Social scientists find that using geography-related names or racialized framing around the coronavirus in even one news story can trigger racist stereotypes and biases.
Vaccine hesitancy is often met with one of two responses: Ridicule, or factual information. Both assume a failure of reason, but human behaviour is more complex than reason, so both responses fail.
Scientists have been testing captive and wild animals for the coronavirus since the pandemic began. Only a few wild species are known to carry the virus, but many more have been shown to be susceptible.
Canada’s international reputation as a relatively peaceful country is at odds with the noisy protests by people opposed to measures aimed at preventing COVID-19.
COVID-19 variants are the products of the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. They arise via mutations, but other forces also have roles to play in the generation and transmission of variants.
Aaron Hinz, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa and Rees Kassen, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
As we move through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, new predictive methods of testing can help monitor the spread of the disease. Environmental testing, like swabbing floors, is a useful tool.
Faculty in a cross-country survey recommended modifying metrics used to gauge productivity to account for the differential impacts of the pandemic on women and racialized faculty.
Canada’s ‘us against them’ COVID-19 strategy is amplifying social division, creating major psychosocial impacts, and has resulted in a significant decrease in trust toward authorities.
Stories build powerful emotional attachments. We root for heroes, boo their opponents and get anxious for the fictional problem to be solved. Facts have very little to do with it.
A growing body of research shows that COVID-19 protocols should be extended to areas in which there is a human-animal interface such as zoos, wildlife sanctuaries and game farms.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne