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

这个时间敏感的RAPID项目侧重于阿拉斯加西部农村布里斯托尔湾地区对COVID-19风险的认知。每年春天，布里斯托尔湾（Bristol Bay）渔业中心迪林厄姆镇（Dillingham）都会迎来大规模的移民潮，估计有1.3万名工人来到这里参加红鲑鱼的捕捞季节。当地的保健资源和交通极为有限。利用现有的伙伴关系，项目调查人员将对当地居民、决策者、渔民和加工者进行调查，以确定风险认知特征，评估遵守社交距离的情况，并评估各种大流行病缓解计划的成本和效益。这些数据将为该地区可能出现的情况的流行病学建模提供信息，并帮助利益攸关方了解COVID-19在渔船近距离工作的流动人口和鱼类加工厂拥挤的条件下的动态。该项目将有助于在全国范围内对COVID-19的认知和影响进行新兴研究，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。将采用标准人种学方法，包括定性关键信息提供者访谈、两次在线调查和收集手机移动数据，来描述风险感知和应对特征，并评估对社交距离指南的遵守情况。调查将协同设计，并将利用作为正在进行的新北极导航项目（ICER 1927827）的一部分开发的现有网络。调查将在2020年捕鱼季节开始时进行，并在2021年2月/ 3月再次进行。分析将根据职业、社会经济地位、年龄和性别来评估风险感知和反应。将采用流行病学模型来预测不同情景下的疾病动态（即感染和死亡率的可能性）；这些估计数将用于预测该区域对呼吸机等有限保健资源的需求。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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.