ABSTRACT
Globalisation has facilitated the transmission of infectious diseases. Although there is a well-established system of global health governance to manage and respond to infectious diseases with pandemic potential, the system has not yielded a joint coordinated international response. This research proposes a theoretical framework based on the theory of epistemic communities. The research studies three general aspects of these communities: creating consensual knowledge, disseminating that knowledge to policymakers, and outside interference from politics and the policymaking system. The research proposes that although all epistemic communities can develop consensual knowledge and consolidate a clear policy goal, this is not always attainable. Their internal characteristics and interactions with other experts may hinder their capacity to reach this goal. These groups also need to disseminate their knowledge to all policymakers and have enough bureaucratic power to influence policymaking. This is not always clear; therefore, this research considers an epistemic community as a network of experts with different sub-groups, some of them better connected to the policy-making process, such as the case of trans-governmental networks. Finally, considering these characteristics, it applies these concepts to the case of Mexico and the response to COVID-19 in that country.
