covid 19 essay introduction tagalog

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Ang mga Coronaviruses ay isang tipo ng mga viruses na nagdudulot ng lagnat, at sa ilang kaso, nagiging sanhi ng malalang sakit sa baga o paghinga/respiratoryo (SARS).

Madalas maging sintomas ng mga viral infections na ganito ang pagkakaroon ng mataas na init sa katawan, pagkakasakit ng katawan, sore throat, malalang pagsipon at pagubo. Sa halos lahat ng kaso, tumatagal ito ng ilang araw bago nawawala.   Nakikipagtulungan na ang Ministerio ng Kalusugan sa World Health Organization (WHO) upang matuksan ang patolohiya ng virus na ito.

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• Qu’est-ce que le coronavirus (MERS-CoV) ?
• Pourquoi ce virus est-il dangereux ?
• Comment est-on infecté par le virus ?
• Le virus est-il aéroporté ?
• Le virus est-il saisonnier ?
• Comment puis-je me protéger de l’infection ?
• Le coronavirus MERS est-il identique au virus responsable du SARS ?
• S’agit-il d’une épidémie ?
• Comment le ministère de la Santé travaille-t-il avec d’autres gouvernements, organismes et experts de la communauté scientifique et médicale ?
• Comment les nouveaux cas sont-ils diagnostiqués ?
• Existe-t-il un vaccin ?
• Existe-t-il un traitement ? Comment les patients sont-ils traités aujourd’hui ?
• Pourquoi la majorité des cas d’infection par le virus sont-ils présents au Royaume d’Arabie saoudite ?
• Combien de personnes sont-elles porteuses du virus ?
• Est-il nécessaire de mettre en place un dépistage chez toutes les personnes qui présentent des symptômes de rhume ou de grippe ?
• L’Organisation mondiale de la Santé a-t-elle recommandé l’application de restrictions aux déplacements ou au commerce dans certains pays ?
• Des laboratoires sont-ils installés et optimisés au Royaume d’Arabie saoudite ?
• L’appareil de dialyse dans la région d’Al-Ahsa était-il une source d’infection ?
• Comment le ministère de la Santé assure-t-il la transparence concernant la divulgation des informations ?
• Des écoles vont-elles fermer ? De quoi les parents doivent-il être informés ?
• Apa itu virus corona (MERS-CoV)?
• Mengapa virus ini berbahaya?
• Seberapa parahnya penyebaran virus ini di Kerajaan Arab Saudi?
• Bagaimana virus ini ditularkan?
• Apakah virus ini dapat ditularkan melalui udara?
• Apakah virus ini bersifat musiman?
• Bagaimana caranya supaya saya tidak tertular?
• Apa gejala-gejala tertular virus corona?
• Apakah MERS-CoV sama dengan SARS?
• Apakah MERS-CoV ini telah menjadi epidemi?
• Bagaimana perwujudan kerja sama antara Kementerian Kesehatan dengan pemerintah negara lain, organisasi serta para pakar di bidang sains dan medis?
• Bagaimana diagnosis terhadap kasus-kasus baru virus ini?
• Bagaimana prosedur penanganan pasien yang diduga terjangkit MERS-CoV?
• Seberapa luas penyebaran virus ini secara global?
• Adakah vaksin untuk MERS-CoV ini?
• Adakah obat untuk penderita MERS-CoV? Bagaimana perawatan terhadap penderita saat ini?
• Mengapa sebagian besar kasus MERS-CoV terjadi di Kerajaan Arab Saudi?
• Berapa banyak orang yang menjadi pembawa virus ini?
• Perlukah melakukan pemeriksaan lanjutan terhadap setiap orang yang menunjukkan gejala-gejala selesma (pilek) atau flu?
• Apakah WHO telah merekomendasikan pembatasan kunjungan atau interaksi perdagangan ke negara tertentu di dunia?
• Virüs Suudi Arabistan Krallığı’nda ne yaygınlıkta görülüyor?
• Virüs hangi yollardan bulaşıyor?
• Virüs hava yoluyla bulaşıyor mu?
• Bu mevsimsel bir virüs mü?
• Kendimi virüsten nasıl koruyabilirim?
• Enfeksiyon semptomları nelerdir?
• Corona Virüs MERS, SARS ile aynı şey mi?
• Dünya Sağlık Örgütü dünyanın herhangi bölgesine seyahat veya ticaret kısıtlaması tavsiye etti mi?
• Bilimsel araştırma camiası Corona virüs konusunda neler yapıyor?
• Suudi Arabistan Krallığı’nda laboratuvarlar kuruluyor veya mevcut laboratuvarlar güncelleniyor mu?
• Enfeksiyonun kaynağı Al-Ahsa Bölgesi’ndeki diyaliz cihazı mıydı?
• Sağlık Bakanlığı bilgilerin açıklanması konusunda ne kadar şeffaf davranıyor?
• Sağlık Bakanlığı bir okul veya hastane ya da başka bir yerde meydana gelebilecek ani bir salgın durumunda ne yapacak?
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Filipinos face the mental toll of the Covid-19 pandemic — a photo essay

BY ORANGE OMENGAN

Depression, anxiety, and other mental health-related illnesses are on the rise among millennials as they face the pressure to be functional amidst pandemic fatigue. Omengan's photo essay shows three of the many stories of mental health battles, of struggling to stay afloat despite the inaccessibility of proper mental health services, which worsened due to the series of lockdowns in the Philippines.

"I was just starting with my new job, but the pandemic triggered much anxiety causing me to abandon my apartment in Pasig and move back to our family home in Mabalacat, Pampanga." 

This was Mano Dela Cruz's quick response to the initial round of lockdowns that swept the nation in March 2020. 

Anxiety crept up on Mano, who was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder Type II with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder traits. The 30-year-old writer is just one of many Filipinos experiencing the mental health fallout of the pandemic. 

Covid-19 infections in the Philippines have reached 1,149,925 cases as of May 17. The pandemic is unfolding simultaneously with the growing number of Filipinos suffering from mental health issues. At least 3.6 million Filipinos suffer from mental, neurological, and substance use disorders, according to Frances Prescila Cuevas, head of the National Mental Health Program under the Department of Health.

As the situation overwhelmed him, Mano had to let go of his full-time job. “At the start of the year, I thought I had my life all together, but this pandemic caused great mental stress on me, disrupting my routine and cutting my source of income,” he said. 

Mano has also found it difficult to stay on track with his medications. “I don’t have insurance, and I do not save much due to my medical expenses and psychiatric consultations. On a monthly average, my meds cost about P2,800. With my PWD (person with disability) card, I get to avail myself of the 20% discount, but it's still expensive. On top of this, I pay for psychiatric consultations costing P1,500 per session. During the pandemic, the rate increased to P2,500 per session lasting only 30 minutes due to health and safety protocols.”

The pandemic has resulted in substantial job losses as some businesses shut down, while the rest of the workforce adjusted to the new norm of working from home. 

Ryan Baldonado, 30, works as an assistant human resource manager in a business process outsourcing company. The pressure from work, coupled with stress and anxiety amid the community quarantine, took a toll on his mental health. 

Before the pandemic, Ryan said he usually slept for 30 hours straight, often felt under the weather, and at times subjected himself to self-harm. "Although the symptoms of depression have been manifesting in me through the years, due to financial concerns, I haven't been clinically diagnosed. I've been trying my best to be functional since I'm the eldest, and a lot is expected from me," he said.

As extended lockdowns put further strain on his mental health, Ryan mustered the courage to try his company's online employee counseling service. "The free online therapy with a psychologist lasted for six months, and it helped me address those issues interfering with my productivity at work," he said.

He was often told by family or friends: "Ano ka ba? Dapat mas alam mo na ‘yan. Psych graduate ka pa man din!" (As a psych graduate, you should know better!)

Ryan said such comments pressured him to act normally. But having a degree in psychology did not make one mentally bulletproof, and he was reminded of this every time he engaged in self-harming behavior and suicidal thoughts, he said.

"Having a degree in psychology doesn't save you from depression," he said. 

Depression and anxiety are on the rise among millennials as they face the pressure to perform and be functional amid pandemic fatigue. 

Karla Longjas, 27, is a freelance artist who was initially diagnosed with major depression in 2017. She could go a long time without eating, but not without smoking or drinking. At times, she would cut herself as a way to release suppressed emotions. Karla's mental health condition caused her to get hospitalized twice, and she was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder in 2019. 

"One of the essentials I had to secure during the onset of the lockdown was my medication, for fear of running out," Karla shared. 

With her family's support, Karla can afford mental health care. 

She has been spending an average of P10,000 a month on medication and professional fees for a psychologist and a psychiatrist. "The frequency of therapy depends on one's needs, and, at times, it involves two to three sessions a month," she added. 

Amid the restrictions of the pandemic, Karla said her mental health was getting out of hand. “I feel like things are getting even crazier, and I still resort to online therapy with my psychiatrist,” she said.

“I've been under medication for almost four years now with various psychologists and psychiatrists. I'm already tired of constantly searching and learning about my condition. Knowing that this mental health illness doesn't get cured but only gets manageable is wearing me out," she added.    In the face of renewed lockdowns, rising cases of anxiety, depression, and suicide, among others, are only bound to spark increased demand for mental health services.  

MANO DELA CRUZ

Writer Mano Dela Cruz, 30, is shown sharing stories of his manic episodes, describing the experience as being on ‘top of the world.’ Individuals diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder Type II suffer more often from episodes of depression than hypomania. Depressive periods, ‘the lows,’ translate to feelings of guilt, loss of pleasure, low energy, and thoughts of suicide. 

Mano says the mess in his room indicates his disposition, whether he's in a manic or depressive state. "I know that I'm not stable when I look at my room and it's too cluttered. There are days when I don't have the energy to clean up and even take a bath,” he says. 

Mano was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder Type II in 2016, when he was in his mid-20s. His condition comes with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder traits, requiring lifelong treatment with antipsychotics and mood stabilizers such as antidepressants.

Mano resorts to biking as a form of exercise and to release feel-good endorphins, which helps combat depression, according to his psychiatrist.

Mano waits for his psychiatric consultation at a hospital in Angeles, Pampanga.

Mano shares a laugh with his sister inside their home. “It took a while for my family to understand my mental health illness,” he says. It took the same time for him to accept his condition.

RYAN BALDONADO

Ryan Baldonado, 30, shares his mental health condition in an online interview. Ryan is in quarantine after experiencing symptoms of Covid-19.

KARLA LONGJAS

Karla Longjas, 27, does a headstand during meditative yoga inside her room, which is filled with bottles of alcohol. Apart from her medications, she practices yoga to have mental clarity, calmness, and stress relief. 

Karla shares that in some days, she has hallucinations and tries to sketch them. 

In April 2019, Karla was inflicting harm on herself, leading to her two-week hospitalization as advised by her psychiatrist. In the same year, she was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder.  The stigma around her mental illness made her feel so uncomfortable that she had to use a fake name to hide her identity. 

Karla buys her prescriptive medications in a drug store. Individuals clinically diagnosed with a psychosocial disability can avail themselves of the 20% discount for persons with disabilities.

Karla Longjas is photographed at her apartment in Makati. Individuals diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) exhibit symptoms such as self-harm, unstable relationships, intense anger, and impulsive or self-destructive behavior. BPD is a dissociative disorder that is not commonly diagnosed in the Philippines.

This story is one of the twelve photo essays produced under the Capturing Human Rights fellowship program, a seminar and mentoring project

organized by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and the Photojournalists' Center of the Philippines. 

Check the other photo essays here.

Larry Monserate Piojo – "Terminal: The constant agony of commuting amid the pandemic"

Orange Omengan – "Filipinos face the mental toll of the Covid-19 pandemic"

Lauren Alimondo – "In loving memory"

Gerimara Manuel – "Pinagtatagpi-tagpi: Mother, daughter struggle between making a living and modular learning"

Pau Villanueva – "Hinubog ng panata: The vanishing spiritual traditions of Aetas of Capas, Tarlac"

Bernice Beltran – "Women's 'invisible work'"

Dada Grifon – "From the cause"

Bernadette Uy – "Enduring the current"

Mark Saludes – "Mission in peril"

EC Toledo – "From sea to shelf: The story before a can is sealed"

Ria Torrente – "HIV positive mother struggles through the Covid-19 pandemic"

Sharlene Festin – "Paradise lost"

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How to Write About Coronavirus in a College Essay

Students can share how they navigated life during the coronavirus pandemic in a full-length essay or an optional supplement.

