www.germdefence.org/index.html?src=L83092
Sent from our local surgery
Al
Good Covid Advice Here
Good Covid Advice Here
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
Re: Good Covid Advice Here
Al: this is generally considered to be a joke (it has been doing the rounds) but no-one is really quite sure as it appears to be legitimate. I take it you are posting it here for our amusement 
and it isn't to be taken seriously. I was going to alert someone at one of the universities that have purportedly produced it but there isn't a contact* given (AFAICS) - not surprisingly?
So I too had a laugh but the frightening thing is that there are actually people out there who believe this stuff, not, thank goodness though, at the universities it is supposed to have come from.
* I've found this buried in the "accessibility statement": germdefence@soton.ac.uk. So I might give it a go but I fear it will take me to the Student Union Rag Week organisers!
PS I'm finding more contact details - this is getting serious!
PPS I've found this list: https://www.germdefence.org/about4.html. I fear the worst!
and it isn't to be taken seriously. I was going to alert someone at one of the universities that have purportedly produced it but there isn't a contact* given (AFAICS) - not surprisingly?So I too had a laugh but the frightening thing is that there are actually people out there who believe this stuff, not, thank goodness though, at the universities it is supposed to have come from.
* I've found this buried in the "accessibility statement": germdefence@soton.ac.uk. So I might give it a go but I fear it will take me to the Student Union Rag Week organisers!
PS I'm finding more contact details - this is getting serious!
PPS I've found this list: https://www.germdefence.org/about4.html. I fear the worst!
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
Re: Good Covid Advice Here
I wasn't sure and have written to one of the mentioned universities to ask.
Jonathan
Jonathan
Re: Good Covid Advice Here
No need to worry. It is part of a serious research project funded by Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health Research.
It is part of £152m that UK Government has put into nearly 400 university research projects on Covid. This particular project cost just £249056 out of that £152m. Details of the programme here https://www.ukri.org/find-covid-19-rese ... d-by-ukri/
It follows on from previous work that has been written up in The Lancet. It's behind a paywall, but there's a summary here https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanc ... 40-6736(15)60127-1/fulltext
Getting more people to (keep) washing their hands is seen as an important part of the response to the pandemic, and although the way it is done may look like "a joke" if you are expecting all Covid-related research to involve people in white coats with pipettes and bottles of vaccine in laboratories, the behavioural approach they use has been shown to work.
==============================================================================================================
There are more details about the work that has been funded here, taken from the UKRI website:
Rapid co-design, implementation and evaluation of a digital behaviour change intervention to improve hand hygiene and limit spread of the COVID-19 outbreak
Professor Lucy Yardley
University of Southampton
"This COVID-19 Rapid Response award is jointly funded (50:50) between the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research. The figure displayed is the total award amount of the two funders combined, with each partner contributing equally towards the project.
This project will evaluate how an existing digital public health intervention can be very rapidly adapted and optimised for the changing needs of an infection outbreak, using novel participatory-co-design methods, and building on partnerships with PHE and leading Chinese researchers. We will translate and immediately widely disseminate in both UK and China our NICE-endorsed ‘Germ-Defence’ digital infection control intervention for the general public. We will then engage with stakeholder (n=15) and PPI (n=20-30) online panels in each country to co-design, update and optimise the intervention as required for re-release in later and second phases of the outbreak. At every stage of dissemination we will document reach and impact using unobtrusive measures of usage and handwashing intentions and behaviour. We will triangulate these data with findings from online interviews with a purposive user sample (n=20-30) in each country to understand contextual effects on engagement. We will also carry out a rapid online trial in China (n = 1318) comparing the effects of the initial and adapted versions of the intervention on infection control beliefs, attitudes and behaviour, to evaluate the value of the adaptation process. This work is intended to contribute directly to the management of the outbreak by preventing infection transmission and slowing the spread of infection, so that the healthcare system will have more capacity to cope with demand. This work will also contribute to a better understanding of how to rapidly optimise public health interventions for future emergencies, and the factors influencing behaviour relevant to infection transmission."
£249056
06/04/2020 05/10/2021
It is part of £152m that UK Government has put into nearly 400 university research projects on Covid. This particular project cost just £249056 out of that £152m. Details of the programme here https://www.ukri.org/find-covid-19-rese ... d-by-ukri/
It follows on from previous work that has been written up in The Lancet. It's behind a paywall, but there's a summary here https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanc ... 40-6736(15)60127-1/fulltext
Getting more people to (keep) washing their hands is seen as an important part of the response to the pandemic, and although the way it is done may look like "a joke" if you are expecting all Covid-related research to involve people in white coats with pipettes and bottles of vaccine in laboratories, the behavioural approach they use has been shown to work.
==============================================================================================================
There are more details about the work that has been funded here, taken from the UKRI website:
Rapid co-design, implementation and evaluation of a digital behaviour change intervention to improve hand hygiene and limit spread of the COVID-19 outbreak
Professor Lucy Yardley
University of Southampton
"This COVID-19 Rapid Response award is jointly funded (50:50) between the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research. The figure displayed is the total award amount of the two funders combined, with each partner contributing equally towards the project.
