The COVID‐19 pandemic prompted social distancing, workplace closures, and restrictions on mobility and trade that had cascading effects on economic activity, food prices, and employment in low‐ and middle‐income countries. Using longitudinal data from Bangladesh, Kenya, and Nigeria covering a period from October 2020 to April 2021, the paper assesses whether knowledge of a person infected with COVID‐19 is associated with food insecurity, job loss and business closures, and coping strategies to smooth consumption. The likelihood of households to experience food insecurity at the extensive and intensive margins increased among those who knew an infected person in Bangladesh and Kenya.
High levels of compliance with public health measures are critical to ensure a successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic and other public health emergencies. However, most data on compliance are self-reported and the tendency to overreport due to social desirability could yield biased estimates of actual compliance. A list experiment is a widely used method to estimate social desirability bias in self-reported estimates of sensitive behaviours. We estimate rates of compliance with facemask mandates in Kenya, Nigeria, and Bangladesh using data from phone surveys conducted in March-April 2021. Data on compliance were collected from two different survey modules: a self-reported compliance module (stated) and a list experiment (elicited). We find large gaps between stated and elicited rates of facemask wearing for different groups depending on specific country contexts and high levels of overreporting of facemask compliance in self-reported surveys: there was an almost 40 percentage point gap in Kenya, 30 percentage points in Nigeria, and 20 percentage points in Bangladesh. We also observe differences in rates of self-reported facemask wearing among key groups but not using the elicited responses from the list experiment, which suggest that social desirability bias may vary by demographics. Data collected from self-reported surveys may not be reliable to monitor ongoing compliance with public health measures. Moreover, elicited compliance rates indicate levels of mask wearing are likely much lower than those estimated using self-reported data.
The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the urgent development and distribution of novel vaccinations to reduce the global disease burden and establish herd immunity. Vaccination is a cost-effective public health measure that is critical for disease prevention; as of March 2022, Health Canada has authorized the distribution of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in pediatric populations. However, vaccine hesitancy among caregivers remains a significant barrier to vaccine uptake in the pediatric population. Increased research on the intentions, motivations, and perceptions of pediatric COVID-19 vaccine efficacy and safety may facilitate the development of public health strategies to address pediatric vaccine knowledge translation, accessibility, and administration barriers. This perspective paper aims to explore the major barrier of vaccine hesitancy and potential solutions to achieve effective vaccine uptake in the Canadian pediatric population.
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