{"id":49510,"date":"2021-02-02T15:05:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T14:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=49510"},"modified":"2021-02-09T19:29:52","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T18:29:52","slug":"emotions-the-missing-link-in-responding-to-and-recovery-from-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/02\/02\/emotions-the-missing-link-in-responding-to-and-recovery-from-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Emotions: the missing link in responding to and recovery from covid-19"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The covid-19 pandemic has <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3575101\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">generated, fuelled, and amplified a wide range of emotional responses<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This is either directly through personal or family related morbidity and mortality, or indirectly through the immense media coverage, political debates, and ongoing impact of our daily lives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The history of epidemics and pandemics is closely intertwined with our emotional responses to them. The AIDS epidemic generated anxiety, which morphed into panic, paranoia, and discrimination. SARS brought waves of public frenzy and cross-border discrimination. H1N1 felt overwhelming when it started and unimportant after a few months. Ebola created an \u201cecology of fear.\u201d Zika sparked a continuum of anxiety, inequality, despair, and hope.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pandemics make headlines, capture the public\u2019s imagination, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMp0911047\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ignite their fears in ways<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that other acute or chronic illnesses do not. In fundraising and aid efforts for humanitarian crises, emotions are understood and accepted as a core part of crisis communications. And there is growing evidence that emotions have an important role to play in driving protective behaviours and the uptake of interventions, especially in times of public health crises. People experience diverse emotions at a time of a crisis and these have <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/1062726X.2012.676747\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the capacity to influence their interpretation of it and guide their behaviour<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This principle should be no different in times of a pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Research on emotions from a behavioural science perspective has shown that initial cognitive processing of a situation gives rise to emotions, which in turn guide the further, more elaborate, cognitive processing <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/4500403?seq=1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">which drives our behaviours<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This framing helps move the conversation away from a debate of whether reason or emotion is more dominant in the functioning of the human mind. Humans are capable of complex behaviours, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/smw.ch\/article\/doi\/smw.2013.13786\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">emotions have the capacity<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to change people\u2019s perceptions, attention, and memory by guiding them to focus on the aspects of their environment that they would consider important.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is reasonable then to consider <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140-6736(20)30050-7\/fulltext\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">emotions as determinants<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that motivate people to take action (or to follow public health guidelines) or not. A systematic review showed that there are emotional determinants (specific emotions) that predispose people towards behavioural responses to epidemics and pandemics and influence the uptake of interventions. In this review, reporting from 75 studies of over 80,000 subjects across a period of 30 years, there was evidence that the emotions of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">fear<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">panic<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> had a negative effect on the uptake of public health interventions during past outbreaks, whereas <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">worry<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">empathy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> emerged as the key motivators for action. This will be critical to consider as covid-19 vaccinations are rolled out across the world and nations globally are getting ready to face the next few months of the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is a lot to be learned from studying what worked and what did not in past infectious diseases outbreaks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When AIDS reached Australia in the mid-1980s, what inspired people who faced the highest risk from HIV to take personal protections was not the fearmongering <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebody.com\/article\/aids-pioneer-regrets-grim-reaper-demonization-gay-men\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grim Reaper campaign<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, but the co-production and sharing of empathetic messaging with the trustworthy community leaders (be it for LGBT+ community, indigenous, or ethnic minorities).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For SARS in Hong Kong in 2003, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/cid\/article\/40\/12\/1713\/312369\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">a positive dose-response gradient<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> between manageable anxiety levels and uptake of personal protective measures was noted. This was largely down to timely, effective, and realistic <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/jncimono\/article\/1999\/25\/44\/897905\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">communication about<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> risks and precautionary measures. But it was not the case from the start and was possible only after local governing bodies and international organisations collaborated to provide accurate information to the public, managing the initial rampant fear and anxiety.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the case of the H1N1 pandemic, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMp0911047\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">in several countries<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the public went from a flooding of fear to a demand for a vaccine, and from panic and exhaustion to suspicion and indifference. Countries like Greece did not conduct any audience research or co-production to inform the content, design, tone, targeting and emotional appeal of communications provided to the public, due to an \u201cemergency\u201d mindset of government and health officials. This led to \u201ctop-down\u201d and \u201cone-size-fits-all\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/eurpub\/article\/25\/1\/135\/2837434\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">communications of questionable benefit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Greece ended up with one of the lowest vaccination coverage rates and one of the highest annual rates of influenza mortality in Europe in 2009.