Writing About COVID-19 in College Essays

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Experts say students should be honest and not limit themselves to merely their experiences with the pandemic.

The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, means colleges and prospective students alike are in for an admissions cycle like no other. Both face unprecedented challenges and questions as they grapple with their respective futures amid the ongoing fallout of the pandemic.

Colleges must examine applicants without the aid of standardized test scores for many – a factor that prompted many schools to go test-optional for now . Even grades, a significant component of a college application, may be hard to interpret with some high schools adopting pass-fail classes last spring due to the pandemic. Major college admissions factors are suddenly skewed.

"I can't help but think other (admissions) factors are going to matter more," says Ethan Sawyer, founder of the College Essay Guy, a website that offers free and paid essay-writing resources.

College essays and letters of recommendation , Sawyer says, are likely to carry more weight than ever in this admissions cycle. And many essays will likely focus on how the pandemic shaped students' lives throughout an often tumultuous 2020.

But before writing a college essay focused on the coronavirus, students should explore whether it's the best topic for them.

Writing About COVID-19 for a College Application

Much of daily life has been colored by the coronavirus. Virtual learning is the norm at many colleges and high schools, many extracurriculars have vanished and social lives have stalled for students complying with measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"For some young people, the pandemic took away what they envisioned as their senior year," says Robert Alexander, dean of admissions, financial aid and enrollment management at the University of Rochester in New York. "Maybe that's a spot on a varsity athletic team or the lead role in the fall play. And it's OK for them to mourn what should have been and what they feel like they lost, but more important is how are they making the most of the opportunities they do have?"

That question, Alexander says, is what colleges want answered if students choose to address COVID-19 in their college essay.

But the question of whether a student should write about the coronavirus is tricky. The answer depends largely on the student.

"In general, I don't think students should write about COVID-19 in their main personal statement for their application," Robin Miller, master college admissions counselor at IvyWise, a college counseling company, wrote in an email.

"Certainly, there may be exceptions to this based on a student's individual experience, but since the personal essay is the main place in the application where the student can really allow their voice to be heard and share insight into who they are as an individual, there are likely many other topics they can choose to write about that are more distinctive and unique than COVID-19," Miller says.

Opinions among admissions experts vary on whether to write about the likely popular topic of the pandemic.

"If your essay communicates something positive, unique, and compelling about you in an interesting and eloquent way, go for it," Carolyn Pippen, principal college admissions counselor at IvyWise, wrote in an email. She adds that students shouldn't be dissuaded from writing about a topic merely because it's common, noting that "topics are bound to repeat, no matter how hard we try to avoid it."

Above all, she urges honesty.

"If your experience within the context of the pandemic has been truly unique, then write about that experience, and the standing out will take care of itself," Pippen says. "If your experience has been generally the same as most other students in your context, then trying to find a unique angle can easily cross the line into exploiting a tragedy, or at least appearing as though you have."

But focusing entirely on the pandemic can limit a student to a single story and narrow who they are in an application, Sawyer says. "There are so many wonderful possibilities for what you can say about yourself outside of your experience within the pandemic."

He notes that passions, strengths, career interests and personal identity are among the multitude of essay topic options available to applicants and encourages them to probe their values to help determine the topic that matters most to them – and write about it.

That doesn't mean the pandemic experience has to be ignored if applicants feel the need to write about it.

Writing About Coronavirus in Main and Supplemental Essays

Students can choose to write a full-length college essay on the coronavirus or summarize their experience in a shorter form.

To help students explain how the pandemic affected them, The Common App has added an optional section to address this topic. Applicants have 250 words to describe their pandemic experience and the personal and academic impact of COVID-19.

"That's not a trick question, and there's no right or wrong answer," Alexander says. Colleges want to know, he adds, how students navigated the pandemic, how they prioritized their time, what responsibilities they took on and what they learned along the way.

If students can distill all of the above information into 250 words, there's likely no need to write about it in a full-length college essay, experts say. And applicants whose lives were not heavily altered by the pandemic may even choose to skip the optional COVID-19 question.

"This space is best used to discuss hardship and/or significant challenges that the student and/or the student's family experienced as a result of COVID-19 and how they have responded to those difficulties," Miller notes. Using the section to acknowledge a lack of impact, she adds, "could be perceived as trite and lacking insight, despite the good intentions of the applicant."

To guard against this lack of awareness, Sawyer encourages students to tap someone they trust to review their writing , whether it's the 250-word Common App response or the full-length essay.

Experts tend to agree that the short-form approach to this as an essay topic works better, but there are exceptions. And if a student does have a coronavirus story that he or she feels must be told, Alexander encourages the writer to be authentic in the essay.

"My advice for an essay about COVID-19 is the same as my advice about an essay for any topic – and that is, don't write what you think we want to read or hear," Alexander says. "Write what really changed you and that story that now is yours and yours alone to tell."

Sawyer urges students to ask themselves, "What's the sentence that only I can write?" He also encourages students to remember that the pandemic is only a chapter of their lives and not the whole book.

Miller, who cautions against writing a full-length essay on the coronavirus, says that if students choose to do so they should have a conversation with their high school counselor about whether that's the right move. And if students choose to proceed with COVID-19 as a topic, she says they need to be clear, detailed and insightful about what they learned and how they adapted along the way.

"Approaching the essay in this manner will provide important balance while demonstrating personal growth and vulnerability," Miller says.

Pippen encourages students to remember that they are in an unprecedented time for college admissions.

"It is important to keep in mind with all of these (admission) factors that no colleges have ever had to consider them this way in the selection process, if at all," Pippen says. "They have had very little time to calibrate their evaluations of different application components within their offices, let alone across institutions. This means that colleges will all be handling the admissions process a little bit differently, and their approaches may even evolve over the course of the admissions cycle."

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• Volume 8, Issue 3
• Youth social innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines: a quantitative and qualitative descriptive analyses from a crowdsourcing open call and online hackathon
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• http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4190-501X Allan Ulitin 1 ,
• http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4119-8300 Jana Deborah Mier-Alpaño 2 ,
• Meredith Labarda 3 ,
• Noel Juban 4 ,
• Abigail Ruth Mier 2 ,
• http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2804-1181 Joseph D Tucker 5 ,
• Weiming Tang 6 ,
• Mallika Auplish 7 ,
• Po-lin Chan 7
• 1 Institute of Health Policy and Development Studies - National Institutes of Health , University of the Philippines Manila , Manila , Philippines
• 2 University of the Philippines Manila , Manila , Philippines
• 3 Department of Medicine , University of the Philippines Manila - School of Health Sciences , Palo, Leyte , Philippines
• 4 Department of Clinical Epidemiology , University of the Philippines Manila , Manila , Philippines
• 5 IGHID , University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , Chapel Hill , North Carolina , USA
• 6 University of North Carolina Project-China , Guangzhou , China
• 7 World Health Organization-Regional Office for the Western Pacific , Manila , Philippines
• Correspondence to Allan Ulitin, University of the Philippines Manila, Manila, Philippines; arulitin{at}up.edu.ph

Introduction Young people have played a pivotal role as part of the COVID-19 response, including developing health messages and social innovations. Social innovation in health engages multiple stakeholders in linking social change and health improvement. The study examined the feasibility of youth ideas and innovations to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic using quantitative and qualitative descriptive analyses.

Methods In partnership with the WHO, academic institutions, youth organisations and civil society groups, we conducted a crowdsourcing open call among Filipino youth (15–30 years old) using a structured Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases/Social Innovation in Health Initiative process. The open call had three categories: youth voices to cocreate the post-COVID-19 world (entries were texts, images, videos and music), youth-led COVID-19 social innovations , and youth-led social innovations not related to COVID-19 . Each submission was evaluated by three independent judges. Finalists were selected in each of the categories alongside four grand winners. All finalists were invited to attend a 1 day online civic hackathon.

Results We received a total of 113 entries ( youth voices to cocreate the post-COVID world =76; youth-led COVID-19 social innovations =17; youth-led social innovations not related to COVID-19 =20). Twelve entries focused on youth mental health during the pandemic. The online hackathon provided the participants mentorship for further development of their ideas. Finalists were able to produce draft health communication campaigns and improved social innovations.

Conclusion Many Filipino youth created exceptional entries in response to the open call. This suggests the feasibility of including youth voices in strategic planning processes. A global youth social innovation call is recommended.

• public health
• global health
• social medicine
• socioeconomic factors

Data availability statement

All data relevant to the study are included in the article.

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See:  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ .

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjinnov-2021-000887

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WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ON THIS TOPIC

The current COVID-19 response limits the extent to which youth have been engaged to address health challenges during the pandemic especially in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) including the Philippines.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on youth, especially on their health in which this shared experience also highlighted the ways where they can be active agents of change to address these health needs and challenges through social innovation.

WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS

The Social Innovation in Health Initiative Philippines, in partnership with Social Entrepreneurship to Spur Health, Asian Medical Students Association Philippines and other youth organisations and the World Health Organization-Western Pacific Regional Office conducted a crowdsourcing open call and online civic hackathon to gather Filipino youth’s ideas about the future postpandemic and to come up with innovative solutions to identified health needs during the pandemic.

Filipino youth’s ideas about the future provided insights into the present experience of the youth during the pandemic and presented imagined life postpandemic highlighting advancements in technology and issues relating to work, family, education, social interactions and environment. The youth open call received commendable ongoing and proposed social innovation entries that address a wide range of emerging health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic, with several tackling mental health.

HOW THIS STUDY MIGHT AFFECT RESEARCH, PRACTICE AND/OR POLICY

Bringing in youth voices to inform programmes and policies is imperative. Crowdsourcing open calls and online civic hackathons to solicit youth input could be useful tools to respond to health emergency needs in LMIC settings.

Exceptional innovation entries open space for implementation research to assess their quality and impact on improving specific health and development outcomes.

Introduction

COVID-19 responses have been mostly expert driven by central authorities, limiting the extent to which youth have been engaged. The pandemic has had a profound impact on youth health, especially mental health. 1 2 The shared experience of the pandemic has also highlighted ways that youth can be active agents of change through social innovation. 3–5 Social innovation can be defined as a solution—a process, product, practice or market mechanism—developed by a range of actors in response to health challenges within a geographic context. 6 One way to identify social innovations is through crowdsourcing open calls.

Crowdsourcing open calls are novel approach to identify and solicit community-based solutions. Through crowdsourcing, actors work together to come up with solutions to identified health needs. 7 Crowdsourcing has been widely used in public health and medical research, 8 such as in identifying approaches to manage infectious diseases. 9 10 In addition, crowdsourcing may help recognise innovative solutions that are actionable, quick, and low cost for health and economic challenges brought by the pandemic. 11 12 Crowdsourcing may be done through a hackathon, an event that convenes actors with varied expertise during a brief period to solve a problem. 7 For the purpose of our activity, we adapted an online civic hackathon to be an opportunity for the youth to develop civic and innovative solutions for problems in their communities. 13

Online hackathons are emerging approach within the space of health innovations to help generate solutions in response to COVID-19. These activities promote inclusive participation, cross-regional collaboration and rapid multisectoral partnership and may be less expensive. 13 Since the onset of the pandemic, online hackathons have helped to organise community responses to COVID-19 and identify compelling innovations. 14 15

While youth who are directly and indirectly affected by the pandemic are particularly well suited to cocreate COVID-19 solutions, current published literature has paid little attention to youth voices and perspectives to address the health priorities brought by the pandemic. 16 This holds true among low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) including the Philippines, where responses to the pandemic were organised primarily by central authorities. 17

At present, there is limited available literature exploring the needs of Filipino youth in various aspects of their lives during the pandemic, as well as participatory events such as hackathons that are organised particularly for them. Moreover, existing open call and hackathon initiatives paid far too little attention to youth-initiated non-digital solutions and health innovations that adapted a systems approach (ie, impact of economy, future of work and technology on health). 18 This led us to conduct an open call and online civic hackathon to solicit: (A) youth ideas about how they foresee the future after the COVID-19 pandemic, (B) youth-led social innovation projects to address health needs brought by the COVID-19 pandemic in local communities and (C) social innovation projects implemented during the time of pandemic to address non-COVID-19 related health needs.

