“A basic framework for pandemic governance existed, but was not followed” – expert views of agile governance and performance of the Finnish public health system during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020–2021
The aim is to examine how public health authorities acted, what kind of roles they adopted, and how the expected roles and actions appeared in relation to the legislative framework and national preparedness plans during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research is theoretically grounded in the concepts of agile and adaptive governance. Our empirical data consists of 53 qualitative interviews with public health actors at national, regional and local level collected from March 2021–February 2022. We analyzed interviews using directed content analysis. Major issues regarding the response of public health authorities included ambiguity, lack of knowledge in decision-making, and a mismatch between the locations of public health competence and public health authority.
