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‘Critical Questions’
from AN ANALYSIS OF THE NATIONAL RESPONSES TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC THROUGH THE LENS OF MEDICAL MILITARY
What are the lessons from COVID-19 from the strengths and weakness of each type of military support to civilian hospitals and the implications for operational medical support? What are the lessons from patient movement during the COVID-19 crisis for MEDEVAC of casualties from CBRN weapons? What should be the contribution of military medical services in security sector partnerships and global health diplomacy?
This project deliberately provides an external perspective to the analysis of national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of medical military support requirements. Therefore, it should also pose ‘critically challenging’ research questions even if the answers may not be suitable for public release. The following research questions are suggested as additions to those posed above:
What is actual level of consultation, agreement or compliance with NATO COVID-19 policies by nations in missions? Should these policies reflect best practice or minimal practice? How is the risk of COVID-19 transmission going to be balanced against other risks to mission success? Has the use of CBRN decontamination and disinfection procedures had any impact on environmental contamination by the coronavirus? Why have no military counter-CBRN medical facilities been used in support of civilian medical services? Could any NATO nation have mobilised, deployed and operated its military medical units as effectively as Russia? What would have been the true level of national resilience to cope with military casualties from conflict if nations had needed to call up their medical reserves to support military combat operations?
Finally, this report is valid as an analysis of the case studies for the Spring/Summer of 2020. At the time of writing, cases of COVID-19 were rising again in NATO member countries. There would be value in repeating this analysis in the summer of 2021 to compare the findings in this report with the contribution of armed forces to national responses in Winter 2020/Spring 2021.
