LIST OF PANELS

Does Government Policy Matter in Responding to a Pandemic?

The political system of Canada is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy, with three levels of government, each with their own responsibilities: (i) the federal government or the government of Canada, (ii) the provincial and territorial governments, and (iii) the municipal or local governments. No country is more similar to the United States of America (U.S.) than Canada, whose economy and culture are closely intertwined with the U.S. Yet faced with a life-threatening pandemic of historic proportions, Canada showed far greater success in protecting the lives of its people than the U.S. (Karabel, 2022).

The Canadian health system provides access to publicly funded health services to its entire population. Universal coverage is a strong principle and an objective of this public health policy. According to one of the main principles of the Canada Health Act (the federal legislation for publicly funded health care insurance), each person living on the country’s territory is provided with public care insurance that covers all medical treatment considered necessary. Canada implemented public health measures, such as social distancing, when hospitalization and death rates due to the pandemic were still lower than in other countries; each province and territory adapted and implemented specific measures (Tchounwou,et al.  2021).

The United States is more accurately defined as a constitutional federal republic. “Constitutional” refers to the fact that government in the United States is based on a Constitution which is the supreme law of the United States. Under the US Constitution, Congress has the sole power to authorize funding out of tax revenue and may do so for those purposes enumerated in the Constitution, including to provide funding for the general welfare of the United States. (U.S. Constitution). Within Congress’s is the power to respond to disasters and public health emergencies; however, during times of crisis, such as the coronavirus pandemic, many emergency powers have been delegated by Congress to the President. (Lindsay, & Webster, 2020, (U.S. Library of Congress, 2020).In the United States the coronavirus pandemic prompted a comprehensive government response from the federal, state, and local governments. The federal government enacted legislation to stimulate the economy and promote a robust public health response. The crisis response in the United States was generally organized from the ground up, with local governments taking the lead with the support of their respective state governments and, in larger emergency situations, the federal government.

Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea demonstrated best practices in managing the COVID-19 pandemic (Bremmer, 2021). The Government of the Republic of China (ROC), is the national government of the Republic of China whose de facto territory currently consists of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other island groups in the "free area". Governed by the Democratic Progressive Party, the president is the head of state. Today, the ROC is the de facto government of Taiwan; whereas the People Republic of China (PRC) is the de facto government over Mainland China. However, each government claims to be the legitimate government of all China de jure (Chen et al., 2020).

The ROC State Council established a national, multisectoral, joint prevention and control mechanism and required all levels of government to establish corresponding prevention and control headquarters, with the head of local government as director, and heads of ports, health, transportation, public security, and information departments as members. Every school, work unit, and community established a working group against covid-19. Management was based on a grid: communities were subdivided with buildings as subunits and their managers responsible for ensuring strict fulfilment of control measures. Actively finding patients and their management means early detection, treatment of every patient in isolation, and identifying close contacts of patients for placement in 14 days of individual, mandatory quarantine with periodic PCR testing. Early detection and isolation of patients was the single most effective technique for containing the virus because it interrupted transmission chains before they could lengthen (Chen et al. 2021).

In Taiwan Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) was assembled to combat the COVID-19 pandemic on 20 January 2020. The commander of the CECC was the Taiwanese Ministry of Health and Welfare minister, and the organization's members included experts from various fields. The CECC executed several strategies to reduce disease transmission and its government-guided strategies may have contributed to mitigating the disease's spread (Chen et al, 2020). 

In Singapore a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic, the dominant People’s Action Party (PAP) has been the only ruling party to form a government since independence. Singapore has established effective rule-of-law, low corruption and effective government. Singapore's approach to managing this pandemic can be summarised as follows; Establishment of a network of Public Health Preparedness Clinics (PHPCs) which are primary health clinics established in times of national need. Hospitalise and isolate the infected. Trace contacts rigorously. Make social messaging clear.  (Tan et al., 2021).

The Government of South Korea is the union government of the Republic of Korea, created by the Constitution of South Korea as the executive, legislative and judicial authority of the republic. The president acts as the head of state and is the highest figure of executive authority in the country, followed by the prime minister and government ministers in decreasing order (World Atlas, 2019). The basic principles of the South Korean government's response to COVID-19 are transparency, openness, and democracy. The government has attempted to minimize all restrictions on citizens through transparent public disclosure of all information and maintaining the borderline without closure. As the number of patients gradually increased, the Korea Center
for Disease Control and Prevention declared these outbreaks a Public Health Emergency and raised the
national crisis warning level to “serious (red).” (Kang, 202).

Consider that government policy can determine public health success or failure in responding to a health emergency. Develop your paper to include the aforementioned countries (United State, Canada, Peoples Republic of China, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea, ). Other courtries can be considered and included in your presentation.  

How does the type of government and the policy that it creates impair or promote public health response to epidemics? 

What did we learn from the COVID-19 pandemic that will guide us to be more successful in the future? 

Consider that globalization and climate change has changed the paradigm used in the past to anticipate and respond to epidemics.   

List the benefits of an effective public health policy in promoting population health.

Consider other examples of success or failure in responding to the COVID 19 pandemic. 

Please submit your manuscript in APA format.

Panel onsite is preferred. 

Consideration for online presentations. 

PowerPoint presentation is also required.