About 10 years ago, before I got into science (for background, start with the Twitter handle that is the same as my Reddit one), I was running a big office computer network. We would sometimes have people call the help desk who were worried that their PC had "a virus" (...) on it. I noticed (!) that they seemed to be more distressed --- I won't use the word "anxious" as I'm not much of a psychologist and certainly know nothing about clinical aspects --- when they didn't know if their PC was "infected" than either when we told them that it was, or that it wasn't, even if the "infection" required a lot of cleanup.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) represents a significant and urgent threat to global health. We call on researchers, journals and funders to ensure that research findings and data relevant to this outbreak are shared rapidly and openly to inform the public health response and help save lives. We affirm the commitment to the principles set out in the 2016 Statement on data sharing in public health emergencies, and will seek to ensure that the World Health Organization (WHO) has rapid access to emerging findings that could aid the global response.

Sharing research data and findings relevant to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

The reduction of social mixing in Italy following the lockdown

The mitigation measures enacted as part of the response to the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic are unprecedented in their breadth and societal burden. A major challenge in this situation is to quantitatively assess the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions like mobility restrictions and social distancing, to better understand the ensuing reduction of mobility flows, individual mobility changes, and impact on contact patterns. Here, we report preliminary results on tackling the above challenges by using de-identified, large-scale data from a location intelligence company, Cuebiq, that has instrumented smartphone apps with high-accuracy location-data collection software. We focus our analysis on Italy, where the COVID-19 epidemic has already triggered an unprecedented and escalating series of restrictions on travel and individual mobility of citizens.

The Hidden Fragility of Complex Systems -- Consequences of Change, Changing Consequences

2003.11153v1

Short-term survival and an exuberant plunge into building our future are generating a new kind of unintended consequence -- hidden fragility. This is a direct effect of the sophistication and structural complexity of the socio-technical systems humans create. It is inevitable. And so the challenge is, How much can we understand and predict about these systems and about the social dynamics that lead to their construction?

a google doc tracking all app development:Shared research on privacy preserving contact tracing apps [MOVED]This document has moved and been merged with another shared research effort: Unified research on privacy-preserving contact tracing and exposure notification for COVID-19docs.google.com

Establishing an augmented online eco-system to foster the decentralized consolidation of behavioral science knowledge on COVID-19

tl;tr: To foster the decentralized consolidation of behavioral science knowledge on COVID-19, I propose to augment the emerging online ecosystem, which already creates and consolidates extant knowledge (using tools, such as, e.g., GoogleDocs, GitHub), with further tools that boost the efficiency and timeliness of the ongoing and future consolidation efforts. Below I describe five suggestions:Subreddit BehSciResearch: Coordinate and discuss consolidation effortsSubreddit BehSciAsk: Enable researchers, policy makers, and journalists to ask the behavioral science community a question on research relevant to the COVID–19 pandemicWrite short policy briefs for policy makers: Preprints or a “policy wiki”?Subreddit BehSciMeta: Discuss how we as a behavioral science community should adapt how we do science for an effective COVID–19 responseCollectively annotate the web to create a behavioral-science–COVID–19 knowledge base using hypothes.is

On March 18, the Association for Psychological Science convened a virtual roundtable of four APS members who discussed the psychological dimensions of COVID-19 and how it is affecting both society and individuals. The online gathering produced intriguing insights on the pandemic and the research-based actions we can take to minimize its impact.  Panelists included Bethany Teachman (University of Virginia), Katie McLaughlin (Harvard University), Valerie Reyna (Cornell University), and Andreas Olsson (Karolinska Institutet).

