Addressing the issue of Common Good on The COVID-19 Pandemic

 

 

 

Addressing the issue of Common Good on The COVID-19 Pandemic

Student’s Name

Institutional affiliation

Instructor’s Name

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Addressing the issue of Common Good on The COVID-19 Pandemic.

The emergence of the COVID-19 Pandemic caught many people, societies, communities, and even most nations of the world unaware. Most of the measures put in place by the experts in the field of epidemics to help contain the spread of the virus were so drastic and appeared so ‘punitive’ to most people.

There have been varied responses on the remedies that have been instituted to help contain the spread of the deadly disease. The varied responses are informed by the fact that most of the people and communities have never been prepared for such drastic measures such as lockdowns, restrictions in social places among others, or have never witnessed the extent of effects caused by a virus or a major global health issue in the magnitude presented by the COVID-19 Pandemic (The Atlantic, 2020).

Common good as a social aspect of a community is an important activity that helps create concern for each member of the community’s well-being. It is highly achieved when a community is more concerned in promoting optimal utilization of information, resources, and the rights of the individuals in enhancing a balanced realization of extending benefits to the disadvantaged and dispossessed members of the community.

The exponential and rapid spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic has resulted from the adoption of varied responses towards the containment measures proposed by the epidemiologists. In most communities, there has existed a back and forth pull between different groups of people who support and help promote the containment measures and others entirely opposed to the same containment measures like social distancing and public gatherings (The Atlantic, 2020).

The opposing groups to the set measures on the containment of the virus have been detrimental to their respective communities’ common good since the surge in the spread of the virus can be associated with the passage of opposing information to the masses. In this case, information has not been used by sections of the public for the common good of the communities (The Atlantic, 2020).

Creating a Common Good Approach towards COVID-19 Pandemic

(i) Effective Communication

The COVID-19 Pandemic has presented different countries and communities with a particular Sociological concern, especially regarding the response and intervention strategies and measures.  From instead being a medical concern, the COVID pandemic has brought to the fore the communities’ level of preparedness regarding how communication, resources, institutions, social capital are all utilized optimally towards containing the Pandemic (Ratzan, Sommarivac & Rauh, 2020).

Globally, countries and communities have to institute different, more robust, and adaptive approaches towards communication on the Pandemic. There should be a total shift from the application of traditional communication. As witnessed at the start of the spread of the virus, there was low use of the existing traditional communication channels and platforms, which immensely contributed to the development of a lot of negativity towards the virus. Many people got stigmatized over the disease and shied away from getting tested. The element of Stigmatization can allude to the wrong information made available to communities (Ratzan, Sommarivac & Rauh, 2020; Wang et al., 2020).

Useful and timely information can only be available to the communities through effective communication, which is one of the best tools for empowering the communities towards fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic. Each individual’s behavior and response towards the concerns in and around the Pandemic as promoted by the public health officers is directly and responsively related to the quality of information communicated to the communities. The COVID-19 Pandemic is a pandemic of reliable communication (Ratzan, Sommarivac & Rauh, 2020; Wang et al., 2020).

Being a social problem, which is neither an event nor an incident, but rather a combination of several situations into one big issue, addressing the Pandemic ultimately requires a more beneficiary-centered systems approach in which information plays a vital role. Therefore, public health officers and other leaders should be at the forefront of empowering communities with the right information that has to be continuously updated; thus, the people’s rights and freedoms concerning being informed will be upheld for the whole communities.  Therefore, effective communication is a common good strategy in the containment of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Ratzan, Sommarivac & Rauh, 2020; Wang et al., 2020).

(ii) Delivering Community-led COVID-19 Response Program

Concerning institutionalized benefits that accrue to communities in the promotion of the common good for all, community members are each relationally obligated to consider the interests and welfare of each member of the community. With the spread of COVID-19 Pandemic it would be prudent for communities, health authorities, and governments globally to collaboratively work together towards ensuring that communities are empowered to have community-owned and beneficial response programs that would be critical in enhancing the communities to responsibly and reliably get access to response programs and facilities designed to help in the effective management of the Pandemic (Nickel, Süß, Lorentz & Trojan, 2018).

A community-led response program is designed to have a direct impact on the people living in particular communities. With such a direct impact and participation, the community members will be encouraged to influence the processes through which the policies will be formulated and communicated, regulate the responses that the public health officials and providers will be granted to the towards meeting the levels of inequities among the different members of the community(Nickel, Süß, Lorentz & Trojan, 2018).

Through well organized and structured voluntary community efforts involving the delivery of services, there will be an achievement of engaging the community members understanding the context of the created program towards responding to the Pandemic; the members will eventually be involved in the processes of analyzing and prioritizing the urgent needs for preparedness in acquiring all the relevant resources to facilitate the process of taking actions in responding to all the issues related to COVID-19. With the assistance and funding from the relevant development agencies and other government bodies, communities will be able to acquire appropriate equipment, premises, and appropriate training in handling emergencies associated with  COVID-19; the communities will be better empowered and be well prepared towards being part of the fight against the spread of the virus (Nickel, Süß, Lorentz & Trojan, 2018).

When communities are empowered and made competent, they will actively participate in all the activities that are for the common good of all the members of society. With the right knowledge and empowerment, the fight against the Pandemic will be collaboratively and jointly fought, unlike where communities are not included in the processes involved(Nickel, Süß, Lorentz & Trojan, 2018).

I believe that initiating  a community-led response program is essential in the attainment of the common good  for all members  of the society in creating awareness and self-preparedness towards  a joint containment of the ravages associated  with the COVID-19 Pandemic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Nickel, S., Süß, W., Lorentz, C., & Trojan, A. (2018). Long-term evaluation of community health promotion: Using the capacity building as an intermediate outcome measure. Public health, 162, 9-15.

Ratzan, S. C., Sommarivac, S., & Rauh, L. (2020). Enhancing global health communication during a crisis: lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The Atlantic. (2020). All the President’s Lies about the Coronavirus. Retrieved 28 October 2020, from https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/10/trumps-lies-about-coronavirus/608647/.

Wang, H., Cleary, P. D., Little, J., & Auffray, C. (2020). Communicating in a public health crisis. The Lancet Digital Health, 2(10), e503.