Within the framework below we're prioritizing areas where there's time urgency & BPS can make a sig. impact. ATM these are disease prevention, staff wellbeing, effect of confinement esp on vulnerable groups, psychol care of patients & relatives & adapting psychol services (2/2)

Enabling behaviour change is key to minimising the spread of the virus. This guidance gives policy-makers and communicators the psychological insight they need to help drive change.

BPS launches new behaviour change guidance to help reduce spread of Covid-19

The coronavirus pandemic has introduced a load of new terms to our everyday vocabulary. Coronavirus, Covid-19, isolation, pandemic, zumping, zoombombing, quarantine, covidiot, covinfluencer, to name a few. But one term used by everyone from the government to your nan has been criticised for its potential effects on our longterm mental wellbeing: social distancing. One expert argues that we should trade in the ‘problematic’ term of ‘social distancing’ for the more positive ‘safe relating’, in order to avoid increasing feelings of disconnection and isolation.

Why we should swap ‘social distancing’ for ‘safe relating’ – for the sake of our mental health

What are good services to collect representative survey data?

We have used a company called Norstat in the past to collect UK data.

The role of the standards of conduct, performance and ethics

The ethical framework within which our registrants must work

This Code of Ethics is designed to guide all members of the British Psychological Society in their day-to-day professional conduct.

Code of Ethics and Conduct (2018)

Psychology and Media Productions:Guidance for commissioners and producers

These guidelines will aid productions and those commissioning productions, both fictional and factual, in gaining a clearer view of what psychology as a discipline and profession has to offer, how moral and ethical challenges in making programmes and films can be successfully met and how the British Psychological Society (BPS) can help.

Working with the media

Working with the media can bring personal benefits for psychologists and benefit the profession as a whole. Benefits for psychology include promoting the profession, increasing public understanding of psychology and attracting more young people to study the subject.

More disciplines must embrace a system of academic credit that rewards a greater range of roles more specifically, says Alex Holcombe.

Farewell authors, hello contributors

10.1038/d41586-019-02084-8

What makes an academic paper useful for health policy?

Evidence-based policy ensures that the best interventions are effectively implemented. Integrating rigorous, relevant science into policy is therefore essential. Barriers include the evidence not being there; lack of demand by policymakers; academics not producing rigorous, relevant papers within the timeframe of the policy cycle. This piece addresses the last problem. Academics underestimate the speed of the policy process, and publish excellent papers after a policy decision rather than good ones before it. To be useful in policy, papers must be at least as rigorous about reporting their methods as for other academic uses. Papers which are as simple as possible (but no simpler) are most likely to be taken up in policy. Most policy questions have many scientific questions, from different disciplines, within them. The accurate synthesis of existing information is the most important single offering by academics to the policy process. Since policymakers are making economic decisions, economic analysis is central, as are the qualitative social sciences. Models should, wherever possible, allow policymakers to vary assumptions. Objective, rigorous, original studies from multiple disciplines relevant to a policy question need to be synthesized before being incorporated into policy.

It was amazing to lecture at #NET_COVID today. We need this! Network epidemiology needs fresh ideas, we all need more model literacy, and things to do while in quarantine. Catch up on our first meeting w my introduction to network epidemiology models:

“social distancing was unnecessary” is the new “why should we vaccinate against diseases nobody gets any longer?”Citar TweetPhilip Bump@pbump · 9 abr.A notable shift downward in projected deaths from coronavirus is already being spun as "experts were wrong!!" instead of "hey, the thing experts said would drive down deaths might be driving down deaths." https://washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/08/leading-model-now-estimates-tens-thousands-fewer-covid-19-deaths-by-summer/

Introduction & Tutorial to Network Epidemiology

An introduction to Network Epidemiology, starting from classic epidemiological models and relaxing the mass-action and deterministic assumptions using a different suite of network models including pairwise approximations, heterogeneous mean-field approaches and probability generating functions.

The Absurd Error Lockdown Skeptics and Anti-Vaxxers Both Make

You can’t get the benefits of prevention without putting—and keeping—the actual preventive measures in place.

I'm trying to compile #COVID19 reports that use cellphone data around the world. I've done a few (see link below) https://leoferres.info/blog/2020/04/10/covid19-mobility-reports/… Can you help me by leaving a message, or replying to this tweet or just email with a relevant document? Thanks!

