Natural Hazards Center

Researchers aim to see which COVID-19 policies worked

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 19:51:31 +0000

Researchers aim to see which COVID-19 policies worked Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/26/2021 - 13:51

Nicolette Edwards

Researchers from around the globe are studying the challenges and successes of social distancing policies

Since COVID-19’s discovery in Wuhan, China in Jan. 2020, one of the greatest challenges of managing its spread has been the patchwork-policy approach around the world—from complete shutdown of borders like New Zealand’s to the initial attempt at “herd immunity” in Sweden.

Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, as part of a collaboration led by Elizabeth Alvarez of McMaster University, though, hope to provide clarity about what policies actually worked.

The effort, COVID-19 Policies & Epidemiology Research Project, is a comparative analysis of the challenges and successes of mitigating COVID-19, looking at the effectiveness of social distancing policies and their epidemiological outcomes from country to country.

At the top of the page: Digital map of COVID-19 spikes around the world. Image by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash. Above: Magnified view of England and Ireland, used for the England case report. Image provided by COVID-19 Policies & Epidemiology Research Project.

“What will social distancing and masking do in a range of countries across the globe to stem the tide of COVID?” asks Donna Goldstein, a �� Boulder anthropology professor and one of the project’s researchers.

“What I really continued to believe in about this project and what I love about it is, it really has at its core this comparative depth that can really show you what worked and what didn’t work where and what things fell apart.”

On a Zoom call in April 2020, Alvarez, an assistant professor in the department of health and research methods, evidence and impact at McMaster University, presented the project to Goldstein and other researchers on the CONVERGE (National Science Foundation initiative housed at the �� Boulder Natural Hazards Center) collaborators Zoom call with the project’s leading question: What public physical distancing policies were implemented to combat SARS-CoV-2 and how did they influence the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2?

From there, some of the researchers, including Goldstein, decided to get involved.

The Canadian-based project brought together researchers from around the world to explore this multi-dimensional question through a series of individual country reports. Each researcher was assigned to one or more countries to gather qualitative and quantitative data that highlighted five relevant categories that would give a partial story of how a country might respond—geographic, environmental, social, economic, demographic and health—along with the relevant COVID-19 policies, dating from when the WHO announced a Public Health Emergency to Aug. 30, 2020.

What I really continued to believe in about this project and what I love about it is, it really has at its core this comparative depth that can really show you what worked and what didn’t work where and what things fell apart."

“This project felt very important, not only for the topics we were addressing but also in how we were addressing them,” Anna Wynfield, a doctoral student in anthropology, said. “Bringing together researchers from fields including anthropology, public health, medicine, and other disciplines has allowed us to approach questions of policy guidance, implementation, and epidemiological outcomes in unique and collaborative ways.”

Goldstein has carried out long-term anthropological research in Brazil, so she conducted interviews with policymakers and public health officials there to gain a better sense of what happened in the country relative to the COVID-19 response during the timeframe. Wynfield, on the other hand, explored Ireland’s pandemic response.

“For Ireland, and in many jurisdictions around the world, having a cohesive and coordinated plan has been critical to mitigation,” Wynfield said. “Island countries like New Zealand have had certain geographic advantages in dealing with the pandemic. In Ireland, however, this was complicated by the fact that Ireland shares a border with Northern Ireland and policies differed between them.”

The researchers hope that the thorough analysis of each country’s characteristics will help answer the main research question while also looking critically at political leadership, public adherence and the overall effectiveness of COVID-19 policies.

Donna Goldstein is a professor of Anthropology at �� and is reviewing Brazil in the research project.

“We really try to understand what worked and what didn’t work globally—and why—in different places,” Goldstein said. “We can now—having all this data about the difference in policies—weigh and compare the policy rollout and effectiveness across all these different domains.”

To date, there are five published case reports: Ireland, Ontario, Sri Lanka, England and Singapore. More reports will follow in the coming months, including Goldstein’s report on Brazil. Throughout each country's analysis, however, the researchers found that successful COVID-19 mitigation starts with clear, cohesive messaging, public trust in leadership and financial aid to populations experiencing income loss.

“It has been important to assess not only how decisions were made and communicated, but also how the public has adopted, or challenged, these measures,” Wynfield said. “To understand these dynamics, we looked holistically at how policy implementation has been supported in different places through economic support, trust in government, historical frameworks, health care infrastructure, centralized decision-making, and cohesive messaging.”

Which is something that Brazil did not do well, Goldstein said.

“A lot of public health people really pointed at Jair Bolsonaro, current president of Brazil just like many people here would point at Trump as being the most critical, problematic aspect, politicizing a virus and confusing the messaging on what to do in the pandemic,” Goldstein said.

While the initial data collection period has ended, the research continues as COVID-19 mutates and changes, and vaccines are distributed.

“There’s so much complexity to what happened and what’s still happening. … The project’s a huge feat, but I think the bigger takeaway is that doing these global-scale projects while keeping an eye on all the local nuances that have occurred is difficult but worthwhile,” Goldstein said, adding:

“It’s a form of scientific research as well as an art form to have all of these conversations globally and locally with a range of people simultaneously, and then to write about what we have learned and how to move forward.”

Researchers from around the globe are studying the challenges and successes of social distancing policies.

