Authors:James F. Keeley; Ph.D. Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a clear threat to the lives of individual Albertans; together with the measures taken in response, it has posed a clear threat to their economic circumstances while uncovering existing social fissures in terms of the variable vulnerability of sub-populations to both the virus and those response measures. It qualifies as a significant security threat on these levels. In responding to this threat, the Alberta government marshalled its institutional resources and had to adapt them to circumstances of a scale and type last seen one hundred years ago. It had to do so under economic and political conditions that already presented significant challenges, and that were in some cases strongly exacerbated by its policy choices and their consequences. Finally, it had to do so in the face of strong, yet often contradictory, public pressures. These challenges and difficulties found in the microcosm of a single Canadian province in confronting a specific sort of problem may be of interest and use in considering the prospect, particularly of future, especially non-traditional, security challenges. PubDate: 2022-02-07 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 3 (2022)
Authors:Duane Bratt; Ph.D. Abstract: This paper assesses the response by the Alberta government. This case was chosen because Alberta, outside of the first wave, has been hit harder from a per capita basis (and sometimes in absolute terms) by COVID-19 than other provinces. Alberta, despite a good performance in the first wave, has been harder hit in terms of cases, hospitalizations, those in intensive care, and deaths than other provinces (especially the disastrous fourth wave). This paper argues that this performance can be traced to two inter-related factors: 1) the ideology of Premier Jason Kenney (and many of his UCP MLAs, cabinet ministers, and political staffers) and 2) the desire of Kenney to keep the UCP united and himself as leader. Ultimately then, it is politics that best explains why Alberta, despite its wealth and education levels, has done worse responding to the health aspects of COVID-19. PubDate: 2022-02-07 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 3 (2022)
Authors:William McAuley; Ph.D. Abstract: The critical infrastructure and public order dimensions of pandemic response provide subplots to the ends-ways-means calculations made by Alberta’s policymakers to supress and mitigate COVID-19. Commencing from a strategic studies perspective, key drivers of pandemic decision making that encroaching on the security sphere are explored. Security realm considerations are found to be interwoven three broad undertones, précised as a preappointed evidence problem, a Cynefin circumstance, and a collective-to-individual cognitive arc. Rather than being a report card on pandemic response strategies, sensitivity to the range and complexity of factors that decision-makers were forced to contend with is projected towards the discovery of some strategic principles of pandemic response. Paramount among these is an appreciation for understanding as being something beyond mere situational awareness. This is recognition of a particular knowledge and application problem that parallels military strategic theory and is heavily reliant on insight and foresight as foundations for complex decision making. Potential areas of focus for further strategic studies inquiry are presented, with a view to addressing indicators of concern relevant to longer-term pandemic recovery. PubDate: 2022-02-07 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 3 (2022)
Authors:Fedir Razumenko; Ph.D. Abstract: COVID-19 has galvanized changes in the economy of patient-doctor relationships and technological interfaces across the healthcare system. A rapid adoption of technologies that were previously slow to take hold opened more diverse and accessible spaces for care. At the same time, some persistent barriers in pivoting to scientific-medical advances in managing the pandemic revealed stark inequities in both access to care and exposure to risk. Political and organizational responses to the crisis often excluded the perspectives of vulnerable groups bearing more burdens than others. Some patients and healthcare providers suffered in isolation, however these experiences have escaped public attention due to the fragmented Canadian health information infrastructure. The social meanings of and collective responses to the pandemic nationally are rooted in historical developments. Comparative analyses of epidemic crises along with their consequences have the potential to inform our critical evaluations of problem-solving approaches and policymaking when what we do not know about the issue exceeds what we know. This article demonstrates that historical analysis serves an important role in examining the complex interaction of social and biological forces that constitute epidemic disease. By linking the past and present of epidemic crises we can better understand how social and scientific-medical responses to epidemics shift following the epidemic experience. To be forewarned is to be forearmed acquires a definite meaning as historical contexts set a background for assessing new situations. The COVID-19 pandemic has not emerged out of thin air, so tracing its origin and development is simultaneously a scientific and an historical undertaking. PubDate: 2022-02-07 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 3 (2022)
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