Comparative Analysis of Covid-19 Trajectories, Mitigation Strategies, and Public Opinion in Canada, Italy, Sweden, and South Korea

Anthony C Masi, McGill University

Different outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic across countries have been attributed to the timing and forcefulness of various countermeasures undertaken. Two socio-political factors played a crucial role in generating differences in policy responses and outcomes: political-institutional settings and practices, and public responses to the choices. This paper examines policy and epidemic trajectories in four countries that pursued different strategies and had different outcome profiles: Canada (federal messaging, provincial management), Italy (regional implementation of central mandates), Sweden (centrally moderated laissez-faire), and South Korea (centrally directed technological containment). Data are presented on the timing of contagion/mortality curves and the range of implemented policies – hygiene directives, physical distancing, quarantines, testing regimes, contact tracking, school and university closures, restrictions on commercial activities and large gatherings, postponement of elective procedures in hospitals, travel limitations. Policy trajectories are mapped to differences in political institutions – federal vs. centralized polities, liberal vs. coordinated economies, consensual vs. adversarial political traditions, relative authority of politicians vs. health authorities/experts. Available public opinion data are used to identify attitudinal differences among the populations of the four countries that are hypothesised to have an impact on successful policy implementation (approval rates, trust in political and health authorities).

Keywords: Population, Shocks and Pandemics, Qualitative data/methods/approaches, Comparative methods , Population Policies

See extended abstract.