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.