We used the WHO/TDR (Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases)/Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI)/Social Entrepreneurship to Spur Health (SESH) practical guide on crowdsourcing in health research 7 that provides the steps on organising a crowdsourcing contest. In the Philippine context where many young people are present both in school and out-of-school communities, we involved key government agencies including the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Sangguniang Kabataan ( Sangguniang Kabataan is a council meant to represent the youth in each barangay or village in the Philippines), community-based arts youth groups, indigenous peoples’ groups and faith-based organisations in consultation and cocreation process, and promotional activities to ensure that our open call reaches across youth groups of different socioeconomic status. We used social media and email to promote and collect entries, drawing on a snowball referral method.

Our open call aimed to ideate solutions among the youth. It also sought to stimulate youth’s thinking about the future, the problems that may arise and ideating solutions based on these, thereby skilling youth in futures literacy and enabling thinking and response mechanisms to resolve projected issues.

The SIHI Philippines Hub, in partnership with Social Entrepreneurship to Spur Health, Asian Medical Students Association Philippines and other youth organisations, with the support of the World Health Organization-Western Pacific Regional Office conducted an open call for the Filipino youth. The purpose of the open call was to generate youth ideas about the future and collect youth-led social innovations related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Filipino youth (ages 15–30) were invited to submit entries to any of the following categories: (A) youth voices to cocreate the post-COVID-19 world (youth ideas): future-oriented ideas on the problems or concerns that would emerge in youth lives out of the pandemic (eg, in work, education, family and health); entries could be texts, images, videos and music; (B) youth-led COVID-19 social innovations: youth-led social innovations implemented to address problems or challenges brought by COVID-19 in a given community; entries could be innovations that address either direct or indirect COVID-19 health problems; and (c) youth-led social innovations not related to COVID-19 : non-COVID-19 related youth-led innovations that address other health problems or challenges not related to COVID-19. The open call was promoted starting 14 October 2020 and accepted submissions from 4 November to 18 December 2020.

Steering committee

To facilitate the implementation of the open call, we organised a steering committee composed of representatives from multiple sectors and fields including medicine, public health, health service delivery, youth development, social and behavioural science, social entrepreneurship, social development, and futures thinking and literacy. They were involved in the conceptualisation and design of the open call through consultations and cocreation process. Regular consultation meetings were conducted to monitor progress of the open call.

Promotion of the open call

We used digital platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to promote the open call. Promotional materials were also posted on SIHI’s official website. Facebook was mainly used as it is the most popular social media platform in the Philippines. We used paid promotion to enhance youth engagement across the country. We also reached out to different youth organisations and advocate groups to promote the open call through their social media accounts and networks. Most publicity materials were posted on Thursday and Friday nights to maximise youth engagement based on increased online activity during those periods. Steering committee members and partner organisations also shared the publicity materials on their social media accounts. The Facebook’s insights tool tallied a total of 332 931 post reach, which represent the number of people who saw our posted materials, 19 13 331 total engagements (reactions, comments and shares) and 30 189 post clicks (photo views, website link clicks, profile name clicks, ‘see more’ clicks).

Selection of entries

Each entry was evaluated by three independent judges. The entries were distributed for evaluation to a total of 27 judges, a collective of health professionals, academics, social innovation champions, youth leaders and other key partners in health and social innovations. For the youth ideas category, entries were assessed to ensure these included a clear description to reimagine a collective future postpandemic and an innovative idea about the future expressed in a compelling way. All youth-led innovation entries were evaluated based on the degree of innovativeness, feasibility, inclusiveness, effectiveness and potential to inform policies and programmes. Grand winners of two innovation categories received seed money for implementation activities of their novel solutions.

Online youth civic hackathon

Part of the incentives for the open call finalists was participation in a 1 day online civic hackathon. Due to COVID-19 restrictions preventing face-to-face events, the hackathon was conducted online. It had the following specific objectives: (A) highlight the Filipino youth situation, perspectives,and experiences during the pandemic; (B) provide mentorship for research, ideation and further development of the finalists’ innovative ideas; and (C) provide a platform for networking among the participants. It was designed to consist of three major segments: capacity building of participants through plenary talks by local experts, mentoring sessions by volunteer mentors and pitching of final outputs.

Data analysis

The general profile of the respondents who filled out the participant’s information form were presented as summary statistics on gender, age, employment, education and geographical location. The emerging themes of the open call entries across three categories were also summarised. Two authors (AU and JDM-A) separately examined all the submissions. They independently identify the themes of the entries by determining the concerns or issues addressed by the submitted ideas and innovations. Individual findings were presented and consulted to the rest of the team for consensus. Statistical analysis of quantitative data and textual analysis of qualitative data were performed using Excel (Office 365, Microsoft).

Patient and public involvement

No patient involved.

The open call received a total of 113 entries from a total of 71 individual participants and 22 groups. Among the 45 participants who provided their personal information along with their submitted entries, 24 identified themselves as men, 21 identified as women. Most of these participants belonged to the age bracket 18–23 years (21), were students (28) and were from the Luzon island group (27). The general profile of the participants is summarised in table 1 . An overview of the received entries is presented in table 2 .

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Sociodemographic characteristics of youth open call participants (n=45)

Overview of entries to the open call

After the evaluation process, a total of 15 entries with the highest mean scores in their respective categories were selected as finalists. Distribution of mean scores is presented in figure 1 . Six finalists were selected for the category youth voices to cocreate the post-COVID-19 world: text entries. Three finalists each were selected for the categories youth voices to cocreate the post-COVID-19 world: non-text entries, youth-led COVID-19 social innovations and youth-led social innovations not related to COVID-19 . One grand winner was then chosen for each category. Top-ranked entries to the open call are presented in table 3 .

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Histogram showing a distribution of mean scores of entries to the Philippine youth open call (n=113).

Top-ranked entries to the open call

Youth voices to cocreate the post-COVID-19 world

There were eight emerging themes from the 76 entries on ideas about the future postpandemic as summarised in table 2 . Framing the entries through the lens of strategic planning, some of them provided insights into the present experience and plight of the youth during the pandemic. These entries either described the current situation, called for necessary actions, shared reflections from the pandemic experience or presented the status of the welfare of the youth. Other entries depicted the imagined life postpandemic highlighting advancements in technology and issues related to work, family, education, social interactions and environment.

Youth-led social innovations

There were nine emerging themes from the 37 innovation entries of which the majority addressed physical health and mental health. Innovation entries were further categorised into either implemented or proposed innovations as summarised in table 2 .

Out of 31 invited finalists, 28 joined the hackathon, of which 16 were male and 12 were female. Mean age of the participants was 23 years old. Ten participants were from Luzon, 8 were from Visayas and 10 were from Mindanao.

Participants were given a presentation on design thinking and provided mentorship by volunteer mentors to improve their innovation entries and produce health communication campaigns.

Participants from youth voices to cocreate the post-COVID-19 world category were able to come up with draft health communication campaigns. Two groups identified mental health of adolescents and young adults amidst the pandemic as their health priority. One group focused on physical health and well-being of senior high school and college students, highlighting changes in lifestyle from attending online classes. Outputs were presented during plenary session. Feedback of mentors revolved around the following themes: evidence-based approach for the campaign; inclusiveness, uniqueness and innovativeness; incorporating solutions in the campaign; and strategies to expand reach of the campaign.

Participants from youth-led social innovations categories received advice from mentors for the improvement of their ongoing or proposed innovations. Mentors’ feedbacks addressed the following key areas: general context of the innovations; technical specifications of innovation products; sustainability and marketability of innovations; and expansion of networks and building partnerships to scale-up innovations.

The youth open call and online civic hackathon that we organised demonstrated that these activities can be effective approaches to stimulate strategic planning for policymakers by engaging the youth. These methods are also helpful tools to solicit novel solutions to community health needs in the time of COVID-19. Our experience is consistent with other crowdsourcing and hackathon research. 11 20 This extends the literature by presenting how open calls and hackathons could be useful in responding to emergency health needs, focusing on youth voices and soliciting crowd input from an LMIC setting. Our experience on gathering ideas and solutions provides practical insight for future implementation.

From the pool of submitted entries and the creation of health communication campaigns during the online civic hackathon, mental health was identified as an important health concern among the youth participants. Three entries in youth ideas category, seven youth-led innovation entries and two health communication campaigns during the hackathon tackled mental health. The mental health challenges that were highlighted include isolation or lack of social interaction during the lockdown and increased cases of anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide during the pandemic. Understandably, these challenges were followed by proposed solutions and innovations in some entries. Some examples of these include provision of spaces for constructive interaction among youth, venues or media for expression, enabling good coping skills through education, and guidance to deal with stress and anxiety. Limited literature is available about these interventions during the pandemic especially in LMIC settings. 21 Furthermore, this observation affirms the findings of recent studies that identify COVID-19 pandemic as having significant impact on youth mental health. 1 2 15 22–24 This also signifies that mental health is a concern that needs more serious attention of both research and policy sectors especially during COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the winning youth-led innovation entries, This Book is so Boring , is a creative social innovation developed by a local adolescent nurse. It is a printed personal journal that seeks to address mental health issues. The journal was initially focused on serving a local city population of one province, but its reach has expanded to surrounding cities and municipalities. In the first 10 months of implementation, a total of 700 hundred printed copies of the journal were distributed all over the province. The journal could be a useful resource for other sectors including educational institutions to promote mental health among the youth. This simple solution could be adapted for different settings and used in many resource-constrained contexts. This responds to the substantial gap in mental health interventions for youth 21 and allows for services to reach members of the population with limited digital resources.

Youth and non-experts submitted several high-ranked entries to our open call. This is consistent with the hypothesis that crowds can generate wisdom to improve health outcomes. 25 Our open call has received commendable entries, with a mix of proposed and ongoing social innovations. These innovations address a wide range of health needs and challenges including those related and not related to COVID-19. The COVID-19 related innovations mainly focus on monitoring and prevention of cases. The non-COVID-19 related innovations target improving physical health and well-being of the target community members. Our open call, however, was not able to measure the health impacts of implemented social innovations and assess the key factors that may affect the feasibility of the proposed social innovations.

We recorded unique entries envisioning the future after the pandemic. These include screenplay that told a story about life with advanced technologies and literary works (eg, poems, stories and essays) that featured the future of life in various aspects. These entries suggest creative means of making the public more future-informed for strategic planning. The ideas of the youth about their present predicament and their envisioned life in the future create an overarching background on why they produced specific innovations. This process of ideation followed a futures thinking approach that allows one to identify emerging issues, and from these issues to ‘negotiate uncertainties, articulate scenarios and develop a common vision of a desired future through wide participation’. To achieve the envisioned future, innovations will then be introduced. These steps would be essential for informed policies and strategies. 26

Due to practical constraints, our open call and online youth civic hackathon had several limitations. First, our open call only accepted entries that were submitted online due to COVID-19 restrictions. Second, as the platform for the online hackathon required steady internet connectivity, some participants from resource-limited areas were not able to attend the entire duration of the hackathon due to poor bandwidth. This was partially mitigated by paying for internet coverage, a parallel mobile phone text chat and extensive note taking. Acknowledging the fatigue that online events can cause, we organised the hackathon to be only a 1-day event. We understand that experiences from other open calls suggest that in-person activities can extend and enhance engagement. 27 Lastly, we have limited resources to track our received innovations particularly in terms of feasibility of implementation or roll-out. It is also beyond our scope to monitor the outcomes of the mentoring and seed money investments for the selected innovations.

Our data have applications for programmes and policies. We propose our findings to be incorporated into our ministry of health’s programme on healthy schools and communities under their health promotion agenda.

Our youth open call and online youth civic hackathon have several implications both for research and practice. First, these events have allowed the youth to generate and cocreate ideas and solutions to emerging health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. These identified solutions might contribute to the holistic approach to the COVID-19 pandemic response especially in LMIC setting where youth voices are missing in strategic planning processes. Moreover, exceptional innovation entries open opportunities for implementation research to assess quality and impact on improving specific health and development outcomes. Finally, this experience suggests the need for a global youth open call to amplify youth voices in response to the pandemic.

We described the processes of an open call and online civic hackathon for Filipino youth that solicited ideas and solutions to emerging challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Promising entries offer novel solutions that may contribute to the national and regional COVID-19 response in LMIC settings. Youth ideas and innovations highlight the need for more research to understand further the youth perspectives on COVID-19 pandemic challenges and assess the impact and feasibility of the proposed solutions as we move forward to the post-COVID-19 world.

Ethics statements

Patient consent for publication.

Not applicable.

Acknowledgments

The crowdsourcing open call and online hackathon were made possible by generous funding from the World Health Organization Western Pacific Regional Office. The authors would like to thank Sucelle Czarina Deacosta and Ma. Pamela Tagle for their expertise and roles in making the online hackathon possible. The authors would like to thank the finalists and participants of the crowdsourcing open call and online hackathon who submitted their entries to share their ideas and innovations to adress the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Twitter @janadeborahmd, @JosephTucker

Deceased NJ since deceased.

Contributors All authors took part in the conceptualisation of this work. AU collected the data. AU, JDM-A, JDT, ML and ARM analysed the results and drafted the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the manuscript for submission. AU, as guarantor, accepts full responsibility for the work and/or the conduct of the study, had access to the data, and controlled the decision to publish.

Funding The Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI) is funded by TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases cosponsored by UNICEF, UNDP, the World Bank and WHO. TDR receives additional funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) to support SIHI.

Disclaimer The authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this article, and they do not necessarily represent the decisions or policies of PAHO or TDR. In any reproduction of this article there should not be any suggestion that PAHO or TDR endorse any specific organisation services or products.

Competing interests None declared.

Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.

Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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• Volume 76, Issue 2
• COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on social relationships and health
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• http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1512-4471 Emily Long 1 ,
• Susan Patterson 1 ,
• Karen Maxwell 1 ,
• Carolyn Blake 1 ,
• http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7342-4566 Raquel Bosó Pérez 1 ,
• Ruth Lewis 1 ,
• Mark McCann 1 ,
• Julie Riddell 1 ,
• Kathryn Skivington 1 ,
• Rachel Wilson-Lowe 1 ,
• http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4409-6601 Kirstin R Mitchell 2
• 1 MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit , University of Glasgow , Glasgow , UK
• 2 MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Institute of Health & Wellbeing , University of Glasgow , Glasgow , UK
• Correspondence to Dr Emily Long, MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G3 7HR, UK; emily.long{at}glasgow.ac.uk

This essay examines key aspects of social relationships that were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses explicitly on relational mechanisms of health and brings together theory and emerging evidence on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to make recommendations for future public health policy and recovery. We first provide an overview of the pandemic in the UK context, outlining the nature of the public health response. We then introduce four distinct domains of social relationships: social networks, social support, social interaction and intimacy, highlighting the mechanisms through which the pandemic and associated public health response drastically altered social interactions in each domain. Throughout the essay, the lens of health inequalities, and perspective of relationships as interconnecting elements in a broader system, is used to explore the varying impact of these disruptions. The essay concludes by providing recommendations for longer term recovery ensuring that the social relational cost of COVID-19 is adequately considered in efforts to rebuild.

• inequalities

Data availability statement

Data sharing not applicable as no data sets generated and/or analysed for this study. Data sharing not applicable as no data sets generated or analysed for this essay.

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-216690

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Introduction

Infectious disease pandemics, including SARS and COVID-19, demand intrapersonal behaviour change and present highly complex challenges for public health. 1 A pandemic of an airborne infection, spread easily through social contact, assails human relationships by drastically altering the ways through which humans interact. In this essay, we draw on theories of social relationships to examine specific ways in which relational mechanisms key to health and well-being were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Relational mechanisms refer to the processes between people that lead to change in health outcomes.

At the time of writing, the future surrounding COVID-19 was uncertain. Vaccine programmes were being rolled out in countries that could afford them, but new and more contagious variants of the virus were also being discovered. The recovery journey looked long, with continued disruption to social relationships. The social cost of COVID-19 was only just beginning to emerge, but the mental health impact was already considerable, 2 3 and the inequality of the health burden stark. 4 Knowledge of the epidemiology of COVID-19 accrued rapidly, but evidence of the most effective policy responses remained uncertain.

The initial response to COVID-19 in the UK was reactive and aimed at reducing mortality, with little time to consider the social implications, including for interpersonal and community relationships. The terminology of ‘social distancing’ quickly became entrenched both in public and policy discourse. This equation of physical distance with social distance was regrettable, since only physical proximity causes viral transmission, whereas many forms of social proximity (eg, conversations while walking outdoors) are minimal risk, and are crucial to maintaining relationships supportive of health and well-being.

The aim of this essay is to explore four key relational mechanisms that were impacted by the pandemic and associated restrictions: social networks, social support, social interaction and intimacy. We use relational theories and emerging research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic response to make three key recommendations: one regarding public health responses; and two regarding social recovery. Our understanding of these mechanisms stems from a ‘systems’ perspective which casts social relationships as interdependent elements within a connected whole. 5

Social networks

Social networks characterise the individuals and social connections that compose a system (such as a workplace, community or society). Social relationships range from spouses and partners, to coworkers, friends and acquaintances. They vary across many dimensions, including, for example, frequency of contact and emotional closeness. Social networks can be understood both in terms of the individuals and relationships that compose the network, as well as the overall network structure (eg, how many of your friends know each other).

Social networks show a tendency towards homophily, or a phenomenon of associating with individuals who are similar to self. 6 This is particularly true for ‘core’ network ties (eg, close friends), while more distant, sometimes called ‘weak’ ties tend to show more diversity. During the height of COVID-19 restrictions, face-to-face interactions were often reduced to core network members, such as partners, family members or, potentially, live-in roommates; some ‘weak’ ties were lost, and interactions became more limited to those closest. Given that peripheral, weaker social ties provide a diversity of resources, opinions and support, 7 COVID-19 likely resulted in networks that were smaller and more homogenous.

Such changes were not inevitable nor necessarily enduring, since social networks are also adaptive and responsive to change, in that a disruption to usual ways of interacting can be replaced by new ways of engaging (eg, Zoom). Yet, important inequalities exist, wherein networks and individual relationships within networks are not equally able to adapt to such changes. For example, individuals with a large number of newly established relationships (eg, university students) may have struggled to transfer these relationships online, resulting in lost contacts and a heightened risk of social isolation. This is consistent with research suggesting that young adults were the most likely to report a worsening of relationships during COVID-19, whereas older adults were the least likely to report a change. 8

Lastly, social connections give rise to emergent properties of social systems, 9 where a community-level phenomenon develops that cannot be attributed to any one member or portion of the network. For example, local area-based networks emerged due to geographic restrictions (eg, stay-at-home orders), resulting in increases in neighbourly support and local volunteering. 10 In fact, research suggests that relationships with neighbours displayed the largest net gain in ratings of relationship quality compared with a range of relationship types (eg, partner, colleague, friend). 8 Much of this was built from spontaneous individual interactions within local communities, which together contributed to the ‘community spirit’ that many experienced. 11 COVID-19 restrictions thus impacted the personal social networks and the structure of the larger networks within the society.

Social support

Social support, referring to the psychological and material resources provided through social interaction, is a critical mechanism through which social relationships benefit health. In fact, social support has been shown to be one of the most important resilience factors in the aftermath of stressful events. 12 In the context of COVID-19, the usual ways in which individuals interact and obtain social support have been severely disrupted.

One such disruption has been to opportunities for spontaneous social interactions. For example, conversations with colleagues in a break room offer an opportunity for socialising beyond one’s core social network, and these peripheral conversations can provide a form of social support. 13 14 A chance conversation may lead to advice helpful to coping with situations or seeking formal help. Thus, the absence of these spontaneous interactions may mean the reduction of indirect support-seeking opportunities. While direct support-seeking behaviour is more effective at eliciting support, it also requires significantly more effort and may be perceived as forceful and burdensome. 15 The shift to homeworking and closure of community venues reduced the number of opportunities for these spontaneous interactions to occur, and has, second, focused them locally. Consequently, individuals whose core networks are located elsewhere, or who live in communities where spontaneous interaction is less likely, have less opportunity to benefit from spontaneous in-person supportive interactions.

However, alongside this disruption, new opportunities to interact and obtain social support have arisen. The surge in community social support during the initial lockdown mirrored that often seen in response to adverse events (eg, natural disasters 16 ). COVID-19 restrictions that confined individuals to their local area also compelled them to focus their in-person efforts locally. Commentators on the initial lockdown in the UK remarked on extraordinary acts of generosity between individuals who belonged to the same community but were unknown to each other. However, research on adverse events also tells us that such community support is not necessarily maintained in the longer term. 16

Meanwhile, online forms of social support are not bound by geography, thus enabling interactions and social support to be received from a wider network of people. Formal online social support spaces (eg, support groups) existed well before COVID-19, but have vastly increased since. While online interactions can increase perceived social support, it is unclear whether remote communication technologies provide an effective substitute from in-person interaction during periods of social distancing. 17 18 It makes intuitive sense that the usefulness of online social support will vary by the type of support offered, degree of social interaction and ‘online communication skills’ of those taking part. Youth workers, for instance, have struggled to keep vulnerable youth engaged in online youth clubs, 19 despite others finding a positive association between amount of digital technology used by individuals during lockdown and perceived social support. 20 Other research has found that more frequent face-to-face contact and phone/video contact both related to lower levels of depression during the time period of March to August 2020, but the negative effect of a lack of contact was greater for those with higher levels of usual sociability. 21 Relatedly, important inequalities in social support exist, such that individuals who occupy more socially disadvantaged positions in society (eg, low socioeconomic status, older people) tend to have less access to social support, 22 potentially exacerbated by COVID-19.

Social and interactional norms

Interactional norms are key relational mechanisms which build trust, belonging and identity within and across groups in a system. Individuals in groups and societies apply meaning by ‘approving, arranging and redefining’ symbols of interaction. 23 A handshake, for instance, is a powerful symbol of trust and equality. Depending on context, not shaking hands may symbolise a failure to extend friendship, or a failure to reach agreement. The norms governing these symbols represent shared values and identity; and mutual understanding of these symbols enables individuals to achieve orderly interactions, establish supportive relationship accountability and connect socially. 24 25

Physical distancing measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 radically altered these norms of interaction, particularly those used to convey trust, affinity, empathy and respect (eg, hugging, physical comforting). 26 As epidemic waves rose and fell, the work to negotiate these norms required intense cognitive effort; previously taken-for-granted interactions were re-examined, factoring in current restriction levels, own and (assumed) others’ vulnerability and tolerance of risk. This created awkwardness, and uncertainty, for example, around how to bring closure to an in-person interaction or convey warmth. The instability in scripted ways of interacting created particular strain for individuals who already struggled to encode and decode interactions with others (eg, those who are deaf or have autism spectrum disorder); difficulties often intensified by mask wearing. 27

Large social gatherings—for example, weddings, school assemblies, sporting events—also present key opportunities for affirming and assimilating interactional norms, building cohesion and shared identity and facilitating cooperation across social groups. 28 Online ‘equivalents’ do not easily support ‘social-bonding’ activities such as singing and dancing, and rarely enable chance/spontaneous one-on-one conversations with peripheral/weaker network ties (see the Social networks section) which can help strengthen bonds across a larger network. The loss of large gatherings to celebrate rites of passage (eg, bar mitzvah, weddings) has additional relational costs since these events are performed by and for communities to reinforce belonging, and to assist in transitioning to new phases of life. 29 The loss of interaction with diverse others via community and large group gatherings also reduces intergroup contact, which may then tend towards more prejudiced outgroup attitudes. While online interaction can go some way to mimicking these interaction norms, there are key differences. A sense of anonymity, and lack of in-person emotional cues, tends to support norms of polarisation and aggression in expressing differences of opinion online. And while online platforms have potential to provide intergroup contact, the tendency of much social media to form homogeneous ‘echo chambers’ can serve to further reduce intergroup contact. 30 31

Intimacy relates to the feeling of emotional connection and closeness with other human beings. Emotional connection, through romantic, friendship or familial relationships, fulfils a basic human need 32 and strongly benefits health, including reduced stress levels, improved mental health, lowered blood pressure and reduced risk of heart disease. 32 33 Intimacy can be fostered through familiarity, feeling understood and feeling accepted by close others. 34

Intimacy via companionship and closeness is fundamental to mental well-being. Positively, the COVID-19 pandemic has offered opportunities for individuals to (re)connect and (re)strengthen close relationships within their household via quality time together, following closure of many usual external social activities. Research suggests that the first full UK lockdown period led to a net gain in the quality of steady relationships at a population level, 35 but amplified existing inequalities in relationship quality. 35 36 For some in single-person households, the absence of a companion became more conspicuous, leading to feelings of loneliness and lower mental well-being. 37 38 Additional pandemic-related relational strain 39 40 resulted, for some, in the initiation or intensification of domestic abuse. 41 42

Physical touch is another key aspect of intimacy, a fundamental human need crucial in maintaining and developing intimacy within close relationships. 34 Restrictions on social interactions severely restricted the number and range of people with whom physical affection was possible. The reduction in opportunity to give and receive affectionate physical touch was not experienced equally. Many of those living alone found themselves completely without physical contact for extended periods. The deprivation of physical touch is evidenced to take a heavy emotional toll. 43 Even in future, once physical expressions of affection can resume, new levels of anxiety over germs may introduce hesitancy into previously fluent blending of physical and verbal intimate social connections. 44

The pandemic also led to shifts in practices and norms around sexual relationship building and maintenance, as individuals adapted and sought alternative ways of enacting sexual intimacy. This too is important, given that intimate sexual activity has known benefits for health. 45 46 Given that social restrictions hinged on reducing household mixing, possibilities for partnered sexual activity were primarily guided by living arrangements. While those in cohabiting relationships could potentially continue as before, those who were single or in non-cohabiting relationships generally had restricted opportunities to maintain their sexual relationships. Pornography consumption and digital partners were reported to increase since lockdown. 47 However, online interactions are qualitatively different from in-person interactions and do not provide the same opportunities for physical intimacy.

