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Planning for a COVID-19 Future: A Road Map for Moving to Co-Existence and a Resilient Australian Society

TAGS: COVID-19; resilience; response; transition; recovery; vaccine hesitancy; acceptable risk; trans-science; IRGC; risk assessment; concern assessment; inter-generational equity; sustainable development; public health; information conflicts; health literacy; scientific innovations; vaccination, diffusion, adoption.

       Concern over the appropriate problem-solving pathway for Australia to adopt to effectively address the global COVID-19 pandemic has ignited public controversy and conflict. 

     One media critique of the response in Australia to the pandemic refers to the “lack of balanced analysis of the harm of lockdowns versus the harm of COVID”.

    Misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic - caused by different opinions on what scientific information is relevant, different interpretations of the same information or insufficient information - has created scientific information conflicts.

      Any effective future national plan for Australia’s COVID-19 future should be based on two inter-dependent and mutually supporting cornerstones: -

(i)     The plan should resonate with a vision for a resilient Australian society. Resilience is a unifying scientific concept having a long history of application in the management of natural and human systems following disturbance e.g., for human systems, a global pandemic. The concept of resilience is based on two phases having quite different goals: Response to, and recovery from, the disturbance; and

(ii)    Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is clearly a classic sustainable development problem to resolve - not simply a public health crisis! Sustainable solutions balance public health, economic, social, and cultural impacts and inequalities that have been created by the pandemic.

A conflict management approach to planning for a resilient society,

 in a post-COVID-19 future, is outlined in a 3-part article to follow.

PART 1. Planning for a COVID-19 Future: Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic ~ Information Conflicts and Health Literacy (Posted 04 October 2021)

PART 2.Planning for a COVID-19 Future: Transitioning to Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic ~ Risk Appraisal, Concern Assessment and Vaccine Hesitancy (08 October 2021)

PART 3. Planning for a COVID-19 Future: Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic ~ Co-Existence and Sustainable Development (08 October 2021)

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