Fighting pandemics with enhanced risk communication: Messages, compliance and vulnerability during the COVID-19 outbreak

There has been great variation in how different countries' authorities have communicated with their citizens about COVID-19. Nationality thus affects people's vulnerability. At the same time, we know from previous research that other social factors can also be important. The purpose of PAN-FIGHT has been to investigate possible connections between risk communication and individual vulnerability in connection with the outbreak of COVID-19. We have mapped the authorities' communication strategies in Norway, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Great Britain in the period from March to December 2020 - i.e. the period from when Europe shut down until mass vaccination started. Furthermore, we have investigated how different population groups in these countries changed their daily routines based on this communication. In addition to nationality, we have looked at the importance of gender and other factors such as age, income, cultural background, family composition and/or place of residence in relation to how the individual has perceived and complied with guidelines for infection control measures. Based on our findings, we have prepared proposals for improved strategies for risk communication that take social, cultural and geographical differences into account. In addition to surveys and surveys, we have maintained close contact with national, local and specialist authorities in the five above-mentioned countries. They have given us information about how they have worked with communication during the pandemic and what kind of new knowledge they need. We have further consulted them in our development of our recommendations to maximize their practical utility. The idea behind the project is that there will probably be more and more serious pandemic viruses after COVID-19. With PAN-FIGHT, we wanted to strengthen national authorities' ability to reach out to several groups in the population, in order to strengthen society's resilience at local as well as national and international level.