Good Governance and ptake of Covid-19 Vaccine
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The Role of Good Governance in the Uptake of Covid-19 Vaccination
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Literature Review.
Introduction.
Governments play a key role in rolling out and encouraging the public to take
vaccinations. There is a common agreement among global scientific community that vaccination
is considered as one of the most effective ways to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. The
development of the COVID-19 vaccine is a powerful demonstration of how governments play
significant role in healthcare. This was displayed by substantial public funding, attention and
significant levels of scientific collaboration that help spur innovation to address the needs of the
public within a very short time frame. The invention and certification of the COVID-19 vaccine
did not signify the immediate end of the health crisis caused by the pandemic. For a long-term
immunity to be achieved, it requires vaccination of a significant proportion of the national and
global population. This presented another major challenge for public administrative organs
(OECD, 2021). To achieve global effort of immunization of billions of people within the shortest
time possible, governments play a critical role in addressing its nationals on the need and
significance of getting vaccinated. The governments must win trust of the people and institutions
offering these services. The government promotes confidence among the public regarding the
safety and the effectiveness of the vaccines administered. Governments as well have the capacity
to manage the logistical technicalities competently to ensure that vaccines reach to every
individual across all corners of their territories.
The ability of governments to deliver these requirements is dependent on how they can
quality of their leadership. The relationships between the disparities in vaccine administration
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and governance is yet to be established. This section of literature reviews the role that
governments play in relation to the administration of public services.
Role of Government in COVID-19 Vaccination
.
According to World Bank, indicators for aggregate and individual governance for over
200 countries and territories across the globe are categorized into six dimensions; control of
corruption, rule of law, regulatory quality, government effectiveness, political stability and
absence of terrorism or violence and voice of accountability.
Good governance enhances public trust. Despite the initial global campaign that took
effect in the early stages of the pandemic, several countries observed an increasing level of
distrust on government’s ability to cope up with the crisis and implement effective policies
(OECD, 2021). This resulted in a decline of the public’s compliance with health-related
regulations and increased skepticism about the economy’s long-term recovery. The pandemic
triggered widespread disinformation that undermined the comprehension and acceptance of
science behind public policies (de Figueredo et al., 2020), this issue extends to the challenge of
vaccine acceptance. Despite the efforts by global organizations to spread the recognition of
COVID-19 as a critical issue, several people are still reluctant to get vaccinated.
Global organizations in partnership with governments have made a significant
contribution towards changing the public’s attitude towards vaccination. Their efforts to improve
vaccine uptake is not futile. This is indicated by the increasing willingness to get vaccinated.
According to the information published by Ipsos, the average population of people that were
willing to get vaccinated across the 11OECD countries were 76% on February 2021. This is an
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increase from the 66% of December 2020 (Ipsos, 2021). However, the most recent data in seven
of the eleven OECD countries indicated that approximately a quarter of the population in the
United States, Germany and France declined to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The data also shows
that a larger percentage of individuals that are resistant to getting vaccinated constitutes
young/youthful population. For example, in France more than 50% of individuals aged 25- to 34
years and a third of Dutch’s 24- to 34-year-old do not have the urge to get vaccinated (Kantar,
2021).
Government Trust and Policy Compliance.
OECD defines trust as an individual’s belief than an institution or another person will act
and deliver in accordance to the expectation (OECD, 2017). Trust is a significant aspect in the
COVID-19 vaccination. Trust in vaccine is dependent on two major aspects; the type of dose and
the institutions disseminating the vaccine. The trust in a type of vaccine must be complementary
to the institutions designated with the responsibility of vaccinating the public. Lack of
acceptance to get vaccinated may result from the previous failure of health care systems and
public institutions to effectively provide services to a population, this made the population to lose
trust. Engender of trust to institutions is essential for proper functioning of society and
acceptance to public policies especially during crisis. Trust in institutions is considered as a
significant factor used to measure the performance of governments.
The success of the vaccination process and campaigns is mainly influenced by the level
to which people trust the safety and the effectiveness of vaccines, reliability and competence of
the institutions in charge of distributing them and the principles that guide government actions
and decision making. Policies play a significant role in strengthening public trust regarding the
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safety and effectiveness of vaccine. Policy prioritization is also a factor. The nation’s ability to
emphasize on specific policies is also responsible for strengthening public trust in the rollout of
COVID-19 vaccination.
Government competence
.
The provision of quality services and goods is considered as a key indicator of
competence of public administration. The ability of governments to respond to the people’s
needs in time as demonstrated through provision of high quality services and goods required by
the population is considered as competence. The public and private sector stakeholders actively
participated in the development of several effective vaccines within a year. This was a great
show of competence.
However, public administrative bodies must demonstrate that no safety or quality
standard was compromised for the sake of approval and deployment of the vaccine. The
government must demonstrate this in order to promote public trust and uptake of the vaccine.
The vaccine is still being developed, evaluated and approved in respect to the regulatory and
legal requirements (EMA, 2020). The purpose of carrying out laboratory and clinical trials is to
ascertain that vaccines are effective and most essentially to prove to the public that the vaccine is
save and effective.
Government competence is also based on the administration’s ability to come up with
effective and inclusive policies that foster public trust. While government’s effort in the
development of vaccine is considered as competent, a lot is still to be done to engender public
trust. The governments must also demonstrate effectiveness of the vaccine and integrity in the
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development, evaluation and monitoring. The government is also responsible for timely delivery
of vaccine and establish infrastructure and policies for the distribution, storage and
administration of vaccine across territories. The government as well is responsible for the
coordination, involvement of the public in decision making, alignment of government procedures
and transfer of government resources across all levels of administration to ensure that there is an
inclusive and effective vaccine policy. An example is in the United States where each state orders
doses from Vaccine Tracking System to the limit established by the federal government. The
central government ensure that subnational authorities (counties) have adequate funding and
ability to procure sufficient quantities of ancillary products (National Academies of Sciences,
Engineering, and Medicine, 2020).
Values of Good Governance and COvid-19 Vaccination
.
Equity, safety, transparency coverage, accountability and control of corruption are
elements of good governance. All these elements are significant for effective vaccination
programs. These factors are universally valued. Since the initial stages of COVID-19,
governments have been compelled to make instant decisions and implement Several
unanticipated measures to ensure safety of communities at risk. From the first stage of COVID-
19 infection, leadership values have played a critical role in determining infection rates,
pandemic management policies and economic recovery. During the first stages of infection,
governments had an opportunity to directly procure goods which put integrity at stake. Instances
of corruption and fraud could weaken the government’s efforts to manage the spread of the virus.
Some cases of corruption were witnessed in different parts of the world. However, little has been
talked about how these cases affected the people’s trust in government’s vaccination efforts.
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The aspect of integrity concerns the alignment of and adherence to common ethical
principles, values, and norms for prioritizing public interests over personal interests in public
sectors (OECD, 2017). Integrity is the main value that drives public trust. In the context of
vaccination against COVID-19, integrity affects the government’s effort of strengthening
safeguards and accountability in emergency public procurement and the allocation of public
funds. During the response for COVID-19, every government had a test of protecting and
ensuring continuity in public services. Procurement was key to the government’s response to the
crisis.
Large sums of money were dedicated to procurement of medical provisions. Financial
support was also offered to organizations in compensation for lost income and to support the
struggling sectors of the economy. Despite this need for rapid response, accountability and
integrity must be adhered to enhance public trust.
The other issue that concerns integrity relates to the interactions between other sectors
with public officials. Stakeholders that play key roles in policy making include interest groups
and representatives from private sectors. However, there is a need to maintain openness in such
processes. According to a study of interest representation during the pandemic, lobbying
activities increased significantly during the crisis (Junk et al., 2020). Unless public interest is
prioritized, such conditions could breed mistrust that is responsible for slow uptake of
vaccinations in some parts.
The other key factor that played a key role during the vaccination is the transparency.
Key advisory bodies play a critical role in information dissemination. Governments have
established entities to inform the public decision making. The advisory team have a positive role
to play in ensuring transparency of the operation. When government bodies share information
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regarding how they work and the reasons why they make specific decisions, they enhance the
public trust in the processes and outline of policies affecting the public. Creation of awareness of
vaccine certification by national regulatory bodies significantly contributes to improvement of
public trust. The same should also be carried out in research.
The governments also play a critical role in proactive dissemination of timely information
and data that concerns vaccination strategies, deaths and achievements in open sources. There is
a high likelihood for low vaccine uptake in jurisdictions that lacked clear and timely information.
This is probably due to uncertainty in decision making and mistrust in the population.
Government bodies have the responsibility of enhancing transparency and coherency in public
communication, this enables them to address ‘infodemic’ and misinformation.
Measuring the aspects of accountability, adherence to law, control of corruption
government effectiveness, political stability and regulatory quality facilitates the measurement of
quality of governance. This measurements can be compared to the levels of vaccination to
ascertain the relationship between good governance and uptake of COvid-19 vaccinations.
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References
.
EMA (2020),
COVID-19 vaccines: development, evaluation, approval and
monitoring
,
https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/human-regulatory/overview/public-health-
threats/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/treatments-vaccines/covid-19-vaccines-development-
evaluation-approval-monitoring
.
Ipsos (2021),
Global Attitudes on a COVID-19 Vaccine: Ipsos survey for The World Economic
Forum
,
https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2021-03/global-
attitudes-on-a-covid-19-vaccine-march-2021-report_.pdf
.
Junk, W. et al. (2020),
Interest Representation during the Corona Virus Crisis: Results from the
European Union and Nine European Countries. Summary Report
, University of
Copenhagen, University of Amsterdam, Trinity College Amsterdam,
https://61b80c4f-58c1-
4b9d-bce6-
c58106af2ef4.filesusr.com/ugd/9a0cb4_dda8dac6e4e04e7fa88d30caab8b95a3.pdf
Kantar (2021),
COVID-19 vaccine faces an increasingly hesitant
public
,
https://www.kantar.com/inspiration/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccine-faces-an-
increasingly-hesitant-public
.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2020),
Framework for Equitable
Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccine
, The National Academies
Press,
https://doi.org/10.17226/25917
.
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OECD (2017),
Trust and Public Policy: How Better Governance Can Help Rebuild Public Trust
,
OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing,
Paris,
https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264268920-en
.
OECD (2019),
Government at a Glance 2019
, OECD Publishing,
http://dx.doi.org/
10.1787/8ccf5c38-en
.
OECD (2021),
Government at a Glance 2021
, OECD Publishing, Paris,
https://doi.org/10.1787/1c258f55-en
.
Watts, N., Amann, M., Ayeb-Karlsson, S., Belesova, K., Bouley, T., Boykoff, M., ... & Costello,
A. (2018). The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: from 25 years of inaction
to a global transformation for public health.
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