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Prof seeks avalanche of ideas to help prevent disaster

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 21:21:39 +0000

Prof seeks avalanche of ideas to help prevent disaster Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/14/2020 - 14:21

Clay Bonnyman Evans

�� Boulder Natural Hazards Center calls for 1,000 letters to inform Biden transition team on how to respond to hazards, disasters

The transition team for the incoming presidential administration of Joseph R. Biden recently sent an email to institutions around the nation, seeking input and names of experts in four key priority areas—the COVID-19 pandemic, economic recovery, racial equity and climate change.

“So many names came to my mind in all four areas,” said Lori Peek, professor of sociology and director of the Natural Hazards Center in the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. The priorities “really cross-cut the work that people in the hazards and disaster field do.”

At the top of the page: Fires in Pine Gulch and Eldorado Canyon have filled the air in Boulder, lending sunsets and sunrises with an eerie color. Taken August 27, 2020. Photo by Jeff Mitton.
Above: Lori Peek

The Natural Hazards Center is a National Science Foundation-designated information clearinghouse for the societal dimensions of hazards and disasters. Founded in 1976 by the late Professor of Geography Gilbert F. White, the center is dedicated to reducing disaster harm through sharing information, connecting researchers, producing novel research and training, and mentoring the next generation of professionals.

Recognizing how many ideas are out there, Peek conceived the One Thousand Letters Project, inviting the people in the �� Boulder community and far beyond to compose 500-word letters to the transition team, to “share your vision for how we can work together to ultimately reduce the enormous harm and suffering caused by disasters, while identifying practical steps that will help move the vision forward.”

“I just want to share the expertise that I know exists here at �� Boulder, but also across the nation,” Peek said. “During this time of transition, it just seemed like our scientific and civic duty.”

Anyone interested in submitting a letter, including students, should send it to 1000Letters@colorado.edu by no later than Tuesday, Dec. 15. The team at the center will read and compile letters and submit to the Biden transition team. Anonymous letters will be accepted, and authors will not be identified without permission, Peek said in her call for contributions.

She’s heard through the grapevine of larger institutions that the transition team is serious about soliciting information from a wide range of sources, even if they won’t necessarily read each and every letter.

“They are just processing so much information, getting ready to take over the administration of a massive federal infrastructure. I know the likelihood of them sitting down over the next 60 days and reading them all isn’t high,” Peek said with a laugh.

“But I am synthesizing all that we are receiving into a high-level memo for the transition team, and the letters are important symbolically. A thousand voices don’t even begin to capture the size of the natural hazards and disaster research and management community.”

The Natural Hazards Center has been extremely busy over the past year, not just with its response to COVID-19, but also several destructive hurricanes and a ferocious wildfire season.

It is going to take all of our science and best practices to turn the tide of rising hazards losses."

The center’s CONVERGE facility put out a special call for grant proposals for COVID-19-related research in the spring, providing $1,000 grants to 90 working groups encompassing some 1,200 people in social and behavioral sciences around the world. Peek says the center expects to announce the names of grantees from a second round of associated COVID-19 funding before the end of the year.

Peek experienced disaster up close and personally herself when she and her husband had to evacuate their home when the Cal-Wood Fire raged out of control Oct. 17, eventually destroying some 26 homes and more than 10,000 acres in the foothills and mountains northwest of Boulder. She wrote about her experience in a recent article, imploring others to prepare for the worst.

“I’m looking out my window right now at the burn scar from the fire,” Peek says during a phone interview.

The recent brush with disaster has only deepened her sense of urgency to act in the face of widespread disaster losses.

“It is going to take all of our science and best practices to turn the tide of rising hazards losses,” she wrote in her call for letters. “May we listen to and learn from one another and act together as we imagine new possibilities for a just and sustainable future.”

�� Boulder Natural Hazards Center calls for 1,000 letters to inform Biden transition team on how to respond to hazards, disasters.

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�� Boulder experts discuss disaster preparedness

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 22:23:25 +0000

�� Boulder experts discuss disaster preparedness Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/13/2017 - 16:23

Disaster preparedness is the focus of the next Social Sciences Today Forum at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The event, titled “Disasters: Can We Be Prepared?” features three experts and is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 26, at noon in Old Main Chapel on the �� Boulder campus. Each faculty member will speak for about 15 minutes and then answer questions. The panelists are:

Nicholas Flores, Department of Economics
Emmanuel David, Department of Women and Gender Studies
Lori Peek, Natural Hazards Center and Department of Sociology

Peek will discuss the complexity of preparing at different levels—ranging from the individual to the societal. She will also emphasize the importance of preparedness for the most vulnerable members of our communities. Flores will discuss the principles and challenges of using insurance to manage catastrophic risk. David will address gender inequalities at various stages of disaster.

The event is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Center to Advance the Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences (CARTSS) and the College of Arts and Sciences.

The Social Sciences Today Forum, a series during the school year, is designed to help the public gain broader perspectives and deeper understanding of human society and how individuals relate to the community and one another. This forum brings the knowledge and expertise of social-sciences faculty to the greater community and allows the community to ask questions of leading scholars.

Disaster preparedness is the focus of the next Social Sciences Today Forum at ��Boulder. The event, titled “Disasters: Can We Be Prepared?” features three experts and is scheduled for Sept. 26, at noon in Old Main Chapel.

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