Corruption Risks during COVID-19: Lessons Learned and Forgotten

• In Event: Poster Session: Advances in the Study of Religion and Politics & Health Politics and Policy
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Health Politics and Policy

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, and other health emergencies before it, illuminate how they can create heightened corruption risks in health systems globally. In an emergency, pre-existing weaknesses, and procedural gaps in a health system boldly manifest. And even if there are controls in place, they are often bypassed because of the need of governments and other actors to react quickly to population health needs. In many countries, corruption is often systemic or endemic and the political system may not be conducive to transparency and accountability. When a health emergency happens in these situations, a perfect storm of vulnerabilities take place that can make corruption inevitable and ultimately impact health outcomes negatively.

Health emergencies may also create corruption opportunities in health systems due to the structure of the global health market. For instance, many countries rely on the import of active pharmaceutical ingredients from India and China to produce essential medicines. When there are product shortages or restrictions to supply chains, access issues can obviously result. And when there are shortages of supply and high demand, along with uncertainty that often accompanies health emergencies, corruption risks heighten. In addition, the failure of social protection packages that many governments offered to their populations during the COVID-19 pandemic, may also be a contributing factor to corruption risks in the health system and elsewhere during this health emergency . When economic crises also result, people may calculate that in these circumstances the benefit of corruption outweighs its risk.

This paper will discuss what corruption risks manifested during the COVID-19 pandemic and what lessons were learned from these experiences. It will also discuss what lessons were learned from prior health emergencies, such as SARS and Ebola, as well as what lessons from these public health emergencies were forgotten. Lastly it will focus on how we need to prevent corruption risks from happening in health systems in the future with a particular focus on health policy solutions that need to be advanced by international organizations, such as the WHO, and implemented by national governments.

Author

• Jillian Clare Kohler, University of Toronto