Discussing Effective Policies to Control the COVID-19 Pandemic

One of the most important aspects during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been the emphasis placed on policies that will help to keep the pandemic in check. However, not all official policies and guidelines have the same impact as far as decreasing case numbers and keeping people safe.

Anita McGahan, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and a professor of Strategic Management at the Rotman School of Management, where she holds the George E. Connell Chair in Organizations & Society, recently authored a paper discussing which COVID-19 policies provide the most impact.

“We identified 2 different categories of policies, core policies and additional high impact policies. Core policies were no public events, restricting gatherings to fewer than 100 people, implementing stay at home recommendations, [and] restricting internal movement within countries,” McGahan said.

She further went on to discuss which of those core policies outlined provide the highest benefit to a society.

“It depends a lot on what’s going on in a particular country,” the professor said.

She stressed the fact that variables like enforcement of policies and how the local populations respond to the restrictions that are in place play a vital role in how effective they can be.

“We’re interested in getting COVID growth down below zero, because if you can stop the replication of this disease overtime, if you can get growth down, then the epidemiology of the disease loses its control.”