COVID-19 Pandemic: Why it's important that ScoMo chose to skip the game

Dr Breanne Kunstler (BBiomedSci, BHealthSci, MPhysio, PhD). 
Research Fellow, BehaviourWorks Australia. 

 COVID-19 ("Coronavirus") has officially been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

What is a pandemic?

Our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison (ScoMo), has been very busy trying to manage public concern and panic around the pandemic, while advising us on what we should do to minimise the spread of the virus (Image 1). 
Image 1: What you can do to control the spread of COVID-19 (credit: Centres for Disease Control and Prevention)

Mr Morrison is often seen flanked by the Chief Medical Officer, Prof. Brendan Murphy, in press conferences where they advise us on what the current situation is, what the government is doing to control the spread and protect the safety of the nation, and what Australians need to do to keep ourselves and each other safe and healthy. 

But is ScoMo following his own advice? I read an interesting paper today about effective communication during pandemics. Basically, the paper discussed how our leaders and people we look up to should communicate with us to get important information across and have us behave the way they want us to (e.g. monitor ourselves for symptoms [Image 2], practice good hand hygiene and avoid mass gatherings). 
Image 2: Symptoms of COVID-19 (credit: Australian Department of Health)

The paper spoke about trust. Australians need to be able to trust their leaders, like the Prime Minister and Chief Medical Officer, during times of uncertainty. We want to be able to look to our leaders for advice on what we need to do to stay safe. Trusting this advice is paramount to managing this crisis and we can only do this if we trust the people providing the advice.

How do we ensure these leaders are trusted? They need to appear competent by sharing accurate and evidence-based information in a confident and consistent way. But what's also very important is that they follow their own advice.

 The main point I took from the paper? Practice what you preach if you're trying to change behaviour.

 Why should we, as Australians, follow the Prime Minister's advice and avoid large mass gatherings if he isn't planning to? ScoMo was looking forward to watching his beloved Cronulla Sharks play in the NRL opener over the weekend after he encouraged the rest of us to avoid mass gatherings from Monday (Did he choose Monday so he could enjoy his weekend without looking hypocritical? Some think so). Well he changed his mind. ScoMo decided to skip the game to avoid being misinterpreted. Good choice.

 Aussies are freaking out over COVID-19 and we need our leaders to show us how to behave. So, sorry ScoMo, but that means you need to miss seeing your team play too. 

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