What attributes influence rural household's willingness to get vaccinated for COVID-19? Perspectives from six Chinese townships.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccinations have been identified as the most effective mitigation strategy against the deadly virus. This has led developed nations to accelerate research and shorten the licensure process for COVID-19 vaccines, but these changes have caused widespread concerns about vaccine safety. Research literature has long indicated that citizens' perceptions of protective actions will determine their behaviors, and thus, the relationship between vaccine perception and vaccination intention needs to be assessed. To better understand vaccination willingness, especially in rural populations, this study surveyed 492 households from six townships in the Ya'an region of China's Sichuan Province in November 2020. The survey followed the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) framework for collecting perceptions about the influenza and COVID-19 vaccines as protective actions, information sources, emergency preparedness, emotional response, and demographic characteristics. The results showed that influenza vaccine perceptions significantly affected people's COVID-19 vaccination perceptions and intentions. Unlike previous vaccination willingness and other COVID-19 studies, this study found that perceptions of resource-related attributes and health-related attributes both affected COVID-19 vaccination intentions, but the former were slightly stronger than the latter. Moreover, these effects were strongest among respondents who had the most positive perceptions of their influenza vaccine experience. This study's findings will benefit local authorities in designing appropriate policies and measures (e.g., hazard education, risk communication, vaccination convenience enhancement) for increasing vaccination compliance for the current and future pandemics.

Perceptions and Expected Immediate Reactions to Severe Storm Displays.

The National Weather Service has adopted warning polygons that more specifically indicate the risk area than its previous county-wide warnings. However, these polygons are not defined in terms of numerical strike probabilities (ps ). To better understand people's interpretations of warning polygons, 167 participants were shown 23 hypothetical scenarios in one of three information conditions-polygon-only (Condition A), polygon + tornadic storm cell (Condition B), and polygon + tornadic storm cell + flanking nontornadic storm cells (Condition C). Participants judged each polygon's ps and reported the likelihood of taking nine different response actions. The polygon-only condition replicated the results of previous studies; ps was highest at the polygon's centroid and declined in all directions from there. The two conditions displaying storm cells differed from the polygon-only condition only in having ps just as high at the polygon's edge nearest the storm cell as at its centroid. Overall, ps values were positively correlated with expectations of continuing normal activities, seeking information from social sources, seeking shelter, and evacuating by car. These results indicate that participants make more appropriate ps judgments when polygons are presented in their natural context of radar displays than when they are presented in isolation. However, the fact that ps judgments had moderately positive correlations with both sheltering (a generally appropriate response) and evacuation (a generally inappropriate response) suggests that experiment participants experience the same ambivalence about these two protective actions as people threatened by actual tornadoes.

Behavioral Response in the Immediate Aftermath of Shaking: Earthquakes in Christchurch and Wellington, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan.

This study examines people's response actions in the first 30 min after shaking stopped following earthquakes in Christchurch and Wellington, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan. Data collected from 257 respondents in Christchurch, 332 respondents in Hitachi, and 204 respondents in Wellington revealed notable similarities in some response actions immediately after the shaking stopped. In all four events, people were most likely to contact family members and seek additional information about the situation. However, there were notable differences among events in the frequency of resuming previous activities. Actions taken in the first 30 min were weakly related to: demographic variables, earthquake experience, contextual variables, and actions taken during the shaking, but were significantly related to perceived shaking intensity, risk perception and affective responses to the shaking, and damage/infrastructure disruption. These results have important implications for future research and practice because they identify promising avenues for emergency managers to communicate seismic risks and appropriate responses to risk area populations.

Immediate behavioural responses to earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan.

This study examines people's immediate responses to earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan. Data collected from 257 respondents in Christchurch and 332 respondents in Hitachi revealed notable similarities between the two cities in people's emotional reactions, risk perceptions, and immediate protective actions during the events. Respondents' physical, household, and social contexts were quite similar, but Hitachi residents reported somewhat higher levels of emotional reaction and risk perception than did Christchurch residents. Contrary to the recommendations of emergency officials, the most frequent response of residents in both cities was to freeze. Christchurch residents were more likely than Hitachi residents to drop to the ground and take cover, whereas Hitachi residents were more likely than Christchurch residents to evacuate immediately the building in which they were situated. There were relatively small correlations between immediate behavioural responses and demographic characteristics, earthquake experience, and physical, social, or household context.

Exposure Path Perceptions and Protective Actions in Biological Water Contamination Emergencies.

This study extends the Protective Action Decision Model, developed to address disaster warning responses in the context of natural hazards, to "boil water" advisories. The study examined 110 Boston residents' and 203 Texas students' expectations of getting sick through different exposure paths for contact with contaminated water. In addition, the study assessed respondents' actual implementation (for residents) or behavioral expectations (for students) of three different protective actions - bottled water, boiled water, and personally chlorinated water - as well as their demographic characteristics and previous experience with water contamination. The results indicate that people distinguish among the exposure paths, but the differences are small (one-third to one-half of the response scale). Nonetheless, the perceived risk from the exposure paths helps to explain why people are expected to consume (or actually consumed) bottled water rather than boiled or personally chlorinated water. Overall, these results indicate that local authorities should take care to communicate the relative risks of different exposure paths and should expect that people will respond to a boil water order primarily by consuming bottled water. Thus, they should make special efforts to increase supplies of bottled water in their communities during water contamination emergencies.