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Communicating COVID-19: Public Health Leaders in a Comparative Perspective

Institution

Global Strategy Lab (University of Ottawa/York University)

Country

Canada, United Kingdom (England, N. Ireland, Scotland, Wales), Ireland, Australia, New Zealand

Type of Study

Comparative, multi-phase, interdisciplinary

Methodology

Mixed-methods (surveys, documentary & media analysis, semi-structured interviews)

Key Focus of Study

Building out from a current project examining the role of Canada’s Chief Public Health Officers (CPHOs), the Global Strategy Lab has launched a project investigating senior public health leaders’ communication efforts in response to COVID-19. The purpose of this study is to understand the public health challenges associated with how governments establish trust among citizens, and shed light on the complex and often misunderstood role of scientific evidence in the making of public health policy. Despite CPHOs’ critical role in providing information and shaping public behaviour during emergencies, little is known about how they balance competing scientific and political priorities in their communications; how they coordinate messaging with elected representatives and their peers across jurisdictions; and how well these processes work in practice. Moreover, the field lacks an understanding of how these processes unfold in different countries and what different jurisdictions might learn from one another. Working in collaboration with other public health policy and governance experts around the world, our study will focus on Canada and four other high-income, Commonwealth countries with a CMO (chief medical officer) who is similarly-positioned in the public health system. We will collect data on 27 jurisdictions: Canada’s federal level and the 13 provinces and territories; the jurisdictions of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales that comprise the UK; the Commonwealth and six state governments in Australia; and the unitary countries of Ireland and New Zealand. Our team will systematically analyze 1) how governments are addressing the biological and social risks of COVID-19 in their public messaging; 2) how members of the public receive, understand, and trust this messaging; and 3) the challenges senior public health leaders have faced during the outbreak and the lessons they learned along the way.

Timeframe

March 2020-March 2022

Funding Institution(s)

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

Status

Research design/data collection

More information contact

Margaret.macaulay@globalstrategylab.org