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fear and anxiety during the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa in 2014 had important roles on multiple levels, ranging from impacts on preventative behaviours to wider health security concerns for policy makers. Once again, the response to the outbreak started becoming more effective in turning the tide once international efforts became more focused and professionals started co-operating with local communities. Anthropological observations showed that the treatment of Ebola had strongly focused on the biomedical aspects alone and disregarded parameters such as community, society, and culture. Consequently, they started to take emotions\u2014expressed as fears and concerns\u2014and traditional beliefs of <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scidev.net\/global\/cooperation\/feature\/anthropologists-medics-ebola-guinea.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the members of local communities seriously<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Providing hope and education, and local communities and healthcare practitioners working together were <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/bruce_aylward_humanity_vs_ebola_how_we_could_win_a_terrifying_war\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">decisive factors in tackling the epidemic<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, compared to the earlier stages when hopelessness, panic, and desperation were dominant. The failure to adopt community engagement methods and take emotions into account was initially neglected, yet eventually proved effective <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/medical-history\/article\/between-securitisation-and-neglect-managing-ebola-at-the-borders-of-global-health\/4DA04DA13C96C2A2589ED2380739F904\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">in winning the trust of rural populations<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Most recently in Brazil, during and after the Zika epidemic of 2016, hope and trust were important to managing uncertainty and risk, given the initial lack of scientific evidence about the neurological consequences of the viral infection. The capacity of healthcare workers and caregivers to trust and to co-create hope allowed relationships to develop that cushioned social impacts, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/heapol\/article\/35\/8\/953\/5873327\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">reinforced adherence to therapeutics,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and enabled information flow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pandemics inevitably cause a wide range of emotions. These emotions are shaped by wider social, environmental, and political influences and have the capacity to impact population responses. Understanding human emotions can bring insights as to why people make certain health decisions, why they respond to health crises in various ways, and what meanings they attribute to health interventions, healthcare providers, or public health strategies and policies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is unlikely that any policy for the implementation or distribution of public health interventions addressing covid-19 will be able to succeed until public fears that motivate counterproductive behaviours are addressed, and the interplay between perception, emotion, and behaviour in the public <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41562-020-0884-z\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">is understood well<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by governments and public health agencies and professionals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At a time of immense polarisation, governments and public health agencies around the world <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ajph.aphapublications.org\/doi\/10.2105\/AJPH.2011.300546\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">have an opportunity<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to make the recovery from covid-19 effective if they stop using the traditional and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.journals.uchicago.edu\/doi\/abs\/10.1086\/667438\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">unhelpful \u201ctop-down\u201d communication approach<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The general public is not a vulnerable, passive consumer of state messaging. Public health professionals and governments should resist the view that top down messaging should rule and be accepted without question, even when these messages conflict <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.taylorfrancis.com\/chapters\/response-mode-framing-information-processing-effects-risk-assessment-paul-slovic-baruch-fischhoff-sarah-lichtenstein\/e\/10.4324\/9781315661773-19\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">with the beliefs and emotions of their citizens<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Public health messages will be much more effective if they are co-produced in equal partnership between people who use services\u2014or consume information\u2014and professionals, and delivered in a clear and consistent way. Greater involvement of local leaders, who are more representative of their communities, and have a better understanding of what they need,\u00a0 will be fundamental to overcoming this global crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Antonis A. Kousoulis<\/strong> is a public health specialist, Director for England and Wales at the Mental Health Foundation, and a collaborator of the London School of Hygiene &amp; Tropical Medicine.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><strong><i>Competing<\/i><i style=\"font-size: 1rem\">\u00a0interest<\/i>s<\/strong>: <span style=\"font-size: 1rem\"><em>none declared<\/em>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The covid-19 pandemic has generated, fuelled, and amplified a wide range of emotional responses. This is either directly through personal or family related morbidity and mortality, or indirectly through the [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/02\/02\/emotions-the-missing-link-in-responding-to-and-recovery-from-covid-19\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":49335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-bloggers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Emotions: the missing link in responding to and recovery from covid-19 - The BMJ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/02\/02\/emotions-the-missing-link-in-responding-to-and-recovery-from-covid-19\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Emotions: the missing link in responding to and recovery from covid-19 - The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The covid-19 pandemic has generated, fuelled, and amplified a wide range of emotional responses. 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