Preparing for the possibility of a global pandemic presents a transnational organisational challenge: to assemble and coordinate knowledge over institutionally diverse countries with high fidelity. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid these problems bare. This article examines the construction of the three main cross-national indicators of pandemic preparedness: a database with self-reported data by governments, external evaluations organised by the WHO and a global ranking known as the Global Health Security Index. Each of these presents a different model of collecting evidence and organising knowledge: the collation of self-reports by national authorities; the coordination of evaluation by an epistemic community authorised by an intergovernmental organisation and on the basis of a strict template; and the cobbling together of different sources into a common indicator by a transnational multi-stakeholder initiative. We posit that these models represent different ways of creating knowledge to inform policy choices, and each has different forms of potential bias. In turn, this shapes how policymakers understand what is ‘best practice’ and appropriate policy in pandemic preparedness. Data are available upon request.

中文翻译：

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组织知识以预防全球卫生危机：大流行防范指标的比较分析

为全球大流行的可能性做好准备是一项跨国组织挑战：以高保真度在制度多样化的国家收集和协调知识。COVID-19 大流行暴露了这些问题。本文考察了大流行防范的三个主要跨国指标的构建：政府自行报告数据的数据库、世卫组织组织的外部评估以及被称为全球健康安全指数的全球排名。每一种都提供了收集证据和组织知识的不同模式：国家当局对自我报告的整理；由政府间组织授权的认知共同体根据严格的模板协调评估；以及通过跨国多方利益相关者倡议将不同来源拼凑成一个共同指标。我们假设这些模型代表了创造知识以告知政策选择的不同方式，并且每个模型都有不同形式的潜在偏见。反过来，这决定了政策制定者如何理解什么是大流行准备方面的“最佳实践”和适当的政策。可根据要求提供数据。