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Summary of

Lessons from the Covid War

A

Summary of Covid Crisis Group’s book

How Wall Street Is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn't Vote For

GP SUMMARY

Summary of Lessons from the Covid War by Covid Crisis Group: An Investigative Report

By GP SUMMARY© 2023, GP SUMMARY.

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Author: GP SUMMARY

Contact: GP.SUMMARY@gmail.com

Cover, illustration: GP SUMMARY

Editing, proofreading: GP SUMMARY

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NOTE TO READERS

This is an unofficial summary & analysis of Covid Crisis Group’s “Lessons from the Covid War: An Investigative Report” designed to enrich your reading experience.

 

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The contents of the summary are not intended to replace the original book. It is meant as a supplement to enhance the reader's understanding. The contents within can neither be stored electronically, transferred, nor kept in a database. Neither part nor full can the document be copied, scanned, faxed, or retained without the approval from the publisher or creator.

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Copyright 2023. All rights reserved.

FROM TRAGEDY TO POSSIBILITY

 

The Covid Crisis Group formed in 2021 to lay the groundwork for a National Covid Commission. They have learned a lot and feel a duty to share how they size up the Covid war. A year into the crisis, Ashish Jha diagnosed reflection deficit disorder, which is a short course of treatment available to all sufferers. The authors of this book offer a sketch of the whole picture, focusing on what they believe mattered most. The response to COVID-19 was a global war against a global invasion, with four basic challenges: Prevent and warn, size up the danger, engage citizens, track the enemy, contain the attack, defend communities, and fight back.

 

The members of the group are angry because they feel that good Americans were let down by ineffective institutions, a slow and uneven initial response, shoddy defenses, and inadequate leadership. The Covid pandemic has caused 20 million premature deaths around the world, with 1.2 million of these deaths in the US. The U.S. rate of death from the pandemic is estimated to have been 391,000 fewer than that of the Europeans by the end of 2022. The federal government deployed more than $5 trillion in fiscal policy responses to deal with the pandemic, which was equivalent to nearly three-quarters of the entire American gross domestic product in 2020. Operation Warp Speed cost nearly $30 billion, and Americans felt their governance had let them down in performing the most fundamental task governments are expected to perform.

 

The Covid pandemic of 2020-21 was compared to the great influenza pandemic of 1918-19 in terms of scientific knowledge, health and medical institutions, and money available. Fareed Zakaria wondered if this was the new face of American exceptionalism, as only a handful of countries were able to lead, but lack of political will and preparation kept any real coalition effort from getting to the runway. George Marshall, the new American secretary of state, decided to broadcast a national radio address and brief the American people, explaining the situation and asking listeners to be patient with the details of what would be required. Michael Lewis' book The Fifth Risk highlighted the importance of governments as risk managers in the 21st century. Max Stier, a nonprofit that notices government success stories, observed that many of the people responsible for these successes were first-generation Americans who had come from places without well-functioning governments.

 

Herbert Hoover's performance made him the most admired man in America and put him in the White House in 1928, using national policy and local execution to procure relief supplies at a fair price and reduce freight charges. The most important details in this text are the differences between talk and action in a crisis. In normal times, the U.S. government may issue a "strategy," but real strategy is a notion of how someone plans concretely to connect ends with means. There are three main cultures in governance: a culture of programs and process, a culture of research and investigation, and a culture of public policy. Local leaders implemented the plans, while President Calvin Coolidge put Hoover into the military chain of command.

 

The Covid war exposed the erosion of operational capabilities in American civilian governance, with governments and agencies having to hire management consultancies to perform basic operational tasks. This highlights the connection between the cultures of programs/processes, research/investigation, and the people and organizations who might have to conduct large operations. In an emergency, either governments already have the trained people and equipment they need, or they can either give up or try to get what they need from the private sector. The Covid war revealed a gap between officials who viewed the private sector from a detached, regulatory, distance and those who wanted to proactively mix it up and manage public-private partnerships. The "software" of policy competition is the routines used to size up problems, design actions, record and reflect on what they are doing, and implement actions in the field.

 

The software of public problem-solving has deteriorated due to the rise or fall of polarization in American politics, but these quarrels are not new. The Covid pandemic has highlighted the lack of successful problem-solving cultures in the US, and the need for a canon with norms of professional practice. This has led to a decline in the US reputation for practical public problem-solving, and the need for an overhaul of the public health or healthcare system. However, there is still no push to fundamentally overhaul the system, and the statistics of premature deaths, hospitalizations, and children suffering from Long Covid are alarming. The Covid pandemic has had a major impact on the lives of many Americans, but there is no large interest group to press for change.

 

To learn lessons, a group of foundations sponsored an effort to prepare a national Covid commission, but the government has decided not to create it. A bipartisan bill to establish

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 28.04.2023
ISBN: 978-3-7554-4084-0

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Widmung:
Lessons from the Covid War shows how Americans can come together, learn hard truths, build on what worked, and prepare for global emergencies.