I trust my immunity more than your vaccines: “Appeal to nature” bias strongly predicts questionable health behaviors in the pandemic

Health care policies often rely on public cooperation, especially during a health crisis. However, a crisis is also a period of uncertainty and proliferation of health related advice: while some people adhere to the official recommendations, others tend to avoid them and resort to non-evidence based, pseudoscientific practices. People prone to the latter are often the ones endorsing a set of epistemically suspect beliefs, with two being particularly relevant: conspiratorial pandemic-related beliefs, and the appeal to nature bias (i.e. trusting natural immunity to fight the pandemic). These in turn are rooted in trust in different epistemic authorities, seen as mutually exclusive: trust in science and trust in the “wisdom of the common man”. Drawing from two nationally representative probability samples, we tested a model in which trust in science/wisdom of the common man predicted COVID-19 vaccination status (Study 1, N = 1001) or vaccination status alongside use of pseudoscientific health practices (Study 2, N = 1010), through COVID-19 conspiratorial beliefs and the appeal to nature bias. As expected, epistemically suspect beliefs were interrelated, related to vaccination status, and to both types of trust. Moreover, trust in science had both a direct and indirect effect on vaccination status through both types of epistemically suspect beliefs. Trust in the wisdom of the common man had only an indirect effect on vaccination status. Contrary to the way they are typically portrayed, the two types of trust were unrelated. These results were largely replicated in the second study, in which we added pseudoscientific practices as an outcome; trust in science and the wisdom of the common man contributed to their prediction only indirectly, through epistemically suspect beliefs. We offer recommendations on how to make use of different types of epistemic authorities and how to tackle unfounded beliefs in communication during a health crisis.

Patients’ and Families’ Experiences Regarding Disclosure of Patient Safety Incidents

In South Korea, disclosure of patients’ safety incidents is not common in health care settings. Thus, this study identified patients’ and families’ experiences regarding disclosure of patient safety incidents. Data were collected through in-depth individual interviews from May 25, 2020, to June 23, 2020, and analyzed using Colaizzi’s phenomenological method. The participants consisted of 15 patients and their families who had experienced patient safety incidents in hospitals. It is essential to form a base of mutual understanding to enable disclosure and promote follow-up management systems that can ethically and responsibly handle patient safety incidents. Concrete protocols and policies need to be developed to protect patients and their families from physical/psychological injury and the stress experienced due to patient safety incidents. The patients and their families desired changes to improve protocols for proper disclosure, help health care professionals adopt an ethical and mature attitude, and develop professional health care policies regarding patients’ safety incidents.

Discourse of Folk Literature on Healthy Ageing: A Case Study in Sindh, Pakistan during the Pandemic Crisis

Due to COVID-19 and the repeated imposition of lockdowns in Pakistan’s Sindh province, the life of senior citizens has become challenging. Given the scarcity of health care policies targeted at Sindh’s aged persons, the use of folk literature as therapy has increased to support against isolation, depression, and distress caused by COVID-19 and lockdowns. Although research on healthy ageing from medical and health care perspectives has been increasingly conducted in different contexts, there is a need to explore how folk literature can contribute to psychological, spiritual, and social wellbeing. Therefore, this research, conducted by collecting data from 15 aged participants through interviews and conversations, seeks to explore how senior Sindhis have used folk literature such as poetry, proverbs, and tales as therapy for their healing. Findings show that the participants’ use of Sindhi folk literature contributes to their psychological (eudemonic, evaluative, and hedonic) wellbeing, spiritual healing, and social satisfaction.

Vers une Amélioration de la Prestation de Services de Santé pour les Franco-Ontariens

Despite Canada’s linguistic duality status, the francophone community continues to be neglected by the country's authorities. More specifically, the limited scope and access to health services offered to francophones in Ontario pose a serious threat to this population. Facilities providing health services continue to ignore existing health care policies. This situation imposes several actions at the federal, legislative and community levels necessary to ensure the bilingual guarantee promised to the Canadian population. Among these, we must increase the Francophone presence in decision-making groups to ensure the design and establishment of health programs and services focused on the unique and distinct needs of Franco-Ontarians. Moreover, federal financial commitment to Francophone community organizations is essential in order to provide more health services in French, especially in northern and rural communities in the province. Finally, government funding for future research on the health of Francophones is necessary since this will serve as a solid basis for determining how to better serve this population. To achieve this, we would have to consider lobbying, encouraging institutions that provide health services to obtain their bilingual designation, and updating the French Language Services Act. However, by continuing inaction, Franco-Ontarians risk becoming assimilated into the rest of the population, wasting away and seeing their health deteriorating. This article seeks in particular to point out the need to improve the delivery of health services in French in Ontario.

