3.3 COVID-19: Thematic areas of concern
[CHART]Among all thematic areas of concern over COVID-19,
“communication” is ranked top by the non-expert group (M= 4.53, SD=
0.918). Perception of the crisis and the associated behaviors and
measures was ranked top by the expert group (M= 4.74, SD= 0.445). Both
participant groups have valued the importance of “research and
innovation”. While this response is justifiable for the expert group,
it might be that the recent discovery of COVID-19 vaccines and their
importance in combating this crisis has increased public awareness of
the crucial role of science in global crises. Most surprisingly,
“economy” and “environmental health” were ranked as the lowest areas
of concern by both groups. A graphical representation of the different
nine topics as ranked by both respondent groups is shown in figure (5).
Fig. 5. Ranking the nine thematic areas of concern based on
their importance for COVID-19 (left) and climate change (right), The
total number of the second survey responses (experts and non-experts) is
152, who ranked and validated 49 lessons.