Relationship Between Health Policies and Resilience: The Case of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has recently created an environment of chaos that modern societies have not experienced. The reactions of countries and societies to this new situation are different. The health policies implemented by countries in the fight against the outbreak during the Covid-19 pandemic process have an impact on the resilience of communities and constitute a determining factor in all kinds of losses. The concept of resilience has been increasingly used in the literature in recent years. Resilience, as a word meaning, is defined as the capacity of a system to continue its functions with the reactions it gives to the external effects it is exposed to. The purpose of this research is to explain the difficulties faced by societies during the Covid-19 pandemic process with selected country examples in the relationship of resilience. In this context, the countries of China, South Korea, Japan, Russia, India, the United States of America and Brazil were evaluated in terms of significant health policy differences and the losses suffered by the societies. Administrative or political skills of countries, existence of processes that ensure transparency, infrastructure and capacity of health systems and social capital determine the resilience capacity.

Keywords

• Health Policies
• Resilience
• Covid-19 Pandemic

Sağlık Politikaları ve Dirençlilik İlişkisi: Covid-19 Pandemisi Örneği

Öz

Covid-19 pandemisi yakın dönemde modern toplumların deneyimlememiş olduğu bir kaos ortamı yaratmıştır. Ortaya çıkan bu yeni duruma ülkelerin ve toplumların göstermiş olduğu tepkiler farklılaşmaktadır. Covid-19 pandemisi sürecinde salgınla mücadelede ülkelerin uygulamış olduğu sağlık politikaları, toplumların dirençliliği üzerinde etkili olmakta ve oluşan her türlü kayıpta belirleyici bir unsur oluşturmaktadır. Dirençlilik kavramı ise son yıllarda literatürde giderek artan bir kullanıma sahip olmaktadır. Dirençlilik, kelime anlamı olarak bir sistemin maruz kaldığı dış etkilere karşı verdiği tepkilerle fonksiyonlarını sürdürebilme kapasitesi olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Bu araştırmanın amacı seçilmiş ülke örnekleriyle toplumların Covid-19 pandemisi sürecinde karşılaştıkları zorlukları dirençlilik ilişkisi içerisinde açıklamaktır. Bu çerçevede Çin, Güney Kore, Japonya, Rusya, Hindistan, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri ve Brezilya ülkeleri belirgin sağlık politikaları farklılıkları ve toplumların yaşadıkları kayıplar ölçüsünde değerlendirilmiştir. Dirençlilik kapasitesinde ülkelerin yönetsel veya politik becerisi, şeffaflığı sağlayan süreçlerin varlığı, sağlık sistemleri altyapı ve kapasitesi ve sosyal sermaye belirleyici olmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Sağlık Politikaları
• Dirençlilik
• Covid-19 Pandemisi

References

1. Açıkgöz, R. (2021). Hastalık, sağlık ve toplum: bir sağlık sosyolojisi incelemesi. DBY Yayınları.
2. An, B. Y., Porcher, S., Tang, S. Y., & Kim, E. E. (2021). Policy design for COVID‐19: Worldwide evidence on the efficacies of early mask mandates and other policy interventions. Public Administration Review, 81(6), 1157-1182. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13426
3. Angeler, D. G., Eyre, H. A., Berk, M., Allen, C. R., Hynes, W., & Linkov, I. (2022). Adaptation, transformation and resilience in healthcare comment on "government actions and their relation to resilience in healthcare during the covid-19 pandemic in New South Wales, Australia and Ontario, Canada. International journal of health policy and management. https://doi.org/10.34172/ijhpm.2022.7043
4. Apostolopoulos, N., Liargovas, P., Sklias, P., & Apostolopoulos, S. (2021). Healthcare enterprises and public policies on COVID ‐19: Insights from the Greek rural areas. Strategic Change, 30(2), 127-136. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.2396
5. Ataman, K., Bozkurt, V., Göka, E., İlhan, M., Yıldırım, N., Çiftçi, E., Liman, U., & Vuran, B. (2021). COVID-19 küresel salgınının toplumsal etkileri. Türk Hijyen ve Biyoloji Dergisi, 78(3), 235-248.
6. Balogun, J. A. (2020). Commentary: Lessons from the USA delayed response to the COVID-19 pandemic. African journal of reproductive health, 24(1), 14-21.
7. Barthelemy, E. J., Thango, N. S., Hohne, J., Lippa, L., Kolias, A., Force, W. Y. N. F. R. T., & Germano, I. M. (2021). Resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic: How to bend and not break. World Neurosurg, 146, 280-284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2020.11.105
8. Boschiero, M. N., Palamim, C. V. C., Ortega, M. M., Mauch, R. M., & Marson, F. A. L. (2021). One year of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Brazil: A political and social overview. Annals of Global Health, 87(1), 44. https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3182

