How risk communication could have reduced controversy about school closures in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Public Health Res Pract
; 30(2)2020 Jun 30.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-890803
ABSTRACT
Although there has been consistent evidence indicating that school closures have only limited efficacy in reducing community transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the question of whether children should be kept home from school has attracted extensive and often divisive public debate in Australia. In this article we analyse the factors that drove high levels of concern among parents, teachers and the public and led to both demands for school closures in late March 2020, and to many parents' reluctance to return their children to school in May 2020. We discuss how the use of well-established principles of risk communication might have reduced much of this community concern. Then we set out a range of practical suggestions for communication practices that build trust and hence diminish concerns in relation to managing schools over the long term of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Parents
/
Pneumonia, Viral
/
Schools
/
Coronavirus Infections
/
Community-Institutional Relations
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Child
/
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Oceania
Language:
English
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS