Psychological Aspects In Time Of Pandemic

Chapter 1: Introduction to COVID-19

One may speak of a personal or a social crisis. A personal crisis takes place when an internal or external circumstance occurs which changes the manner in which an individual perceives their own present, future and even past, making them question either their own role in life, or all their thoughts and beliefs up to that particular moment. Such is the case when a family member, particularly a close one, dies, or an accident occurs, with associated health or autonomy implications. One may also face a crisis due to emotional issues, such as the breakdown of a relationship, or the divorce of one’s parents as a teenager. From a psychological perspective, such crises are viewed as being caused by the effect of many different circumstances upon an individual. But then there are the social crises, as in the cases of humanitarian crises, where millions of people abandon all they have and flee towards an uncertain future. Likewise, economic crises, where thousands of people lose their jobs overnight and with them their incomes, putting both their own survival and those of their loved ones at risk (@NTN24ve, 2018) (See Illustration 1).

Included in this type of crisis are those related to health, in which a disease may put at risk the life of an individual who, a few days earlier was perfectly healthy. Pandemics and health emergencies may be included in this category, as in the case of COVID-19, a disease that has mobilized thousands of doctors and health personnel who struggle daily, even risking their own lives, in mitigating

the effects of the virus,

Illustration 1. Tweet – Humanitarian Crisis

[Venezuela enters the list of countries with humanitarian crises, headed by Africa]

Whilst the media often affords the most visibility to numbers of cases and deaths, such information being provided from different governments and the webpage of the WHO (World Health Organisation), the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at John Hopkins University, USA (John Hopkins, CSSE, 2020) reports, numerically and visually, the numbers of cases, deaths and recoveries, both for each individual country and worldwide.

Illustration 2. Infections as at 7

March 2020

Thus, on 7

March 2020, which is when this book begins, the number of cases worldwide is 102.470, distributed amongst 101 countries. China has 80,651 cases, followed by South Korea with 7,041 and Iran with 4,747. Spain is in tenth position with 401 cases (See Illustration 2).

The portal also reports that the number of deaths to date is 3,491 people, with 57,462 having recovered from the disease.

Updating the previous data on 19

March 2020, the number affected worldwide is 218,827 people, distributed amongst 160 countries, with the number of worldwide deaths 8,811. (See Illustration 3)

Illustration 3. Infections as at 19

March 2020

Looking at Google (Google Trend, 2020) regarding the search trends for COVID-19, a term designated by the WHO on 11

February 2020 to refer to the new coronavirus that emerged in a province of China, and whose first case of the disease was reported on 31

December 2019 (WHO, 2020), it can be seen how numbers of searches for this term have been progressively increasing worldwide, doubling between 11

and 12

February, 23

and 24

February and 1

and 2

March, a reduction only observed between 28

February to March 1

(See Illustration 4).

Illustration 4. Evolution of the search term

Regarding interest shown by specific countries, it can be seen that the country that has generated most searches within the last month has been Singapore, followed by Iceland, China and Hong Kong. Out of the total 65 countries in Google’s results, USA is in 20th position and Spain is 48

. Turkey is in final position (See Illustration 5).

As can be seen, there is no direct correspondence between the countries with the greatest number of cases and the concern generated amongst their populations reflected in the searches. This may be due to other factors, such as the generation of alarmism in certain populations for instance, or usage of means other than Google to obtain pertinent information. For example, in some Asian

countries the most commonly used search engine is Baidu.

Illustration 5. Searches by country

It should also be noted that COVID-19 was previously referred to as the new coronavirus 2019 (n-CoV) and also known as “China virus” or “Wuhan virus” – Wuhan being the name of the Chinese province where the virus originated, so some users will continue to search with these old terms. In addition, the term ‘coronavirus’, which is the name of the family of this particular virus, or simply ‘virus’ may be used. For this reason, if data is only collected for the term ‘COVID-19’ the overview would be incomplete. This could explain the difference demonstrated between countries in terms of number of deaths and order of interest shown from Google searches.

Therefore, if the previous search is carried out, but including the terms COVID, Virus and Coronavirus as search terms, it can be seen that concern for this issue began on 20

January 2020, and that the term COVID or COVID-19, which is its official name, is hardly used at all in information searches on the subject, with the search of the term Virus being considerably higher and the term

Coronavirus higher still (See Illustration 6).

Illustration 6. Terms on Google related to COVID

In the previous graph one can see there was initial interest shown in both terms Virus and Coronavirus between 20

and 31

January followed by a progressive loss of interest up until 20

February when interest in the term Coronavirus increases exponentially.

Focussing on this last term, the country that has searched it the most on Google is Italy, followed by Singapore and Switzerland. Out of the 64 countries for which data is available Spain is in fifth place and USA is nineteenth

(See Illustration 7).

This data does correspond to the growing number of infections, except in the case of Ireland where one could speak of an instance of social alarmism over actual data of the time.

Illustration 7. Search of the term Coronavirus by country

The name of COVID-19

One of the problems facing social psychologists is in achieving customer brand loyalty, a brand being that which is used in the identification of a certain person, product or company. Normally when thinking of a company like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s or IKEA, it is with reference to the products they sell. With other brands such as UPS, Iberia or Microsoft, it is with regards the services they offer. This is something which exerts a decisive influence on the purchase of any product or service, which is no longer based just on one’s own judgement, but on the influence of the opinion of others and the media via advertising.

If one thinks of Stephen Hawking, Barack Obama or Rafael Nadal in the same way, it is no longer in terms of products or services, but in respect of their personal branding or brand they have developed through their scientific, political and sporting careers respectively. In other words, emotional aspects become associated with a brand which may be linked to a person, a company and even a place.

The same happens when it comes to the naming of disasters, as in the case of the tropical cyclones which annually afflict a large part of the Caribbean and North America. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO, 2020) these names follow pre-established rotating lists, and for many they leave behind the memories of the effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 or Ike in 2008.