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Home / Public Health Action, Volume 12, Number 2

Open Access Tell Us! A survey of public opinion on how to deal with COVID-19 risks and subsequent harm

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SETTING: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all of us in many areas of life due to mitigation measures, delays in medical care, or the disease itself. When it concerns issues as complex and universal as COVID-19, the public should also have a say in how to deal with managing its impact.

DESIGN: In a widely distributed online questionnaire, members of the Austrian public were invited to contribute experiences, ideas and opinions on the level of risk they were willing to accept regarding COVID-19. The huge variety of responses were categorised by social scientists into groups used in a workshop to draw up recommendations for responding to future challenges to the healthcare system from an interdisciplinary point of view.

RESULTS: The results of the survey indicated that while members of the public are primarily afraid of illnesses caused by COVID-19, they also fear the psychological burden and effects at the societal level.

CONCLUSION: Our study has shown that there is a significant public desire to have a say in issues which directly impact citizens.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; citizen input; participation; public health; public opinion

Document Type: Research Article

Affiliations: 1: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Digital Health and Patient Safety, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria 2: Open Innovation in Science Center, Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft, Vienna, Austria 3: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Digital Health and Patient Safety, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, Department of Anaesthesia, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria 4: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Digital Health and Patient Safety, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, Institute of Genetics and Animal Biotechnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Jastrzebiec, Poland 5: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Digital Health and Patient Safety, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, Division of Pediatric Nephrology and Gastroenterology, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Comprehensive Center for Pediatrics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria 6: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Digital Health and Patient Safety, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, Institute for Ethics and Law in Medicine, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Publication date: June 21, 2022

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  • Public Health Action (PHA), The Union's quarterly Open Access journal, welcomes the submission of articles on operational research. It publishes high-quality scientific research on health services, providing new knowledge on how to improve access, equity, quality and efficiency of health systems and services.

    The Editors will consider any manuscript reporting original research on quality improvements, cost-benefit analysis, legislation, training and capacity building, with a focus on all relevant areas of public health (e.g. infection control, nutrition, TB, HIV, vaccines, smoking, COVID-19, microbial resistance, outbreaks etc).

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