This project will evaluate how an existing digital public health intervention can be very rapidly adapted and optimised for the changing needs of an infection outbreak, using novel participatory-co-design methods, and building on partnerships with PHE and leading Chinese researchers. We will translate and immediately widely disseminate in both UK and China our NICE-endorsed ‘Germ-Defence’ digital infection control intervention for the general public. We will then engage with stakeholder (n=15) and PPI (n=20-30) online panels in each country to co-design, update and optimise the intervention as required for re-release in later and second phases of the outbreak. At every stage of dissemination we will document reach and impact using unobtrusive measures of usage and handwashing intentions and behaviour. We will triangulate these data with findings from online interviews with a purposive user sample (n=20-30) in each country to understand contextual effects on engagement. We will also carry out a rapid online trial in China (n = 1318) comparing the effects of the initial and adapted versions of the intervention on infection control beliefs, attitudes and behaviour, to evaluate the value of the adaptation process. This work is intended to contribute directly to the management of the outbreak by preventing infection transmission and slowing the spread of infection, so that the healthcare system will have more capacity to cope with demand. This work will also contribute to a better understanding of how to rapidly optimise public health interventions for future emergencies, and the factors influencing behaviour relevant to infection transmission."
£249056
06/04/2020 05/10/2021
Re: Good Covid Advice Here
backnotes wrote:No need to worry.
I beg to differ. These people have serious OCD - I dread to think what life must be like in their homes. The money would have been better spent IMV on a course of group therapy.
Here's a start (it's American, but there are plenty of others):
https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/ ... ts-for-ocd
The first step is for you to describe all of your obsessions and compulsions. Then you and the therapist will arrange them in a list, ordering them from things that don’t bother you much to things that are the most frightening. Next, the therapist will ask you to face your fear of something on your list, starting with the easiest. Let’s say you have an obsessive fear of germs in public places, and that fear is pretty low in how much it scares you. Your therapist will design a task for you that exposes you to that fear. Your task might for you to touch a public doorknob. Here’s where the response-prevention part comes in. If your usual response is to wash your hands immediately after touching the doorknob, the therapist would ask you to wait before you wash your hands. As you repeat this exposure task, the therapist will ask you to wait longer and longer before washing your hands. Over time, this gradual exposure and delayed response would help you learn to control your fear of germs in public places without washing your hands.
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
Re: Good Covid Advice Here
Yes, we seem to be agreeing.
There's a level of hand washing that is appropriate, and then there are behavioural approaches that can help to increase or decrease the level when this is too low or too high. The approach you describe will help reduce the level when this is what's needed. Because people are different, different people may need a different intervention to nudge them in the right direction.
There's a level of hand washing that is appropriate, and then there are behavioural approaches that can help to increase or decrease the level when this is too low or too high. The approach you describe will help reduce the level when this is what's needed. Because people are different, different people may need a different intervention to nudge them in the right direction.
Re: Good Covid Advice Here
Hi
It's the web's equivalent of telephoning a large company, "Press 1 if you know the extension, press 2 for accounts..."
"You're now through to accounts. Press 1 for client accounts, press 2 for..."
"You're now through to client accounts. Press 1 for new client accounts, press 2 for...
I'll accept your judgement that it's good advice because I won't be sitting around long enough to find out
Regards
tim-b
It's the web's equivalent of telephoning a large company, "Press 1 if you know the extension, press 2 for accounts..."
"You're now through to accounts. Press 1 for client accounts, press 2 for..."
"You're now through to client accounts. Press 1 for new client accounts, press 2 for...
I'll accept your judgement that it's good advice because I won't be sitting around long enough to find out
Regards
tim-b
~~~~¯\(ツ)/¯~~~~
-
Cyril Haearn
- Posts: 15215
- Joined: 30 Nov 2013, 11:26am
Re: Good Covid Advice Here
It is too long, many people shall not bother to read it all, it seems to insist on ones answering the questions to be allowed to read further
Statistical result might be that '5.853% of people like answering surveys'
Statistical result might be that '5.853% of people like answering surveys'
Entertainer, juvenile, curmudgeon, PoB, 30120
Cycling-of course, but it is far better on a Gillott
We love safety cameras, we hate bullies
Cycling-of course, but it is far better on a Gillott
We love safety cameras, we hate bullies
Re: Good Covid Advice Here
I'll assume that it's genuine.
One may well be missing the point.
As described above the purpose of this is to change behaviour. It isn't simply a survey. That effect might well improve with more time being spent on it, and on answering the questions rather than merely reading it, and on the order in which the questions are asked and answered.
Jonathan
Cyril Haearn wrote:It is too long, many people shall not bother to read it all, it seems to insist on ones answering the questions to be allowed to read further
One may well be missing the point.
As described above the purpose of this is to change behaviour. It isn't simply a survey. That effect might well improve with more time being spent on it, and on answering the questions rather than merely reading it, and on the order in which the questions are asked and answered.
Jonathan
Re: Good Covid Advice Here
Cyril Haearn wrote:It is too long, many people shall not bother to read it all, it seems to insist on ones answering the questions to be allowed to read further
Statistical result might be that '5.853% of people like answering surveys' :?
I didn't get past the 1st page. Everything rang of high risk of a scam. Links passed by internet forum, no info on 1st page (except a few university logos available to scammers everywhere), encouragement to "press here" to find anything, etc.. The e-mails I get from Nigeria asking for help transferring $1m look safer.
Ian
Re: Good Covid Advice Here
Psamathe wrote:Everything rang of high risk of a scam.
That was my first thought. But it is back-referred from the named institutions, and see backnotes' post above.
I haven't had a reply yet from the university that I asked.
Jonathan
Re: Good Covid Advice Here
Jdsk wrote:Psamathe wrote:Everything rang of high risk of a scam.
That was my first thought. But it is back-referred from the named institutions, and see backnotes' post above.
I haven't had a reply yet from the university that I asked.
Jonathan
How many people (they are aiming at) will bother to check back-references?
Ian