TY - JOUR
AU - Lewitt, Moira S.
PY - 2023
DA - January
TI - The political theatre of dirty hands in the UK government response to the COVID-19 pandemic
JO - Performance Research
EP - 121
VL - 27
IS - 1
DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2022.2136443
AB - Governments are often required to make decisions where every course available would have a negative impact on citizens, a paradox known as the ‘Dirty Hands’ problem. This article focusses on the political theatre around the decision by the UK Government on 12 March 2020 in relation to restricting movement of citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a stringent ‘lockdown’ of the population on 23 March 2020. Did the delay, estimated to have cost lives, mean the UK Government had Dirty Hands? To what extent should individuals, or the public, bear responsibility for these actions? During this phase of the pandemic, UK Government leaders communicated public health requirements in televised press briefings. These performances had enormous biopower, however at times there were discrepancies between the narratives of these performances and recommendations by public health experts. Openness with the context of an independent public health inquiry should allow a comprehensive analysis of the complex decision-making by the UK government and reveal whether the decisions involved a series of paradoxes of action that were justified.
PB - Taylor and Francis
UR - https://uws.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/cc0eb08a-1f9d-4d28-b6b3-37554241334b
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
ER