COVID-19: Need for a Social Vaccine

GOVERNANCE/ ECONOMY/ ETHICS

Topic: General Studies 3:

• Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation. 
• Behavioural Economics

COVID-19: Need for a Social Vaccine

What is a social vaccine? 

• A social vaccine is a metaphor for a series of social and behavioural measures that governments can use to raise public consciousness about unhealthy situations through social mobilisation
• A social vaccine addresses barriers and facilitators of behaviour change, whether attitudinal, social, cultural, or economic.
• Social Vaccine supplements information, education, and communication (IEC) with targeted social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) strategies.

Advantages of Social Vaccine achieved through Social Mobilization

• Empowers populations to resist unhealthy practices 
• Increase resilience 
• Foster advocacy for change
• Drive political will to take action in the interests of society 
• Hold governments accountable

Lessons from HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus) Pandemic

• HIV that causes AIDS is believed to have made the zoonotic jump from monkeys through chimpanzees to humans in Africa as early as the 1920s
• However, the HIV/AIDS epidemic was detected in 1981 & was a pandemic by 1985.
• Extent of Pandemic: From 1981 to 2018, around 74.9 million people worldwide were HIV-infected, and around 32.0 million died from AIDS-related illnesses.
• Social vaccine helped “flatten the curve” till effective treatments were discovered that dramatically reduced mortality, viral loads and infection transmission.

How Social Vaccine was used in HIV/AIDS pandemic?

• There were widespread information campaigns stating that infection occurred predominantly through sexual transmission and intravenous drug use.
• IEC and SBCC activities targeted (and partnered) individuals, community networks, leaders, social & health systems to change attitudes and behaviours.
• The core preventive messages involved 
  • Being faithful to one sexual partner 
  • 100% condom use during sexual intercourse outside stable relationships
  • Resisting peer-pressure for risky behaviours like intravenous drug use
• Religious and community leaders were key change agents
  • For example, the Catholic Church in Uganda did not initially support promoting condoms since its use prevents life. 
  • However, later they acknowledged that their religion did not preclude the use of condoms to prevent deaths – which was an important turning point

How Social Vaccine can be adapted for current pandemic?

• Effective IEC and SBCC strategies should contain the persuasive messages of
  • Maintaining physical distancing in social situations 
  • Wearing cloth masks in public by 100% of people (and 100% of the time) 
  • Regular disinfection of oneself and one’s surroundings.
• Leading by Example: People are more likely to practise these behaviours if all leaders promote them publicly and consistently
• Proper information, support, and materials should be made available and accessible. 
• Re-purposing and funding relevant industries and small and medium businesses to produce materials such as PPE, hand sanitisers and medical equipment

Challenges Ahead

• The components of the social vaccine should be in place before relaxing or lifting the lockdown.
• A social vaccine also requires people to hold leaders accountable to

• • Invest in rapidly scaling-up testing
  • Meet the basic and economic needs of vulnerable sections
  • Providing psychological support where needed 
  • Not communalising or politicising the pandemic
  • Not compromising the privacy and dignity of infected individuals and their families in the interest of public health

Connecting the dots:

• Persuasive VS Coercive methods – which is better suited for India? And why?
• Nudge Economics – Example: Give It Up Campaign, Swachh Bharat Mission