10.1098/rsos.180934

Competition for novelty reduces information sampling in a research game - a registered report

Incentive structures shape scientists' research practices. One incentive in particular, rewarding priority of publication, is hypothesized to harm scientific reliability by promoting rushed, low-quality research. Here, we develop a laboratory experiment to test whether competition affects information sampling and guessing accuracy in a game that mirrors aspects of scientific investigation. In our experiment, individuals gather data in order to guess true states of the world and face a tradeoff between guessing quickly and increasing accuracy by acquiring more information. To test whether competition affects accuracy, we compare a treatment in which individuals are rewarded for each correct guess to a treatment where individuals face the possibility of being ‘scooped’ by a competitor. In a second set of conditions, we make information acquisition contingent on solving arithmetic problems to test whether competition increases individual effort (i.e. arithmetic-problem solving speed). We find that competition causes individuals to make guesses using less information, thereby reducing their accuracy (H1a and H1b confirmed). We find no evidence that competition increases individual effort (H2, inconclusive evidence). Our experiment provides proof of concept that rewarding priority of publication can incentivize individuals to acquire less information, producing lower-quality research as a consequence.

Rivals in the dark: How competition influences search in decisions under uncertainty

In choices between uncertain options, information search can increase the chances of distinguishing good from bad options. However, many choices are made in the presence of other choosers who may seize the better option while one is still engaged in search. How long do (and should) people search before choosing between uncertain options in the presence of such competition? To address this question, we introduce a new experimental paradigm called the competitive sampling game. We use both simulation and empirical data to compare search and choice between competitive and solitary environments. Simulation results show that minimal search is adaptive when one expects competitors to choose quickly or is uncertain about how long competitors will search. Descriptively, we observe that competition drastically reduces information search prior to choice.

10.1016/j.cognition.2014.06.006

The three governments are pushing a host of matching messages, including that the novel coronavirus is an American bioweapon.

State report: Russian, Chinese and Iranian disinformation narratives echo one another

A US national probability-based survey during the early days of the SARS-CoV-2 spread in the US showed that, above and beyond respondents’ political party, mainstream broadcast media use (e.g., NBC News) correlated with accurate information about the disease’s lethality, and mainstream print media use (e.g., the New York Times) correlated with accurate beliefs about protection from infection. In addition, conservative media use (e.g., Fox News) correlated with conspiracy theories including believing that some in the CDC were exaggerating the seriousness of the virus to undermine the presidency of Donald Trump. Five recommendations are made to improve public understanding of SARS-CoV-2.

The Relation between Media Consumption and Misinformation at the Outset of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in the US

10.37016/mr-2020-012

The CEO spoke exclusively to ABC News about the research with Carnegie Mellon.

Mark Zuckerberg explains plans for Facebook health surveys to research and combat coronavirus

Interview: We should tackle COVID-19 head on, but now is not the time to cut basic research

Bergen University rector, Dag Rune Olsen, foresees a renewed fight in Brussels over the European Research Council budget. Short-termism is the most dangerous threat when we deal with crises, he says

State Data and Policy Actions to Address Coronavirus

In late 2019, a new strain of coronavirus emerged in China. With the number of cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by this coronavirus, growing rapidly in the United States and around the world, the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Controlling the spread of the virus requires aggressive action from states and the federal government to ensure access to testing for those who need it and treatment for those who contract the disease.

How deep will downturns in rich countries be?

Those in central and southern Europe seem most vulnerable

Uber is shifting from moving people to delivering essentials

Back in December, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was touting the broader potential of the company’s food-delivery model.“We can extend that model to essentially every single local retailer, so that anything you want in New York City can be delivered to you, hopefully in under 30 minutes,” Khosrowshahi said in a speech at the Economic Club of New York. The future of Uber, Quartz concluded, is basically Amazon.

Die COVID-19-Pandemie bewirkt auf dem Arbeitsmarkt Beschäftigungseinbußen wie zuletzt vor rund 70 Jahren und einen massiven Anstieg der Arbeitslosigkeit. Der Beschäftigungsrückgang der Frauen fällt zwar geringer aus als jener der Männer, konzentriert sich aber auf für die Frauenbeschäftigung bedeutende Wirtschaftsbereiche.

Neuer WIFO Research Brief von Julia Bock-Schappelwein, Ulrike Famira-Mühlberger und Christine Mayrhuber

Crushing coronavirus means ‘breaking the habits of a lifetime.’ Behavior scientists have some tips

Researchers have been deeply involved in developing messages aimed at changing people’s behavior to curb the coronavirus pandemic, and studying which ones work.

10.1126/science.abc2922

10.1001/jama.2020.6572

Putting the SARS-CoV-2 Genie Back in the Bottle

From Mitigation to Containment of the COVID-19 Pandemic

European Medicines Agency Tackles Potential Shortages of Drugs for Treating COVID-19

Amid concerns about potential shortages of crucial medicines to treat patients with COVID-19 and other conditions, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said that new European Union (EU)–level measures are being put into place to help prevent and mitigate supply issues.

