RECOVER Insights Interview – Social Science Team Leads

A lot of our work includes coordination and strategic direction. This involves looking for entry points where social and behavioural sciences can bring added value to some of the more clinical or biomedically oriented work within RECOVER.  Adapting to shifting contexts is an enduring feature of qualitative research, even if this particular context is unprecedented in scale. Different projects will require different adjustments, different ways of collecting data or new ways of analysing data to be able to produce output quickly and inform policy.  Qualitative research is well-positioned to enable the reworking of methods, methodologies and theoretical frameworks to new situations.

Within work package 1  a public survey is being conducted that aims to understand the way that members of the public in Europe think about and understand science. By learning how people understand or misunderstand science, we can make sure we are shaping and sharing accurate messages about our research with the public. We have been analysing twitter data to see how people are perceiving the origins of the virus, possible vaccine etc. What we are seeing is that the way people think about treatments is influenced by their politics. For example, conversations about hydroxychloroquine are more prevalent in individuals with a more conservative political approach.

Within work package 2 we are doing a multi-country qualitative study We are looking at how physicians have responded to the pandemic on the ground and how patients who are presenting in primary care have experienced healthcare in the pandemic. This is important to inform policy about how primary care can be best supported and by understanding experiences and behaviours we can be better prepared for future pandemics.

Our preliminary data has shown us that primary care physicians across eight countries responded quickly to the pandemic. They did a lot of groundwork themselves to adapt their practice to patient needs. As a result of this, there was also a lot of burden on healthcare professionals, with many reporting increased mental strain. We found that patients adapted quickly to telephone consultations and they accepted the advice physicians were giving them. Patient expectations for a COVID test differed between countries.

Within work package 3 we are looking at the way health professionals in hospitals view infection prevention and control procedures in order to prevent spread of hospital infections and infection of health workers. This ties in with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) data collection on healthcare workers around the world. We have also looked at the emotional impact on the healthcare workers. In some regions we have seen very poor wellbeing of healthcare workers, to the point of potential clinical depression, especially for women. Policies need to address this kind of findings.

Within work package 6 we studied the experiences of household members living with someone who has been infected with COVID-19 and asked how they implemented the advice on preventive measures We found that households followed some preventative measures easily but struggled with others. The WHO posted a revision to their guidelines in July related to home care for patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. We contributed to these guidelines, highlighting the importance of understanding the needs of household members living with someone who has COVID-19.