Crisis research, fast and slow

It’s a tough time for junior researchers. If you’re one and you ever tried to convince your advisor that this study you’re working on really will take much longer than they’d like, your COVID-19-alerted colleagues are currently putting you out of arguments. In Europe and North America (where most of the English-language literature in psychology is produced), the COVID-19 pandemic started having substantial effects on everyday life — mostly in the form of social distancing — no more than two weeks ago, but psych researchers haven’t been messing about. In this short time, the Psychological Science Accelerator put out a call for “rapid and impactful study proposals on COVID-19”, received 66(!!)[1]Legend: ! = hovering on the brink of significance; !! = decisively significant; !!! = globally significant jQuery("#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1").tooltip({ tip: "#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1", tipClass: "footnote_tooltip", effect: "fade", fadeOutSpeed: 100, predelay: 400, position: "top right", relative: true, offset: [10, 10] }); proposals in four(!!!) days, sifted through them, decided to run three of them and started preparing the data collection. Chris Chambers called researchers to sign up as reviewers for rapid-review Registered Reports on COVID-19 at Royal Society Open Science, got over 530(!!) responses within 48(!) hours, and moved the first RR to in-principle acceptance in just 6(!!) days which saw 2(!!!) rounds of review.

I suggest to gather here a list of the resource collections already there, an aggregation of aggregators, so to speak.If you have a listplease check that it's not already posted as a comment below, thenpost it as a comment: please only one list per comment and use some formattingThanks!

Creating a list of the resource collections on COVID-19 already out there (aggregation of aggregators)

SfHP COVID-19 Resources For Psychologists, Healthcare Providers and Patients

The Society for Health Psychology’s Health Policy Council complied a list of helpful evidence-based resources from APA, CDC, WHO and other nationally accredited groups We will continue to update these resources in an effort to provide support during this time

A preprint was recently published called, “The effectiveness of moral mes-sages on public health behavioral intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic” (Everett et al., 2020). The preprint presents a study purportedly showing that COVID-19 public health messages framed as deontological had a modest effect effect for increasing people's behavioural intentions for sharing the message on social media. In my review of the preprint, I find that if there were corrections for multiple comparisons then the results testing the preregistered hypotheses would become statistically nonsignificant. I discuss these and other issues in detail.

A comment on Everett et al. (2020): No evidence for the effectiveness of moral messages on public health behavioural intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic

10.31234/osf.io/de7q9

When people are forced to be isolated from one another, do they crave social interactions in the same way a hungry person craves food? To address this question, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure neural responses in participants (n=40) evoked by food and social cues after ten hours of mandated fasting or total social isolation. After isolation, people felt lonely and craved social interaction. Midbrain regions showed increased activation to food cues after fasting and to social cues after isolation; these responses were correlated with self-reported craving. Neural patterns in response to food cues when participants were hungry generalized to social cues after isolation. Our results support the intuitive idea that acute isolation causes social craving, similar to hunger.

The need to connect: Acute social isolation causes neural craving responses similar to hunger

10.1101/2020.03.25.006643

Building Communication Capacity to Counter Infectious Disease Threats

Building communication capacity is a critical piece of preparing for, detecting, and responding to infectious disease threats. The International Health Regulations (IHR) establish risk communication—the real-time exchange of information, advice, and opinions between experts or officials and people who face a threat to their survival, health, and economic or social well-being—as a core capacity that World Health Organization member states must fulfill to strengthen the fight against these threats. Despite global recognition of the importance of complying with IHR, 67 percent of signatory countries report themselves as not compliant. By investing in communication capacity, public health and government officials and civil society organizations facing health crises would be prepared to provide advice, information, and reassurance to the public as well as to rapidly develop messages and community engagement activities that are coordinated and take into account social and behavioral dynamics among all sectors. To learn about current national and international efforts to develop the capacity to communicate effectively during times of infectious disease outbreaks, and to explore gaps in the research agenda that may help address communication needs to advance the field, the Forum on Microbial Threats of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a 1.5 day workshop on December 13 and 14, 2016, in Washington, DC. Participants reviewed progress and needs in strengthening communication capacity for dealing with infectious disease threats for both outbreaks and routine challenges in the United States and abroad. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

10.17226/24738.

