FIVE LESSONS FOR A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD
When I wroteTenLessons for a Post-Pandemic World at the height of the pandemic’s first wave in mid-2020, we were living through the first phase of the Covid-19 crisis. It was a public health crisis that left governments scrambling to lock down—and the public sector, especially in the US, largely failed. That phase will soon be behind us. Vaccines for the novel coronavirus—some using innovative mRNA techniques, and developed by international teams at a breakneck pace never before seen—have begun rolling out. Therapies have cut the death rates down, and new and cheaper tests are being developed each month. We have entered the second phase of the crisis, which will be led by the dynamism, innovation and competence of the private sector. There are still challenges of distribution and we must navigate a difficult winter. But on the horizon, a true post-pandemic world is now in sight.
The private sector has delivered, but we should not forget the indispensable role that the state played in funding vaccine research and development at “warp speed” (even if many governments have since fumbled the roll-out, administering vaccines). Only in East Asia and a scattered handful of other countries have we seen an effective public and private sector response.
While fumbling health care, in economic policy the state played a critical role, intervening to stabilise the market—as in 2008 and 2009, and many times in the past. Washington, in particular, handled the economic crisis well, passing bipartisan relief bills of some $3 trillion and pressing the Federal Reserve to act, the
