When restricting the movement of their citizens to slow down the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, low income countries should tailor measures to local socio-economic circumstances.
An illegal Zimbawean immigrant crosses into South Africa.
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Attempting to defeat these folk theories with science achieved little; the myth busters of the AIDS epidemic were talking past those they were trying to convince.
Children at window of a building in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. Children will be vulnerable if vaccinations are postponed.
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Unlike in wealthy nations, lockdowns are simply impossible in overcrowded conditions with no sanitation and high levels of poverty.
Health workers walk from house to house during vaccination campaign against polio in Kano, northwest Nigeria in 2017.
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Adequate numbers of healthy and motivated health professionals are also critical to governments’ effective responses to public health emergencies such as COVID-19.
Research participants want to know the results of the studies in which they participate.
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Findings that are effectively communicated can go a long way to serve the interests of the public. They can help to address social injustices or improve treatments offered to patients.
South Korea has been the quickest to bring the pandemic under control.
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Researchers and public health officials still don’t know how widespread nor how deadly the coronavirus really is. Random testing is a way to quickly and easily learn this important information.
Somali women on a coronavirus awareness campaign.
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Some of the false claims about coronavirus may be harmless. But others can be potentially dangerous.
Ireland’s health minister, center, models social distancing at his nightly coronavirus press briefing March 27, 2020.
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When a government’s health messaging during a crisis is inconsistent or unrealistic, it engenders the kind of confusion, misinformation and non-cooperation seen in the US and UK.
Digital footprints.
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Cellphone data can show who coronavirus patients interacted with, which can help isolate infected people before they feel ill. But how digital contact tracing is implemented matters.
Scientists are better equipped to do ground-breaking research.
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Governments worldwide have put in place economic and tax relief measures to mitigate the impact on businesses and workers of drastic public health measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
It is important for information on the coronavirus to be put out in a balanced and fair manner.
Employees work on the production line of chloroquine phosphate, resumed after a 15-year break, in a pharmaceutical company in Nantong city in east China’s Jiangsu province Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020.
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COVID-19 has a long incubation time, and testing can take days to get results. Don’t let continually rising case numbers make you give up on staying at home.
Her commitment to the communities she was serving was unwavering. She ensured that research results were disseminated to communities before presenting at conferences.