RAPID: Compounding Crises: Facing Hurricane Season in the Era of COVID-19

这项快速反应研究(RAPID)赠款提供资金，用于评估参与者的危机暴露、他们的威胁感知、他们的自我和反应效能、他们的情绪反应以及他们对与新冠肺炎和飓风有关的健康保护行为的参与。随着2020年飓风季节的开始，居住在大西洋和墨西哥湾沿岸的数以百万计的美国人将面临可能的双重危机--新冠肺炎和飓风风险敞口--以及相互竞争的缓解策略。专家预计，在2020年飓风季节(6月1日至11月30日)，大西洋将有4个飓风发展为主要飓风(3级、4级或5级)。与此同时，大西洋和墨西哥湾沿岸各州的许多人发现，新冠肺炎确诊病例出现了惊人的增长。在面临飓风风险的社区，危机的汇合可能会造成一种难以为继的悲惨局面，可能会突然要求数以百万计的人从即将到来的大飓风中逃到避难所，可能会危及自己和他人的新冠肺炎。飓风进一步加剧了风险，因为冠状病毒通过呼吸道飞沫传播的可能性很高，可能会创造超级传播的环境，并加剧人们对前往避难所的恐惧。反复暴露在这样的危机中可能会加重个人的情绪状态，随着时间的推移导致运作和决策方面的困难。重要的理论和实践问题是：“在新冠肺炎大流行期间，人们如何对飓风的威胁做出主动决定？”研究团队对德克萨斯州和佛罗里达州的居民(n=1,683)进行了一项前瞻性、纵向的流行病学研究，团队掌握了他们暴露在飓风中、行为和对之前飓风的反应的数据。参与者是益普索知识小组的成员，并完成两次调查：一次是在2020年飓风季节开始和新冠肺炎大流行第一波高峰时期，另一次是在威胁要登陆的3级、4级或5级飓风威胁之后。研究人员评估了参与者的危机暴露、他们的威胁感知、他们的自我和反应效能感、他们的情绪反应以及他们对与新冠肺炎和飓风有关的健康保护行为的投入。此外，该小组使用公开可用的数据集创建地理编码变量，将参与者位置与新冠肺炎灾害风险敞口(例如每万人每日死亡人数)和飓风物理参数(例如洪水淹没、风速、气温)的客观指标联系起来。该项目使用前冠状病毒感染、预期收集的数据、暴露的客观标记物和纵向设计，在新冠肺炎大流行的背景下检查个人对反复暴露在飓风中的反应。这些发现对政策制定者、服务提供商、教育工作者和媒体成员传达信息和设计干预措施很有用。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant provides funding to assess participants’ crisis exposure, their threat perceptions, their self- and response-efficacy, their emotional responses and their engagement in health protective behaviors as relevant to COVID-19 and to hurricanes. As the 2020 hurricane season commences, millions of Americans residing in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts will face the likely possibility of dual crises – COVID-19 and hurricane exposure – with competing mitigation strategies. Experts project that there will be four hurricanes that will develop into major hurricanes (Categories 3, 4, or 5) in the Atlantic during the 2020 hurricane season (June 1st – November 30th). Concurrently, many in the Atlantic and Gulf Coast states are seeing alarming increases in confirmed case of COVID-19. The confluence of crises in communities at risk for hurricane exposure may create an untenable and tragic situation where millions of people may be suddenly asked to flee from an approaching major hurricane to shelters, potentially imperiling themselves and others to COVID-19. Hurricane-force winds further compound the risk given the high potential for Coronavirus to spread via respiratory droplets, potentially creating super-spreading environments and fueling fears about going to shelters. Repeated exposure to such crises can tax individuals’ emotional states, leading to difficulties in functioning and decision making over time. The important theoretical and practical question is: “How do people make proactive decisions regarding the threat of a hurricane in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic?”The research team conducts a prospective, longitudinal, epidemiological study of residents (n=1,683) from Texas and Florida, for whom the team has data on their exposure, behavior, and response to previous hurricanes. Participants are members of Ipsos’s KnowledgePanel, and complete two surveys: one at the beginning of the 2020 hurricane season and at the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and the second after the threat of a major land-falling Category 3, 4, or 5 hurricane. The researchers assess participants’ crisis exposure, their threat perceptions, their self- and response-efficacy, their emotional responses and their engagement in health protective behaviors as relevant to COVID-19 and to hurricanes. Moreover, the team uses publicly available datasets to create geocoded variables that link participant location to objective indicators of disaster exposure to both COVID-19 (e.g., deaths per 10,000, daily cases) and the physical parameters of hurricanes (e.g., inundation flooding, wind speed, air temperature). This project examines individual’s response to repeated exposure to hurricanes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, using pre-COVID, prospectively collected data, objective markers of exposure, and a longitudinal design. The findings are useful to policymakers, service providers, educators, and members of the media to communicate messages and design interventions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.