postings. With diplomatic personnel having to balance the usual pressures of their work with the uncertainties of COVID-19 in recent years, it is particularly important now to understand how to protect their mental health. AIMS: To synthesize existing literature on the well-being of diplomatic personnel to improve understanding of how to protect their mental health. METHODS: A scoping review was carried out to explore what is already known about the well-being of staff working in diplomatic roles. Four databases were searched and reference lists, as well as one key journal, were hand-searched. RESULTS: Fifteen relevant publications were included. There was little consensus as to how the psychological well-being of diplomatic personnel compares to other populations or which factors predict well-being. Diplomats' psychological responses to traumatic experiences appeared similar to those of other trauma-exposed occupational groups. CONCLUSIONS: Further research is needed to better understand the well-being of diplomatic personnel, particularly those not deployed to high-threat posts.

Public engagement in government officials' posts on social media during coronavirus lockdown.

BACKGROUND: Social media has been a common platform to disseminate health information by government officials during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about the determinants of public engagement in officials' posts on social media, especially during lockdown. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to investigate how the public engages in officials' posts about COVID-19 on social media and to identify factors influencing the levels of engagement. METHODS: A total of 511 adults aged 18 or over completed an online questionnaire during lockdown in Iraq. Levels of engagement in officials' posts on social media, trust in officials and compliance of government instructions were assessed. RESULTS: Fear of COVID-19 and trust in officials were positively associated with compliance of government instructions. Trust in officials was also associated with active engagement in officials' posts on social media, including commenting, posting and sharing of the posts. CONCLUSIONS: Trust in government has been established during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public engagement in officials' posts is crucial to reinforce health policies and disseminate health information.

Unprofessional or Admirable? Determinants of Purchasing Behavior in Government Officials' Livestreamed Shopping.

As a new form of poverty governance, government officials' livestreaming e-commerce of agricultural and sideline products has been booming since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in 2019. However, exploring the determinants of consumer purchase intentions in the context of government officials' livestreaming is still limited. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework, this study develops a research model to examine the effect of platform factor (information quality), user factor (bullet screen mutuality), and streamer factors (streamer trustworthiness, streamer expertise, and streamer responsiveness) on perceived information usefulness and arousal, which in turn affect purchase intention. This study also integrates impulsiveness as a moderator. We use structural equation modeling to analyze 430 samples. Our results show that perceived information usefulness and arousal have a significant positive influence on purchase intention. Moreover, impulsiveness moderates the relationship between perceived information usefulness and purchase intention and between arousal and purchase intention. Livestreaming features and streamer characteristics can activate these two mechanisms. This study provides theoretical contributions to livestreaming and the S-O-R literature, as well as practical insights into livestreaming government officials.

An exploration of Canadian government officials' COVID-19 messages and the public's reaction using social media data.

Governments can use social media platforms such as Twitter to disseminate health information to the public, as evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic [Pershad (2018)]. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of Canadian government and public health officials' use of Twitter as a dissemination platform during the pandemic and to explore the public's engagement with and sentiment towards these messages. We examined the account data of 93 Canadian public health and government officials during the first wave of the pandemic in Canada (December 31, 2019 August 31, 2020). Our objectives were to: 1) determine the engagement rates of the public with Canadian federal and provincial/territorial governments and public health officials' Twitter posts; 2) conduct a hashtag trend analysis to explore the Canadian public's discourse related to the pandemic during this period; 3) provide insights on the public's reaction to Canadian authorities' tweets through sentiment analysis. To address these objectives, we extracted Twitter posts, replies, and associated metadata available during the study period in both English and French. Our results show that the public demonstrated increased engagement with federal officials' Twitter accounts as compared to provincial/territorial accounts. For the hashtag trends analysis of the public discourse during the first wave of the pandemic, we observed a topic shift in the Canadian public discourse over time between the period prior to the first wave and the first wave of the pandemic. Additionally, we identified 11 sentiments expressed by the public when reacting to Canadian authorities' tweets. This study illustrates the potential to leverage social media to understand public discourse during a pandemic. We suggest that routine analyses of such data by governments can provide governments and public health officials with real-time data on public sentiments during a public health emergency. These data can be used to better disseminate key messages to the public.

Social distancing and preventive practices of government employees in response to COVID-19 in Ethiopia.

