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Coping with Covid-19 in Europe:Containment and Mitigation Strategies

Course Description The unfolding global Covid- 19 crisis presents a unique and important opportunity to learn about national health systems - their strengths, weaknesses, and resilience - by comparing their responses to the pandemic and lessons learned. At the outset of this course, diverse groups of undergraduate and graduate students are introduced to key concepts in epidemiology, emergency response, risk communication, and health system design. We will explore such questions as: What is a pandemic? How did this one unfold? Why? How does the environmental context - the social, economic, political, and organizational conditions - relate to countries’ responses during this crisis? How are health systems organized to respond to crises? What factors contribute to better or worse outcomes for those affected in this case? How does communication influence the response? What is the role of the media? Which populations are most vulnerable? Which countries have the most vulnerable people? What impact has it had on the health systems’ responses? Which countries showed the strongest and weakest response to the pandemic? Why? Which countries are best at flattening the curve? How do they do it? Which strategies have succeeded? Which have failed? Why? What have we learned through this experience? How can global public health leaders apply these lessons to mitigate or prevent future pandemics? Regional differences in pandemic responses will be examined across multiple continents and countries. Our special focus will be on the best mitigation strategies and the characteristics of national health systems with the most effective responses. In a televised address on March 16, 2020 President Emmanuel Macron of France ordered citizens to stay home for at least 15 days or risk punishment. “We are at war. Walking about, meeting up with one’s friends — this is no longer allowed” (source). We used President Macron’s words to coin our course title. We will explore the usefulness of this and other metaphors. Academic credit information CMU, School of Health Sciences, The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow College of Health Professions: CMU students may enroll now using their course registration system: HSC 512N. If needed, waitlist yourself for any course section. This is a 3 credit hour course, which has been approved as a General Education course, category IV-B. Prerequisite: 77 credit hours (completed first 2 years plus the first semester as a Junior) or graduate standing. A CR/NC option is available through CMU. CMU welcomes guest students who may transfer this course to their academic institutions. If you are not a current CMU student, contact Katie Bollman at cmuonline@cmich.edu. IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health: This is a 3 credit hour topics course A404/A670, open to all students across all IU campuses. No prerequisites. IU welcomes undergraduate and graduate students. IU students may enroll now using their course registration system. Learning Objectives Explain how the current pandemic emerged and evolved from its outset in Wuhan, China to its spread throughout the world. Describe and discuss health systems’ responses, including those related to containment and mitigation. Analyze geographical, cultural, or political commonalities and differences in health systems’ responses, in light of cultural values, common attitudes, biases and stereotypes. Compare and contrast U.S. and European responses during this crisis, taking into consideration the variations in social, economic, political, and organizational conditions that comprised the backdrop for the pandemic. Analyze how health system differences between the U.S. and European countries influenced responses and outcomes. Illustrate differences in light of deeply held cultural values and attitudes related to health and health systems. Assess the influence of the media and effectiveness of communication strategies applied in Europe, the U.S. and in other countries that were strongly affected by the pandemic. Illustrate regional communication differences in light of country- specific politics and cultural traditions. Work in teams to examine how countries protect vulnerable populations from Covid-19. Identify a country that was successful at “flattening the epidemiological curve.” Explain how and why such achievements became possible. Summarize lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, recognizing the contributions of different countries. Summarize how the past health system performance relates to health system performance during Covid-19.

SARS-Cov-2 ; Surveillance ; Control ; Best Practice ; Europe ; USA ; Vaccine Hesitancy

Swedish Health Academy, Central Michigan University & Indiana University Collaboration