Choosing the right COVID-19 indicator: crude mortality, case fatality, and infection fatality rates influence policy preferences, behaviour, and understanding

Journal article

AbstractIndividuals worldwide are overwhelmed with news about COVID-19. In times of pandemic, media alternate the usage of different COVID-19 indicators, ranging from the more typical crude mortality rate to the case fatality rate, and the infection fatality rate continuously. In this article, we used experimental methods to test whether and how the treatment of individuals with different types of information on COVID-19 is able to change policy preferences, individual and social behaviours, and the understanding of COVID-19 indicators. Results show that while the usage of the crude mortality rate proves to be more efficient in terms of supporting policy preferences and behaviours to contain the virus, all indicators suffer from a significant misunderstanding on behalf of the population.

Authors: Focacci, CN; Lam, PH; Bai, Y

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Springer Nature [academic journals on nature.com]
• Journal: Humanities & Social Sciences Communications
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1
• Publication date: 2022-12-01
• DOI: 10.1057/s41599-021-01032-0
• EISSN: 2662-9992
• ISSN: 2662-9992
• Language: English
• Keywords: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); Population; Pandemic; Economics; Infectious disease (medical specialty); Case fatality rate; Econometrics; Demography; Demographic economics; Mortality rate; Disease; Sociology; Medicine