EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

A risk science perspective on the COVID-19 risk handling

Terje Aven

Journal of Risk Research, 2024, vol. 27, issue 3, 337-355

Abstract: This paper provides some reflections on the risk handling of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide: What went wrong, and what worked well? On many issues – for example the origin of the coronavirus, societal lockdowns, and the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines – there are still considerable uncertainties and discussion. The paper aims to provide a new perspective on the risk handling, by studying such issues through the lens of risk science. This perspective stimulates considerations of the dilemmas the authorities faced because of the uncertainties about the development of the disease and the effectiveness of measures to meet the risks, by looking into the role of science, the appropriateness of the precautionary principle, the need to establish some official narratives, and the use of misinformation/disinformation. The main conclusion of the paper is that the COVID-19 risk handling failed in many critical ways, many of which are due to the authorities’ failure to adequately provide information about the dilemmas and convey relevant risks and uncertainties.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13669877.2024.2340019 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jriskr:v:27:y:2024:i:3:p:337-355

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RJRR20

DOI: 10.1080/13669877.2024.2340019

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Risk Research is currently edited by Bryan MacGregor

More articles in Journal of Risk Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-20
Handle: RePEc:taf:jriskr:v:27:y:2024:i:3:p:337-355