COVID-19 Pandemic crisis response research

COVID-19 pandemic was - and still is - an unprecedented time in many ways. It introduced many changes and challenges both on a personal and global level. To save lives and stop health systems from being overwhelmed, governments worldwide have been implementing various policies and recommendations: from enhanced hand hygiene or mandatory face masks to lockdowns and travel bans.

The pandemic also has spurred the deployment of innovative information systems to help prevent the further spread of the disease and resume human mobility and the use of social spaces. Two key systems that were introduced and triggered global discourse are digital contact tracing and COVID certificates. This project was implemented as an academic effort to learn public views on them and study the factors that impact their acceptability. Unlike most of the previous studies at a time, we conducted our research after these technologies became available to download using the opportunity to explore the awareness, reason for and against adoption, and interaction.

Next, I talk about two main user studies that were conducted during my postdoc at Trinity College Dublin in the Health Technology Design research group: an international survey on contact-tracing apps in the USA, UK, and Ireland and a national mixed-methods study in the Republic of Ireland.

CROSS-NATIONAL EVALUATION OF ATTITUDES TO CONTACT TRACING APPLICATIONS

Digital contact tracing (or exposure notification) is a technology developed to assist manual contact tracers in understanding and/or controlling the spread of the virus. Countries such as the Republic of Ireland, the UK, and the USA are among those that have launched contact tracing applications - mobile phone apps that trace close contacts of those infected with COVID-19. In all of these countries, such apps provided by official governmental authorities had similar technical characteristics. They were based on the Google and Apple Exposure Notification API (GAEN) and used Bluetooth and anonymous IDs to log phones (with the app) that are in close proximity to notify potential close contacts of an infected case.

The study was carried out by the research team at Trinity College Dublin led by Dr Leysan Nurgalieva. The aim of this study was to identify the factors that affect user adoption of a contact-tracing app in the UK, USA, and the Republic of Ireland. To achieve this objective, we conducted an international online survey asking participants about their views on response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the actions taken by governments, their COVID-19 information preferences, as well as their attitudes towards such apps.

  • We conducted a cross-national online survey in three countries – the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and the United States - after contact tracing apps became available to download in all of them. The surveys were administered between January 12 and February 26, 2021, which corresponded to full lockdowns in the UK, the Republic of Ireland, and some of the states in the USA. During the studied period, the COVID-19 vaccination had just started in all three countries, targeting only the most vulnerable population groups.

    The survey included 49 questions covering participants’ personal experience with COVID-19, beliefs in their personal and collective efficacy in limiting the spread of the virus, their use of information sources related to COVID-19, and their smartphone use and associated ICT skills. We also asked about their knowledge of contact tracing and the adoption of apps.

    We recruited participants online through a combination of recruitment through Prolific (an online panel provider), social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and LinkedIn), online volunteer advertising sites, advertisement on Irish radio stations, university message boards, Trinity College Dublin online platforms, academic newsletters, and snowball sampling.

  • A total of 1070 individuals started the survey, resulting in 871 completed unique responses. Regarding the country of residence, 228 (26.2%) respondents resided in the Republic of Ireland, 342 (39.3%) in the UK, and 301 (34.6%) in the US.

    Most of the participants (751/871 or 86.2%) knew of contact tracing apps. In the UK and Ireland, they were also aware of their availability in their country, which was not the case for the US participants.

    The top three reasons in favour of the installation of a contact tracing app were personal safety (“It would let me know my risk of being infected”), the safety of loved ones (“It would protect my family and friends”), and “a sense of responsibility to the wider community”.

    As for the reasons against the installation, it had to do with surveillance by governmental authorities (“I worry the government would use this as an excuse for greater surveillance after the epidemic”), public health authorities (“I don’t want the public health authorities to have access to my location data”), and increased anxiety (“I don’t want to feel more anxious than I already feel”).

  • This study shows that trust is a central factor for the adoption of DCT.

    The adoption and adherence are strongly connected to the trust (or lack of it) in official actors such as public health authorities and politicians, as well as scientists and healthcare professionals. Choosing appropriate media communication channels and sources are other important factors to consider when informing citizens about existing digital crisis response solutions in order to stimulate their uptake.

    With regards to interaction design, such technology might be used passively, which highlights the importance of the primary functionality not only for efficacy but also for user adoption and continuous use. As this study shows, privacy is a cornerstone of contact tracing concerns. Policy-makers and technology developers need to recognize that merely promising to protect individual privacy is not sufficient to ensure positive user perceptions and trust that the health information they share will be protected.

EVALUATION OF NATIONAL PUBLIC VIEWS ON DIGITAL COVID-19 CERTIFICATES IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

As COVID-19 vaccinations started to become available, the further measure of COVID certification (or "vaccination passports") was actively discussed and then introduced to help resume some normalcy of life. In June 2021, the “EU Digital COVID Certificate” (EUDCC) was introduced in the European Union, allowing free human mobility within the territory of the European Member States. The EUDCC includes such options as a negative test result, COVID-19 recovery or vaccination and consists of a QR code displayed on a device, such as a smartphone or a tablet, or printed with a digital signature, verified via an EU Gateway. In Ireland, a contact-tracing app was modified allowing to upload of such certificates, acting as a digital COVID pass. However, the restricted access to various social spaces and services in the country based on the COVID certificate was introduced before universal vaccination availability raising additional ethical and fairness challenges. In this study, we explored the views of residents in the Republic of Ireland on the topics of acceptability, fairness, data practices, and practical considerations of using such digital COVID certificates.

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