Public health and social interventions are critical to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Ethiopia has implemented a variety of public health and social measures to control the pandemic. This study aimed to assess social distancing and public health preventive practices of government employees in response to COVID-19. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,573 government employees selected from 46 public institutions located in Addis Ababa. Data were collected from 8th to 19th June 2020 using a paper-based self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 23.0. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. Binary logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with outcome variables (perceived effectiveness of facemask wearing to prevent coronavirus infection, and COVID-19 testing). Majority of the participants reported facemask wearing (96%), avoiding close contact with people including handshaking (94.8%), consistently followed government recommendations (95.6%), frequent handwashing (94.5%), practiced physical distancing (89.5%), avoided mass gatherings and crowded places (88.1%), restricting movement and travelling (71.8%), and stayed home (35.6%). More than 80% of the participants perceived that consistently wearing a facemask is highly effective in preventing coronavirus infection. Respondents from Oromia perceived less about the effectiveness of wearing facemask in preventing coronavirus infection (adjusted OR = 0.27, 95% CI:0.17-0.45). About 19% of the respondents reported that they had ever tested for COVID-19. Respondents between 40-49 years old (adjusted OR = 0.41, 95% CI:0.22-0.76) and 50-66 years (adjusted OR = 0.43, 95% CI:0.19-0.95) were less likely tested for coronavirus than the younger age groups. Similarly, respondents from Oromia were less likely to test for coronavirus (adjusted OR = 0.26, 95% CI:0.12-0.56) than those from national level. Participants who were sure about the availability of COVID-19 testing were more likely to test for coronavirus. About 57% of the respondents perceived that the policy measures in response to the pandemic were inadequate. The findings showed higher social distancing and preventive practices among the government employees in response to COVID-19. Rules and regulations imposed by the government should be enforced and people should properly apply wearing facemasks, frequent handwashing, social and physical distancing measures as a comprehensive package of COVID-19 prevention and control strategies.

Transparency of the national government as key in promoting the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.

A recent correspondence discussed two important attributes of the government officials, namely, public service and common good. These two could possibly help the government in terms of promoting vaccination programs in the Philippines. This paper proposes transparency as the third attribute that could help in gaining trust from the people in promoting vaccination in the country.

Common good and public service as vital components for government officials in promoting COVID-19 vaccination.

Recent reports show that there is resistance in certain countries in regard with receiving COVID-19 vaccination. Different factors contribute to this resistance. With this, if we are to promote COVID-19 vaccination, government officials must build public trust so that the hesitancy among the citizens will be lessened. Thus, this paper proposes that in building public trust, the true essence of common good and public service must be seen from the officials so that their constituents will trust them with their decisions.

Personal exposure monitoring of PM2.5 among US diplomats in Kathmandu during the COVID-19 lockdown, March to June 2020.

The 2019 Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV 2 (COVID-191) pandemic has severely impacted global health, safety, economic development and diplomacy. The government of Nepal issued a lockdown order in the Kathmandu Valley for 80 days from 24 March to 11 June 2020. This paper reports associated changes in ambient PM2.5 measured at fixed-site monitors and changes in personal exposure to PM2.5 monitored by APT Minima by four American diplomats who completed monitoring before and during lockdown (24 h for each period per person, 192 person-hours in total). Time activities and use of home air pollution mitigation measures (use of room air cleaners (RACs), sealing of homes) were recorded by standardized diary. We compared PM2.5 exposure level by microenvironment (home (cooking), home (other activities), at work, commuting, other outdoor environment) in terms of averaged PM2.5 concentration and the contribution to cumulative personal exposure (the product of PM2.5 concentration and time spent in each microenvironment). Ambient PM2.5 measured at fixed-sites in the US Embassy and in Phora Durbar were 38.2% and 46.7% lower than during the corresponding period in 2017-2019. The mean concentration of PM2.5 to which US diplomats were exposed was very much lower than the concentrations of ambient levels measured at fixed site monitors in the city both before and during lockdown. Within-person comparisons suggest personal PM2.5 exposure was 50.0% to 76.7% lower during lockdown than before it. Time spent outdoors and cooking at home were large contributors to cumulative personal exposure. Low indoor levels of PM2.5 were achieved at work and home through use of RACs and measures to seal homes against the ingress of polluted air from outside. Our observations indicate the potential reduction in exposure to PM2.5 with large-scale changes to mainly fossil-fuel related emissions sources and through control of indoor environments and activity patterns.