RAPID: Cultural Differences in Shaping Diagnostic Testing Regimes in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

  • Funded by National Science Foundation (NSF)
  • Total publications:0 publications

Grant number: 2027745

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Key facts

  • Disease

    COVID-19
  • Start & end year

    2020
    2021
  • Known Financial Commitments (USD)

    $100,000
  • Funder

    National Science Foundation (NSF)
  • Principal Investigator

    Shobita Parthasarathy
  • Research Location

    United States of America
  • Lead Research Institution

    University of Michigan Ann Arbor
  • Research Priority Alignment

    N/A
  • Research Category

    Policies for public health, disease control & community resilience

  • Research Subcategory

    Community engagement

  • Special Interest Tags

    N/A

  • Study Type

    Non-Clinical

  • Clinical Trial Details

    N/A

  • Broad Policy Alignment

    Pending

  • Age Group

    Unspecified

  • Vulnerable Population

    Unspecified

  • Occupations of Interest

    Unspecified

Abstract

Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences - The primary objective of this RAPID research project is to further our understanding of the role of political culture in shaping diagnostic testing regimes during the COVID-19 epidemic. The researcher will use qualitative case study methods in four geographical regions. The results of this project will serve to expand our understanding of how political culture shapes the development, implementation, and governance of diagnostic testing particularly during emergencies. It will also help us identify other aspects of political culture including whether citizen responses to and frustrations with emergency diagnostic testing systems take different form across the four regions. Project findings will be widely disseminated to academic, public, and policy audiences. The project will generate articles for academic audiences in the fields of STS, public health, political science, and public policy. Dissemination to the public will be via op-eds and podcast episodes. A white paper will be sent to relevant policymakers.

Research methods include conducting interviews, collecting documents, and doing ethnographic observation; when possible and relevant, ethnographic observation of press conferences and government hearings will also be conducted. Documents, interviews, and ethnographic field notes will comprise the data, which will be analyzed using a grounded theory approach. A ?snowball? sampling strategy will be used to select interview subjects; initial interview subjects will be asked to suggest others for interview. Initial subjects will be identified through the collected documents; important participants in each testing regime will be recorded. For each of the four case studies to be developed, this will likely include government officials involved in developing COVID-19 responses or regulating diagnostic testing regimes; organizations developing and offering testing; and civil society groups attempting to influence public, private, and non-profit sector action.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.