Over more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, science has delivered highly effective vaccines and increasingly effective therapeutics. However, it has become widely understood that these medical advances are necessary but not sufficient to optimally control the pandemic. Applying evidence from the behavioral and social sciences is crucial for vaccine acceptance and uptake, adoption of effective behavioral mitigation strategies such as face mask wearing and physical distancing and for helping to understand the full range of short-and long-term health consequences for individuals, social networks, and society. In this month’s blog, we share the progress of one of the NIH behavioral and social science initiatives formed in response to COVID-19 and information about an upcoming virtual event that will showcase the findings of researchers supported by this initiative.

Early in 2020, NIH leadership identified multiple cross-cutting research initiatives in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of these crosscutting initiatives was the formation of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Executive Committee to focus on research to improve our understanding of the efficacy and impacts of various mitigation efforts, assess the downstream health and healthcare access effects from the economic downturn, and evaluate digital and community interventions to ameliorate these health effects. Led by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Nursing Research, and the Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research, a consortium of 21 NIH Institutes and Centers pooled funds along with $11 million from the Office of the NIH Director to develop and begin funding key aspects of this initiative. Across the initiative there has been an emphasis on understanding and addressing the impact on first responders, populations with health disparities and those with medical and social vulnerabilities most impacted by the pandemic.

Read the full post on the OBBSR website