Assessment and Communication of COVID-19 Barrier Effectiveness

目前的提案描述了达尔豪西大学、纪念大学和新斯科舍省卫生局之间的独特伙伴关系，该伙伴关系利用了研究小组在危险分析和风险评估和管理方面的重要专业知识。一般来说，人们不能评估没有被彻底识别和分析的危险的风险。只有这样，才能设计一种有效的减少风险的办法，以防止接触到已确定的危险的可能性，并减轻因无意接触而产生的后果的严重性。由于并不是所有的预防和缓解技术对特定情况都同样有效，因此适当考虑实施的优先顺序是可取的。一旦确定和选择了危险以及健康和安全措施，与各种高危群体进行明确和明确的沟通对于实现将风险实际降低到被认为可以容忍的水平至关重要。 就目前的大流行而言，冠状病毒是全球关注的危险。感染新冠肺炎的风险正在推动全球范围内采取前所未有的措施，以防止与病毒接触，并防范感染的潜在严重后果。在此背景下，我们建议使用两种互补的图形技术(蝴蝶结分析和贝叶斯网络分析)以及系统建模方法。研究目标是确定病毒威胁和感染的可能性，评估现有的预防和缓解措施(或障碍)，并探索基于分层框架的额外措施是否对特定群体(如医护人员等)有所帮助。其他研究目标包括高效和直截了当地传达项目结果，并为在各种情况下选择最有效的安全措施(屏障)作出基于风险的决定提供指导。因此，拟议的项目在帮助新冠肺炎研究的技术科学和社会传播方面都具有巨大的潜力。

The current proposal describes a unique partnership among Dalhousie University, Memorial University, and the Nova Scotia Health Authority, which utilizes the research team's significant expertise in hazard analysis and risk assessment and management. Generally speaking, one cannot assess the risk from hazards that have not been thoroughly identified and analyzed. Only then can an effective risk reduction approach be designed to prevent the likelihood of contact with an identified hazard, as well as to mitigate the severity of the consequences arising from unintentional contact. Because not all prevention and mitigation techniques will be of equal effectiveness for a given situation, due consideration to a preferred order of implementation is advisable. Once hazards and health and safety measures have been identified and selected, clear and explicit communication with various at-risk groups is critical in achieving actual reduction of risk to a level deemed tolerable. With respect to the current pandemic, the coronavirus is the hazard of global concern. The risk of contracting COVID-19 is driving unprecedented measures worldwide to prevent contact with the virus and to protect against the potentially severe consequences of infection. Against this background, we are proposing the use of two complementary graphical techniques (bowtie analysis and Bayesian network analysis) as well as a systems modeling approach. Research objectives are to identify virus threats and likelihood of infection, evaluate the prevention and mitigation measures (or barriers) currently in place, and explore whether additional measures based on a hierarchical framework might be helpful for specific groups such as healthcare workers (among others). Additional research goals consist of efficient and straightforward communication of the project findings, and provision of guidance for making risk-based decisions on the selection of the most effective safety measures (barriers) for various scenarios. The proposed project therefore has significant potential to aid both the technical science and the social communication aspects of COVID-19 research.