Stigma, Structural Vulnerability, and “What Matters Most” Among Women Living With HIV in Botswana, 2017

Objectives. To explore whether beneficial health care policies, when implemented in the context of gender inequality, yield unintended structural consequences that stigmatize and ostracize women with HIV from “what matters most” in local culture. Methods. We conducted 46 in-depth interviews and 5 focus groups (38 individuals) with men and women living with and without HIV in Gaborone, Botswana, in 2017. Results. Cultural imperatives to bear children bring pregnant women into contact with free antenatal services including routine HIV testing, where their HIV status is discovered before their male partners’. National HIV policies have therefore unintentionally reinforced disadvantage among women with HIV, whereby men delay or avoid testing by using their partner’s status as a proxy for their own, thus facilitating blame toward women diagnosed with HIV. Gossip then defines these women as “promiscuous” and as violating the essence of womanhood. We identified cultural and structural ways to resist stigma for these women. Conclusions. Necessary HIV testing during antenatal care has inadvertently perpetuated a structural vulnerability that propagates stigma toward women. Individual- and structural-level interventions can address stigma unintentionally reinforced by health care policies. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print June 10, 2021: e1–e9. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306274 )

From "Reel" to "Real" - Embodied Responses to Rape

Women’s perspectives of their embodied experiences of and responses to rape are explored in this research. In sexual violence literature, there is minimal focus on individuals’ experiences and responses to rape and when included, what is emphasized is medical, legal, and social systems responses. Post-colonial intersectional feminist theory frames this research, highlighting impacts of social locations and systematic processes on the embodied multi-layered experiences of women who have been raped. Narrative methodology including creative data collection facilitated opportunities for participants to express their experiences. My analysis, grounded in participants’ stories and my own experience of rape, incorporated visual representations and poetry reflecting on sexual politics and discourse. Creative dissemination of women’s narratives provides greater understanding of women’s embodied and contextual experiences of rape. Bringing to light the diversity and resilience of women who have experienced rape, can contribute to influencing health care policies and practices while advancing critical social justice.

From "Reel" to "Real" - Embodied Responses to Rape

Women’s perspectives of their embodied experiences of and responses to rape are explored in this research. In sexual violence literature, there is minimal focus on individuals’ experiences and responses to rape and when included, what is emphasized is medical, legal, and social systems responses. Post-colonial intersectional feminist theory frames this research, highlighting impacts of social locations and systematic processes on the embodied multi-layered experiences of women who have been raped. Narrative methodology including creative data collection facilitated opportunities for participants to express their experiences. My analysis, grounded in participants’ stories and my own experience of rape, incorporated visual representations and poetry reflecting on sexual politics and discourse. Creative dissemination of women’s narratives provides greater understanding of women’s embodied and contextual experiences of rape. Bringing to light the diversity and resilience of women who have experienced rape, can contribute to influencing health care policies and practices while advancing critical social justice.

The Underutilization Of International Medical Graduates In Ontario and Canada: A Selective Review Of The Existing Literature On The Experiences Of International Medical Graduates In The Context Of Canadian Health Care Policies

This paper will examine the phenomenon of the underutilization of IMGs in Canada and Ontario. Using the existing literature selectively as it relates to the key research questions, it will be argued that health policy initiatives have contributed in diverse ways to the underutilization of IMGs in the health care system, with significant negative impact upon the life experiences of the IMGs and their families. As will be seen, we need to consider how these health policies have been influenced by other factors – such as systemic discrimination, an issue whose importance is suggested in some of the scholarly literature on this topic – that have contributed to this problem as well as to its resistance to policy remediation.