Critical health response in the time of COVID-19: lessons from the past

Rabia Ruby Patel,Tanya Monique Graham

doi:10.1177/00812463211015047

Rabia Ruby Patel, Tanya Monique Graham

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/00812463211015047

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Abstract

This article examines the South African government’s response to COVID-19 by exploring the strong emphasis that has been placed on South Africans taking personal responsibility for good health outcomes. This emphasis is based on the principles of the traditional Health Belief Model which is a commonly used model in global health systems. More recently, there has been a drive towards other health behaviour change models, like the COM-B model and Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW); nonetheless, these remain entrenched within the principles of individual health responsibility. However, the South African experience with the HIV epidemic serves as a backdrop to demonstrate that holding people personally accountable for health behaviour changes has major pitfalls; health risk is never objective and does not take place outside of subjective experience. This article makes the argument that risk-taking health behaviour change in the South African context has to consider community empowerment and capacity building.

Highlights

On 31 December 2019, the Wuhan Municipal Commission in the Hubei Province in China reported a cluster of pneumonia cases, identifying a novel strain of coronavirus (World Health Organization, 2020c)
Very quickly an epidemic was identified and the World Health Organization (WHO) convened an Emergency Committee meeting under the International Health Regulations to assess whether the outbreak constituted a public health emergency that was of international concern
This very politically powerful and direct message by the President follows the same guidelines proposed by the WHO (2020a), a familiar global message about individual action to avoid becoming infected with COVID-19 and to curb its spread

Summary

Introduction

On 31 December 2019, the Wuhan Municipal Commission in the Hubei Province in China reported a cluster of pneumonia cases, identifying a novel strain of coronavirus (World Health Organization, 2020c). Keywords Community action, COVID-19, critical health, health belief model, risk assessment Far from health outcomes being an individual effort, the process of community organisation – where community groups identify common problems and goals to mobilise resources and implement collective strategies – cannot be overlooked.

Results

Conclusion