These Actions Will Determine the Severity of COVID-19
Leadership and behaviors matter
We have, rightly, heard much from public health professionals about keeping safe from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, apart from criticism of politicians’ perceived faulty responses, we’ve heard less about how other sciences, leadership, and our own behaviors — beyond social distancing, self-isolation and enhanced hygiene — can help make a difference.
My doctorate is political science, specializing in policy effectiveness and outcomes. This involves not just asking what’s been done, or if it meets someone’s definition of ‘standards’, but whether it works. Does it achieve intended outcomes? Outcomes science, like crisis management, operates alongside other disciplines, in this case, for optimal health and economic outcomes.
Clearly, ‘outcomes’ matter, but it’s such a common word that we seldom think about the science that can help reach our goals. Often, that’s when we don’t achieve intended objectives — as seems to be playing out with a worsening crisis in many countries.
Compounding matters, rather than supplementing expert medical advice with applied outcomes science, some leaders are ramping up scapegoating, war-like jingoism and political theater. This form of leadership may serve political purposes, but does little for better outcomes.
