The proposed research for the RECOVER19 project is organized primarily through a set of five “case studies”, each involving a subgroup of the research team.
Case study 1 aims to create “pandemic report cards” for select countries to analyze the variations of public health and societal outcomes in response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This “ground-truthing” exercise uses publicly accessible data and the local knowledge of the project’s international collaborators in the USA, Jamaica, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Israel, Kenya, and South Africa. It develops guidelines for improved vulnerability assessments, reducing disruptions, civil rights infringements, and “collateral damage”, and aligning with existing pandemic plans. The goal is to create a more balanced, community-tailored response that emphasizes local decision-making.
Case study 2 focuses on the cardiovascular outcomes of COVID-19 and the pandemic response, including those related to missed tests, delayed access to care, and metabolic syndromes caused by stay-at-home policies. It also examines the handling of myocarditis as a vaccine adverse event by public health officials, and estimates the impact of vaccination mandates on post-secondary students’ heart health. The goal is to understand how this vaccine safety signal was managed and to predict the lifetime benefits and harms of pandemic response measures. Expected results include template policies and media guides to encourage an open dialogue about the pertinence, efficacy, safety, and unintended consequences of future public health campaigns and mandates.
A third case study aims to probe into the implementation of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and the social determinants of health (SDOH) in the COVID-19 pandemic response. We will investigate how these principles were experienced by marginalized communities like migrant workers, LGBTQ individuals, and low-income families with young children. Case study 3 will employ discourse analysis of policy and media outputs and oral history interviews to focus on Canadian populations and compare them to other jurisdictions including Singapore, Jamaica, and South Africa. The expected results include best-practice training modules for public health professionals, journalists, and policymakers and an archive of interview and personal memoir data reflecting the experiences of minority and marginalized groups, contributing to an ethics-focused post-pandemic recovery.
Yet another case study analyzes the governance and decision-making about workplace COVID-19 policies in two types of large private- and public-sector institutions, banks and universities. It will also examine the definition of “essential workplaces” that were permitted to remain open during lockdowns and assess organizations’ relationships with stakeholders including professional associations, local communities, customers/users, and governing bodies. Case study 4 uses a corporate social responsibility lens and the stakeholder influencing capacity framework to identify the relative influence of health, legal, and scientific information, as well as existing governance protocols, on the different policies observed. The expected results include best-practice guidelines for institutional leadership during future public health crises.
Lastly, case study 5 on the language of the pandemic investigates the use of “perception-shaping phrases” and “visual symbols” and the metaphors of the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically focusing on face mask campaigns. It critically appraises the scientific foundations informing official messages in countries like Brazil, Canada, USA, Germany, Hungary, Israel, and China, using rhetorical analysis, corpus linguistics, and data analysis. Our goal is to understand the use and reception of persuasive language in public health campaigns and assess these against the scientific evidence available at different times. We will develop ethical communication guidelines and training modules for the recovery and reconciliation phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and future crises. Additionally, the research team aims to create an archive of textual and audio-visual artifacts related to masking and mask mandates as well as the surrounding public commentary and controversy from new and legacy media, scientific and expert discourse, and government regulations.
RECOVER19 