2020 Volume 20 Pages 98-108
This article aims to explore the outlook of effective control measures against infectious disease with the case of COVID-19 from international politics perspective, focusing on relationship among the US, WHO and China.
The conflict between the US and WHO over travel restrictions has escalated due to multiple factors: politics and science divided about the effect of travel restrictions; WHO’s insufficient leadership; and the US-China rivalry.
When it comes to the US-China rivalry, the competition between different types of political regime, democracy and authoritarianism, has an important implication for control measures. Since domestic control measures often include’ strong measures’ which entail restrictions on individual freedom and rights, it could be particularly difficult for democracies to decide whether to adopt such measures as effective ones. Some studies imply, however, that strong measures are not always effective. Stringency and effectiveness of measures are distinct from each other, so we should not presume they are essentially equal.
The conclusion is that two things are reQuired for effective control measures to be realized: the first is to strengthen WHO’s function and power to ensure good coordination between politics and science; secondly, we must evade a premature assumption that strong measures are always effective and give much thought to scientific judgment on this issue. What the international community needs now is a stronger WHO rather than strong measures.
