Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy最新文献

Iconic events have traditionally instigated progression in the fields of crisis and disaster science. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pressing question is how this global health emergency impacted the research agendas of our field. We reviewed contributions in ten important crisis and disaster journals in the two and a half years following the COVID-19 outbreak from 1 January 2020 to 30 June 2022. Specifically, we conducted a bibliometric review using thematic mapping analysis to distill the major themes covered by the emerging COVID-19 literature within crisis and disaster science (N = 239 articles). Our results indicate that several well-known topics are applied to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as risk, crisis communication, governance, resilience and vulnerability. The pandemic also gave rise to new topics, such as citizen behavior, state power, and the business and mental health impact of crisis measures. Several studies are already looking ahead by identifying lessons for preparedness and mitigation of future pandemics. By taking stock of the surge of COVID-19 studies while this academic literature is still taking shape, this review sets the stage for future contributions to the crisis and disaster literatures. It provides valuable lessons for what topics are studied and what themes need more attention. The COVID-19 pandemic is destined to become an iconic event for our literature that not only strengthens and deepens existing debates, but also clearly offers the opportunity to draw in new perspectives and broaden the horizon of crisis and disaster science.

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the emerging COVID-19 threat a pandemic following the global spread of the virus. A year later, a number of governments are being handed the concluding reports of national public inquiries tasked with investigating responses, mishaps, and identifying lessons for the future. The present article aims to identify a set of learning obstacles that may hinder effective lessons drawing from the COVID-19 pandemic responses. The seven obstacles discussed in this article are: (1) retaining lessons and implementing them effectively, (2) effectively drawing lessons from other countries, (3) the potential for reforms to introduce unanticipated vulnerabilities elsewhere in the system, (4) political pressure, (5) drawing the conclusions from observations, (6) experts versus decision makers, and (7) reforms may not be related to the actual crisis. Exploring these obstacles will be central to future discussions concerning which kinds of responses will set precedent for future pandemics and global health crises.

The COVID-19 pandemic is the first global "NASECH disaster," owing to its natural hazard (NH) origin and unprecedented subsequent repercussions for global society (S), economy (EC), and health (H). Emergency health control measures required the implementation of compulsory mass quarantine (CMQ) or so-called periods of "lockdown." Yet, CMQ is an instrument with iatrogenic consequences, associated with a rise in societal levels of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress. With a view to informing future crisis management, the study investigated sociodemographic factors associated with mental wellbeing during the March-April 2020 lockdown in the United Arab Emirates. Respondents (n = 1585) completed self-report measures of depression (PHQ8) and generalized anxiety (GAD7). Rates of symptomatology were notably higher than those observed in similar UAE-based studies before the pandemic. Younger age, urban-dwelling, female-gender, and a history of mental health problems were significant factors linked to elevated levels of depression and anxiety. Findings emphasize (1) the crucial need for psychological intervention after disasters and (2) the importance of strengthening the nexus at the intersection of public health and disaster risk reduction (DRR). Implications are that future pandemic containment would benefit from adopting new Health-DRR paradigms and ensuring these are effectively translated into disaster policy.