The workshop will engage speakers in a transdisciplinary and transnational dialogue on the nexus between trust, transparency and Covid-19 management, with a particular focus on the vaccination strategies adopted by governments and their varying success. Our cases of interest span Europe and Asia. By comparing within and between these vast regions, we hope to gain a sharpened insight into what went right - and wrong - in Covid-19 management, and how these lessons may be applied to future pandemics. In terms of transdisciplinarity, the questions raised by Covid-19 are germane to the medical and the social sciences. From an International Relations perspective, Covid-19 gets to the heart of what comprises a common good – the global commons. From a public policy perspective, Covid-19 is the wicked policy problem par excellence, requiring inter-agency collaboration. From a comparative politics perspective, Covid-19 provides a vast living dataset to engage in multi-level comparisons and real-time experiments. In the medical research field, the pandemic has provided advancements in medical science that would not have been possible without access to a living laboratory. The huge advances in medical science, especially in relation to vaccines, have themselves been filtered by societal variables such as trust and transparency, or risk and resilience. These are the themes addressed by the workshop, hosted by HKBU’s Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, the only enterprise of its kind in Hong Kong.

08.30 – 09.00: Arrivals and registration

09.30 – 09.45: Welcome from the Organisers

10.00 –11.30 First Session: Experiences from Europe

Chair: Professor Alistair COLE, HKBU, GIS

Speakers:

Professor Frederic DUTHEIL, University Hospital of Clermont-Ferrand, France:

‘The ‘Covistress’ Project: Global Perspectives and Implications’

Dr Minos-Athanasios KARYOTAKIS, HKBU, LEWI: ‘Mistrust in Government and

the Anti-Media Sentiment during Covid-19: The “Stay at Home” Campaign on

Twitter in Greece’

Dr Martin ŠEBEŇA, HKBU, GIS: ‘Covid-19 and trust, survey data from Europe in

2020’

Discussant: Dr Emilie TRAN, Hong Kong Metropolitan University

11.30-12.15: Keynote 1

‘Preparing for the Next Global Pandemic: Lessons Learnt So Far’, Professor Ben

COWLING, School of Public Health, HKU.

12.15 – 13.15: Lunch Break

13.15–14.45 Second Session: Lessons from Asia

Chair: Dr Nicole SCICLUNA, HKBU, GIS

Speakers:

Dr Meng U IEONG, University of Macau: ‘Covid-19 and Authoritarianism in Macau’

Dr Samson YUEN, HKBU, GIS: ‘When to be vaccinated? What to consider?

Modelling decision-making and time preference for COVID-19 vaccine through a

conjoint experiment’

Dr Chun-Yi LEE, University of Nottingham: ‘Resilience, State Capacity and Public

Trust in Combating Pandemics, Case of Taiwan’

Discussant: Mr Eric SAUTEDE, Project manager, Jean Monnet Centre of

Excellence, HKBU

15.00–15.45: Keynote 2

‘The Impact of Covid-19 on the Electoral Arena and Regime Change: Evidence

from Europe and Africa’, Dr Kenneth CHAN, HKBU.

15.45-16.45: Third Session: The View beyond Europe and Asia

Chair: Mr Eric SAUTEDE, Project manager, Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence,

HKBU

Speakers:

Mr Vincent Ekow ARKORFUL, HKBU, GIS: ‘Augmenting Trust and Transparency

in Pandemic Governance: Does the Civil Society Matter? – A Post-Pandemic Review

of Ghana’s COVID-19 Management’

Ms Maggie LI Ruomeng, HKBU, GIS: ‘National Image, Trust, and Vaccination:

China's Vaccine in the Middle East’

Discussant: Dr Nicole SCICLUNA, HKBU, GIS

17.00: Workshop closing speeches

19.00-20.00: Workshop reception (sponsored by the European Union Office to Hong

Kong and Macao).