Is it safe to nip out for milk? Should I download the COVIDSafe app? Is it OK to wear my pyjamas in a Zoom meeting? All these extra decisions are taking their toll.
In a crisis, there’s no time to get perfect evidence. The evidence that lockdowns contain contagion and boost subsequent economic growth is persuasive.
Turning COVID-19 into a political issue doesn’t help the public’s understanding of the disease and what needs to be done. Good things are happening we should feel optimistic about.
Marc Ambinder, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Research and investigative journalism call into question the authenticity of – and actual public support for – recent protests demanding governments lift lockdowns and ‘reopen’ the US economy.
Being cooped up at home is of course far more manageable than being locked up behind bars. But people isolating due to COVID-19 are still forced to deal with some of the same problems.
One of the key economic mitigating measures put in place after the country’s COVID-19 lockdown has had very little uptake by employers and will leave miillions of workers without any cover.
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.
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand