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Staying in the lane' of public health? Boundary-work in the roles of state health officials and experts in COVID-19 policymaking
Esmonde, Katelyn Jones, Jeff Johns, Michaela Hutler, Brian Faden, Ruth Barnhill, Anne
Esmonde, Katelyn
Jones, Jeff
Johns, Michaela
Hutler, Brian
Faden, Ruth
Barnhill, Anne
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Journal article
Date
2024-01-17
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Philosophy
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https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13751
Abstract
The state-level COVID-19 response in the United Statesnecessitated collaboration between governor' offices,health departments and numerous other departmentsand outside experts. To gain insight into how healthofficials and experts contributed to advising on COVID-19 policies, we conducted semi-structured interviewswith 25 individuals with a health specialisation whowere involved in COVID-19 policymaking, taking placebetween February and December 2022. We found twodiverging understandings of the role of health officialsand experts in COVID-19 policymaking: the role of ‘stay-ing in the lane’ of public health in terms of the infor-mation that they collected, their advocacy for policiesand their area of expertise and the role of engaging inthe balancing of multiple considerations, such as publichealth, feasibility and competing objectives (such as theeconomy) in the crafting of pandemic policy. We drawon the concept of boundary-work to examine how theseroles were constructed. We conclude by considering theappropriateness as well as the ethical implications ofthese two approaches to public health policymaking.
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Esmonde, K., Jones, J., Johns, M., Hutler, B., Faden, R., & Barnhill, A. (2024). ‘Staying in the lane’ of public health? Boundary-work in the roles of state health officials and experts in COVID-19 policymaking. Sociology of Health & Illness, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13751
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Wiley
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Sociology of Health & Illness, Vol. 46, Iss. 5
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND