ABSTRACT
To deal with the risk of emerging diseases with many unknowns, close and timely collaboration and communication between science experts and policymakers are crucial to developing and implementing an effective science-based intervention strategy. The Expert Meeting, an ad hoc medical advisory body, was established in February 2020 to advise Japan's COVID-19 Response Headquarters. The group played an important role in the policymaking process, promoting timely situation awareness and developing science-based proposals on interventions that were promptly reflected in government actions. However, this expert group may have been overly proactive in taking on the government's role in crisis management. For the next stage of managing the coronavirus disease pandemic and future pandemics, the respective roles of the government and its advisory bodies need to be clearly defined. Leadership and strategic risk communication by the government are key.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Government , Humans , Japan/epidemiology , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
The novel coronavirus infection that began at the end of 2019 (coronavirus disease 2019: COVID-19) epidemic has become a pandemic and is now pandemic in the world. At present, the most recent data available, the cumulative number of patients and deaths worldwide is over 20.9 million and 750,000, respectively. The cumulative number of patients in Japan is 52,600, with more than 1,000 deaths. After the so-called first wave in April-May of this year, the number of patients is now on the rise again across the country. At the beginning of the epidemic, it was a completely unknown infectious disease, but physicians in the field are gradually gaining experience and knowledge. Report of a Roundtable Discussion on the COVID-19 epidemic over the past 7 months and how physicians should approach this disease in the future