Researchers Kevin Escandón, Angela L. Rasmussen, Isaac I. Bogoch, Eleanor J. Murray, Karina Escandón, Saskia V. Popescu & Jason Kindrachuk have published a new paper titled “COVID-19 false dichotomies and a comprehensive review of the evidence regarding public health, COVID-19 symptomatology, SARS-CoV-2 transmission, mask wearing, and reinfection”.
This paper examines the polarization of information, and misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper observes that numerous false dichotomies have been used to polarize debates, oversimplifying complex issues. This narrative review deconstructs six of these common COVID-19 false dichotomies, addressing the evidence on these topics, identifying insights relevant to effective pandemic responses, and highlighting knowledge gaps and uncertainties.
The topics reviewed are as follows:
1. Health and lives vs. economy and livelihoods
2. Indefinite lockdown vs. unlimited reopening
3. Symptomatic vs. asymptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection
4. Droplet vs. aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2
5. Masks for all vs. no masking
6. SARS-CoV-2 reinfection vs. no reinfection
You can access the full text here.
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PANDEM-2 is a H2020 EU-funded project that aims to develop new solutions for efficient, EU-wide pandemic management. The goal of PANDEM-2 is to prepare Europe for future pandemics through innovations in training and to build capacity between EU member states responding to pandemics on a cross-border basis.