The development of vaccines against the Covid-19 Coronavirus has been a game-changer. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths are below last year's levels; but there is still a need for caution. This cause will examine the effects of vaccination on policy, and follows on from my previous sessions (but does not require you to have attended them). There, I argued that people make it difficult for policy-makers (and economists) to predict what will happen in the future, because what people do in response to government guidance affects the outcome of those policies. This course continues the exploration of these issues (of policy and response) with examples drawn from the progress of the Coronavirus pandemic over the past year. Misinformation about the vaccines, as well as genuine and sometimes well-founded doubts, makes policy-making difficult: how can anti-vaxxers be persuaded to submit to the jab? Should we even try?
Course aim
This is a follow-up to my two previous courses on the pandemic. The aim is to review progress over the past nine months, and to analyse and discuss the effects of the mass vaccination campaign.
Do I need any particular skills or experience?
- This course is for beginners and improvers
- Anyone with an interest in the subject matter is welcome to attend
By the end of the course I should be able to:
- Give three examples of ways in which vaccination might be encouraged
- State three ways in which we can make better policy decisions, and express an informed opinion on these
- Discuss three ways in which policy is shaped by consideration of how people might respond
- Suggest at least two take-away lessons that can be learned from our experience of the pandemic
What else do I need to know?
Questions welcome!
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