ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 crisis has incentivized a massive expansion of research into the effectiveness of Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), which has basically confirmed their efficacy, indeed indispensability, for pandemic management. This chapter explores the limitations of the various NPIs, also of test-and-trace, as well as the phenomenon of vaccine resistance. It addresses compliance and non-compliance in the analysis ahead, including these “factors”. The chapter also addresses levels and trends of public compliance with NPIs during the COVID-19 pandemic to date. Substantial degrees of non-compliance with NPIs have been revealed not only by “people” research but also by surveys of media reporting on the issue across a range of countries. Rates and volumes of public compliance with the NPIs over the same basic timescale, indeed from an earlier date in the development of the pandemic, were at their highest level by some distance in the Asia-Pacific region, and were maintained over a much longer period.
