When Trust Saves Lives

A Reflection by Public Health Leadership Coalition’s Member – Prof. Walter Ricciardi

In democratic systems, impactful measures during a pandemic are those citizens comply with: we must promote engagement, strengthen communication and public health leadership roles in building trust within societies and towards policy-makers.

An explanatory analysis published on The Lancet, “Pandemic Preparedness and COVID-19”, reports the role of modifiable risk factors on case fatality rates and shows an interesting association between higher levels of trust (governmental and interpersonal) and infection rates in pandemic scenarios.