Expert judgments of pandemic influenza risks

Structured surveys were conducted with 19 medical experts, and 17 non-medical expertsin related fields, attending a meeting about pandemic influenza. Respondents gavequantitative judgments for key variables potentially affecting the extent of a possibleH5N1 pandemic. The medical experts saw about a 15% (median) chance of efficienthuman-to-human transmission, in the next 3 years. Should it occur, they saw almost nochance of there being adequate vaccines or antiviral responses. They saw varying chancesof six other mitigation strategies reducing the threat, expressing the greatest faith inimproved surveillance. Compared to the medical experts, the non-medical experts sawmuch higher chances of both human-to-human transmission and of effective vaccine andantiviral responses being available. The medical experts and the non-medical experts hadsimilar, dire predictions for the extent of casualties, should transmission occur in the next3 years. Their responses to open-ended questions revealed some of the theoriesunderlying these beliefs.

10.1080/17441690600673940

Analyzing disaster risks and plans:An avian flu example

Narrative approaches to analyzing risks seek to identify the variables critical tocreating and controlling a risk, then to instantiate them in terms of coherent themes (e.g.,organizational failure, strategic surprise). Computational approaches to analyzing risks seekto identify the same critical variables, then to instantiate them in terms of their probability.Disaster risk analysis faces complex, novel processes that strain the capabilities of bothapproaches. We propose an approach that integrates elements of each, relying on what wecallstructured scenariosandcomputable models. It is illustrated by framing the analysis ofplans for a possible avian flu pandemic.

10.1007/s11166-006-0175-8

Facing up to the uncertainties of COVID-19

The human tendency to impose a single interpretation in ambiguous situations carries huge dangers in addressing COVID-19. We need to search actively for multiple interpretations, and governments need to choose policies that are robust if their preferred theory turns out to be wrong, argues Nick Chater.

10.1038/s41562-020-0865-2

https://cmu.edu/epp/people/faculty/research/Fischhoff-Analyzing-Disaster-Risks-Avian-Flu-JRU.pdf… and Fischhoff, B., Wong-Parodi, G., Garfin, D., Holman, E.A., & Silver, R. (2018). Public understanding of Ebola risks: Mastering an unfamiliar threat. Risk Analysis, 38(1), 71-83. doi: 10.1111/risa.12794 2)

We need to build on what's already there, eg., on risk analysis and risk perception: https://cmu.edu/epp/people/faculty/research/Fischhoff-Expert-Judgments-of-Pandemic-Influenza-Risks.pdf…

It was pointed out to me, by @VeroRabeloPhD, that the graphic I'm referring to was authored by Mimi Zhu, a queer Chinese Australian writer/organizer, and then circulated by Spears

I'm deeply angry at psychology at the moment, and I can't think of an outlet for that anger. So, Twitter it is. #Phdchat #AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter

10.31234/osf.io/y38m9

Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis. Because the crisis requires large-scale behaviour change and places significant psychological burdens on individuals, insights from the social and behavioural sciences can be used to help align human behavior with the recommendations of epidemiologists and public health experts. Here we discuss evidence from a selection of research topics relevant to pandemics, including work on navigating threats, social and cultural influences on behaviour, science communication, moral decision-making, leadership, and stress and coping. In each section, we note the nature and quality of prior research, including uncertainty and unsettled issues. We identify several insights for effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and also highlight important gaps researchers should move quickly to fill in the coming weeks and months.

