Author: Prasantha De Silva
Swiss Cheese Model for COVID-19
The Swiss Cheese Model for COVID 19 is an excellent mental tool to visualize COVID 19 prevention strategies at the system level, bird’s eye view. First, about the Swiss Cheese Model. As emphasized by James Reason, the model’s creator, it invites us to view human errors as a consequence, not…
Swiss Cheese Model and the Hot Cheese Model
The Swiss Cheese Model and the Hot Cheese Model revolutionize the way we traditionally think of human error. In short, both models force us to move away from “blaming someone” for human error; instead, it pushes us to look at human error as a consequence, not as a cause. In…
The legendary journey of the Ottawa Charter
Above are the logos of the global health promotion conferences held since its inception in 1986 to the latest in 2016: 30-years. The first logo earned its legendary term – Ottawa Charter – because that conference was held in Ottawa in November 1986. I first learned about the Ottawa Charter…
How social norms shape our behavior – I
You must have been into a library; you stay silent. That is a classic social norm example. Another common one is littering. As we all know social norms can either be socially desirable or socially undesirable. Every day we adhere to social norms that are an array of unwritten sets…
Do your part – stay apart; more relevant now
This message becomes more relevant now than before with the growing presence of the COVID 19 variants. The new variants are more transmissible; for example, the UK variant is said to be 56 percent more transmissible than the original COVID 19 virus. What does that mean? It means if the…
Message framing effect on vaccine hesitancy-II
In 2018 I explored the message framing effect on measles vaccine hesitancy among the US population. In that post, I highlighted the Hendrix et al. (2014) finding that more parents were modestly persuaded to vaccinate their children when the benefits to the child were emphasized when compared to the standard…
Face mask comparison
Germany mandated the wearing of surgical masks, commonly called N95 while traveling public transport and public places two days ago. Previously clinical studies have shown cloth masks’ efficacy varies from 30 percent to 80 percent. Last December, a German community-based comparative study found normal masks’ efficacy as 45 percent. The…
Is Covid 19 different from the influenza flu?
Even after a year, some are grappling with the same old question: Is Covid 19 different from the seasonal flu? How do we communicate the risk convincingly to this target audience? Obviously, we need to compare number of deaths due to Covid 19 with the number of deaths due to…
US COVID-19 pandemic: Cases vs deaths paradox
The US CDC data reveals an interesting age-specific case versus deaths paradox. Look at the following graph. I created the graph using data available at the US CDC website. Of all the COVID-19 cases, 85.6 percent occurred among those aged equal and below 64 years. In contrast, of all the…
A face mask is not a substitute for physical distancing
A face mask over your mouth AND nose is not a substitute for physical distancing; stay at least 6 feet apart from those who don’t live with you. Messageframing.com #WearAMask over youth mouth AND nose in addition to staying at least 6 feet apart from people who don’t live with…
