University College Utrecht, Campusplein 1, 3584 ED, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
, Lusaka, Zambia.
Glob Health Res Policy. 2021 Sep 30;6(1):38. doi: 10.1186/s41256-021-00220-4.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked heated debate among scholars on the relevance of lockdowns. There are those in favor of the lockdown and others who are critical of it. However, despite the increased interest in understanding the relevance of lockdowns, there still has not been much focus on its relevance in countries like Zambia. Thus, with the help of the Social Representation Theory (SRT), we set out to explore and document the local characterization of the lockdown by residents of Lusaka, Zambia.
We recruited our participants through convenient and purposive sampling techniques. This was done through the use of the ZAMTEL public phone records. Initial contact was made to potential participants, and they were asked of their availability and willingness to participate in the interview. Upon agreeing to participate, they were included in the sample. A total of 68 people were selected to take part in this study. Their age ranged from 20 to 76 years old. 33 of them were male and 35 females. After this, we conducted interviews with the 68 participants. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, our interviews were conducted via telephone in conformity with the recommendations from the IRB in Lusaka and the advice of the ministry of health. We anonymized the demographic characteristics and responses from our participants. Later, thematic analysis was used to analyze the data.
The lockdown was on one hand lauded for slowing down the incidence rates, preventing fatalities, and protecting the healthcare system from collapse. On the other hand, it was criticized for exacerbating poverty levels, unemployment rates, increasing the rate of mental health problems, aiding gender-based violence, and intensifying political repression and corruption. The results speak to the complexity in the characterization of the lockdown as a response to COVID-19 in Lusaka, Zambia. This observation demonstrates the folly of viewing, applying and characterizing the COVID-19 lockdown as a 'one-size-fits-all' approach in Lusaka, Zambia.
Rather than establishing the lockdown as an incontestable good, as it is depicted by some scholars or as useless by its critics, our findings instead demonstrate the diversity and complexity in how it is locally viewed by Lusaka residents. The study provides grounds for caution on simplistic and binary characterization of lockdowns. It indicates the need for careful dialog between the designers of lockdowns and citizens in order to tailor such interventions to local realities in context-specific ways. It also shows that though the development of such interventions, all the various and complex elements it embodies must be taken into account in order to realize optimum outcomes.
COVID-19 大流行的爆发引发了学者们对封锁措施相关性的激烈争论。有人支持封锁，也有人对此持批评态度。然而，尽管人们越来越关注封锁措施的相关性，但对于赞比亚这样的国家，其相关性仍未得到太多关注。因此，我们借助社会表征理论（SRT），旨在探索和记录赞比亚卢萨卡居民对封锁措施的地方特征描述。
我们通过方便抽样和目的抽样技术招募参与者。这是通过使用 ZAMTEL 公共电话记录来完成的。我们首先与潜在参与者取得联系，并询问他们是否有空并愿意接受采访。在同意参与后，他们就被纳入样本。共有 68 人参加了这项研究。他们的年龄在 20 岁至 76 岁之间，其中 33 名男性，35 名女性。之后，我们对这 68 名参与者进行了访谈。由于 COVID-19 的限制，我们的采访是按照卢萨卡 IRB 的建议和卫生部的建议通过电话进行的。我们对参与者的人口统计学特征和回答进行了匿名处理。之后，我们使用主题分析法对数据进行了分析。
一方面，封锁措施因减缓发病率、防止死亡人数增加和保护医疗体系免受崩溃而受到称赞。另一方面，它因加剧贫困水平、失业率、增加心理健康问题发生率、助长性别暴力以及加剧政治镇压和腐败而受到批评。研究结果表明，在赞比亚卢萨卡，封锁措施作为对 COVID-19 的反应，其特征描述非常复杂。这一观察结果表明，将 COVID-19 封锁措施视为一种“一刀切”的方法是愚蠢的，不适合卢萨卡。
我们的研究结果表明，与其将封锁措施视为一些学者所描述的不可争议的好处，或者像其批评者那样认为它毫无用处，不如说它反映了卢萨卡居民对其的地方看法的多样性和复杂性。该研究为避免对封锁措施进行简单和二元特征描述提供了依据。它表明，在封锁措施的设计者与公民之间需要进行谨慎的对话，以便以针对特定情况的方式将这些干预措施调整为适合当地的实际情况。这也表明，尽管制定了此类干预措施，但必须考虑到其包含的各种复杂因素，以实现最佳结果。
