The BEready project aims to find out how people in the Canton of Bern can be helped to bemore prepared for the next pandemic. BEready wants to understand how infections spreadamong people as well as between people and animals. BEready wants to find out how socialand environmental factors can influence the transmission or catching of infectiousdiseases. BEready wants to better understand how households and their pets in the Cantonof Bern were and continue to be affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The overall aim is to establish BEready as a 'pandemic preparedness cohort', a cohort
with a well-characterised study population of households, which has an infrastructure to
conduct studies about infectious diseases, and which can be rapidly mobilised to respond
to a new pandemic. BEready aims to understand the epidemiology and transmission of
infectious diseases (particularly viral respiratory pathogens) in households including
pets in the canton of Bern, and to engage diverse communities in efforts to strengthen
pandemic preparedness.
The objectives are:
- to study the distribution and timing of infectious diseases and transmission
patterns of circulating infectious diseases, both between individuals and at the
human-animal interface (One Health)
- to study social (e.g. gender, affective polarisation) and environmental factors
(e.g. climate change), which may affect transmission or acquisition of infectious
diseases;
- to understand how households, including their pets, in the canton of Bern have been
and will be affected by COVID-19; and
- to engage diverse communities in ongoing efforts to strengthen pandemic and public
health literacy, and to prepare for the public health response to a new pandemic.
Inclusion criteria for adults and children:
- Informed consent
- Residence (average of more than 3 days/week) in a private household in the canton of
Bern where at least one member aged 18 agreed to take part.
- For adults, children aged 14 years or older, and parents/legal guardians: internet
connection (Wi-Fi, fixed or on a mobile phone) and personal email address.
- For adults, children aged 11 years or older, and parents/legal guardians: able to
understand, speak, read and write German, French and/or English.
Inclusion criteria for household pets: Pets of eligible household members with the
consent of their owners.
Exclusion criteria for adults and children: Currently planned move outside the canton of
Bern
University of Bern
Bern, Switzerland
Investigator: BEready Project Management
Contact: +41 79 804 00 68
BEready.mcid@unibe.ch
Nicola Low, Prof. Dr. med.
+41 31 684 30 92
nicola.low@unibe.ch
BEready Project Management
+41 79 804 00 68
BEready.mcid@unibe.ch
Nicola Low, Prof. Dr. med., Principal Investigator
University of Bern