Psychological Vaccination During Corona Crisis, Hypotheses Generating

Abstract

Background: Since December 2019, the world is increasingly facing a new public health crisis caused by a highly transmittable Coronavirus (CoV) in a pandemic outbreak threatening the human population all over the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has assigned the disease with the name COVID-19 (1) . It is declared as a public health emergency of international concern with no evidence-based prevention or treatment yet. So far, millions of people have been affected, billions have been quarantined, and almost all countries are applying severe lockdowns, curfews, and travel restrictions, leaving the communities in isolation, insecurity, and distress. Several studies are underway to consider the rate of infection among children, and the rate of transmission from children to adults, because it has not been clearly understood yet. Based on a common bio-psycho-social immunity system, a multidisciplinary research project is suggested to examine the effectiveness of a novel Crisis Intervention Program for Children and Adolescents (CIPCA) as a first psychological "vaccine" to prevent post-traumatic psychopathology among children in the city of Duhok during the Corona crisis.