Optimizing pandemic preparedness through ongoing assessment of public attitudes, intentions and behaviours in relation to COVID-19 prevention measures and their impacts: Increasing the capacity of the iCARE Study

Despite the fact that Canadians, and people around the world are 'done' with COVID-19, the World Health Organization, the US Center for Disease Control and Health Canada are all projecting that new variants of concern are highly likely to develop, and some may be more contagious and/or more severe than previous variants. It is therefore highly probable that behavioural prevention policies, including additional vaccine doses, mask wearing, and distancing, may need to be re-introduced. In fact, many governments (including Canada) are already preparing for how to manage the next wave of the pandemic. This application is seeking to expand our capacity to supply the Canadian government and other partners with data and information to support ongoing pandemic response and preparedness. We are seeking additional funding to hire an additional data analyst and post-doctoral student to help us exploit the data we are collecting through our ongoing CIHR-funded iCARE study. iCARE's objective is to monitor population attitudes, intentions and behaviours in relation to engaging in COVID-19 prevention behaviours as measures become increasingly relaxed/lifted, and in relation to the potential re-introduction of preventive measures if/when this may become necessary. We are also assessing what factors are motivating people to re-engage in these behaviours, in general and among vulnerable groups (e.g., racial & ethnic minorities, women, those with mental/ physical health conditions). The existing infrastructure of the iCARE study will be leveraged so that we may continue to provide timely data to local and international governments to inform policy. We will collect data in Canada and a sample of key countries (i.e., Italy, Ireland, France, Australia, and Colombia) chosen based on their relative position to Canada on the pandemic curve, their diverse policy approaches and impacts, and their geographical and population diversity.