The COVID-19 Pandemic: Why are Some Countries More Successful than Others?

Abstract

The article identified the countries which are more successful than others to control the COVID-19 pandemic so far, and then identified the possible factors for variations of such successes. Though, such initial success may not last for long due to another fresh outbreak of the disease, but the factors identified in this article may generate valuable knowledge for policymakers and practitioners to contemplate further. This study mainly used netnography into two sources of data: materials available in different news medias and blogs, and data from social media. The rationale for choosing these platforms is because of the emerging nature of the data and the availability of the data. This article categorized the identified critical factors into two which can affect the adopted policies of a state: state-centric factors and socio-demographic factors. The discussion of the article indicates that managing crises like the COVID-19 need to consider people’s attitude, demographic profile, citizen trust, culture, magnitude of policy learning, state structure, technological and administrative readiness of the respective country. The countries which are not affected yet or still in the initial state of the spread of the disease, they may learn from the factors identified in this article.