Health Preparedness and Narrative Rationality: A Call for Narrative Preparedness

This conceptual paper argues the need for narrative preparedness, understood as ability to engage and empathize with peoples’ stories values they encode, assess them based on universe in which people live, acknowledge rationality of each story – even when it conflicts science. Expanding ‘health preparedness’ encompass ‘narrative complements ideals patient centeredness, are sometimes betrayed implemented into concrete decisions because science that underpins medical practice fails make sense patients’ stories. We outline central tenets preparedness demonstrate its relevance by discussing various responses mainstream discourses COVID-19 a case point. discuss further develop Fisher’s paradigm, provides model traditional, scientific attention radical democratic ground health political critique. Applying paradigm authentic examples vaccine hesitancy anti-vaccination demonstrates how closer way narratives assessed different constituencies might help us mitigate some sources resistance misunderstanding continue plague public communication about important issues such pandemics. Health authorities must believe their reasons doing so. The crucial question success policy interventions is not only ‘what facts’ but ‘how do these facts people, why’. To be prepared next pandemic, professionals learn people’s processes come differently constituencies.