9. Braveman, P., & Gottlieb, L. (2014). The social determinants of health: it's time to consider the causes of the causes. public Health Reports, 129(1), 19-31. https://doi.org/10.1177/00333549141291s206
10. Breslin, S. (2011). The ‘China model’ and the global crisis: from Friedrich list to a Chinese mode of governance? International Affairs, 87(6), 1323-1343. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2346.2011.01039.x
11. Bryce, C., Ring, P., Ashby, S., & Wardman, J. K. (2020). Resilience in the face of uncertainty: early lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Risk Research, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1756379
12. Burki, T. K. (2020). The Russian vaccine for COVID-19. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 8(11), e85-e86. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(20)30402-1
13. Caruso, N., Mela, S., & Pede, E. (2020). A resilient response to the social-economic implications of coronavirus. The case of Snodi Solidali in Turin. Urban Research & Practice, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1080/17535069.2020.1817692
14. Cha, V. (2020). Asia’s COVID-19 Lessons for the West: Public goods, privacy, and social tagging. The Washington Quarterly, 43(2), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/0163660X.2020.1770959
15. Chatterjee, P. (2020). Is India missing COVID-19 deaths? The Lancet, 396(10252), 657. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31857-2
16. Choi, Y. J. (2020). The power of collaborative governance: The case of South Korea responding to COVID‐19 pandemic. World Medical & Health Policy, 12(4), 430-442. https://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.376
17. Ciotti, M., Ciccozzi, M., Terrinoni, A., Jiang, W.-C., Wang, C.-B., & Bernardini, S. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic. Critical Reviews in Clinical Laboratory Sciences, 57(6), 365-388. https://doi.org/10.1080/10408363.2020.1783198
18. Clarke, J. (2011). What is a systematic review? Evidence Based Nursing, 14(3), 64-64. https://doi.org/10.1136/ebn.2011.0049 %J
19. Çelik, Y. (2006). Sürdürülebilir kalkınma kavramı ve sağlık. Hacettepe Sağlık İdaresi Dergisi, 9(1), 19-37. Dauner, K. N., & Wilmot, N. A. (2022). Did states with more social capital pre-pandemic offer mental health protection during the COVID-19 pandemic? A cross-sectional view brief research report. 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.947569
20. Demir, E., & Çelik, H. (2021). Covid-19 salgını: Ülke deneyimleri, bölgesel etkiler ve küresel yansımalar, Nika Yayınevi. Dewit, A., Shaw, R., & Djalante, R. (2020). An integrated approach to sustainable development, National Resilience, and COVID-19 responses: The case of Japan. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 51, 101808. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101808
21. Donkor, F. K., Mitoulis, S.-A., Argyroudis, S., Aboelkhair, H., Canovas, J. A. B., Bashir, A., & Werner, C. (2022). SDG final decade of action: resilient pathways to build back better from high-impact low-probability (HILP) events. Sustainability, 14(22), 15401. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142215401
22. Eriksson, K., Staupe‐Delgado, R., & Holst, J. (2022). Drawing lessons from the COVID‐19 pandemic: Seven obstacles to learning from public inquiries in the wake of the crisis. Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy, 13(2), 165-175. https://doi.org/10.1002/rhc3.12240
23. Ferchen, M. (2013). Whose China Model is it anyway? The contentious search for consensus. Review of International Political Economy, 20(2), 390-420. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2012.660184
24. Frank M, S. (2021). Salgınlar ve toplum: Kara Ölüm'den günümüze. Tellekt Yayınevi.
25. Fukuda-Parr, S. (2022). When indicators fail: SPAR, the invisible measure of pandemic preparedness. Policy and Society, 41(4), 528-540. https://doi.org/10.1093/polsoc/puac024
26. Greenwood, D. A., Young, H. M., & Quinn, C. C. (2014). Telehealth remote monitoring systematic review: structured self-monitoring of blood glucose and impact on A1C. J Diabetes Sci Technol, 8(2), 378-389. https://doi.org/10.1177/1932296813519311
27. Haldane, V., De Foo, C., Abdalla, S. M., Jung, A.-S., Tan, M., Wu, S., . . . Legido-Quigley, H. (2021). Health systems resilience in managing the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons from 28 countries. Nature Medicine, 27(6), 964-980. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01381-y
