COVID-19 is a public health crisis that continues to overwhelm public health resources. Globally, the management of COVID-19 is undermined by vaccine hesitancy, vaccine effectiveness and limited understanding of the course of the disease and in particular, long COVID. To date, it has been clear that there are important social determinants influencing all of these factors. The SIA suggests that social groups and their related social identities are fundamental to health. In using the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this innovative project will explore how and why social groups matter for people’s health and behavior in response to public health crises. First, we will examine in a cross-national study of 30 countries the role of group membership (i.e., nation, family, friends, work groupings and religion) and social identity resources, impact COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Second, we will determine whether group memberships (i.e., family, friends, work groupings, neighbourhood, religion), and social identity resources affect people’s antibody response to the COVID-19 vaccination. Third, we will examine whether everyday group memberships, such as family and friend networks and their associated social identity resources impact neuropsychological and physiological indices in people reporting long-term COVID symptoms. These three studies will demonstrate how an integration of social-psychological processes, behaviour and physiology are important for our understanding of public health crises. Overall, the fellowship will provide novel insight into health promotion in response to public health crises during the COVID-19 context, capitalising on the real-world data collected, making it a unique public health research opportunity. This research will be invaluable in safeguarding public health, informing evidence-based policies to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and similar infectious disease outbreaks in the future. By identifying social solutions to protect people’s health in response to public health crises such as COVID-19, this project will reap global benefits.
