National And Global Responses To The Covid 19 Pandemic

This book traces the evolution of Covid across different geographic regions, showing how the varying responses of leaders, citizens and other key stakeholders in efforts to tackle the Covid crisis determined outcomes. It finds that leadership, in particular, played a critical role, while initial conditions, such as health-care spending and infrastructure are important factors contributing to a country’s preparedness in coping with a pandemic.

This book explores the reasons behind the variation in national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, it furthers the policy studies scholarship through an examination of the effects of policy styles on national responses to the pandemic. Despite governments being faced with the same threat, significant variation in national responses, frequently of contradictory nature, has been observed. Implications about responses inform a broader class of crises beyond this specific context. The authors argue that trust in government interacts with policy styles resulting in different responses and that the acute turbulence, uncertainty, and urgency of crises complicate the ability of policymakers to make sense of the problem. Finally, the book posits that unless there is high trust between society and the state, a decentralized response will likely be disastrous and concludes that while national responses to crises aim to save lives, they also serve to project political power and protect the status quo. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of public policy, public administration, political science, sociology, public health, and crisis management/disaster management studies.

This guidance is an update of WHO global influenza preparedness plan: the role of WHO and recommendations for national measures before and during pandemics, published March 2005 (WHO/CDS/CSR/GIP/2005.5).

The book provides a global perspective of local government response towards the COVID-19 pandemic through the analysis of a sample of countries in all continents. It examines the responses of local government, as well as the responses local government developed in articulation with other tiers of government and with civil society organizations, and explores the social, economic and policy impacts of the pandemic. The book offers an innovative contribution on the role of local government during the pandemic and discusses lessons for the future. The COVID-19 pandemic had a global impact on public health, in the well-being of citizens, in the economy, on civic life, in the provision of public services, and in the governance of cities and other human settlements, although in an uneven form across countries, cities and local communities. Cities and local governments have been acting decisively to apply the policy measures defined at national level to the specific local conditions. COVID-19 has exposed the inadequacy of the crisis response infrastructures and policies at both national and local levels in these countries as well as in many others across the world. But it also exposed much broader and deeper weaknesses that result from how societies are organized, namely the insecure life a substantial proportion of citizens have, as a result of economic and social policies followed in previous decades, which accentuated the impacts of the lockdown measures on employment, income, housing, among a myriad of other social dimensions. Besides the analysis of how governments, and local government, responded to the public health issues raised by the spread of the virus, the book deals also with the diversity of responses local governments have adopted and implemented in the countries, regions, cities and metropolitan areas. The analysis of these policy responses indicates that previously unthinkable policies can surprisingly be implemented at both national and local levels.

This book examines how governments around the world responded to the health emergency created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Before vaccines became available, non-medical interventions were the main means to protect the public. Non-medical interventions were put in place by governments as public health policies. In every nation, politicians and governments faced a choice situation, and worldwide, they made different choices. Public health policies came at a price, in economic, social, and ultimately electoral costs to the political incumbents. The book discusses differences in governments’ policy efforts to mitigate the virus spread. The authors conduct in-depth analysis of country-cases from Africa, North and South America, Asia, and Europe. They also offer small-n- comparative analyses as well as report global patterns and trends of governments’ responsiveness to the medical emergency. It will appeal to all those interested in public policy, health policy and governance.

This edited volume makes a unique and timely contribution by exploring in depth the topic of strategic communication and COVID-19 from a global perspective. It is widely agreed that effective and timely communication and leadership are crucial to the successful management of any pandemic. With the ongoing and possibly long-lasting impact COVID-19 has had on many aspects of communication and multiple sectors of our societies, it is critical to explore the role of strategic communication in change management during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. This book addresses such a need and is thoroughly grounded in rich empirical evidence gained through a global study of COVID-19 communication experiences and strategies. In the second half of 2020, a transnational team of senior researchers conducted research to investigate COVID-19 communications (COM-COVID-19) in different countries, representing Europe, Africa, Latin America, North America, South America, and Asia. The results presented in this book provide a compelling, current picture of the COVID-19 pandemic and strategic communication globally. Chapters individually explore the national and regional experiences and discuss relevant successes and failures of pandemic communication and specific learning from the 2020–2021 crises. By emphasising the discussion on key communication channels, sources of information, facts and concerns as related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the editors call for actions to develop effective strategies within unique national contexts, which can shed light on global expectations on necessary public health responses and communication. This book is written for scholars, educators and professionals in communication, public relations, strategic communication and corporate communication. It is also appropriate to use this book as a supplementary text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on relevant courses.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Bringing together a range of experts across various sectors, this important volume explores some of the key issues that have arisen in the Global South with the COVID-19 pandemic. Situating the worldwide health crisis within broader processes of globalisation, the book investigates implications for development and gender, as well as the effects on migration, climate change and economic inequality. Contributors consider how widespread and long-lasting responses to the pandemic should be, while paying particular attention to the accentuated risks faced by vulnerable populations. Providing answers that will be essential to development practitioners and policy makers, the book offers vital insights into how the impact of COVID-19 can be mitigated in some of the most challenging socio-economic contexts worldwide.

This book seeks to identify the reasons why some countries were more efficient and effective than others in responding to the COVID 19 pandemic, and why the global community failed to coalesce. What are the political determinants of the different state responses to the pandemic? Why was scientific advice rejected or ignored in many countries? What has been the role, respectively, of neoliberalism, populism, and authoritarianism in the making of Covid-19 policy? What role have each of these factors played in the uneven and clearly inadequate global response to the pandemic? In an effort to understand why some states failed to handle the pandemic properly, some of the literature suggests that populism is at the root of the current failure of international co-operation. The global financial crisis of 2008-10 triggered significant cooperation within the G-20, led by the combined efforts of the United States and China. These forms of cooperation have clearly disappeared in the context of the pandemic, not only with respect to economic policy but also in public health and management. The authors of this volume link the different state responses to the pandemic-- from its inception to the start of the vaccination campaign, and to the political regimes prevailing in each. In particular, the present volume focuses on a distinction between the responses of neo-liberal regimes, populist regimes and authoritarian ones.