Authors
Saahir Shafi, Runhua Xue, Daniel J Mallinson
Published in
American journal of public health. Volume 116. Issue 11. Pages 1719-1726.
Abstract
We examine how political polarization and prolonged crisis governance contribute to narrative numbing in public health emergencies and explore how these dynamics reshape executive emergency powers in the United States. Using Google Trends data, we assess changes in public attention to the opioid epidemic. We follow this with an explanatory case study of Pennsylvania's opioid state of emergency and a comparative review of national legislative reforms to state emergency powers. Prolonged emergency governance during COVID-19 coincided with narrative numbing, weakening the agenda-setting power of emergency declarations. In Pennsylvania, this shift was associated with legislative reforms that constrained executive authority with downstream effects on the opioid emergency. Nationally, state legislatures adopted time-limit, legislative termination, and scope constraints that reallocated authority from executives to legislatures. Narrative numbing is reflected in legislative reforms and has reshaped public health governance by limiting states' capacity to sustain emergency responses to prolonged or recurring public health crises. These changes carry implications for regional health equity and population health outcomes, demonstrating the need to maintain political legitimacy for sustained public health action. (Am J Public Health. 2026;116(11):1719-1726. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2026.308730).
PMID:
42842885
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 08 Oct 2026.
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