Plan for Part 1: Reaction

Writing a summary shouldn’t be too difficult as I covered this area for our presentation. I can use my answers to these questions to structure my paragraphs for the report.

What is the research problem? + Why is it important?

• Does believing you have had COVID-19 impact how an individual self-reports their adherence to lockdown measures?
• Can COVID testing be a way to exit from lockdown strategies?
• WHO says antibody testing may lead people to stop adhering to protective measures
• Need to know if people will stop adhering to measures after testing positive, as still unclear if an individual can have COVID more than once, and how common this is.
• No previous evidence on if adhering to protective measures is different if an individual things they have COVID or not (could be self-diagnosed or with antigen/antibody test)
• Since research around COVID is still novel (?), the results from this paper may significantly impact the future of implementation of lockdown rules.
• Could potentially help target those who believe they have had COVID, especially in terms of media communication as there is a lack of research in this area.

What is the gap in the literature that the paper fills?

• If a COVID diagnosis changes the way we try to protect ourselves from COVID, and if this diagnosis impacts how we report our own behaviour
• Also if it changes how worried we are about the virus

What did the researchers do?

• Online cross-sectional survey
• 6149 UK participants, 18+

What did they find?

• It was found that those who believed they had had COVID-19 were more likely to think they are immune and stop participating in activities such as washing hands and social distancing.
• There was no evidence found for an association between thinking that you had had COVID-19 and its perceived risk.
• It remains likely that people will be required to adhere to protective measures for COVID-19 even if they have had the illness previously

What does it mean?

• Currently, no media communications specifically target those who believed they have had COVID-19. As the opinions towards lockdown measures and COVID-19 immunity are different in these people, it is worth addressing this gap in the media.
• However, this study heavily relies on self-reported measures, where the social desirability bias impacts the way participants respond, especially in the rates of adhering to lockdown measures. - The response from participants also may not be representative of the UK population.

Choosing statements for my reaction

• I wonder whether the results of this study would be universal if the same method was applied in a different country, such as Australia. It would be interesting to see if an increase/decrease of COVID-19 rates in the particular country would change these results. Similarly, if harsher COVID-19 restrictions would have any effect on the results gathered

• The logic of the rationale was compelling and accurately captured the overall message of the paper. It was easy to understand and I wasn’t confused about anything. I also liked how the study had a nice flow and there weren’t any areas where I got confused or felt lost.

• The most interesting parts of this paper was the statistics for the COVID-19 antigen test. I thought it was interesting that more than half of those who tested negative believed they had COVID-19. And since people who thought they had had COVID-19 were less likely to correctly identify COVID-19 symptoms, it seems to me that those who think they are COVID negative have a better understanding of COVID-19 symptoms. Does that mean that people who think they have had COVID-19 and think they have increased immunity become complacent?

Plan for Part 2: Verification

1. Demographic descriptives
2. Means/SD
3. Figures

Mostly done as a group!

Plan for Part 3: Exploration

Need to think of 3 questions here… Check back next week once I’ve had a think about this! :)

Plan for Part 4: Recommendation

Have to use the reproducibility checklist (I have no idea where to find this…)