Research on ice across Europe, as all resources are focussed on COVID-19

Universities, research institutes, clinical trials and big science machines are shut down, as scientists are redeployed into critical research areas and medically-trained academic staff freed up to care for patients

The current epidemic spread of a new corona virus (2019-nCoV) highlights the threat to the world of new infectious diseases. The current epidemic is not an isolated event. During the last decades, we have seen several incidences of the spread of new, deadly viruses, e.g. SARS, MERS and Ebola.  These events are worsened by lack of communication both within and between countries, insufficient national preparedness, lack of efficient treatments and vaccines, monodisciplinary approaches, urbanization, and the high global mobility of humans. Due to the rapid spread of new viruses across the world, it is of vital importance that all countries are prepared for a possible occurrence of infections by a new virus. This require a well-coordinated national response by the health authorities. The purpose of this thematic call is to give excellent researchers the possibility, in a collaborative effort, to perform in-depth research addressing the interdisciplinary theme “Societal Responses to and Preparedness for Emerging Viral Infections”, including: Surveillance and early detection of disease. Rapid diagnostics of novel viruses. New technologies to prevent or combat epidemic viral infections. Infectious epidemiology, including methods for epidemic modelling, to predict and understand spread of disease. IT based methods for early detection of epidemics. National preparedness to deal with emerging viral infections, including drafting of policies in advance, procedures for rapid testing and approval of new treatments, technologies, and vaccines. The proposed research must be in-depth, but the subject can be cross-disciplinary, and should not be considered limited to any particular research methodology or discipline.

Societal Responses to and Preparedness for Emerging Viral Infections – 2020

Global hackathon aimed at combatting Covid-19MEDIA_kit ENGCONTACT Elis Tootsman (+372) 506 6145 elis@accelerateestonia.ee Linkedin Fighting a Global Crisis: “The Global Hack” (9-12 April) webpage The Global Hack, the biggest online hackathon ever The Global...docs.google.com

THE REPRODUCIBILITYCRISIS

To build on previousfindings, it helps to know exactly what was done. Thisnot onlyfacilitatesunderstanding the previous study’s results and themethodology, but alsoit isimportant for confirmation of itsfindings.Computationalreproducibilityisthe ability to take the raw data from a study and re-analyzeit to reproduce the final results, including the statistics.Empiricalreproducibilityis demonstrated when, if the study is done again by another team, the critical results reported by the original are found again.

The Behavioral Science Response to COVID-19 Working Group: Recommendations to reduce face touching

Human behavior plays a large role in the spread of coronavirus. Behavioral scientists are therefore a unique resource for changing human behavior in ways that can reduce the spread, including social distancing, handwashing, and face touching. 

Lorentz-eScience Competition

Lorentz-eScience Competition Every year the eScience Center and the Lorentz Center invite researchers to join the Lorentz-eScience competition. This competition aims to host a leading-edge workshop on digitally enhanced research (efficient utilization of data, software and e-infrastructure). The workshop should bring together researchers from the academic community and the public/private sector.

There’s much talk about no longer doing “business as usual.” As scientists who have the potential to contribute to reducing the spread of COVID-19, how do we change our ways of doing “science as usual” to rapidly, and responsibly, disseminate information to policymakers and the public?

COVID-19: What can we do now?

Viewpoint: COVID-19, open science, and a ‘red alert’ health indicator

An open-science advocate sees lessons for how science and policy should interact, if we want to recover from and prevent future health disasters

A coordinated Global Research Roadmapto respond to theD-1

There is broad consensus on the need for research to focus on actions that can save lives nowand to facilitate action so that those affected are promptly diagnosed and receive optimal care; while integrating innovation fully within each research area.Moreover, there is an imperative tosupport research priorities in a way that leads to the development of sustainable global research platforms pre-prepared for the next disease X epidemic; thus, allowing for accelerated research,innovative solutionsandR&D ofdiagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines,as well astheir timely and equitable accessforthose at highest risk.