28. Jae Moon, M., & Wu, X. (2022). Sustaining Asia’s development amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: capacity development and governance innovation. Journal of Asian Public Policy, 15(2), 165-174. https://doi.org/10.1080/17516234.2021.2015850 Johnson-Agbakwu, C. E., Ali, N. S., Oxford, C. M., Wingo, S., Manin, E., & Coonrod, D. V. (2022). Racism, COVID-19, and health inequity in the USA: a Call to Action. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 9(1), 52-58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-020-00928-y
29. Karako, K., Song, P., Chen, Y., Tang, W., & Kokudo, N. (2021). Overview of the characteristics of and responses to the three waves of COVID-19 in Japan during 2020-2021. Bioscience trends, 15(1), 1-8.
30. Khatana, S. A. M., & Groeneveld, P. W. (2020). Health disparities and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the USA. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 35(8), 2431-2432. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-020-05916-w
31. Kim, S., Goh, Y., & Kang, J. H. B. (2022). Moving toward a common goal via cross-sector collaboration: lessons learned from SARS to COVID-19 in Singapore. Globalization and Health, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-022-00873-x
32. Kim, S. C. (2020). South Korea’s 2020 Election amid COVID-19. East Asian Policy, 12(03), 49-62. https://doi.org/10.1142/s1793930520000227
33. King, E. J., & Dudina, V. I. (2021). COVID-19 in Russia: Should we expect a novel response to the novel coronavirus? Global Public Health, 16(8-9), 1237-1250. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2021.1900317
34. Koop, S. H. A., & Van Leeuwen, C. J. (2017). The challenges of water, waste and climate change in cities. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 19(2), 385-418. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-016-9760-4
35. Kuddus, M. A., Tynan, E., & McBryde, E. (2020). Urbanization: a problem for the rich and the poor? Public Health Reviews, 41(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40985-019-0116-0
36. Lancet. (2020). India under COVID-19 lockdown. The Lancet, 395(10233), 1315. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30938-7
37. Lee, D., Heo, K., Seo, Y., Ahn, H., Jung, K., Lee, S., & Choi, H. (2020). Flattening the curve on COVID-19: South Korea’s measures in tackling initial outbreak of coronavirus. American Journal of Epidemiology, 190(4), 496-505. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwaa217
38. Lipscy, P. Y. (2023). Japan’s Response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In R. J. Pekkanen, S. R. Reed, & D. M. Smith (Eds.), Japan decides 2021: The Japanese general election. (pp. 239-254). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11324-6_16
39. Lo, B. (2020). Global order in the shadow of the coronavirus: China, Russia, and the West. Lowy Institute, 29. https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/global-order-shadow-coronavirus-china-russia-west
40. Madsen, W., Ambrens, M., & Ohl, M. (2019). Enhancing resilience in community-dwelling older adults: a rapid review of the evidence and implications for public health practitioners. Front Public Health, 7, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00014
41. Mardiyanta, A., & Wijaya, C. N. (2021). Policy capacity during COVID‐19 in Asia: A systematic literature review. Journal of Public Affairs, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2835
42. Mason, K. A. (2017). Preparedness and the Shenzhen Model of Public Health. In O. D. Mary Ann, W. Winnie, & B. Jonathan (Eds.), Learning from Shenzhen. (pp. 213-227). University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/doi:10.7208/9780226401263-012
43. Newman, E. (2021). Covid-19: A human security analysis. Global Society, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600826.2021.2010034
44. Norris, F. H., Stevens, S. P., Pfefferbaum, B., Wyche, K. F., & Pfefferbaum, R. L. (2008). Community resilience as a metaphor, theory, set of capacities, and strategy for disaster readiness. 41(1-2), 127-150. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9156-6
45. O'Donnell, J., Cárdenas, D., Orazani, N., Evans, A., & Reynolds, K. J. (2022). The longitudinal effect of COVID-19 infections and lockdown on mental health and the protective effect of neighbourhood social relations. Social Science & Medicine, 297, 114821. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114821
