This book tackles the infodemic—the rapid, widespread diffusion of false, misleading, or inaccurate information about the disease and its ramifications—triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. With a focus on four Asian societies, the book compares and analyzes the spread of COVID-19 misinformation and its broad impacts on the public in Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Singapore. Providing both a comprehensive overview of the phenomenon of misinformation and cross-societal analyses of patterns, the book features in-depth analyses of the prevalence of COVID-19 misinformation and engagement and explores its consequences in an Asian context. The book sheds lights on these key questions: What types of infodemic messages circulate widely on popular social media platforms? What factors account for exposure to and engagement with debunked yet popular COVID-19 misinformation? How does exposure to widely circulated COVID-19 misinformation affect people’s beliefs, attitudes, and adoption of preventive measures to cope with the pandemic? How do macro social differences condition the diffusion and impacts of COVID-19 misinformation? What intervention strategies can counter the misinformation? Presenting scientific insights and empirical findings on the pressing issues about infodemic, this book will be of great interest to students and researchers of communication studies, political science, public health, crisis communication, and Asian Studies, as well as policymakers and practitioners who wish to acquire cutting-edge, evidence-based knowledge about combating misinformation during a global pandemic.

"This book tackles the infodemic - the rapid, widespread diffusion of false, misleading or inaccurate information about the disease and its ramifications - triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. With a focus on four Asian societies, the book compares and analyzes the spread of COVID-19 misinformation and its broad impacts on the public in Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Singapore. Providing both a comprehensive overview of the phenomenon of misinformation and a cross-societal analyses of patterns, the book features in-depth analyses of the prevalence of COVID-19 misinformation and engagement and explores its consequences in an Asian context. The book sheds lights on these key questions: What types of infodemic messages circulate widely on popular social media platforms? What factors account for exposure to and engagement with debunked yet popular COVID-19 misinformation? How does exposure to widely circulated COVID-19 misinformation affect people's beliefs, attitudes, and adoption of preventive measures to cope with the pandemic? How do macro social differences condition the diffusion and impacts of COVID-19 misinformation? What intervention strategies can counter the misinformation? Presenting scientific insights and empirical findings on the pressing issues about infodemic, this book will be of great interest to students and researchers of communication studies, political science, public health, crisis communication, and Asian Studies, as well as policymakers and practitioners who wish to acquire cutting-edge, evidence-based knowledge about combating misinformation during a global pandemic"--

On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic and life as we knew it paused indefinitely. Confusion, doubts and uncertainty became daily companions as the world watched the pandemic consume country after country.At the University of British Columbia, Canada, a class of aspiring epidemiologists partnered with the professionals working at the frontline of COVID-19 healthcare and research, to examine key questions which would capture a snapshot of the historical pandemic.What caused this outbreak? How does a virus spread? What are the best potential treatments; how did we achieve the development of vaccines, and how do they work? What are the strategies to tackle a two-front war against the virus and the spread of dangerous misinformation and pseudoscience? These questions and more are examined throughout this volume.

"This resource book discusses the economic arguments that could (and could not) be put forth to support the case for investing in the social determinants of health on average and in the reduction in socially determined health inequalities. It provides an overview and introduction into how economists would approach the assessment of the economic motivation to invest in the social determinants of health and socially determined health inequities, including what the major challenges are in this assessment. It illustrates the extent to which an economic argument can be made in favour of investment in 3 major social determinants of health areas: education, social protection, and urban development and infrastructure. It describes whether education policy, social protection, and urban development, housing and transport policy can act as health policy"--

"During public health emergencies, people need to know what health risks they face, and what actions they can take to protect their health and lives. Accurate information provided early, often, and in languages and channels that people understand, trust and use, enables individuals to make choices and take actions to protect themselves, their families and communities from threatening health hazards." -- Publisher's description.

This book is a valuable historical record of how counselling psychologists responded to the COVID-19 pandemic around the globe. Volume II presents 17 chapters that address four major topic areas. In the first, the chapters focus on training and supervision: during the pandemic, most on-site training and supervision had to be discontinued to prevent spread of the virus. However, many trainers and training programs found creative ways to continue to provide training opportunities to their trainees. The second focus is on the populations who may require specialty care during times of such upheaval, such as those with psychosis and serious mental illness. In the third part, the chapters speak to the pandemic across cultures, as well as its effects on clients from underrepresented groups. Finally, three chapters present research perspectives on the pandemic. Written by prominent researchers and clinicians in the field of counselling and psychotherapy, both the volumes together cover a wide range of perspectives and offer useful clinical recommendations related to effective telepsychotherapy practice. The chapters in these volumes were originally published as a special issue of Counselling Psychology Quarterly.