Countermeasures against COVID-19: how to navigate medical practice through a nascent, evolving evidence base — a European multicentre mixed methods study

Eibensteiner, Fabian; Ritschl, Valentin; Stamm, Tanja; A, Cetin; Schmitt, Claus Peter; Ariceta, Gema; Bakkaloğlu, Sevcan A.; Jankauskienė, Augustina; Klaus, Günter; Paglialonga, Fabio; Edefonti, Alberto; Ranchin, Bruno; Shroff, Rukshana; Stefanidis, Constantinos J.; Vandewalle, Johan; Verrina, Enrico; Vondrák, Karel; Żurowska, Aleksandra; Alper, Seth L.; Aufricht, Christoph

doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043015

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization's Emergency Committee declared the rapid, worldwide spread of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 a global health emergency [1]. Since then, tireless efforts have been undertaken in order to mitigate disease spread and its impacts on many different areas of public health, which range from the amount of patient and health care personnel to nationwide public health measures that mostly rely on nonpharmaceutical interventions [2][3][4][5]. Several of these measures have already been associated with the reduced transmission of COVID-19 in geographic, region-wide studies [6,7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

People’s Willingness to Vaccinate Against COVID-19 Despite Their Safety Concerns: Twitter Poll Analysis

Eibensteiner¹,

Ritschl²,

Nawaz³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

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Background On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization’s Emergency Committee declared the rapid, worldwide spread of COVID-19 a global health emergency. Since then, tireless efforts have been made to mitigate the spread of the disease and its impact, and these efforts have mostly relied on nonpharmaceutical interventions. By December 2020, the safety and efficacy of the first COVID-19 vaccines were demonstrated. The large social media platform Twitter has been used by medical researchers for the analysis of important public health topics, such as the public’s perception on antibiotic use and misuse and human papillomavirus vaccination. The analysis of Twitter-generated data can be further facilitated by using Twitter’s built-in, anonymous polling tool to gain insight into public health issues and obtain rapid feedback on an international scale. During the fast-paced course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Twitter polling system has provided a viable method for gaining rapid, large-scale, international public health insights on highly relevant and timely SARS-CoV-2–related topics. Objective The purpose of this study was to understand the public’s perception on the safety and acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines in real time by using Twitter polls. Methods We developed 2 Twitter polls to explore the public’s views on available COVID-19 vaccines. The surveys were pinned to the Digital Health and Patient Safety Platform Twitter timeline for 1 week in mid-February 2021, and Twitter users and influencers were asked to participate in and retweet the polls to reach the largest possible audience. Results The adequacy of COVID-19 vaccine safety (ie, the safety of currently available vaccines; poll 1) was agreed upon by 1579 out of 3439 (45.9%) Twitter users. In contrast, almost as many Twitter users (1434/3439, 41.7%) were unsure about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. Only 5.2% (179/3439) of Twitter users rated the available COVID-19 vaccines as generally unsafe. Poll 2, which addressed the question of whether users would undergo vaccination, was answered affirmatively by 82.8% (2862/3457) of Twitter users, and only 8% (277/3457) categorically rejected vaccination at the time of polling. Conclusions In contrast to the perceived high level of uncertainty about the safety of the available COVID-19 vaccines, we observed an elevated willingness to undergo vaccination among our study sample. Since people's perceptions and views are strongly influenced by social media, the snapshots provided by these media platforms represent a static image of a moving target. Thus, the results of this study need to be followed up by long-term surveys to maintain their validity. This is especially relevant due to the circumstances of the fast-paced pandemic and the need to not miss sudden rises in the incidence of vaccine hesitancy, which may have detrimental effects on the pandemic’s course.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

People’s Willingness to Vaccinate Against COVID-19 Despite Their Safety Concerns: Twitter Poll Analysis

Eibensteiner¹,

Ritschl²,

Nawaz³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“… 6 Transmission of COVID-19 can occur through direct, indirect, or close contact with secretions, such as respiratory secretions and saliva or respiratory droplets, expelled from a COVID-19 infected patients. 7 - 9 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Towards Face-Mask Use Amid the Coronavirus 2019 Pandemic Among Public Transport Drivers in Gondar Town, A Cross-Sectional Study

