Public confident they can keep themselves safe during pandemic
This is part of our Coronavirus Update series in which Harvard specialists in epidemiology, infectious disease, economics, politics, and other disciplines offer insights into what the latest developments in the COVID-19 outbreak may bring. Harvard researchers who learned hard lessons about distrust of health authorities during the recent Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are turning their eyes to the coronavirus pandemic, examining whether public trust — or lack thereof — translates into individuals following government health directives. With no effective treatment and the development of a vaccine still a year or so away, the public’s willingness to follow social distancing and other guidelines may be the most powerful tool remaining in the public health arsenal, according to Phuong Pham and Patrick Vinck, researchers at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. And that willingness depends to a large extent on trust. “There’s no vaccine and no prospective antiviral treatments for COVID-19 right...