Coronavirus Mini-Series #5 – Extended lockdown; Helping adherence and Longer-term lessons (Prof. Susan Michie & Prof. Jim McMans)

This episode comes out just as the lockdown has been extended for a further 3 weeks. In this episode, we discuss what this further period of isolation and distancing means for the population. The potential for, and also ways to tackle, increases in loneliness, tension, and declining adherence, but why it is not appropriate to use the catch-all phrase of 'behavioural fatigue' which has often been used.

We also celebrated what the population has achieved - the work from frontline key workers and that around 98% of the population has been adhering to the measures from the government, despite media coverage.

With these measures, we discussed the behavioural elements behind them - mist-interpreting people's reasons for doing things like going to parks or buying non-essential items. Susan and Jim described how the government could tweak simple messaging or actions to do a better job of explaining why these are being put in place in order to help people follow the guidelines.

We finished by discussing the potential long term impacts of this period such as demonstrating who is essential in our society, and reassessing how we live on a 'just in time' principle.

In this episode Susan mentions 2 papers that discuss a scientific understanding of isolation and impacts of current measures, here is a list of those, and other current evidence being used to advise the government:

• a. Webster RK, Brooks SK, Smith LE, Woodland L, Wessely S, Rubin GJ. How to improve adherence with quarantine: Rapid review of the evidence. Public Health (under review)
• Brooks SK, Smith LE, Webster RK, Weston D, Woodland L, Hall I, Rubin GJ. The impact of unplanned school closure on children’s social contact: Rapid evidence review. Eurosurveillance (under review)
• Brooks SK, Webster RK, Smith LE, Woodland L, Wessely S, Greenberg N, Rubin GJ. The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: Rapid review of the evidence. Lancet 2020
• Rubin GJ, Wessely S. The psychological effects of quarantining a city. BMJ 2020; 368
• Michie S, Rubin GJ, Amlot R. Behavioural science must be at the heart of the public health response to covid-19, BMJ Opinion, February 28 2020
• Michie S, West R, Amlot R. Behavioural strategies for reducing covid-19 transmission in the general population. BMJ Opinion, March 3 2020
• Smith L, Yardley L, Michie S, Rubin GJ. Should we wave goodbye to the handshake? BMJ Opinion, submitted
• International surveys and polls on coronavirus, including public risk perception and consumer behaviour