There is an obvious concern globally regarding the fact about the emerging coronavirus 2019 novel coronavirus (2019‐nCoV) as a worldwide public health threat. As the outbreak of COVID‐19 causes by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) progresses within China and beyond, rapidly available epidemiological data are needed to guide strategies for situational awareness and intervention. The recent outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan, China, caused by the SARS‐CoV‐2 emphasizes the importance of analyzing the epidemiological data of this novel virus and predicting their risks of infecting people all around the globe. In this study, we present an effort to compile and analyze epidemiological outbreak information on COVID‐19 based on the several open datasets on 2019‐nCoV provided by the Johns Hopkins University, World Health Organization, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Health Commission, and DXY. An exploratory data analysis with visualizations has been made to understand the number of different cases reported (confirmed, death, and recovered) in different provinces of China and outside of China. Overall, at the outset of an outbreak like this, it is highly important to readily provide information to begin the evaluation necessary to understand the risks and begin containment activities.

In the Department of Communication at UCLA, the Co-Mind Lab has rerouted some of its “big data” projects to create an informational resource about the coronavirus crisis. This resource offers members of the UCLA community and wider public a bird’s-eye view of news media coverage of the crisis, including a Los Angeles “dashboard” that maps positive cases in the county. https://co-mind.org/cogmedia/browse/covid.php Dr. Rick Dale, professor in the Department of Communication, who leads the Co-Mind Lab, further discusses this important and timely research in the following piece: As social scientists, we ask questions that are of fundamental importance to the situation: How is the media covering the crisis? What are changing themes or trends in wider news coverage? How can we quantify and explore the public’s conception of the health crisis? It is now well established that public discourse and behavior—social and cognitive issues—are also of great importance to public health.

UCLA Researchers Use Big Data Expertise to Create a News Media Resource on the COVID-19 Crisis

What makes an academic paper useful for policy?

There is an incredibly useful paper on "what makes an academic paper useful for (health) policy. Below is the abstract and a summary of the main points. I can only encourage everybody to read this paper in full.Whitty, C.J.M. What makes an academic paper useful for health policy?. BMC Med 13, 301 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-015-0544-8

Data from the 1918 pandemic in America suggest that places with the tightest restrictions fared best

In confronting the global spread of the coronavirus disease COVID-19 pandemic we must have coordinated medical, operational, and political responses. In all efforts, data is crucial. Fundamentally, and in the possible absence of a vaccine for 12 to 18 months, we need universal, well-documented testing for both the presence of the disease as well as confirmed recovery through serological tests for antibodies, and we need to track major socioeconomic indices. But we also need auxiliary data of all kinds, including data related to how populations are talking about the unfolding pandemic through news and stories. To in part help on the social media side, we curate a set of 1000 day-scale time series of 1-grams across 24 languages on Twitter that are most `important' for March 2020 with respect to March 2019. We determine importance through our allotaxonometric instrument, rank-turbulence divergence. We make some basic observations about some of the time series, including a comparison to numbers of confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 over time. We broadly observe across all languages a peak for the language-specific word for `virus' in January followed by a decline through February and a recent surge through March. The world's collective attention dropped away while the virus spread out from China. We host the time series on Gitlab, updating them on a daily basis while relevant. Our main intent is for other researchers to use these time series to enhance whatever analyses that may be of use during the pandemic as well as for retrospective investigations.

Repository to accompany the blog series: Epidemic Modeling

"Live" update of analysis of 2K UK respondents and their views on privacy-encroaching tracking policies: stephanlewandowsky.github.io/UKsocialLicenc… This page will change as more analyses are added. Links to project description and preregistration and data at the same link. 1/n

Thread Reader

Anyone can get it

How many times did you hit the snooze button this morning? We all crave sleep, but too many nights we fall short of the seven or eight hours we need to thrive. An estimated 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from a chronic sleep disorder, according to the Institute of Medicine. In today's overscheduled society, sleep may feel like a luxury when, in fact it's a necessity. Sleep is vital to our health, safety and overall well-being. Sleep recharges the brain, allowing it to learn and make memories. Insufficient sleep has been linked to car crashes, poor work performance and problems with mood and relationships. Sleep deprivation also raises the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, depression and stroke.

Getting a good night’s sleep How psychologists help with insomnia

COVID-19 will change the world forever. But how will it change? What will the post-COVID world look like? More important, what do we want it to look like?