PubliCo - an experimental online platform for COVID-19 related public perception

As the Corona Virus (SARS-CoV-2) continues to spread globally, causing severe human disease and death (COVID-19), citizens around the world have been exposed to crisis communication from a diverse spectrum of media outlets, including websites of public health authorities and universities, newspapers, television broadcasts, and social media platforms. These policy briefings, expert opinions, popular sentiments as well as dashboards, interactive maps and visuals, have not only become sources of information but also an incubator for emotional responses, moral judgements, and behavioral changes in daily routines, during a public health emergency. Clearly, not all communication content is equally reliable and citizens vary in the information sources they can or choose to access. Providing high-quality information while actively dismantling myths is a key concern for national and global health authorities, as exemplified by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and the World Health Organization (WHO) information campaigns. These efforts, however, need to be complemented by endeavors to obtain an excellent grasp of public perception in order to allow for continuous adaptations and improvement of emergency communication strategies. Failure to communicate effectively might result in irritation, loss of trust, and suboptimal adherence to public health policies. Against this backdrop, our project aims to develop a tool that helps tackle the "infodemic" manifested in the COVID-19 context, with a focus on a nuanced and in-depth understanding of public perception. With this tool, we aim to foster effective and tailored risk and crisis communication as a precondition for "combating mis-information, stigma, and fear" (cf. call text). We will address this challenge along three lines of work:1.Establish PubliCo - an experimental, interactive online platform collecting data on public perception of COVID-19 and its implications, as a feedback loop for policymakers, health authorities, experts and media professionals engaged in providing information to the Swiss public. 2.Design and apply toolkits to assess emotional state, behavioral dispositions, changes in social practices, and moral preferences of the public (e.g., regarding restrictive measures or resource allocation issues). 3.Develop an ethical framework for public health crisis communication, including ethical criteria for "good" communication, preconditions for trust, cooperation and responsibility, as well as the role of public preferences in relation to policymaking and crisis management. The project adopts a trans-disciplinary multi-stakeholder approach including a participatory citizen science component. Methodologically, we propose a combination of literature review and analysis, and empirical studies using mixed methods. Building on real-time data and continuous data collection, our research results will be highly adaptable to the evolution of the current emergency (e.g., with respect to new drug or vaccine). As regards research outcome, we expect the tool to be readily translatable to other public crises, such as disaster management, refugee crisis, and other public safety and civil protection scenarios, where national and international authorities will need to grapple with the development of crisis communication strategies to address public needs and interests.