Introduction This chapter utilises the same method as the rest of the book (QCA) but with a different dataset. During the book’s writing, the COVID-19 pandemic began and spread across the world. This gave me two options – I could ignore it, as the pandemic was not in the original book proposal, or I could incorporate it, and see how different health systems had responded to the challenge that it offered. I have decided on the latter, but of course any analysis I can offer is limited in that, at the time of writing, the pandemic is far from over. This has
The COVID-19 pandemic thrust fear into the heart of political debate and policy making. In the wake of the pandemic, it is critical to clarify the role of fear in these processes to avoid repeating past mistakes and to learn crucial lessons for future crises.
This book draws on case studies from across the world, including the UK, Turkey, Brazil and the US, to provide thought-provoking and practical insights into how fear and related emotions can shape politics under extraordinary and ordinary circumstances. Offering interdisciplinary perspectives from leading and emerging scholars in politics, philosophy, sociology and anthropology, the book enables a better understanding of post-pandemic politics for students, researchers and policy makers alike.
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The COVID-19 pandemic affected everyone – but, for some, existing social inequalities were exacerbated, and this created a vital need for research.
Researchers found themselves operating in a new and difficult context; they needed to act quickly and think collectively to embark on new research despite the constraints of the pandemic. This book presents the collaborative process of 14 research projects working together during COVID-19. It documents their findings and explains how researchers in the voluntary sector and academia responded methodologically, practically, and ethically to researching poverty and everyday life for families on low incomes during the pandemic.
This book synthesises the challenges of researching during COVID-19 to improve future policy and practice.
Also see ‘A Year Like No Other: Family Life on a Low Income in COVID-19’ to find out more about the lived experiences of low-income families during the pandemic.
Risk has emerged as a key mechanism for controlling the future and learning from past misfortunes.
How did risk influence policy makers’ responses to COVID-19? How will they be judged for their decisions?
Drawing on case studies from the UK, China, Japan, New Zealand and the US, this original text explores policy responses to COVID-19 through the lens of risk. The book considers how different countries framed the pandemic, categorised their populations and communicated risk. It also evaluates the role of the media, conspiracy theories and hindsight in shaping responses to COVID-19.
As we reflect on the ‘first wave’, this book offers a vital resource for anticipating future responses to crises.
Introduction This chapter provides a concise overview of the COVID-19 pandemic. By drawing on the extensive news output and published scientific reports, the aim is to explain what a coronavirus is, to identify the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide an international overview of the way the disease spread so rapidly across the world. Attention then turns to consider the performance of UK central government. A final section considers the main features of the COVID-19 pandemic, and identifies some of the key policy issues that the disease now
62 SEVEN COVID-19 vaccine inequity Seow Ting Lee The problem In a global pandemic, a critical challenge is ensuring widespread access to vaccines to achieve needed levels of population immunity. With the first vaccine rollout in early 2021, 15 COVID-19 vaccines are currently in use worldwide, with Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech doses being the most prevalent. By August 2021, of the 5.5 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses administered globally, 80 per cent had gone to high- or upper-middle-income countries. Only 0.2 per cent had been delivered to low
Chapter summary This chapter looks at the competence of governments to respond to the COVID-19 crisis and considers the lessons we need to learn if we are to meet the challenge of climate change. It also looks at how societies have responded to new social norms and considers whether COVID-19 will be the trigger for a transition to a sustainable society. The optimistic conclusion is that the COVID-19 crisis will result in a radical re-evaluation of our social and economic priorities, leading to changes that will enable an effective response to global
This book addresses the prejudices that emerged out of the collision of two pandemics: COVID-19 and racism.
Offering a snapshot of experiences through counter story-telling and micro narratives, this collection assesses the racialised responses to the pandemic and investigates acts of discrimination that have occurred within social, political and historical contexts.
Capturing the divisive discourses which have dominated this contemporary moment, this is a unique and creative resource that shows how structural racism continues to operate insidiously, offering invaluable insights for policy, practicend critical race and ethnic studies.
Nothing changes everything . Given the scale of the disruption and desolation that the pandemic has wrought – from the truly global to the irreducibly intimate – it is tempting to think that COVID-19 is the exception. But it isn’t. Other pandemics have been and gone. 1 We will not be living in a siege economy and society for ever. And a combination of herd immunity, vaccine and collective boredom will allow some sort of everyday to re-emerge. But we shall not be returning to the world just as it was, nor any time soon. 2 The Global Financial Crisis (of 2008
The Problem The nation’s thousands of jails originate in White supremacy and oppression—a role that has continued with the rise of mass incarceration. The spread of COVID-19 behind bars has magnified both the public health and social consequences of jails, and also the lack of timely, transparent data about who is behind bars and what they are enduring. The pandemic has shown the urgency of defunding jail construction, investing in true public health and safety measures, and mandating transparency from local authorities. Scholars document a troubled
