The COVID‐19 pandemic has been the world's greatest challenge since World War II. As an unprecedented global public health crisis, crisis management teams (CMTs) in the infected countries need to rethink to cope with the similar uncertainty and urgency of the ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic. The shared context of COVID‐19 allows us to explore a cross‐nation study of different constructs and CMT to communicate information about crises with the public effectively. Since the pandemic affected all countries, the comparison is warranted. Can CMTs mitigate the effects of COVID‐19? Based on the analysis of China and the US cases, our study explores how shared and common knowledge cognition among crisis responders plays a pivotal role in effective CMTs' communication while technological failures and inadequate information disrupt the system, worsening pandemics like COVID‐19. Furthermore, organizational dysfunction, such as institutional fragmentation, regulatory hurdles and bureaucratic arrogance, impede effective communication between CMTs. However, effective coordination and decisive leadership could improve coordination effectiveness and reduce crisis costs.

COVID-19 is the greatest challenge the world has faced since World War II. By investigating two case countries—China and India, this study explains the variance based on the theory of the ‘social construction of risk’ concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. Does an individual country’s culture, style of governance, construction of risk, and communication affect the management of COVID-19? Findings reveal that the variations of risk construction and communication of narratives play a pivotal role in building the public perception of crisis. Cultural homogeneity and collectivism, the constitutional setting for policymaking risk narratives and communication, are crucial determinants of effective crisis management, and many states lacking these factors suffer profound difficulties. Regarding these, China is more successful than India in creating the social construction of the risk of COVID-19 crisis narratives. The policy implication of this study helps the government find a better approach to persuade its citizens to comply with the public health policy in case of an emergency.