• Demonstrates the value of hunter-gatherer environmental variability theory in an objective, non-judgmental analysis of the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in England

• Illustrates the scientific method, research procedures and research methodologies which are used in hunter-gatherer environmental variability theory

• Examines the validity of hunter-gatherer environmental variability theory in a case study of the English government’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic

• Explains, by applying hunter-gatherer environmental variability theory, the societal outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of both the population’s wellbeing and the economy

• Evaluates whether the English government achieved its stated pandemic objectives

Pages: 536

ISBN: 978-0-9562047-45

Price: £26.99, Publication date: 31 October 2024

Available to order from good book retailers

" ... to learn the lessons from a societal emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic, not only for future pandemics, but also for other types of emergencies."

Lessons from a societal emergency

Emergencies, for example pandemics, are a recurrent feature of most societies. In this book, one objective is to learn the lessons from a societal emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic, not only for future pandemics, but also for other types of emergencies.

Some key lessons which arose from the application of the theory to the COVID-19 pandemic are that:

• Decision makers in particular, but also the public at large, gain from understanding in advance the full consequences of the emergency, the relevant essential scientific knowledge and any previous historical examples.
• Planning and preparation are more effective when account is taken of ongoing scientific developments, any changes in public opinion and any constraints on government decisions and actions.
• The short-term and longer-term advantages and disadvantages of government decisions and actions during an emergency are also best considered in advance.
• Decision-making is improved by knowing why, in any specific emergency, government aims and objectives were, or were not, achieved.

"... explains why ... The government’s only pandemic aim was saving the lives of COVID-19 patients, irrespective of its net societal advantages and disadvantages"

"Unless these questions are fully and frankly answered, the many valuable lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic will not be learned."

Back cover contents

The author describes and explains why:

• Successive governments largely ignored the possibility of pandemics

• The government instituted during March 2020 an unplanned societal lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

• A large majority of the public welcomed this lockdown and was prepared to abandon their basic human rights

• The government’s only pandemic aim was saving the lives of COVID-19 patients, irrespective of its net societal advantages and disadvantages

• The government did not achieve its stated principal objectives with regard to pandemic personal protective equipment, the protection of care homes, the test, trace and isolate programme and international border controls

• Exceptionally, the government’s vaccine programme fully met its objectives

• The £400 billion pandemic cost was willingly accepted by the public

• Many individuals’, notably children’s, mental health and well-being deteriorated during the pandemic

Unless these questions are fully and frankly answered, the many valuable lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic will not be learned.

About the author

Michael Davies experienced the COVID-19 pandemic both as a member of the public and a frequent user of the National Health Service.

His career was mainly as a financial executive in a large international manufacturing group. He has taught business and finance on masters’ degree programmes and published in leading professional accountancy journals.

Contents

Introduction

Part 1 Social science research

1                        Methodology and research practice

2                        Research procedures and methodologies

Part 2 Case study

The Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic in England 2020–22

3                        Background material, abstract and aims

4                        Pandemics

5                        Pandemic epidemiology

6                        Influenza and other pandemics in England

7                        Coronaviruses

8                        COVID-19’s principal characteristics

9                        COVID-19 mortality data

10                      COVID-19 variants

11                      Long COVID (post-COVID-19 syndrome)

12                      Vaccines, interventions and therapeutics

13                      Pandemic societal strategies

14                      England’s pandemic strategy

15                      England’s disease preparedness exercises

16                      Value for money in English healthcare

17                      England’s population and healthcare

18                      Social values in England

19                      Beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic

20                      Initial government response to the pandemic

21                      From mitigation to suppression

22                      Implementation of a suppression strategy

23                      From suppression to mitigation

24                      End of the mitigation strategy

25                      Pandemic strategy and societal consensus

26                      National Health Service hospital healthcare

27                      Medical personal protective equipment

28                      Test, trace and isolate programme

29                      International border controls

30                      Vaccine programme

31                      COVID-19 vaccines

32                      Mental health and wellbeing

33                      Economic and financial measures

34                      Conclusion

35                      Selected data on England’s COVID-19 pandemic

Part 3 Appendices

A                        Hunter-gatherer environmental variability theory

B                        The ideas and their sources

Glossary for Chapters 1 and 2

Index

Copyright © 2024 Michael James Davies, All Rights Reserved

"The answers do not essentially lie in the decisions and actions of individual government ministers, advisers and civil servants but, rather, in the society’s culture and institutions."

INTRODUCTION

The author’s principal purpose in writing The Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic in England 2020–22 is to answer the key questions about both the government’s pandemic decisions and actions and the public’s responses. These questions are fully explored in the Part 2 case study The Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic in England 2020–22 (Chapters 3 to 35). The answers do not essentially lie in the decisions and actions of individual government ministers, advisers and civil servants but, rather, in the society’s culture and institutions. Consequently, the conclusions in the case study are relevant to future societal decision making and actions.

This book is the third title by Michael Davies in which human individual, social and societal deliberate behaviour are comprehensively described and scientifically explained. The other two titles are:

• A Guide to Everyone’s Personality: An introduction to the Davies Personality Profile (2^nd edition, 2024) (ISBN 978-0-9562047-2-1)
• Societies from Hunter-gatherer to Industrial (2^nd edition, 2024) (ISBN 978-0-9562047-3-8)

"The aim is to give comprehensive guidance on social science research which utilises hunter-gatherer environmental variability theory."

The present book, The Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic in England 2020–22, is also intended for social science researchers. The aim is to give comprehensive guidance on social science research which utilises hunter-gatherer environmental variability theory. The case study was also written to describe, explain and demonstrate the application of hunter-gatherer environmental variability theory with regard to its:

• Methodology and research practice (Chapter 1)
• Research procedures and methodologies (Chapter 2)

These aspects are illustrated in the Part 2 case study, which exemplifies how hunter-gatherer environmental variability theory supplies a theoretical basis for cross-disciplinary research in the social sciences whose many insights are useful to decision makers.

" ... the origin and development of the hunter-gatherer environmental variability theory is described."

There are two appendices, which are:

• Hunter-gatherer environmental variability theory (Appendix A)
• The ideas and their sources (Appendix B)

In Appendix A, the relevance of environmental variability to historical and present-day human deliberate behaviour is explained, while, in Appendix B, the origin and development of the hunter-gatherer environmental variability theory is described. The appendices are relevant to all three of Michael Davies’s books.

Copyright © 2024 Michael James Davies, All Rights Reserved

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