Why Communities Should Be the Focus to Reduce Stigma Attached to COVID-19

Abstract

Since 1999, the CORE Group Polio Project (CGPP) has developed, refined, and deployed effective strategies to mobilize communities to improve vaccine uptake for polio (and other vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles) and conduct surveillance for infectious disease threats in high-risk, border, and hard-to-reach locations. CORE Group Polio Project teams have been called upon to address the COVID-19 pandemic, and, like with polio, the pandemic response is impacted by stigma in all areas of response, from health education, testing, contact tracing, and even treatment for infected individuals. The CGPP has reached back into its polio experience and is redeploying successful community engagement activities to address stigma as part of the COVID-19 response. Across country programs, community health volunteers communicate risk and behavior change at the household level by integrating health education and promotion activities with a focus on practical measures of COVID-19 prevention. Moreover, leveraging established and trusted partnerships with community networks and community leaders are providing lessons that can be adopted by the global community. The CGPP offers three overarching recommendations to curb stigma: 1) facilitating inclusive community engagement, 2) leveraging existing community networks and 3) cocreating with community leaders.

Attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination and willingness to pay: comparison of people with and without mental disorders in China

“…This is in contrast to a previous study in which the stigma associated with an infectious disease increased vaccine hesitancy and resistance. 36 For people with depression or anxiety disorder, high DASS-21 score was the only factor associated with willingness to pay for the COVID-19 vaccine, after adjustment for other factors. Psychiatric patients might be more depressed and anxious during the pandemic, and this might explain their keenness for vaccination.…”

Behavioral Correlates of COVID-19 Worry: Stigma, Knowledge, and News Source

“…Throughout history, stigma has negatively impacted populations affected by diseases considered contagious, potentially deadly, and without a known cure [32], from plague, cholera, and yellow fever, to more recent diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, SARS, Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19. Health-related stigma is driven by fear of infection, misinformation, economic consequences of disease, lack of awareness, and socially constructed stereotypes [33][34][35][36][37]. Stigmatization leads to psychological, social, economic, and sometimes physical harm to those who are stigmatized with few discrete benefits of reducing disease transmission.…”

Factors associated with the stigma-discrimination complex towards healthcare workers among university students during the coronavirus pandemic in Mexico

“…Therefore, knowing the frequency and correlates of CDRSDCHCW provides valuable information for designing interventions to reduce social stigma towards HCWs (Chopra & Arora, 2020; Demirtaş-Madran, 2020). In this perspective, an inclusive and rights-based policy approach to address COVID-19 should not only focus on eliminating the disease or interrupting transmission but also address stigma and intersecting vulnerabilities, as well as the conditions that promote or perpetuate stigma (Bologna et al, 2021; Qin X & Song, 2021). Consequently, to be equitable and practical, the global response to COVID-19 requires that stigma becomes a higher priority on the public health agenda (Roelen et al, 2020).…”