Corona science

“By analysing changes in the stock market, we are able to draw conclusions about the economic repercussions of the pandemic for European banks”, says Mathijs van Dijk, professor of Finance at the Rotterdam School of Management. Banks play a crucial role in keeping the economy going, so if they really do get into trouble, the economic damage may be even greater than what we expect right now.

“This pandemic is a major ‘we-don’t-understand’ moment for all of us. We’re encountering something none of us have ever experienced before, and we’re inundated with information. How to make sense of everything?” says Rolf Zwaan, Full professor Cognitive Psychology. After all, there are all sorts of sources of information out there. On the one hand, you have your traditional media, such as de Volkskrant and NRC, but on the other hand, you have Facebook and Twitter, where people say all sorts of things. What kinds of sources do people use, and what does that tell us about the quality of the knowledge they collect on what the coronavirus is, what it does, and how best to protect yourself from it?

“If students believe that COVID-19 presents a very serious risk and health hazard, their level of anxiety may be such that their academic performance will suffer, but it may have the opposite effect as well, with such students actually performing better with online teaching because they are glad they can stay at home.” says Femke Hilverda, professor social psychology and risk communication. She collects information from all universities in the Netherlands on the courses being taught, students’ experiences with those courses, their academic performance and the impact of psychological traits and other factors on their experience and performance.

Charlotte Dieteren and Job van Exel have researched the Dutch public’s views on such issues. “And perhaps the most remarkable finding of all: a lot of people believe we should simply scale up the number of beds in the IC ward, since we shouldn’t actually have this kind of scarcity in a highly developed country like the Netherlands.” The study examines the Dutch public’s views on this decision process. Who should be taking these decisions, and which criteria should be referred to in this context?

In the spring, Professor Carin Uyl-de Groot became aware that the number of cancer diagnoses had dramatically declined compared with last year. Around 5,000 fewer diagnoses. And the problem not only relates to cancer, but to all forms of diagnoses. “Patients must be able to go to the doctor. If you call a medical practice now, you first get an answerphone or a long choice of options. GPs are seeing nearly half of the normal number of patients. And those missed diagnoses are mainly in that other half.”

Jeroen van der Waal, professor of sociology of stratification, has conducted research on the amount of trust social groups have in institutions for quite a while. “Many less educated people are baffled by how highly educated people view things, and vice versa. There is a huge gap between these two groups.”  The degree to which people are likely to comply with these restrictions is largely determined by how much faith they have in these institutions.

“Young adults are feeling like they don’t have many prospects, like they have no idea what their lives will be like one or two months from now. As a result, they have the feeling they are not in charge of their own lives”, says Eveline Crone, professor Developmental neuroscience in society. “The virus doesn’t cause young people to fall ill, so we’re asking this huge group to make an enormous sacrifice, just to be considerate to other generations. So I hope other generations will be considerate themselves and give young adults the opportunity to feel like they’re doing something useful.”

The music industry has been hit pretty hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Musicians who depend on live performances for their livelihoods are finding themselves living below the poverty line, and those musicians who are raking in the money are few and far between. This being the case, what are the music industry’s prospects down the track? Pauwke Berkers, a sociologist of culture at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, and Frank Kimenai, an external PhD candidate who has worked in the music industry for over fifteen years, joined forces to try and answer this question.

Young people may not be quite as susceptible to the coronavirus, but the restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the virus are hitting them particularly hard. GZ psychologist Jeroen Legerstee and Evelien Dietvorst, who is doing a PhD at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry unit of the Erasmus MC, are part of the research team that came up with the Grow It! App, in which capacity they are seeking to get a better understanding of young people’s emotions and behaviour. A few thousand of young people have voluntarily downloaded the app since the start of the pandemic, and it is giving them some much-needed support.

Vaccinating against the Covid-19 virus plays a pivotal role in getting the pandemic under control. More and more people are becoming eligible for immunisation, but quite a few of them are still hesitant about getting the jab. Josje ten Kate, sociologist and doctoral candidate at Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, is currently researching why some people view vaccines with such suspicion. She hopes to clarify which factors play a role in their decision whether or not to be vaccinated.

Despite the fact that we are still in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, some academics are already studying its impact. In his latest book, Pandemic Economics, Peter van Bergeijk, a Professor of International Economics and Macroeconomics at the International Institute of Social Studies, presents lessons learned in the past, as well as lessons learned during the current coronavirus pandemic. In the book he performs a critical analysis of non-medical measures and economic policy.

The coronavirus has resulted in all kinds of initiatives being established in Rotterdam to help fellow residents get through the crisis. Beitske Boonstra, post-doctoral researcher at Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB), is investigating these initiatives and how the municipality can support these. “This research is my way of contributing.”

Sreerekha Sathi is assistant professor in Gender and Political Economy at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS). Through her research, she is trying to understand the experiences of India’s women welfare workers, especially public health workers, in relation to the state support for their work. “The burden on the health workers is insane. People in India are feeling helpless and that is a feeling that I share.”

“When the schools were closed, some parents were still taking their kids to school, two or three days after the schools had shut down.” Together with her team, Zemzem Shigute Shuka researches the experiences of recent Habesha migrants to the Netherlands during Covid-19 and their findings were alarming.