Skip to content

Research on public health responses to COVID-19 in British Columbia, Canada

Details

Article

“Research on public health responses to COVID-19 globally has largely focused on understanding the virus’ epidemiology, identifying interventions to curb transmission, and assessing the impact of interventions on outcomes,” claim the authors of a new study on the COVID-19 response in British Columbia, Canada. “The COVID-19 response in early 2020 was deemed highly coordinated and effective overall; however, little is understood as to how these upstream factors influenced policy decisions,” they add.

Senior Fellow Austin Wu joined part of a research team currently investigating the influence of institutions, politics, organizations, and governance on the COVID-19 response in British Columbia. In June 2022, their jurisdictional case study protocol was published.

As the protocol reveals, the case study aims to respond to a “critical research gap” related to understanding and improving public health systems in Canada.

The research interviews will focus on the governance processes as well as the stringency of interventions in the COVID-19 response. The researchers will explore decision-making processes, hoping to be able to draw out “lessons for decision-making in public health crises, and potentially, developing theory on the effects of IPOG factors on public health response.”