EClinicalMedicine
Bradley, Declan Terence; Mansouri, Mariam Abdulmonem; Kee, Frank; Garcia, Leandro Martin Totaro
Introduction
A novel zoonotic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in a pandemic of respiratory infection. COVID-19 has provoked restrictive infection control measures, social and economic disruption, and expressions of racism. Systems thinking can help policymakers understand and influence the spread of infection and its multifaceted consequences across the community since society is itself a complex adaptive system. It can provide a framework to look beyond the chain of infection and better understand the multiple implications of decisions and (in)actions in face of such a complex situation involving many interconnected factors. Causal loop diagrams (CLDs) are tools to depict the causal connections between components of a system, and illustrate how changes in one component cascade in changes in others and back to itself, via feedback loops, potentially affecting the status of the entire system.
Keywords
Epidemiology