Tag Archives: coronavirus outbreak

Long interview with Kathryn Ryan on Radio New Zealand about Steady

With the threat of Covid hanging over the New Zealand summer, clinical psychologist Dr Sarb Johal’s new book looks at how to keep mentally well during a crisis. His new book is Steady: Keeping Calm in a World Gone Viral and it covers how stress and anxiety created by the pandemic’s uncertainty can be overcome. He joins Kathryn […]

You’re Overconfident About Your Ability to Remember: Use the Covid-19 Tracer App

You’ll remember exactly where you’ve been and who you’ve been in contact with over the last two weeks, won’t you?  “Of course I will!”, I hear you reply.  If the actual rate of use of the NZ Covid-19 app is anything to go by, lots of people think they’ll remember. The abysmal tanking in its […]

Behaviour: Still the best (and only) tool we have to manage COVID19

When thinking about another outbreak of COVID-19 in New Zealand spread through community transmission of the coronavirus, it’s more a question of when rather than if. And at this point, we would do well to remember that aside from better technologies to detect the virus, the only tools we have are all based on behaviour.

The Psychological Impacts of Quarantine – What They Are and How to Help

The spread and impact of the novel coronavirus has seen the implementation of various forms of managed isolation and / or quarantine arrangements (MIQ) around the world. This blogpost is all about the different psychological impacts that being in quarantine can have on people, what the causes might be, and what we can do to help minimise those impacts.

How to support health and welfare workers during a potential coronavirus outbreak

With the plane carrying people home from Wuhan scheduled to arrive in New Zealand later today, and the people then being screened and transported to a designated quarantine facility for 14 days. I wanted to talk about what we should be doing to protect and care for those health and welfare workers who will be working in environments where they potentially may be exposed to the novel coronavirus.

Psychological dimensions and implications of the novel coronavirus outbreak 2019-nCoV

There is a lot to think about when considering the impacts on individuals and communities affected both directly and indirectly and for those concerned about the spread. I want to look at some cognitive biases that might alter how we perceive the risk of the coronavirus, and how susceptible we might be to it, and how we might over-react, under-react, and how we can change or calibrate our reactions. But, let’s start with some background…