46. Orhan, R., Paric, M., & Czabanowska, K. (2021). Lessons learnt from the EU response to NCDs: A content analysis on building resilient post-COVID health systems. Healthcare, 9(12), 1659. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9121659
47. Pekarčíková, M., & Staníčková, M. (2022). Analysis of the current integration process: from the past to the future of the European Union. Eastern Journal of European Studies, 13(2), 116-139. https://doi.org/10.47743/ejes-2022-0206
48. Ponce, D. (2020). The impact of coronavirus in Brazil: politics and the pandemic. Nature Reviews Nephrology, 16(9), 483-483. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41581-020-0327-0 Porter, D. (1999). Health, civilization, and the state: a history of public health from ancient to modern times. Psychology Press.
49. Reznik, A., Gritsenko, V., Konstantinov, V., Khamenka, N., & Isralowitz, R. (2021). COVID-19 Fear in Eastern Europe: Validation of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 19(5), 1903-1908. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00283-3
50. Sajadi, H., & Hartley, K. (2022). COVID-19 pandemic response in Iran: a dynamic perspective on policy capacity. Journal of Asian Public Policy, 15(2), 228-249. https://doi.org/10.1080/17516234.2021.1930682
51. Salomon, J. A., Mathers, C. D., Chatterji, S., Sadana, R., Ustun, T. B., & Murray, C. J. (2003). Quantifying individual levels of health: definitions, concepts and measurement issues. Health Systems Performance Assessment: Debate, Methods, and Empiricism, 301-318.
52. Shan, W., & Chen, J. (2020). Life and political opinions during the COVID-19 lockdown: responses from Chengdu and Wuhan. East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore.
53. Song, L., Wang, Y., Li, Z., Yang, Y., & Li, H. (2020). Mental health and work attitudes among people resuming work during the covid-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study in China. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(14), 5059. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17145059
54. Soon, S., Chou, C. C., & Shi, S. J. (2021). Withstanding the plague: Institutional resilience of the East Asian welfare state. Social Policy & Administration, 55(2), 374-387. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12713
55. Tekin, A. (2023). Tarihten günümüze epidemiler, pandemiler ve ekonomik sonuçları. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/sbe. https://doi.org/https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/sbe/issue/62244/908431 Topkaya, Ö. (2016). Sosyal Politika bağlamında dünyada sağlık politikalarının tarihsel gelişimi. Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi, 21. https://doi.org/https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/sduiibfd/issue/20860/223837 Tuğaç, Ç. (2021). Kentsel sürdürülebilirlik, dirençlilik ve iklim değişikliğiyle mücadele bağlamında yerel yönetimler üzerine bir değerlendirme, 30, 21-69.
56. UNDRR. (2022). https://www.undrr.org/terminology.
57. Uysal Oğuz, C., & Sezek, E. N. (2020). Latin Amerika’da Covid-19 pandemisinin sosyoekonomik etkileri: Brezilya ve Meksika Örnekleri. Ekonomi, Politika & Finans Araştırmaları Dergisi, https://doi.org/10.30784/epfad.811206
58. Wallenburg, I., Helderman, J.-K., Jeurissen, P., & Bal, R. (2022). Unmasking a health care system: the Dutch policy response to the Covid-19 crisis. Health Economics, Policy and Law, 17(1), 27-36. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1744133121000128
59. Watkins, D. V., & Clevenger, A. D. (2021). US political leadership and crisis communication during COVID-19. Cogent Social Sciences, 7(1), 1901365. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2021.1901365
60. Whitehead, M. (2001). Eşitlik ve sağlık: kavram ve ilkeler. Türk Tabipleri Birliği Yayını. http://www.ttb.org.tr/kutuphane/esiktlik_saglik.pdf
61. WHO. (2008). Social determinants of health. https://www.who.int/health-topics/social-determinants-of-health#tab=tab_1
62. Worldometer. (2023). Coronavirus istatistic. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
63. Yamey, G., & Gonsalves, G. (2020). Donald Trump: a political determinant of covid-19. British Medical Journal Publishing Group, Vol. 369. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1643