The importance of trust and transparency in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence from sixteen EU member states

Stivas, Dionysios; Cole, Alistair

doi:10.1080/14782804.2023.2193733

“…In a broad sense, transparency is often associated with openness and honesty in disclosing information, promoting democratic governance ideals during crises. Its crucial role in gaining, maintaining, and losing trust in a health technology has been explored throughout the pandemic and in various fields, including governance communication, public policy, solidarity and public health information [14,17,41,45].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Transparency in Digital Contact Tracing During COVID-19: Insights from an Expert Survey

Krämer,

Brachem,

Schneider-Reuter

et al. 2024

Health Care Anal

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Health technologies such as apps for digital contract tracing [DCT] played a crucial role in containing and combating infections during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their primary function was to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 by consistently generating and disseminating information related to various events such as encounters, vaccinations or infections. While the functionality of DCT has been well researched, the necessity of transparency in the use of DCT and the consent to share sensitive information such as users’ health, vaccination and location status remains unclear. On one hand, DCT enabled the continuous monitoring of various risk factors, including data-based calculations of infection probabilities. On the other hand, digital monitoring of health risks was closely associated with various uncertainties, such as the ambiguous storage of personal data and its potential future misuse, e.g., by tech companies or health authorities. Our contribution aims to retrospectively analyze the COVID-19 pandemic from a post-pandemic perspective and utilize it as a case study for the implementation of new technological measures. We argue that under the condition of voluntary use of DCT, transparency plays a key role in convincing individuals to install health technologies on their mobile devices, keep them activated and consent to the sharing of sensitive data. We support our argument with qualitative data from an expert survey conducted between 2020 and 2021 and analyzed according to the principles of Grounded Theory.

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The securitization of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, Asia, and Oceania: Mixes of imbalanced securitizing narratives and measures

Stivas,

Sliwinski

2023

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Governments across the world resorted to different forms of narratives and measures to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. This study observed the responses of six administrations (China, Sweden, UK, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and New Zealand) through the lenses of the securitization theory as complemented with tailor-made methodological tools. Introducing the concept of the ‘securitization gap’ between the securitizing narratives’ intensity and the securitizing measures’ stringency this study argues that a consistency between the rhetoric’s intensity and measures’ severity did not impact the governments’ capacity to manage the COVID-19 outbreak. Further, this study finds a relation between the stringency of the securitizing measures and the management of COVID-19. Administrations that resorted to severe forms of securitization managed to spare more lives from the virus than administrations that did not enforce stringent securitizing tactics. Lastly, this study argues that the agreement of the general public with the securitizing narratives and the securitizing measures did not drastically influence the COVID-19 fatalities in the concerned case studies.

show abstract

The securitization of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, Asia, and Oceania: Mixes of imbalanced securitizing narratives and measures

Stivas,

Sliwinski

2024

StoMiedIntRelat

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Governments across the world resorted to different forms of narratives and measures to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. This study observed the responses of six administrations (China, Sweden, UK, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and New Zealand) through the lenses of the securitization theory as complemented with tailor-made methodological tools. Introducing the concept of the ‘securitization gap’ between the securitizing narratives’ intensity and the securitizing measures’ stringency this study argues that a consistency between the rhetoric’s intensity and measures’ severity did not impact the governments’ capacity to manage the COVID-19 outbreak. Further, this study finds a relation between the stringency of the securitizing measures and the management of COVID-19. Administrations that resorted to severe forms of securitization managed to spare more lives from the virus than administrations that did not enforce stringent securitizing tactics. Lastly, this study argues that the agreement of the general public with the securitizing narratives and the securitizing measures did not drastically influence the COVID-19 fatalities in the concerned case studies.

show abstract

The importance of trust and transparency in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence from sixteen EU member states

Cited by 3 publications

References 39 publications

The Role of Transparency in Digital Contact Tracing During COVID-19: Insights from an Expert Survey

The Role of Transparency in Digital Contact Tracing During COVID-19: Insights from an Expert Survey

The securitization of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, Asia, and Oceania: Mixes of imbalanced securitizing narratives and measures

The securitization of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, Asia, and Oceania: Mixes of imbalanced securitizing narratives and measures

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