Examining lessons learned from the COVID-19 response to inform nuclear emergency management

Decision makers and public health officials in public health emergencies are faced with multiple challenges including uncertain information, incomplete information, pressures from the public, to name a few. When faced with time pressure, these factors can lead to poor decisional outcomes. As there are a number of parallels between the COVID-19 pandemic response and nuclear emergency management, this study extracts lessons learned and other insights from the COVID-19 pandemic to inform decision makers with roles in nuclear emergency management. Five subject-matter experts who had critical roles during the COVID-19 response within Canada were interviewed in this study. The study shows that to make effective decisions, emergency management organizations should build and maintain awareness about local communities and vulnerable groups that may be impacted by an emergency. They also need decision support tools to quantify socio-economic and mental health impacts of all public health interventions. The paper presents other recommendations applicable in the preparatory and response phases of emergency management, which include conducting exercises with bias-inducing injects, communicating unknowns and being transparent with the public, ensuring consistency across messages, considering long-term impacts of decisions such as fatigue, maintaining awareness of public perspectives, delivering effective messages, and countering misinformation. Many of these considerations are aimed at providing balanced perspectives in decision making, which may reduce the likelihood of bias.