COVID-19

This page contains ongoing work on coronavirus/ COVID-19 policy (mostly in the UK). The most recent activity is:

1. I have started to work on a UK COVID-19 policy book (draft Chapter 1 Cairney OUP UK COVID-19 12.4.22). 
2. Sean Kippin and I are completing a book on UK policy and policymaking (draft Chapter 6 Responding to crisis: COVID-19 policy and policymaking )

Early COVID-19 Publications

1. 1. Christopher Weible, Daniel Nohrstedt, Paul Cairney, David Carter, Deserai Crow, Anna Durnová, Tanya Heikkila, Karin Ingold, Allan McConnell & Diane Stone (2020) ‘COVID-19 and the policy sciences: initial reactions and perspectives’, Policy Sciences https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-020-09381-4
   2. Paul Cairney and Adam Wellstead (2020) ‘COVID-19: effective policymaking depends on trust in experts, politicians, and the public’, Policy Design and Practice https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/25741292.2020.1837466 (PDF)
   3. Paul Cairney (2020) ‘The UK Government’s COVID-19 policy: assessing evidence-informed policy analysis in real time’, British Politics, https://rdcu.be/b9zAk (PDF)
   4. Paul Cairney (2021) “The UK government’s COVID-19 policy: what does ‘guided by the science’ mean in practice?”, Frontiers in Political Science, doi: 10.3389/fpos.2021.624068
   5. Sean Kippin and Paul Cairney (2021) ‘The COVID-19 exams fiasco across the UK: four nations and two windows of opportunity’, British Politics, PDF & Annex & LSE blog 
   6. Sean Kippin and Paul Cairney (2022) ‘COVID-19 and the second exams fiasco across the UK: four nations trying to avoid immediate policy failure’, British Politics, forthcoming (Exams 2 Annex)
   7. Paul Cairney (2021) ‘Evidence-informed COVID-19 policy: what problem was the UK Government trying to solve?’ in (eds) John Bryson, Lauren Andres, Aksel Ersoy, and Louise Reardon Living with Pandemics: Places, People and Policy (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar) PDF PDF

Articles where we used COVID-19 as background

1. Paul Cairney, Emily St.Denny, and John Boswell (2022) ‘Why is health improvement so difficult to secure?’ [version 2; peer review: 2 approved], Open Research Europe, 2, 76, https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.14841.2
2. Paul Cairney and Sean Kippin (2022) ‘The future of education equity policy in a COVID-19 world: a qualitative systematic review of lessons from education policymaking’ [version 2; peer review: 2 approved], Open Research Europe, 1, 78, 1-44 https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.13834.2
3. Paul Cairney, Emily St Denny, and Heather Mitchell (2021) ‘The future of public health policymaking after COVID-19: a qualitative systematic review of lessons from Health in All Policies’, Open Research Europe, The future of public health policymaking after COVID-19: a… (europa.eu)

Early monitoring of UK government policy (2020)

• The coronavirus and evidence-informed policy analysis (short version)
• The long version was becoming too long and unwieldy (and out of date), so I replaced it with a longer but more coherent document – Cairney UK coronavirus policy 25000 14.7.20 – that I will update at regular intervals. Don’t read it for fun. Right now, it serves as a way to keep track of debates and references. 

If you would like something shorter:

• The UK Government’s COVID-19 policy: assessing evidence-informed policy analysis in real time (blog post)
• Paul Cairney (2020) ‘The UK Government’s COVID-19 policy: assessing evidence-informed policy analysis in real time’, British Politics https://rdcu.be/b9zAk (PDF)
• Creeping crisis: the UK government’s response to COVID-19 (and the role of experts) October 14, 2021

Key themes: the use of evidence, inequalities, trust

• Evidence & Policy insights during the COVID-19 Pandemic (blog post with Katherine Smith)
• Coronavirus and the ‘social determinants’ of health inequalities: lessons from ‘Health in All Policies’ initiatives (largely bemoans the irony of health improvement policy being knocked off the policy agenda by health protection when they should really be seen as interdependent)
• Who can you trust during the coronavirus crisis? (with Adam Wellstead – the full article is here)

Analysis of the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE)

1. Paul Cairney (2021) “The UK government’s COVID-19 policy: what does ‘guided by the science’ mean in practice?”, Frontiers in Political Science, doi: 10.3389/fpos.2021.624068

Initially, I wrote up the SAGE notes (covering meetings from January to June 2020) as a series of blog posts below. 

• COVID-19 policy in the UK: yes, the UK Government did ‘follow the science’
• Did the UK Government ‘follow the science’? Reflections on SAGE meetings
• The role of SAGE and science advice to government
• The overall narrative underpinning SAGE advice and UK government policy
• SAGE meetings from January-June 2020
• SAGE Theme 1. The language of intervention
• SAGE Theme 2. Limited capacity for testing, forecasting, and challenging assumptions
• SAGE Theme 3. Communicating to the public
• COVID-19 policy in the UK: Table 2: Summary of SAGE minutes, January-June 2020

see also: The early minutes from NERVTAG (the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group)

Initial analysis of oral evidence to House of Commons select committees

This analysis will take a while, since a very large number of people gave oral evidence to a large number of committees. So far, I managed to analyse oral evidence to Health and Social Care up to June 2020.

COVID-19 policy in the UK: oral evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee (5th March- 3rd June 2020)

1. The need to ramp up testing (for many purposes)
2. The inadequate supply of personal protective equipment (PPE)
3. Defining the policy problem: ‘herd immunity’, long term management, and the containability of COVID-19
4. Uncertainty and hesitancy during initial UK coronavirus responses
5. Confusion about the language of intervention and stages of intervention
6. The relationship between science, science advice, and policy
7. Lower profile changes to policy and practice
8. Race, ethnicity, and the social determinants of health

All set up for our 2nd day of deliberation as part of @ScotParl’s virtual Citizens’ Panel to support the work of the Covid 19 Committee. Deputy Convener @MonicaLennon7 will be dialling in later plus evidence from @jasonleitch @CairneyPaul @arcolson @ReicherStephen & more! pic.twitter.com/cvb7voZsVS

— Ali Stoddart (@AliStoddart1) January 23, 2021