Recommendations and conclusions

In the sections above we have outlined the ways in which COVID-19 has impacted social relationships, showing how relational mechanisms key to health have been undermined. While some of the damage might well self-repair after the pandemic, there are opportunities inherent in deliberative efforts to build back in ways that facilitate greater resilience in social and community relationships. We conclude by making three recommendations: one regarding public health responses to the pandemic; and two regarding social recovery.

Recommendation 1: explicitly count the relational cost of public health policies to control the pandemic

Effective handling of a pandemic recognises that social, economic and health concerns are intricately interwoven. It is clear that future research and policy attention must focus on the social consequences. As described above, policies which restrict physical mixing across households carry heavy and unequal relational costs. These include for individuals (eg, loss of intimate touch), dyads (eg, loss of warmth, comfort), networks (eg, restricted access to support) and communities (eg, loss of cohesion and identity). Such costs—and their unequal impact—should not be ignored in short-term efforts to control an epidemic. Some public health responses—restrictions on international holiday travel and highly efficient test and trace systems—have relatively small relational costs and should be prioritised. At a national level, an earlier move to proportionate restrictions, and investment in effective test and trace systems, may help prevent escalation of spread to the point where a national lockdown or tight restrictions became an inevitability. Where policies with relational costs are unavoidable, close attention should be paid to the unequal relational impact for those whose personal circumstances differ from normative assumptions of two adult families. This includes consideration of whether expectations are fair (eg, for those who live alone), whether restrictions on social events are equitable across age group, religious/ethnic groupings and social class, and also to ensure that the language promoted by such policies (eg, households; families) is not exclusionary. 48 49 Forethought to unequal impacts on social relationships should thus be integral to the work of epidemic preparedness teams.

Recommendation 2: intelligently balance online and offline ways of relating

A key ingredient for well-being is ‘getting together’ in a physical sense. This is fundamental to a human need for intimate touch, physical comfort, reinforcing interactional norms and providing practical support. Emerging evidence suggests that online ways of relating cannot simply replace physical interactions. But online interaction has many benefits and for some it offers connections that did not exist previously. In particular, online platforms provide new forms of support for those unable to access offline services because of mobility issues (eg, older people) or because they are geographically isolated from their support community (eg, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) youth). Ultimately, multiple forms of online and offline social interactions are required to meet the needs of varying groups of people (eg, LGBTQ, older people). Future research and practice should aim to establish ways of using offline and online support in complementary and even synergistic ways, rather than veering between them as social restrictions expand and contract. Intelligent balancing of online and offline ways of relating also pertains to future policies on home and flexible working. A decision to switch to wholesale or obligatory homeworking should consider the risk to relational ‘group properties’ of the workplace community and their impact on employees’ well-being, focusing in particular on unequal impacts (eg, new vs established employees). Intelligent blending of online and in-person working is required to achieve flexibility while also nurturing supportive networks at work. Intelligent balance also implies strategies to build digital literacy and minimise digital exclusion, as well as coproducing solutions with intended beneficiaries.

Recommendation 3: build stronger and sustainable localised communities

In balancing offline and online ways of interacting, there is opportunity to capitalise on the potential for more localised, coherent communities due to scaled-down travel, homeworking and local focus that will ideally continue after restrictions end. There are potential economic benefits after the pandemic, such as increased trade as home workers use local resources (eg, coffee shops), but also relational benefits from stronger relationships around the orbit of the home and neighbourhood. Experience from previous crises shows that community volunteer efforts generated early on will wane over time in the absence of deliberate work to maintain them. Adequately funded partnerships between local government, third sector and community groups are required to sustain community assets that began as a direct response to the pandemic. Such partnerships could work to secure green spaces and indoor (non-commercial) meeting spaces that promote community interaction. Green spaces in particular provide a triple benefit in encouraging physical activity and mental health, as well as facilitating social bonding. 50 In building local communities, small community networks—that allow for diversity and break down ingroup/outgroup views—may be more helpful than the concept of ‘support bubbles’, which are exclusionary and less sustainable in the longer term. Rigorously designed intervention and evaluation—taking a systems approach—will be crucial in ensuring scale-up and sustainability.

The dramatic change to social interaction necessitated by efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 created stark challenges but also opportunities. Our essay highlights opportunities for learning, both to ensure the equity and humanity of physical restrictions, and to sustain the salutogenic effects of social relationships going forward. The starting point for capitalising on this learning is recognition of the disruption to relational mechanisms as a key part of the socioeconomic and health impact of the pandemic. In recovery planning, a general rule is that what is good for decreasing health inequalities (such as expanding social protection and public services and pursuing green inclusive growth strategies) 4 will also benefit relationships and safeguard relational mechanisms for future generations. Putting this into action will require political will.

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Twitter @karenmaxSPHSU, @Mark_McCann, @Rwilsonlowe, @KMitchinGlasgow

Contributors EL and KM led on the manuscript conceptualisation, review and editing. SP, KM, CB, RBP, RL, MM, JR, KS and RW-L contributed to drafting and revising the article. All authors assisted in revising the final draft.

Funding The research reported in this publication was supported by the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00022/1, MC_UU_00022/3) and the Chief Scientist Office (SPHSU11, SPHSU14). EL is also supported by MRC Skills Development Fellowship Award (MR/S015078/1). KS and MM are also supported by a Medical Research Council Strategic Award (MC_PC_13027).

Competing interests None declared.

Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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Essay on COVID-19 Pandemic

As a result of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak, daily life has been negatively affected, impacting the worldwide economy. Thousands of individuals have been sickened or died as a result of the outbreak of this disease. When you have the flu or a viral infection, the most common symptoms include fever, cold, coughing up bone fragments, and difficulty breathing, which may progress to pneumonia. It’s important to take major steps like keeping a strict cleaning routine, keeping social distance, and wearing masks, among other things. This virus’s geographic spread is accelerating (Daniel Pg 93). Governments restricted public meetings during the start of the pandemic to prevent the disease from spreading and breaking the exponential distribution curve. In order to avoid the damage caused by this extremely contagious disease, several countries quarantined their citizens. However, this scenario had drastically altered with the discovery of the vaccinations. The research aims to investigate the effect of the Covid-19 epidemic and its impact on the population’s well-being.

There is growing interest in the relationship between social determinants of health and health outcomes. Still, many health care providers and academics have been hesitant to recognize racism as a contributing factor to racial health disparities. Only a few research have examined the health effects of institutional racism, with the majority focusing on interpersonal racial and ethnic prejudice Ciotti et al., Pg 370. The latter comprises historically and culturally connected institutions that are interconnected. Prejudice is being practiced in a variety of contexts as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. In some ways, the outbreak has exposed pre-existing bias and inequity.

Thousands of businesses are in danger of failure. Around 2.3 billion of the world’s 3.3 billion employees are out of work. These workers are especially susceptible since they lack access to social security and adequate health care, and they’ve also given up ownership of productive assets, which makes them highly vulnerable. Many individuals lose their employment as a result of lockdowns, leaving them unable to support their families. People strapped for cash are often forced to reduce their caloric intake while also eating less nutritiously (Fraser et al, Pg 3). The epidemic has had an impact on the whole food chain, revealing vulnerabilities that were previously hidden. Border closures, trade restrictions, and confinement measures have limited farmer access to markets, while agricultural workers have not gathered crops. As a result, the local and global food supply chain has been disrupted, and people now have less access to healthy foods. As a consequence of the epidemic, many individuals have lost their employment, and millions more are now in danger. When breadwinners lose their jobs, become sick, or die, the food and nutrition of millions of people are endangered. Particularly severely hit are the world’s poorest small farmers and indigenous peoples.

Infectious illness outbreaks and epidemics have become worldwide threats due to globalization, urbanization, and environmental change. In developed countries like Europe and North America, surveillance and health systems monitor and manage the spread of infectious illnesses in real-time. Both low- and high-income countries need to improve their public health capacities (Omer et al., Pg 1767). These improvements should be financed using a mix of national and foreign donor money. In order to speed up research and reaction for new illnesses with pandemic potential, a global collaborative effort including governments and commercial companies has been proposed. When working on a vaccine-like COVID-19, cooperation is critical.

The epidemic has had an impact on the whole food chain, revealing vulnerabilities that were previously hidden. Border closures, trade restrictions, and confinement measures have limited farmer access to markets, while agricultural workers have been unable to gather crops. As a result, the local and global food supply chain has been disrupted, and people now have less access to healthy foods (Daniel et al.,Pg 95) . As a consequence of the epidemic, many individuals have lost their employment, and millions more are now in danger. When breadwinners lose their jobs, the food and nutrition of millions of people are endangered. Particularly severely hit are the world’s poorest small farmers and indigenous peoples.

While helping to feed the world’s population, millions of paid and unpaid agricultural laborers suffer from high levels of poverty, hunger, and bad health, as well as a lack of safety and labor safeguards, as well as other kinds of abuse at work. Poor people, who have no recourse to social assistance, must work longer and harder, sometimes in hazardous occupations, endangering their families in the process (Daniel Pg 96). When faced with a lack of income, people may turn to hazardous financial activities, including asset liquidation, predatory lending, or child labor, to make ends meet. Because of the dangers they encounter while traveling, working, and living abroad; migrant agricultural laborers are especially vulnerable. They also have a difficult time taking advantage of government assistance programs.

The pandemic also has a significant impact on education. Although many educational institutions across the globe have already made the switch to online learning, the extent to which technology is utilized to improve the quality of distance or online learning varies. This level is dependent on several variables, including the different parties engaged in the execution of this learning format and the incorporation of technology into educational institutions before the time of school closure caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. For many years, researchers from all around the globe have worked to determine what variables contribute to effective technology integration in the classroom Ciotti et al., Pg 371. The amount of technology usage and the quality of learning when moving from a classroom to a distant or online format are presumed to be influenced by the same set of variables. Findings from previous research, which sought to determine what affects educational systems ability to integrate technology into teaching, suggest understanding how teachers, students, and technology interact positively in order to achieve positive results in the integration of teaching technology (Honey et al., 2000). Teachers’ views on teaching may affect the chances of successfully incorporating technology into the classroom and making it a part of the learning process.

In conclusion, indeed, Covid 19 pandemic have affected the well being of the people in a significant manner. The economy operation across the globe have been destabilized as most of the people have been rendered jobless while the job operation has been stopped. As most of the people have been rendered jobless the living conditions of the people have also been significantly affected. Besides, the education sector has also been affected as most of the learning institutions prefer the use of online learning which is not effective as compared to the traditional method. With the invention of the vaccines, most of the developed countries have been noted to stabilize slowly, while the developing countries have not been able to vaccinate most of its citizens. However, despite the challenge caused by the pandemic, organizations have been able to adapt the new mode of online trading to be promoted.

Ciotti, Marco, et al. “The COVID-19 pandemic.”  Critical reviews in clinical laboratory sciences  57.6 (2020): 365-388.

Daniel, John. “Education and the COVID-19 pandemic.”  Prospects  49.1 (2020): 91-96.

Fraser, Nicholas, et al. “Preprinting the COVID-19 pandemic.”  BioRxiv  (2021): 2020-05.

Omer, Saad B., Preeti Malani, and Carlos Del Rio. “The COVID-19 pandemic in the US: a clinical update.”  Jama  323.18 (2020): 1767-1768.

