We identified Professor Charles Parry from the South African Medical Research Council as a key policy actor. Parry uses a Twitter account primarily to comment on alcohol-related issues in South Africa. We harvested his tweets posted from March 18 to August 31, 2020, coinciding with the first two alcohol sales bans. We conducted a thematic analysis of the tweets to understand how Parry framed alcohol policy evidence and issues during these \'extraordinary times.\'
Parry underlined the extent of alcohol-related harm during \'normal times\' with scientific evidence and contested industry actors\' efforts to re-frame relevant evidence in a coherent and well-constructed argument. Parry used the temporary sales restrictions to highlight the magnitude of the health and social harms resulting from alcohol consumption, particularly trauma, rather than the COVID-19 transmission risks. Parry portrayed the sales ban as a policy learning opportunity (or \'experiment\') for South Africa and beyond.
Crisis conditions can provide new openings for public health (and industry) actors to make salient particular features of alcohol and alcohol policy evidence.
方法:我们将南非医学研究理事会的CharlesParry教授确定为关键政策参与者。Parry使用Twitter帐户主要评论南非与酒精有关的问题。我们收集了他在2020年3月18日至8月31日发布的推文,恰逢前两次酒类销售禁令。我们对这些推文进行了主题分析,以了解帕里在这些非常时期如何构建酒精政策证据和问题。
结果:帕里强调了“正常时期”酒精相关伤害的程度,并提供了科学证据和有争议的行业行为者的努力,以连贯和完善的论证重新构建相关证据。帕里利用临时销售限制来强调饮酒造成的健康和社会危害的严重性,尤其是外伤,而不是COVID-19传播风险。帕里将销售禁令描述为南非及其他地区的政策学习机会(或“实验”)。
结论:危机状况可以为公共卫生(和行业)行为者提供新的机会,使酒精和酒精政策证据的显着特征。