Yimenu

Jejaw

Haylu

et al. 2022

INQUIRY

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Background. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a highly communicable virus that continues to interrupt livelihoods, predominantly those of low-income segments of society. For the prevention of respiratory infections like the current COVID-19 outbreak, face masks are considered an effective approach. Objective. This study intended to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of public transport drivers towards face mask use amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Gondar, Ethiopia. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 412 public transport drivers in Gondar town from July to September 2021. The study subjects were recruited using a simple random sampling technique after proportionally allocating the sample size from the total number of public transport drivers, and finally, study subjects were selected using the convenience sampling method to select the participant drivers working in Gondar Town. The data were collected by face-to-face interview administered questioners and an on-the-spot observational checklist. Results. A total of 412 public transport drivers have participated in the study. The mean age of the respondents was 32.75 years (±8.75 years). The majority of the participants were Bajaj drivers 193 (46.84%). Among the responders, 114 (27.67%) of them use radio to gather information about the pandemic and 50 (12.14%) of them had reported being caught by COVID-19. Meanwhile, only 32 (7.77%) were vaccinated against COVID-19. Drivers that had a diploma level of education were found to be 87.7% less knowledgeable than degree holders (AOR .123, 95% CI = .026, .573). Respondents that had good knowledge about COVID-19 and face masks were found to have 1.7 times more positive attitudes than those that had poor knowledge (AOR = 1.728, 95% CI = 1.150, 2.596). drivers whose family members have ever been caught by COVID-19 were found 2 times more likely to use face masks whenever they are working/driving (AOR = 2.173, 95% CI = 1.015, 4.652) than their counterparts. Conclusion. This study revealed a very low Knowledge, attitude, and practice of face mask use among public transport drivers in Gondar town. Periodic reinforcement and training programs are needed for all public transport drivers in each level for proper understanding and adherence to COVID-19 prevention protocols and the use of face masks.

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“…In a similar Nigerian study, the researchers reported mean age of HCWs(health care workers) was 32.3 ± 9.9 years [2]. However, other studies done to see KAP in general COVID-19 disease reported the highest proportion of HCWs being in these age groups with slightly higher mean age (34.9 ± 9.3 years) and Male predominance (50%) [6].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…It is known that the novel COVID-19 has an incubation period of 2 to 14 days during which all infected patients, asymptomatic with mild symptoms, transmission is easy to a non-infected person and this poses a challenge for early isolation and containment, of community transmission [6,7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge, attitude and practice towards facemask use amid the COVID-19 pandemic among public transport drivers in Debre-Tabor town, Ethiopia

Mihret¹,

Yalgaw²

2022

J Community Med Health Solut

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Background: For the prevention of respiratory infection similar to the current pandemic COVID-19, face masks are considered an effective method. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a highly transmittable virus that continues to disrupt livelihoods, particularly those of low-income segments of society, around the world has poor knowledge towards facemask at the same time has huge gape towards attitude which affects the behaviors. Therefore this study was aimed to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice towards facemask use amid the COVID-19 pandemic among public transport drivers in Debre-Tabor town, Ethiopia, 2021. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 407 public transport drivers in Debre-Tabor town from July to August 2021. The study participants were selected using a simple random sampling technique after proportionally allocating the sample size from the total number of public transport drivers, and finally, study subjects were elected continuously working in Debre- Tabor Town public transport drivers. The data were collected by trained data collectors using a structured questionnaire with face-to-face interview administered questioners and an on-the-spot observational checklist. The collected data were checked, coded, and entered into SPSS version 23, and for data cleaning and analysis. Result: A total of 407 drivers responded to the questionnaire with a response rate of 96.4% were participated in this study. The mean age was 32.75 years (range: 19-45 years). Among them majority was male 383(94.1%) and the majority of 177(43.5%) were Bajaj drives. Among the responders, 114(28%) used radio to gather information, and 41(10.1%) drivers where were caught by COVID-19, but, only 30(7.4%) were vaccinated COVID-19 vaccine. Knowledge, attitude and practices regarding facemask use among these drivers were 368(90.4% [95% CI: 87.7-93.1]). 163(40% [95% CI: 37.5% - 43.2%]), and 23 ((5.6%) [95% CI: 3.7% - 8.3%]) Regarding facemask use against COVID-19 infection respectively. Conclusion and recommendation: The current study was able to demonstrate 90.4% of drivers had good knowledge. Positive attitude and practice levels of face mask use among drivers were less than half of them or 40%, and 5.6% respectively. There is a high supply of Surgical Face masks but poor attitude and practice. Almost all of the participants don’t wear a face mask despite having good knowledge about the transmission routes of COVID-19. The government COVID-19 prevention task force or health sector should be continued their awareness creation to bring behavioral change for the implementation of the COVID-19 prevention method, especially facemask.

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Countermeasures against COVID-19: how to navigate medical practice through a nascent, evolving evidence base — a European multicentre mixed methods study

Cited by 8 publications

References 29 publications

People’s Willingness to Vaccinate Against COVID-19 Despite Their Safety Concerns: Twitter Poll Analysis

People’s Willingness to Vaccinate Against COVID-19 Despite Their Safety Concerns: Twitter Poll Analysis

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Towards Face-Mask Use Amid the Coronavirus 2019 Pandemic Among Public Transport Drivers in Gondar Town, A Cross-Sectional Study

Knowledge, attitude and practice towards facemask use amid the COVID-19 pandemic among public transport drivers in Debre-Tabor town, Ethiopia

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