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Covid 19 Essay in English

Essay on Covid -19: In a very short amount of time, coronavirus has spread globally. It has had an enormous impact on people's lives, economy, and societies all around the world, affecting every country. Governments have had to take severe measures to try and contain the pandemic. The virus has altered our way of life in many ways, including its effects on our health and our economy. Here are a few sample essays on ‘CoronaVirus’.

100 Words Essay on Covid 19

200 words essay on covid 19, 500 words essay on covid 19.

COVID-19 or Corona Virus is a novel coronavirus that was first identified in 2019. It is similar to other coronaviruses, such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, but it is more contagious and has caused more severe respiratory illness in people who have been infected. The novel coronavirus became a global pandemic in a very short period of time. It has affected lives, economies and societies across the world, leaving no country untouched. The virus has caused governments to take drastic measures to try and contain it. From health implications to economic and social ramifications, COVID-19 impacted every part of our lives. It has been more than 2 years since the pandemic hit and the world is still recovering from its effects.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the world has been impacted in a number of ways. For one, the global economy has taken a hit as businesses have been forced to close their doors. This has led to widespread job losses and an increase in poverty levels around the world. Additionally, countries have had to impose strict travel restrictions in an attempt to contain the virus, which has resulted in a decrease in tourism and international trade. Furthermore, the pandemic has put immense pressure on healthcare systems globally, as hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients suffering from the virus. Lastly, the outbreak has led to a general feeling of anxiety and uncertainty, as people are fearful of contracting the disease.

My Experience of COVID-19

I still remember how abruptly colleges and schools shut down in March 2020. I was a college student at that time and I was under the impression that everything would go back to normal in a few weeks. I could not have been more wrong. The situation only got worse every week and the government had to impose a lockdown. There were so many restrictions in place. For example, we had to wear face masks whenever we left the house, and we could only go out for essential errands. Restaurants and shops were only allowed to operate at take-out capacity, and many businesses were shut down.

In the current scenario, coronavirus is dominating all aspects of our lives. The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc upon people’s lives, altering the way we live and work in a very short amount of time. It has revolutionised how we think about health care, education, and even social interaction. This virus has had long-term implications on our society, including its impact on mental health, economic stability, and global politics. But we as individuals can help to mitigate these effects by taking personal responsibility to protect themselves and those around them from infection.

Effects of CoronaVirus on Education

The outbreak of coronavirus has had a significant impact on education systems around the world. In China, where the virus originated, all schools and universities were closed for several weeks in an effort to contain the spread of the disease. Many other countries have followed suit, either closing schools altogether or suspending classes for a period of time.

This has resulted in a major disruption to the education of millions of students. Some have been able to continue their studies online, but many have not had access to the internet or have not been able to afford the costs associated with it. This has led to a widening of the digital divide between those who can afford to continue their education online and those who cannot.

The closure of schools has also had a negative impact on the mental health of many students. With no face-to-face contact with friends and teachers, some students have felt isolated and anxious. This has been compounded by the worry and uncertainty surrounding the virus itself.

The situation with coronavirus has improved and schools have been reopened but students are still catching up with the gap of 2 years that the pandemic created. In the meantime, governments and educational institutions are working together to find ways to support students and ensure that they are able to continue their education despite these difficult circumstances.

Effects of CoronaVirus on Economy

The outbreak of the coronavirus has had a significant impact on the global economy. The virus, which originated in China, has spread to over two hundred countries, resulting in widespread panic and a decrease in global trade. As a result of the outbreak, many businesses have been forced to close their doors, leading to a rise in unemployment. In addition, the stock market has taken a severe hit.

Effects of CoronaVirus on Health

The effects that coronavirus has on one's health are still being studied and researched as the virus continues to spread throughout the world. However, some of the potential effects on health that have been observed thus far include respiratory problems, fever, and coughing. In severe cases, pneumonia, kidney failure, and death can occur. It is important for people who think they may have been exposed to the virus to seek medical attention immediately so that they can be treated properly and avoid any serious complications. There is no specific cure or treatment for coronavirus at this time, but there are ways to help ease symptoms and prevent the virus from spreading.

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Individuals who opt for a career as geothermal engineers are the professionals involved in the processing of geothermal energy. The responsibilities of geothermal engineers may vary depending on the workplace location. Those who work in fields design facilities to process and distribute geothermal energy. They oversee the functioning of machinery used in the field.

Remote Sensing Technician

Individuals who opt for a career as a remote sensing technician possess unique personalities. Remote sensing analysts seem to be rational human beings, they are strong, independent, persistent, sincere, realistic and resourceful. Some of them are analytical as well, which means they are intelligent, introspective and inquisitive. 

Remote sensing scientists use remote sensing technology to support scientists in fields such as community planning, flight planning or the management of natural resources. Analysing data collected from aircraft, satellites or ground-based platforms using statistical analysis software, image analysis software or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a significant part of their work. Do you want to learn how to become remote sensing technician? There's no need to be concerned; we've devised a simple remote sensing technician career path for you. Scroll through the pages and read.

Geotechnical engineer

The role of geotechnical engineer starts with reviewing the projects needed to define the required material properties. The work responsibilities are followed by a site investigation of rock, soil, fault distribution and bedrock properties on and below an area of interest. The investigation is aimed to improve the ground engineering design and determine their engineering properties that include how they will interact with, on or in a proposed construction. 

The role of geotechnical engineer in mining includes designing and determining the type of foundations, earthworks, and or pavement subgrades required for the intended man-made structures to be made. Geotechnical engineering jobs are involved in earthen and concrete dam construction projects, working under a range of normal and extreme loading conditions. 

Cartographer

How fascinating it is to represent the whole world on just a piece of paper or a sphere. With the help of maps, we are able to represent the real world on a much smaller scale. Individuals who opt for a career as a cartographer are those who make maps. But, cartography is not just limited to maps, it is about a mixture of art , science , and technology. As a cartographer, not only you will create maps but use various geodetic surveys and remote sensing systems to measure, analyse, and create different maps for political, cultural or educational purposes.

Budget Analyst

Budget analysis, in a nutshell, entails thoroughly analyzing the details of a financial budget. The budget analysis aims to better understand and manage revenue. Budget analysts assist in the achievement of financial targets, the preservation of profitability, and the pursuit of long-term growth for a business. Budget analysts generally have a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or a closely related field. Knowledge of Financial Management is of prime importance in this career.

Product Manager

A Product Manager is a professional responsible for product planning and marketing. He or she manages the product throughout the Product Life Cycle, gathering and prioritising the product. A product manager job description includes defining the product vision and working closely with team members of other departments to deliver winning products.  

Underwriter

An underwriter is a person who assesses and evaluates the risk of insurance in his or her field like mortgage, loan, health policy, investment, and so on and so forth. The underwriter career path does involve risks as analysing the risks means finding out if there is a way for the insurance underwriter jobs to recover the money from its clients. If the risk turns out to be too much for the company then in the future it is an underwriter who will be held accountable for it. Therefore, one must carry out his or her job with a lot of attention and diligence.

Finance Executive

Operations manager.

Individuals in the operations manager jobs are responsible for ensuring the efficiency of each department to acquire its optimal goal. They plan the use of resources and distribution of materials. The operations manager's job description includes managing budgets, negotiating contracts, and performing administrative tasks.

Bank Probationary Officer (PO)

Investment director.

An investment director is a person who helps corporations and individuals manage their finances. They can help them develop a strategy to achieve their goals, including paying off debts and investing in the future. In addition, he or she can help individuals make informed decisions.

Welding Engineer

Welding Engineer Job Description: A Welding Engineer work involves managing welding projects and supervising welding teams. He or she is responsible for reviewing welding procedures, processes and documentation. A career as Welding Engineer involves conducting failure analyses and causes on welding issues. 

Transportation Planner

A career as Transportation Planner requires technical application of science and technology in engineering, particularly the concepts, equipment and technologies involved in the production of products and services. In fields like land use, infrastructure review, ecological standards and street design, he or she considers issues of health, environment and performance. A Transportation Planner assigns resources for implementing and designing programmes. He or she is responsible for assessing needs, preparing plans and forecasts and compliance with regulations.

An expert in plumbing is aware of building regulations and safety standards and works to make sure these standards are upheld. Testing pipes for leakage using air pressure and other gauges, and also the ability to construct new pipe systems by cutting, fitting, measuring and threading pipes are some of the other more involved aspects of plumbing. Individuals in the plumber career path are self-employed or work for a small business employing less than ten people, though some might find working for larger entities or the government more desirable.

Construction Manager

Individuals who opt for a career as construction managers have a senior-level management role offered in construction firms. Responsibilities in the construction management career path are assigning tasks to workers, inspecting their work, and coordinating with other professionals including architects, subcontractors, and building services engineers.

Urban Planner

Urban Planning careers revolve around the idea of developing a plan to use the land optimally, without affecting the environment. Urban planning jobs are offered to those candidates who are skilled in making the right use of land to distribute the growing population, to create various communities. 

Urban planning careers come with the opportunity to make changes to the existing cities and towns. They identify various community needs and make short and long-term plans accordingly.

Highway Engineer

Highway Engineer Job Description:  A Highway Engineer is a civil engineer who specialises in planning and building thousands of miles of roads that support connectivity and allow transportation across the country. He or she ensures that traffic management schemes are effectively planned concerning economic sustainability and successful implementation.

Environmental Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as an environmental engineer are construction professionals who utilise the skills and knowledge of biology, soil science, chemistry and the concept of engineering to design and develop projects that serve as solutions to various environmental problems. 

Naval Architect

A Naval Architect is a professional who designs, produces and repairs safe and sea-worthy surfaces or underwater structures. A Naval Architect stays involved in creating and designing ships, ferries, submarines and yachts with implementation of various principles such as gravity, ideal hull form, buoyancy and stability. 

Orthotist and Prosthetist

Orthotists and Prosthetists are professionals who provide aid to patients with disabilities. They fix them to artificial limbs (prosthetics) and help them to regain stability. There are times when people lose their limbs in an accident. In some other occasions, they are born without a limb or orthopaedic impairment. Orthotists and prosthetists play a crucial role in their lives with fixing them to assistive devices and provide mobility.

Veterinary Doctor

Pathologist.

A career in pathology in India is filled with several responsibilities as it is a medical branch and affects human lives. The demand for pathologists has been increasing over the past few years as people are getting more aware of different diseases. Not only that, but an increase in population and lifestyle changes have also contributed to the increase in a pathologist’s demand. The pathology careers provide an extremely huge number of opportunities and if you want to be a part of the medical field you can consider being a pathologist. If you want to know more about a career in pathology in India then continue reading this article.

Speech Therapist

Gynaecologist.

Gynaecology can be defined as the study of the female body. The job outlook for gynaecology is excellent since there is evergreen demand for one because of their responsibility of dealing with not only women’s health but also fertility and pregnancy issues. Although most women prefer to have a women obstetrician gynaecologist as their doctor, men also explore a career as a gynaecologist and there are ample amounts of male doctors in the field who are gynaecologists and aid women during delivery and childbirth. 

An oncologist is a specialised doctor responsible for providing medical care to patients diagnosed with cancer. He or she uses several therapies to control the cancer and its effect on the human body such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and biopsy. An oncologist designs a treatment plan based on a pathology report after diagnosing the type of cancer and where it is spreading inside the body.

Audiologist

The audiologist career involves audiology professionals who are responsible to treat hearing loss and proactively preventing the relevant damage. Individuals who opt for a career as an audiologist use various testing strategies with the aim to determine if someone has a normal sensitivity to sounds or not. After the identification of hearing loss, a hearing doctor is required to determine which sections of the hearing are affected, to what extent they are affected, and where the wound causing the hearing loss is found. As soon as the hearing loss is identified, the patients are provided with recommendations for interventions and rehabilitation such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and appropriate medical referrals. While audiology is a branch of science that studies and researches hearing, balance, and related disorders.

Hospital Administrator

The hospital Administrator is in charge of organising and supervising the daily operations of medical services and facilities. This organising includes managing of organisation’s staff and its members in service, budgets, service reports, departmental reporting and taking reminders of patient care and services.

For an individual who opts for a career as an actor, the primary responsibility is to completely speak to the character he or she is playing and to persuade the crowd that the character is genuine by connecting with them and bringing them into the story. This applies to significant roles and littler parts, as all roles join to make an effective creation. Here in this article, we will discuss how to become an actor in India, actor exams, actor salary in India, and actor jobs. 

Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats create and direct original routines for themselves, in addition to developing interpretations of existing routines. The work of circus acrobats can be seen in a variety of performance settings, including circus, reality shows, sports events like the Olympics, movies and commercials. Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats must be prepared to face rejections and intermittent periods of work. The creativity of acrobats may extend to other aspects of the performance. For example, acrobats in the circus may work with gym trainers, celebrities or collaborate with other professionals to enhance such performance elements as costume and or maybe at the teaching end of the career.

Video Game Designer

Career as a video game designer is filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. A video game designer is someone who is involved in the process of creating a game from day one. He or she is responsible for fulfilling duties like designing the character of the game, the several levels involved, plot, art and similar other elements. Individuals who opt for a career as a video game designer may also write the codes for the game using different programming languages.

Depending on the video game designer job description and experience they may also have to lead a team and do the early testing of the game in order to suggest changes and find loopholes.

Radio Jockey

Radio Jockey is an exciting, promising career and a great challenge for music lovers. If you are really interested in a career as radio jockey, then it is very important for an RJ to have an automatic, fun, and friendly personality. If you want to get a job done in this field, a strong command of the language and a good voice are always good things. Apart from this, in order to be a good radio jockey, you will also listen to good radio jockeys so that you can understand their style and later make your own by practicing.

A career as radio jockey has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. If you want to know more about a career as radio jockey, and how to become a radio jockey then continue reading the article.

Choreographer

The word “choreography" actually comes from Greek words that mean “dance writing." Individuals who opt for a career as a choreographer create and direct original dances, in addition to developing interpretations of existing dances. A Choreographer dances and utilises his or her creativity in other aspects of dance performance. For example, he or she may work with the music director to select music or collaborate with other famous choreographers to enhance such performance elements as lighting, costume and set design.

Videographer

Multimedia specialist.

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications. 

Social Media Manager

A career as social media manager involves implementing the company’s or brand’s marketing plan across all social media channels. Social media managers help in building or improving a brand’s or a company’s website traffic, build brand awareness, create and implement marketing and brand strategy. Social media managers are key to important social communication as well.

Copy Writer

In a career as a copywriter, one has to consult with the client and understand the brief well. A career as a copywriter has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. Several new mediums of advertising are opening therefore making it a lucrative career choice. Students can pursue various copywriter courses such as Journalism , Advertising , Marketing Management . Here, we have discussed how to become a freelance copywriter, copywriter career path, how to become a copywriter in India, and copywriting career outlook. 

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion. 

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article. 

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Linguistic meaning is related to language or Linguistics which is the study of languages. A career as a linguistic meaning, a profession that is based on the scientific study of language, and it's a very broad field with many specialities. Famous linguists work in academia, researching and teaching different areas of language, such as phonetics (sounds), syntax (word order) and semantics (meaning). 

Other researchers focus on specialities like computational linguistics, which seeks to better match human and computer language capacities, or applied linguistics, which is concerned with improving language education. Still, others work as language experts for the government, advertising companies, dictionary publishers and various other private enterprises. Some might work from home as freelance linguists. Philologist, phonologist, and dialectician are some of Linguist synonym. Linguists can study French , German , Italian . 

Public Relation Executive

Travel journalist.

The career of a travel journalist is full of passion, excitement and responsibility. Journalism as a career could be challenging at times, but if you're someone who has been genuinely enthusiastic about all this, then it is the best decision for you. Travel journalism jobs are all about insightful, artfully written, informative narratives designed to cover the travel industry. Travel Journalist is someone who explores, gathers and presents information as a news article.

Quality Controller

A quality controller plays a crucial role in an organisation. He or she is responsible for performing quality checks on manufactured products. He or she identifies the defects in a product and rejects the product. 

A quality controller records detailed information about products with defects and sends it to the supervisor or plant manager to take necessary actions to improve the production process.

Production Manager

Merchandiser.

A QA Lead is in charge of the QA Team. The role of QA Lead comes with the responsibility of assessing services and products in order to determine that he or she meets the quality standards. He or she develops, implements and manages test plans. 

Metallurgical Engineer

A metallurgical engineer is a professional who studies and produces materials that bring power to our world. He or she extracts metals from ores and rocks and transforms them into alloys, high-purity metals and other materials used in developing infrastructure, transportation and healthcare equipment. 

Azure Administrator

An Azure Administrator is a professional responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Azure Solutions. He or she manages cloud infrastructure service instances and various cloud servers as well as sets up public and private cloud systems. 

AWS Solution Architect

An AWS Solution Architect is someone who specializes in developing and implementing cloud computing systems. He or she has a good understanding of the various aspects of cloud computing and can confidently deploy and manage their systems. He or she troubleshoots the issues and evaluates the risk from the third party. 

Computer Programmer

Careers in computer programming primarily refer to the systematic act of writing code and moreover include wider computer science areas. The word 'programmer' or 'coder' has entered into practice with the growing number of newly self-taught tech enthusiasts. Computer programming careers involve the use of designs created by software developers and engineers and transforming them into commands that can be implemented by computers. These commands result in regular usage of social media sites, word-processing applications and browsers.

ITSM Manager

Information security manager.

Individuals in the information security manager career path involves in overseeing and controlling all aspects of computer security. The IT security manager job description includes planning and carrying out security measures to protect the business data and information from corruption, theft, unauthorised access, and deliberate attack 

Business Intelligence Developer

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Youth social innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines: a quantitative and qualitative descriptive analyses from a crowdsourcing open call and online hackathon

Allan ulitin.

1 Institute of Health Policy and Development Studies - National Institutes of Health, University of the Philippines Manila, Manila, Philippines

Jana Deborah Mier-Alpaño

2 University of the Philippines Manila, Manila, Philippines

Meredith Labarda

3 Department of Medicine, University of the Philippines Manila - School of Health Sciences, Palo, Leyte, Philippines

4 Department of Clinical Epidemiology, University of the Philippines Manila, Manila, Philippines

Abigail Ruth Mier

Joseph d tucker.

5 IGHID, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Weiming Tang

6 University of North Carolina Project-China, Guangzhou, China

Mallika Auplish

7 World Health Organization-Regional Office for the Western Pacific, Manila, Philippines

Po-lin Chan

Associated data.

All data relevant to the study are included in the article.

Introduction

Young people have played a pivotal role as part of the COVID-19 response, including developing health messages and social innovations. Social innovation in health engages multiple stakeholders in linking social change and health improvement. The study examined the feasibility of youth ideas and innovations to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic using quantitative and qualitative descriptive analyses.

In partnership with the WHO, academic institutions, youth organisations and civil society groups, we conducted a crowdsourcing open call among Filipino youth (15–30 years old) using a structured Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases/Social Innovation in Health Initiative process. The open call had three categories: youth voices to cocreate the post-COVID-19 world (entries were texts, images, videos and music), youth-led COVID-19 social innovations , and youth-led social innovations not related to COVID-19 . Each submission was evaluated by three independent judges. Finalists were selected in each of the categories alongside four grand winners. All finalists were invited to attend a 1 day online civic hackathon.

We received a total of 113 entries ( youth voices to cocreate the post-COVID world =76; youth-led COVID-19 social innovations =17; youth-led social innovations not related to COVID-19 =20). Twelve entries focused on youth mental health during the pandemic. The online hackathon provided the participants mentorship for further development of their ideas. Finalists were able to produce draft health communication campaigns and improved social innovations.

Many Filipino youth created exceptional entries in response to the open call. This suggests the feasibility of including youth voices in strategic planning processes. A global youth social innovation call is recommended.

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ON THIS TOPIC

• The current COVID-19 response limits the extent to which youth have been engaged to address health challenges during the pandemic especially in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) including the Philippines.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on youth, especially on their health in which this shared experience also highlighted the ways where they can be active agents of change to address these health needs and challenges through social innovation.

WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS

• The Social Innovation in Health Initiative Philippines, in partnership with Social Entrepreneurship to Spur Health, Asian Medical Students Association Philippines and other youth organisations and the World Health Organization-Western Pacific Regional Office conducted a crowdsourcing open call and online civic hackathon to gather Filipino youth’s ideas about the future postpandemic and to come up with innovative solutions to identified health needs during the pandemic.
• Filipino youth’s ideas about the future provided insights into the present experience of the youth during the pandemic and presented imagined life postpandemic highlighting advancements in technology and issues relating to work, family, education, social interactions and environment. The youth open call received commendable ongoing and proposed social innovation entries that address a wide range of emerging health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic, with several tackling mental health.

HOW THIS STUDY MIGHT AFFECT RESEARCH, PRACTICE AND/OR POLICY

• Bringing in youth voices to inform programmes and policies is imperative. Crowdsourcing open calls and online civic hackathons to solicit youth input could be useful tools to respond to health emergency needs in LMIC settings.
• Exceptional innovation entries open space for implementation research to assess their quality and impact on improving specific health and development outcomes.

COVID-19 responses have been mostly expert driven by central authorities, limiting the extent to which youth have been engaged. The pandemic has had a profound impact on youth health, especially mental health. 1 2 The shared experience of the pandemic has also highlighted ways that youth can be active agents of change through social innovation. 3–5 Social innovation can be defined as a solution—a process, product, practice or market mechanism—developed by a range of actors in response to health challenges within a geographic context. 6 One way to identify social innovations is through crowdsourcing open calls.

Crowdsourcing open calls are novel approach to identify and solicit community-based solutions. Through crowdsourcing, actors work together to come up with solutions to identified health needs. 7 Crowdsourcing has been widely used in public health and medical research, 8 such as in identifying approaches to manage infectious diseases. 9 10 In addition, crowdsourcing may help recognise innovative solutions that are actionable, quick, and low cost for health and economic challenges brought by the pandemic. 11 12 Crowdsourcing may be done through a hackathon, an event that convenes actors with varied expertise during a brief period to solve a problem. 7 For the purpose of our activity, we adapted an online civic hackathon to be an opportunity for the youth to develop civic and innovative solutions for problems in their communities. 13

Online hackathons are emerging approach within the space of health innovations to help generate solutions in response to COVID-19. These activities promote inclusive participation, cross-regional collaboration and rapid multisectoral partnership and may be less expensive. 13 Since the onset of the pandemic, online hackathons have helped to organise community responses to COVID-19 and identify compelling innovations. 14 15

While youth who are directly and indirectly affected by the pandemic are particularly well suited to cocreate COVID-19 solutions, current published literature has paid little attention to youth voices and perspectives to address the health priorities brought by the pandemic. 16 This holds true among low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) including the Philippines, where responses to the pandemic were organised primarily by central authorities. 17

At present, there is limited available literature exploring the needs of Filipino youth in various aspects of their lives during the pandemic, as well as participatory events such as hackathons that are organised particularly for them. Moreover, existing open call and hackathon initiatives paid far too little attention to youth-initiated non-digital solutions and health innovations that adapted a systems approach (ie, impact of economy, future of work and technology on health). 18 This led us to conduct an open call and online civic hackathon to solicit: (A) youth ideas about how they foresee the future after the COVID-19 pandemic, (B) youth-led social innovation projects to address health needs brought by the COVID-19 pandemic in local communities and (C) social innovation projects implemented during the time of pandemic to address non-COVID-19 related health needs.

We used the WHO/TDR (Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases)/Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI)/Social Entrepreneurship to Spur Health (SESH) practical guide on crowdsourcing in health research 7 that provides the steps on organising a crowdsourcing contest. In the Philippine context where many young people are present both in school and out-of-school communities, we involved key government agencies including the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Sangguniang Kabataan ( Sangguniang Kabataan is a council meant to represent the youth in each barangay or village in the Philippines), community-based arts youth groups, indigenous peoples’ groups and faith-based organisations in consultation and cocreation process, and promotional activities to ensure that our open call reaches across youth groups of different socioeconomic status. We used social media and email to promote and collect entries, drawing on a snowball referral method.

Our open call aimed to ideate solutions among the youth. It also sought to stimulate youth’s thinking about the future, the problems that may arise and ideating solutions based on these, thereby skilling youth in futures literacy and enabling thinking and response mechanisms to resolve projected issues.

