Health decisions by individuals are important to society at large.
Take for instance blood donation: Society hugely benefits from having sufficient blood donations, but it’s not in my interest to give blood (it costs time). Vaccination is another traditional collective action problem in public health (see more on vaccination below).
Just some examples of project ideas (feel free to add in the comments below!):
Inspired? Start a project for your community or join an existing one at www.collaction.org.
The interesting case of vaccination and herd immunity
Taken from this article: “Collective action is necessary to achieve herd immunity; once such immunity is achieved, the benefits of decreased mortality and morbidity are available to all. Given the reality of herd immunity, however, those who refrain from vaccination are nevertheless protected by the actions of their vaccinated peers. Nonvaccinated people hence enjoy a free ride—they are provided protection (herd immunity) at no cost (the injection and possible adverse sequelae). They do expose themselves to possible outbreaks of the pertinent disease, but such eventualities are considered rare. If a large enough number of people avoid vaccination, however, there will be insufficient herd immunity. Indeed, in recent decades decreased vaccination rates have led to outbreaks.”
You can find some interesting research on collective action problems regarding vaccination and organ donors here.
Please feel free to add more ideas for health related crowdacting projects in the comments below!
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