Revista Latinoamericana de Difusión Científica
Volumen 3 – Número 5 - ISSN 2711-0494
Yisel Hernández B. et al. // Improving COVID-19 response: redirecting risk communication … 3-8
as the majority of the health workforce. Indeed, women are more than three-quarters of the
health professionals reported with the infection worldwide (PAHO, 2020). On the contrary,
men have a higher risk of severity due to the comorbidities associated to the intersecting
dynamic of sex, gender and age (Fonte et al., 2020). Comorbidities which are subject of
discrimination and stigmatization such as HIV/AIDS, in synergy with other marginalized
identities (e.g., drug users, sex workers, LGBTQ+ community), influence adopting certain
health behaviors, exposure to risk and access to quality health services. Similarly,
vulnerability of elderly could be reinforced by precarious economy, illiteracy, disabilities and
exclusion situations (e.g. racial/ethnic, immigrants).
Risk communication initiatives for COVID-19 tend to assume that being at risk
automatically implies perceiving the risk; which is not always the case. As a result, there
are key audiences that are not sufficiently targeted; such as health decision-makers,
managers and providers, among others. The high number of ill and dead health
professionals due to COVID-19 in some settings suggests insufficient medical
infrastructure and poorly trained staff. In such cases, communication efforts could fail at not
increasing health professional capacities and risk perception; and not advocating for
providing adequate personal protection equipment and for assuring timely working shifts for
the frontline health personnel.
Last but not least, civil servants and other social actors involved in COVID-19
response implement local policies and strategies in a differentiated manner according to
their knowledge, access to information, sensitivity to the topic and the characteristics of
their territories, among other factors. Territorial characteristics such as governance,
organization of services, population density, industrial development and communication
capacities and resources could also bias the way information/communication is
constructed, transmitted and spread.
To sum it up, communication efforts that do not recognize COVID-19 equity-related
issues, are prone to reinforce stereotypes and stigmatization patterns, reproduce
preexisting inequities and, consequently, limit or reduce drastically their potential
behavioral impact on people with an increased vulnerability to the disease. Therefore, we
encourage decision makers and health professionals from all the countries affected by the
pandemic to revisit and redirect their current communication strategies towards equity
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