RAPID: Collaborative Research: COVID-19 Preparedness in Remote Fishing Communities in Rural Alaska

这个时间敏感的RAPID项目重点关注阿拉斯加西部农村地区布里斯托湾地区对COVID-19风险的感知。每年春天，布里斯托湾渔业中心的迪灵厄姆镇都会经历大规模的移民，估计有13,000名工人来到这里参加红鲑鱼捕捞季节。当地的卫生保健资源和交通极为有限。利用现有的合作伙伴关系，项目调查人员将对当地居民、决策者、渔民和加工商进行调查，以描述风险认知，评估社交距离合规性，并评估各种流行病缓解计划的感知成本和收益。这些数据将为该地区可能出现的情况提供流行病学建模信息，并帮助利益相关者了解在渔船近距离工作的流动人口和鱼类加工厂拥挤条件下的COVID-19动态。该项目将有助于对COVID-19在全国范围内的感知和影响的新兴研究机构，更具体地说，有助于了解大流行对阿拉斯加关键行业的影响。标准人种学方法，包括定性关键线人访谈，两项在线调查，以及收集手机移动数据，将被用来描述风险感知和反应，并评估遵守社交距离准则的情况。调查将协同设计，并将利用作为正在进行的导航新北极项目（ICER 1927827）的一部分开发的现有网络。调查将在2020年捕鱼季开始时进行，并在2021年2月/3月再次进行。分析将按职业、社会经济地位、年龄和性别评估风险认知和反应。流行病学建模将用于预测疾病动态（即，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This time-sensitive RAPID project focuses on perception of COVID-19 risk in the Bristol Bay region of rural western Alaska. Every spring, the town of Dillingham, the hub of Bristol Bay fisheries, experiences massive in-migration, as an estimated 13,000 workers arrive for the sockeye salmon fishing season. Local health care resources and access to transportation are extremely limited. Leveraging existing partnerships, project investigators will conduct surveys with local residents, decision makers, fishermen and processors to characterize risk perception, evaluate social distancing compliance, and assess perceived costs and benefits of various pandemic mitigation plans. These data will inform epidemiological modeling of possible scenarios in the region and help stakeholders understand the dynamics of COVID-19 in a transient population working in the close quarters of fishing vessels and the crowded conditions of fish processing plants. This project will contribute to the emerging body of research on the perception and effects of COVID-19 across the country, and more specifically, to understanding pandemic impacts on a key Alaska industry.Standard ethnographic methods, including qualitative key informant interviews, two online surveys, and collection of cell phone mobility data, will be employed to characterize risk perception and response and evaluate compliance with social distancing guidelines. Surveys will be designed collaboratively, and will leverage existing networks developed as part of an ongoing Navigating the New Arctic project (ICER 1927827). Surveys will be conducted at the beginning of the 2020 fishing season and again in February/March 2021. Analysis will evaluate risk perception and response by occupation, socioeconomic status, age, and sex. Epidemiological modeling will be employed to predict disease dynamics (i.e., likelihood of infection and mortality) under different scenarios; these estimates will be used to project demand for limited health care resources in the region, such as ventilators.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.