On March 28, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for efforts to “urgently promote facts and science” to address the “growing surge of misinformation” about COVID-19.1 Evidence from previous disease outbreaks has taught us that misinformation represents a serious threat to public health efforts to control a pandemic.2 Adults who believe misinformation about a disease are less likely to follow public health recommendations, putting their own and others’ health at risk. During the Ebola outbreak in 2014, adults who endorsed conspiracy beliefs (eg, a cure for Ebola exists but is being withheld) projected that they would be less likely to seek medical care if they thought they had Ebola and reported less support for quarantine policies than adults who did not endorse these beliefs.3

Educate, Amplify, and Focus to Address COVID-19 Misinformation

The moment to see the poor

10.1126/science.abc2255

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has illuminated inequities that have put poor people—in both low-income nations and in rich countries—at the greatest risk of suffering. Pope Francis recently pointed to that in an interview: “This is the moment to see the poor.”Until science finds appropriate drugs and a vaccine to treat and prevent COVID-19, today's paradox is that everybody needs to cooperate with others while simultaneously self-isolating as a protective measure. Yet, whereas social distancing is quite feasible for wealthy people, poor people crowded in urban slums or refugee camps do not have that option and lack face masks and hand-washing facilities. To address the risks in large, crowded cities in developing countries, we must support prevention by testing, providing access to protective equipment, and launching a big effort to build provisionary hospitals to isolate infected people.

Crowdsourcing efforts are currently underway to collect and analyze data from patients with cancer who are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. These community-led initiatives will fill key knowledge gaps to tackle crucial clinical questions on the complexities of infection with the causative coronavirus SARS-Cov-2 in the large, heterogeneous group of vulnerable patients with cancer.

Crowdsourcing a crisis response for COVID-19 in oncology

10.1038/s43018-020-0065-z

Testing for COVID-19 is generally done by nasopharyngeal swab, which is not easy to self-administer. But let's assume an easier nasal self-swab is possible at scale (e.g. https://medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.09.20057901v1…) and 95% of people attempt the test each week. 4/

What happens if someone is infected? Once the sample arrives at the lab, the PCR test then needs to detect the virus. At best, it might have around a 95% chance of doing this (i.e. sensitivity = 95%) https://medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.05.20053355v2… 6/

On average, each person infected with COVID-19 can spread infection to around 3 others in the absence of control measures. So if we want to get fully back to normal, testing will need to stop at least 2/3 of transmission (so each case infects less than one other person). 2/

I'm seeing more and more suggestions that contact tracing and/or physical distancing isn't needed and we could solve COVID-19 with widespread testing alone. E.g. just test everyone once a week/fortnight to get R<1. Sounds straightforward? Unfortunately not... 1/

Of course, people also have to collect the sample properly, pack it and ship to a lab to be tested. Let's suppose 95% manage to do this. (For context, this study found less than 80% of participants correctly collected and shipped a nasal swab): https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4653956/…) 5/

Even if we ignore the (enormous) logistical challenges of pulling together resources and expertise to run the required millions of daily PCR tests, we still have to remove 2/3 of the opportunities for transmission. So let's suppose everyone receives a weekly test. What next? 3/

Optimistically, let's assume successful detection prevents 75% of onward transmission on average. We've estimated we can detect 86% of infections, so multiplying together that means preventing just under 65% of transmission.... 9/

We don't just need to detect infections, we need to reduce transmission. If testing is weekly, and people become infectious after 3-4 days, then (assuming same-day turnaround of results) we'd only detect half of cases before they became infectious https://nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0869-5… 8/

So to recap, our optimistic assumptions have 95% of people doing the test, 95% doing it properly, and 95% of infections being picked up. Multiplying together, that means we'll detect around 86% of infections. But there's another problem... 7/

We really do need better testing/tracing strategies and other innovations to reduce COVID-19 transmission. But this figure shows the fundamental challenge we face with COVID control - this is the problem any strategy has to solve: https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1250855521327788032?s=20… 12/12

But remember, we need to stop at least 2/3 of transmission to control COVID (and even then it won't disappear immediately). Unfortunately, even our very optimistic scenario falls short of this - if mass testing were feasible, it would prob need to be biweekly, not weekly. 10/

Inefficient population testing could also crowd out better targeted approaches, such as contact tracing, which can informed by we know about transmission chains and - as we get more data - which contacts/environments are particularly risky 11/