The SIHI Philippines Hub, in partnership with Social Entrepreneurship to Spur Health, Asian Medical Students Association Philippines and other youth organisations, with the support of the World Health Organization-Western Pacific Regional Office conducted an open call for the Filipino youth. The purpose of the open call was to generate youth ideas about the future and collect youth-led social innovations related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Filipino youth (ages 15–30) were invited to submit entries to any of the following categories: (A) youth voices to cocreate the post-COVID-19 world (youth ideas): future-oriented ideas on the problems or concerns that would emerge in youth lives out of the pandemic (eg, in work, education, family and health); entries could be texts, images, videos and music; (B) youth-led COVID-19 social innovations: youth-led social innovations implemented to address problems or challenges brought by COVID-19 in a given community; entries could be innovations that address either direct or indirect COVID-19 health problems; and (c) youth-led social innovations not related to COVID-19 : non-COVID-19 related youth-led innovations that address other health problems or challenges not related to COVID-19. The open call was promoted starting 14 October 2020 and accepted submissions from 4 November to 18 December 2020.

Steering committee

To facilitate the implementation of the open call, we organised a steering committee composed of representatives from multiple sectors and fields including medicine, public health, health service delivery, youth development, social and behavioural science, social entrepreneurship, social development, and futures thinking and literacy. They were involved in the conceptualisation and design of the open call through consultations and cocreation process. Regular consultation meetings were conducted to monitor progress of the open call.

Promotion of the open call

We used digital platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to promote the open call. Promotional materials were also posted on SIHI’s official website. Facebook was mainly used as it is the most popular social media platform in the Philippines. We used paid promotion to enhance youth engagement across the country. We also reached out to different youth organisations and advocate groups to promote the open call through their social media accounts and networks. Most publicity materials were posted on Thursday and Friday nights to maximise youth engagement based on increased online activity during those periods. Steering committee members and partner organisations also shared the publicity materials on their social media accounts. The Facebook’s insights tool tallied a total of 332 931 post reach, which represent the number of people who saw our posted materials, 19 13 331 total engagements (reactions, comments and shares) and 30 189 post clicks (photo views, website link clicks, profile name clicks, ‘see more’ clicks).

Selection of entries

Each entry was evaluated by three independent judges. The entries were distributed for evaluation to a total of 27 judges, a collective of health professionals, academics, social innovation champions, youth leaders and other key partners in health and social innovations. For the youth ideas category, entries were assessed to ensure these included a clear description to reimagine a collective future postpandemic and an innovative idea about the future expressed in a compelling way. All youth-led innovation entries were evaluated based on the degree of innovativeness, feasibility, inclusiveness, effectiveness and potential to inform policies and programmes. Grand winners of two innovation categories received seed money for implementation activities of their novel solutions.

Online youth civic hackathon

Part of the incentives for the open call finalists was participation in a 1 day online civic hackathon. Due to COVID-19 restrictions preventing face-to-face events, the hackathon was conducted online. It had the following specific objectives: (A) highlight the Filipino youth situation, perspectives,and experiences during the pandemic; (B) provide mentorship for research, ideation and further development of the finalists’ innovative ideas; and (C) provide a platform for networking among the participants. It was designed to consist of three major segments: capacity building of participants through plenary talks by local experts, mentoring sessions by volunteer mentors and pitching of final outputs.

Data analysis

The general profile of the respondents who filled out the participant’s information form were presented as summary statistics on gender, age, employment, education and geographical location. The emerging themes of the open call entries across three categories were also summarised. Two authors (AU and JDM-A) separately examined all the submissions. They independently identify the themes of the entries by determining the concerns or issues addressed by the submitted ideas and innovations. Individual findings were presented and consulted to the rest of the team for consensus. Statistical analysis of quantitative data and textual analysis of qualitative data were performed using Excel (Office 365, Microsoft).

Patient and public involvement

No patient involved.

The open call received a total of 113 entries from a total of 71 individual participants and 22 groups. Among the 45 participants who provided their personal information along with their submitted entries, 24 identified themselves as men, 21 identified as women. Most of these participants belonged to the age bracket 18–23 years (21), were students (28) and were from the Luzon island group (27). The general profile of the participants is summarised in table 1 . An overview of the received entries is presented in table 2 .

Sociodemographic characteristics of youth open call participants (n=45)

Overview of entries to the open call

After the evaluation process, a total of 15 entries with the highest mean scores in their respective categories were selected as finalists. Distribution of mean scores is presented in figure 1 . Six finalists were selected for the category youth voices to cocreate the post-COVID-19 world: text entries. Three finalists each were selected for the categories youth voices to cocreate the post-COVID-19 world: non-text entries, youth-led COVID-19 social innovations and youth-led social innovations not related to COVID-19 . One grand winner was then chosen for each category. Top-ranked entries to the open call are presented in table 3 .

Histogram showing a distribution of mean scores of entries to the Philippine youth open call (n=113).

Top-ranked entries to the open call

Youth voices to cocreate the post-COVID-19 world

There were eight emerging themes from the 76 entries on ideas about the future postpandemic as summarised in table 2 . Framing the entries through the lens of strategic planning, some of them provided insights into the present experience and plight of the youth during the pandemic. These entries either described the current situation, called for necessary actions, shared reflections from the pandemic experience or presented the status of the welfare of the youth. Other entries depicted the imagined life postpandemic highlighting advancements in technology and issues related to work, family, education, social interactions and environment.

Youth-led social innovations

There were nine emerging themes from the 37 innovation entries of which the majority addressed physical health and mental health. Innovation entries were further categorised into either implemented or proposed innovations as summarised in table 2 .

Out of 31 invited finalists, 28 joined the hackathon, of which 16 were male and 12 were female. Mean age of the participants was 23 years old. Ten participants were from Luzon, 8 were from Visayas and 10 were from Mindanao.

Participants were given a presentation on design thinking and provided mentorship by volunteer mentors to improve their innovation entries and produce health communication campaigns.

Participants from youth voices to cocreate the post-COVID-19 world category were able to come up with draft health communication campaigns. Two groups identified mental health of adolescents and young adults amidst the pandemic as their health priority. One group focused on physical health and well-being of senior high school and college students, highlighting changes in lifestyle from attending online classes. Outputs were presented during plenary session. Feedback of mentors revolved around the following themes: evidence-based approach for the campaign; inclusiveness, uniqueness and innovativeness; incorporating solutions in the campaign; and strategies to expand reach of the campaign.

Participants from youth-led social innovations categories received advice from mentors for the improvement of their ongoing or proposed innovations. Mentors’ feedbacks addressed the following key areas: general context of the innovations; technical specifications of innovation products; sustainability and marketability of innovations; and expansion of networks and building partnerships to scale-up innovations.

The youth open call and online civic hackathon that we organised demonstrated that these activities can be effective approaches to stimulate strategic planning for policymakers by engaging the youth. These methods are also helpful tools to solicit novel solutions to community health needs in the time of COVID-19. Our experience is consistent with other crowdsourcing and hackathon research. 11 20 This extends the literature by presenting how open calls and hackathons could be useful in responding to emergency health needs, focusing on youth voices and soliciting crowd input from an LMIC setting. Our experience on gathering ideas and solutions provides practical insight for future implementation.

From the pool of submitted entries and the creation of health communication campaigns during the online civic hackathon, mental health was identified as an important health concern among the youth participants. Three entries in youth ideas category, seven youth-led innovation entries and two health communication campaigns during the hackathon tackled mental health. The mental health challenges that were highlighted include isolation or lack of social interaction during the lockdown and increased cases of anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide during the pandemic. Understandably, these challenges were followed by proposed solutions and innovations in some entries. Some examples of these include provision of spaces for constructive interaction among youth, venues or media for expression, enabling good coping skills through education, and guidance to deal with stress and anxiety. Limited literature is available about these interventions during the pandemic especially in LMIC settings. 21 Furthermore, this observation affirms the findings of recent studies that identify COVID-19 pandemic as having significant impact on youth mental health. 1 2 15 22–24 This also signifies that mental health is a concern that needs more serious attention of both research and policy sectors especially during COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the winning youth-led innovation entries, This Book is so Boring , is a creative social innovation developed by a local adolescent nurse. It is a printed personal journal that seeks to address mental health issues. The journal was initially focused on serving a local city population of one province, but its reach has expanded to surrounding cities and municipalities. In the first 10 months of implementation, a total of 700 hundred printed copies of the journal were distributed all over the province. The journal could be a useful resource for other sectors including educational institutions to promote mental health among the youth. This simple solution could be adapted for different settings and used in many resource-constrained contexts. This responds to the substantial gap in mental health interventions for youth 21 and allows for services to reach members of the population with limited digital resources.

Youth and non-experts submitted several high-ranked entries to our open call. This is consistent with the hypothesis that crowds can generate wisdom to improve health outcomes. 25 Our open call has received commendable entries, with a mix of proposed and ongoing social innovations. These innovations address a wide range of health needs and challenges including those related and not related to COVID-19. The COVID-19 related innovations mainly focus on monitoring and prevention of cases. The non-COVID-19 related innovations target improving physical health and well-being of the target community members. Our open call, however, was not able to measure the health impacts of implemented social innovations and assess the key factors that may affect the feasibility of the proposed social innovations.

We recorded unique entries envisioning the future after the pandemic. These include screenplay that told a story about life with advanced technologies and literary works (eg, poems, stories and essays) that featured the future of life in various aspects. These entries suggest creative means of making the public more future-informed for strategic planning. The ideas of the youth about their present predicament and their envisioned life in the future create an overarching background on why they produced specific innovations. This process of ideation followed a futures thinking approach that allows one to identify emerging issues, and from these issues to ‘negotiate uncertainties, articulate scenarios and develop a common vision of a desired future through wide participation’. To achieve the envisioned future, innovations will then be introduced. These steps would be essential for informed policies and strategies. 26

Due to practical constraints, our open call and online youth civic hackathon had several limitations. First, our open call only accepted entries that were submitted online due to COVID-19 restrictions. Second, as the platform for the online hackathon required steady internet connectivity, some participants from resource-limited areas were not able to attend the entire duration of the hackathon due to poor bandwidth. This was partially mitigated by paying for internet coverage, a parallel mobile phone text chat and extensive note taking. Acknowledging the fatigue that online events can cause, we organised the hackathon to be only a 1-day event. We understand that experiences from other open calls suggest that in-person activities can extend and enhance engagement. 27 Lastly, we have limited resources to track our received innovations particularly in terms of feasibility of implementation or roll-out. It is also beyond our scope to monitor the outcomes of the mentoring and seed money investments for the selected innovations.

Our data have applications for programmes and policies. We propose our findings to be incorporated into our ministry of health’s programme on healthy schools and communities under their health promotion agenda.

Our youth open call and online youth civic hackathon have several implications both for research and practice. First, these events have allowed the youth to generate and cocreate ideas and solutions to emerging health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. These identified solutions might contribute to the holistic approach to the COVID-19 pandemic response especially in LMIC setting where youth voices are missing in strategic planning processes. Moreover, exceptional innovation entries open opportunities for implementation research to assess quality and impact on improving specific health and development outcomes. Finally, this experience suggests the need for a global youth open call to amplify youth voices in response to the pandemic.

We described the processes of an open call and online civic hackathon for Filipino youth that solicited ideas and solutions to emerging challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Promising entries offer novel solutions that may contribute to the national and regional COVID-19 response in LMIC settings. Youth ideas and innovations highlight the need for more research to understand further the youth perspectives on COVID-19 pandemic challenges and assess the impact and feasibility of the proposed solutions as we move forward to the post-COVID-19 world.

Acknowledgments

The crowdsourcing open call and online hackathon were made possible by generous funding from the World Health Organization Western Pacific Regional Office. The authors would like to thank Sucelle Czarina Deacosta and Ma. Pamela Tagle for their expertise and roles in making the online hackathon possible. The authors would like to thank the finalists and participants of the crowdsourcing open call and online hackathon who submitted their entries to share their ideas and innovations to adress the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Twitter: @janadeborahmd, @JosephTucker

Deceased: NJ since deceased.

Contributors: All authors took part in the conceptualisation of this work. AU collected the data. AU, JDM-A, JDT, ML and ARM analysed the results and drafted the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the manuscript for submission. AU, as guarantor, accepts full responsibility for the work and/or the conduct of the study, had access to the data, and controlled the decision to publish.

Funding: The Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI) is funded by TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases cosponsored by UNICEF, UNDP, the World Bank and WHO. TDR receives additional funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) to support SIHI.

Disclaimer: The authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this article, and they do not necessarily represent the decisions or policies of PAHO or TDR. In any reproduction of this article there should not be any suggestion that PAHO or TDR endorse any specific organisation services or products.

Competing interests: None declared.

Patient and public involvement: Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.

Provenance and peer review: Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

Data availability statement

Ethics statements, patient consent for publication.

Not applicable.