What have European countries done to prevent the spread of COVID-19? Lessons from the COVID-19 Health system response monitor

From Health in All Policies to Health for All Policies

“…9 Most countries have implemented measures to prevent disease transmission that were previously almost unimaginable, including reorienting health systems, controlling borders and internal mobility, redirecting the economy, and taking sometimes draconian civil protection measures. 10 Heads of government have had no alternative but to work with their health ministers and other ministries and sectors, including social affairs, internal affairs, foreign affairs, and economic affairs.…”

Public Health Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia: The Role of the Morrison Government

“…The Morrison government’s prioritisation of perceived economic impacts over public health considerations—including hospital capacity—may reflect the relative responsibilities of the Commonwealth and state governments: ‘where you stand depends on where you sit’ [ 83 ]. However, the Government’s opposition to lockdowns and mask mandates was probably also driven by an ideological predilection for less government intervention—rather than public health evidence [ 84 ]—and the pressure it was under from business lobbyists opposed to lockdowns and continuing constraints on their activities [ 85 ]. The attempt to shift blame about the impact of lockdowns on the economy was an example of ineffective blame behaviour seen in other federations during the pandemic [ 86 ].…”

“…A new generation of testing, Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs), became available in mid-2020. Unlike PCR tests, RATs provided results within minutes, and started to be rolled out internationally, including in the UK and in European countries, in mid-late 2020 [ 84 , 171 ]. When RATs were eventually approved for use in Australia in late 2021, people had to pay for them.…”

Increasing COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake in Africa

“…Researchers argue that most of the distribution of vaccine beliefs was similar across countries and that efforts should rather be focused on making it easy for people to get vaccinated and have access to trusted and credible sources of information around it (Wolf, et al, 2020;Wiysonge, et al, 2022;The CDAC Network, 2020;Rajan, et al, 2022). Most importantly is that we should embark on using standard data collection tools while being prepared that responses to those tools may be different in different country contexts.…”