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“Like a wake-up call for humankind”: Views, challenges, and coping strategies related to public health measures during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Thailand

Following the first Thai COVID-19 case in January 2020, the Thai government introduced several non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in March 2020 (e.g., contact tracing, travel restrictions, closure of businesses, curfews, stay at home orders) to control COVID-19 transmissions. This study aimed t...

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Autores principales: Naemiratch, Bhensri, Schneiders, Mira Leonie, Poomchaichote, Tassawan, Ruangkajorn, Supanat, Osterrieder, Anne, Pan-ngum, Wirichada, Cheah, Phaik Yeong
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10021331/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36962432
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000723
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author Naemiratch, Bhensri
Schneiders, Mira Leonie
Poomchaichote, Tassawan
Ruangkajorn, Supanat
Osterrieder, Anne
Pan-ngum, Wirichada
Cheah, Phaik Yeong
author_facet Naemiratch, Bhensri
Schneiders, Mira Leonie
Poomchaichote, Tassawan
Ruangkajorn, Supanat
Osterrieder, Anne
Pan-ngum, Wirichada
Cheah, Phaik Yeong
author_sort Naemiratch, Bhensri
collection PubMed
description Following the first Thai COVID-19 case in January 2020, the Thai government introduced several non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in March 2020 (e.g., contact tracing, travel restrictions, closure of businesses, curfews, stay at home orders) to control COVID-19 transmissions. This study aimed to understand the views and experiences of a small number of Thai residents related to public health measures implemented during the first COVID-19 wave in Thailand. A total of 28 remote in-depth interviews with Thai residents (18–74 years old) were conducted between 8 May and 21 July 2020. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analysed using thematic analysis based on the Framework Method. Our results describe participants’ views, challenges, and coping strategies relating to COVID-19 restrictions. Most participants expressed support for the introduction of strict public health measures, while some criticized lacking enforcement or rational of certain measures. Participants identified four major challenges, namely financial hardship; social isolation and loneliness; stigma and shaming; and fear of COVID-19 infection. Strategies adopted to address these challenges included practical coping strategies (e.g., reducing risks and fear of COVID-19 infection; mitigating financial, social, and mental health impacts), and embedded socio-cultural ways of coping (e.g., turning to religion; practicing acceptance; kindness, generosity and sharing (‘Namjai’); ‘making merit’ (‘Tham-bun’)). The challenges identified from this study, in particular the role of stigma and discrimination, may be relevant to other infectious disease outbreaks beyond COVID-19. Findings from this study underscore the need for policies and interventions that mitigate the negative impacts of NPIs on the public, particularly on vulnerable groups, and highlight the importance of considering socio-cultural context to support community resilience in times of crisis. Our findings remain relevant in light of low COVID-19 vaccine availability and the potential need to implement further public health restrictions in Thailand and elsewhere against COVID-19 or future infectious disease threats.
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spelling pubmed-100213312023-03-17 “Like a wake-up call for humankind”: Views, challenges, and coping strategies related to public health measures during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Thailand Naemiratch, Bhensri Schneiders, Mira Leonie Poomchaichote, Tassawan Ruangkajorn, Supanat Osterrieder, Anne Pan-ngum, Wirichada Cheah, Phaik Yeong PLOS Glob Public Health Research Article Following the first Thai COVID-19 case in January 2020, the Thai government introduced several non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in March 2020 (e.g., contact tracing, travel restrictions, closure of businesses, curfews, stay at home orders) to control COVID-19 transmissions. This study aimed to understand the views and experiences of a small number of Thai residents related to public health measures implemented during the first COVID-19 wave in Thailand. A total of 28 remote in-depth interviews with Thai residents (18–74 years old) were conducted between 8 May and 21 July 2020. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analysed using thematic analysis based on the Framework Method. Our results describe participants’ views, challenges, and coping strategies relating to COVID-19 restrictions. Most participants expressed support for the introduction of strict public health measures, while some criticized lacking enforcement or rational of certain measures. Participants identified four major challenges, namely financial hardship; social isolation and loneliness; stigma and shaming; and fear of COVID-19 infection. Strategies adopted to address these challenges included practical coping strategies (e.g., reducing risks and fear of COVID-19 infection; mitigating financial, social, and mental health impacts), and embedded socio-cultural ways of coping (e.g., turning to religion; practicing acceptance; kindness, generosity and sharing (‘Namjai’); ‘making merit’ (‘Tham-bun’)). The challenges identified from this study, in particular the role of stigma and discrimination, may be relevant to other infectious disease outbreaks beyond COVID-19. Findings from this study underscore the need for policies and interventions that mitigate the negative impacts of NPIs on the public, particularly on vulnerable groups, and highlight the importance of considering socio-cultural context to support community resilience in times of crisis. Our findings remain relevant in light of low COVID-19 vaccine availability and the potential need to implement further public health restrictions in Thailand and elsewhere against COVID-19 or future infectious disease threats. Public Library of Science 2022-07-08 /pmc/articles/PMC10021331/ /pubmed/36962432 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000723 Text en © 2022 Naemiratch et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Naemiratch, Bhensri
Schneiders, Mira Leonie
Poomchaichote, Tassawan
Ruangkajorn, Supanat
Osterrieder, Anne
Pan-ngum, Wirichada
Cheah, Phaik Yeong
“Like a wake-up call for humankind”: Views, challenges, and coping strategies related to public health measures during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Thailand
title “Like a wake-up call for humankind”: Views, challenges, and coping strategies related to public health measures during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Thailand
title_full “Like a wake-up call for humankind”: Views, challenges, and coping strategies related to public health measures during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Thailand
title_fullStr “Like a wake-up call for humankind”: Views, challenges, and coping strategies related to public health measures during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Thailand
title_full_unstemmed “Like a wake-up call for humankind”: Views, challenges, and coping strategies related to public health measures during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Thailand
title_short “Like a wake-up call for humankind”: Views, challenges, and coping strategies related to public health measures during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Thailand
title_sort “like a wake-up call for humankind”: views, challenges, and coping strategies related to public health measures during the first covid-19 lockdown in thailand
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10021331/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36962432
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000723
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