While there is a strong determination around the world to return to a new normal in a post-COVID-19 world, it is almost impossible to forget the pandemic. Massive amounts of data also provide insight into how we process it that we don't want to avoid yet.
Jami Nelson-Nunez, UNM Associate Professor and Chair of Political Science A research paper entitled “Coronavirus Policy'' evaluates the new coronavirus policy. Non-pharmaceutical interventions to combat COVID-19 in the Americas explained through daily subnational datapublished
jamie nelson nuñez
It was recently published in Nature's Scientific Data journal. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, she and her international research team investigated the impact of Latin American government actions and plans.
As in the United States, politics at the national, state, and local levels influenced COVID-19 mitigation decisions around the world, impacting cases, deaths, hospitalizations, employment, and education. Nelson Nuñez specifically noted: cause and effect policy and politics in bolivia Through months of data.
“Bolivia is a very interesting case because it has a largely decentralized system, which creates a lot of regional variation. Our main focus is on the effectiveness of the policy and how it works. We wanted to pay attention to how it developed,” Nelson Nunez said. “We have been very productive with this project, and our work focuses on the political intersections of the pandemic in Bolivia and how it relates to what is happening in several other countries. I shined a light on it.”
“This was tied to what was happening in the United States. It was a very politically charged time in our country. These political patterns were reflected in several countries, making it an interesting comparative study. – Jami Nelson Nuñez, UNM Associate Professor of Political Science.
The pandemic occurred at a time of dramatic change in Bolivia's national politics. After already chaotic elections in the fall of 2019, Bolivia's transitional government lacked legitimacy and the country was deeply divided.
“Conflict had been brewing for some time. The country was on the brink of a struggle for control. It was interesting to follow,” Nelson-Nunez said.
When elections were postponed for the second time, tens of thousands of Bolivians flooded the streets across the country and staged months of protests.some of them protests In some locations, this included imposing blockades to prevent medical equipment from passing through.
“Bolivia has always been an anomaly when it comes to protests. The population has always been highly mobilized and has been able to overcome collective action problems and mount large-scale protests,” Nelson Nuñez said. Told. “Bolivia has a history of people marching for days against the central government and then occupying the roads of the capital.”
With that anxiety, non-drug intervention (NPI) was almost non-existent. The large-scale government response, given the challenges of already weak national capacity in health services, made it difficult to develop and enforce coherent policies.
“While the national government was trying to figure out how to steer the ship for the whole country, regional and local stakeholders were challenging these decisions,” Nelson-Nunez said. “The dynamics of politics and multi-level governance can make communities highly vulnerable to these types of events.”
Even with the NPIs and guidance issued over time, it was too late.hospital system completely folded In the summer of 2020.
Furthermore, although some NPIs have been issued, given the leadership situation, more public trust is needed to comply with government policy and enable government to formulate and enforce policy. was. Her colleagues found similar results in other Latin American countries.
“The roots of health disparities are political. Underlying health realities are important political factors, and if we ignore them, we won't really understand how and why pandemics occur and why health disparities are occurring in these ways,” Nelson Nunez said. Stated.
Nelson-Nunez said the study is one of many ways public health and politics intertwine.
“Sometimes people don't understand political science. We study power as a discipline, and that means we study resources and the distribution of those resources,” Nelson-Nunez said. Told. “Health is a resource, and access to services is a resource. You can see.”
