Daily Analysis of 'The Hindu' - 25th April, 2020 | Additional Study Material for UPSC PDF Download

 Page 1


Troughs and crests in the pandemic response
?COVID-19 has proven the ultimate stress test for
governance systems globally.
?And governments worldwide are failing, showing up
for all to see how poorly prepared they were for this
examination.
?Even those governments that are likely to be rated
relatively highly by scholars of public policy studying
this moment later will not pass the examination
unscathed.
?Such is the virality and lethality of this pathogen that
success will be measured in hundreds of lives lost,
compared to the tens of thousands of fatalities
experienced elsewhere.
Page 2


Troughs and crests in the pandemic response
?COVID-19 has proven the ultimate stress test for
governance systems globally.
?And governments worldwide are failing, showing up
for all to see how poorly prepared they were for this
examination.
?Even those governments that are likely to be rated
relatively highly by scholars of public policy studying
this moment later will not pass the examination
unscathed.
?Such is the virality and lethality of this pathogen that
success will be measured in hundreds of lives lost,
compared to the tens of thousands of fatalities
experienced elsewhere.
?Yet, the common challenges faced by all
governments to fight COVID-19 must not mask the
considerable variation in their performance which
holds lessons from which we must learn.
Stages in the response
?Disease outbreaks, even global pandemics, are
scarcely new.
?The playbook for dealing with them therefore is
well understood and has been honed by practices
and lessons gleaned from hard-fought battles.
?Lock down society: Ideally this is done with full
consideration of how to support the most
vulnerable members of society.
Page 3


Troughs and crests in the pandemic response
?COVID-19 has proven the ultimate stress test for
governance systems globally.
?And governments worldwide are failing, showing up
for all to see how poorly prepared they were for this
examination.
?Even those governments that are likely to be rated
relatively highly by scholars of public policy studying
this moment later will not pass the examination
unscathed.
?Such is the virality and lethality of this pathogen that
success will be measured in hundreds of lives lost,
compared to the tens of thousands of fatalities
experienced elsewhere.
?Yet, the common challenges faced by all
governments to fight COVID-19 must not mask the
considerable variation in their performance which
holds lessons from which we must learn.
Stages in the response
?Disease outbreaks, even global pandemics, are
scarcely new.
?The playbook for dealing with them therefore is
well understood and has been honed by practices
and lessons gleaned from hard-fought battles.
?Lock down society: Ideally this is done with full
consideration of how to support the most
vulnerable members of society.
?Second phase: slowly to ease the burden on the
economy.
?This stage can only be safely executed if
accompanied by a war-footing expansion of
testing capacity.
?Identify and isolate new infections
?Implement contact tracing
?Final stage: mass vaccination programme
?Then the full rebuilding of economic and social
life.
Page 4


Troughs and crests in the pandemic response
?COVID-19 has proven the ultimate stress test for
governance systems globally.
?And governments worldwide are failing, showing up
for all to see how poorly prepared they were for this
examination.
?Even those governments that are likely to be rated
relatively highly by scholars of public policy studying
this moment later will not pass the examination
unscathed.
?Such is the virality and lethality of this pathogen that
success will be measured in hundreds of lives lost,
compared to the tens of thousands of fatalities
experienced elsewhere.
?Yet, the common challenges faced by all
governments to fight COVID-19 must not mask the
considerable variation in their performance which
holds lessons from which we must learn.
Stages in the response
?Disease outbreaks, even global pandemics, are
scarcely new.
?The playbook for dealing with them therefore is
well understood and has been honed by practices
and lessons gleaned from hard-fought battles.
?Lock down society: Ideally this is done with full
consideration of how to support the most
vulnerable members of society.
?Second phase: slowly to ease the burden on the
economy.
?This stage can only be safely executed if
accompanied by a war-footing expansion of
testing capacity.
?Identify and isolate new infections
?Implement contact tracing
?Final stage: mass vaccination programme
?Then the full rebuilding of economic and social
life.
What drags systems down
?So, why have governments failed to do better?
And what separates successful responses from
failed ones?
?Answers lie in three main limitations of
contemporary governance systems.
?First, for all the defensive finger pointing,
opportunistic politicking and xenophobic
posturing, this is not a crisis that can be tackled
without robust and multidimensional
international cooperation between nations.
Page 5


Troughs and crests in the pandemic response
?COVID-19 has proven the ultimate stress test for
governance systems globally.
?And governments worldwide are failing, showing up
for all to see how poorly prepared they were for this
examination.
?Even those governments that are likely to be rated
relatively highly by scholars of public policy studying
this moment later will not pass the examination
unscathed.
?Such is the virality and lethality of this pathogen that
success will be measured in hundreds of lives lost,
compared to the tens of thousands of fatalities
experienced elsewhere.
?Yet, the common challenges faced by all
governments to fight COVID-19 must not mask the
considerable variation in their performance which
holds lessons from which we must learn.
Stages in the response
?Disease outbreaks, even global pandemics, are
scarcely new.
?The playbook for dealing with them therefore is
well understood and has been honed by practices
and lessons gleaned from hard-fought battles.
?Lock down society: Ideally this is done with full
consideration of how to support the most
vulnerable members of society.
?Second phase: slowly to ease the burden on the
economy.
?This stage can only be safely executed if
accompanied by a war-footing expansion of
testing capacity.
?Identify and isolate new infections
?Implement contact tracing
?Final stage: mass vaccination programme
?Then the full rebuilding of economic and social
life.
What drags systems down
?So, why have governments failed to do better?
And what separates successful responses from
failed ones?
?Answers lie in three main limitations of
contemporary governance systems.
?First, for all the defensive finger pointing,
opportunistic politicking and xenophobic
posturing, this is not a crisis that can be tackled
without robust and multidimensional
international cooperation between nations.
?From the epidemiologists whose data-driven
models inform policy debates about how and
when to lift quarantines, to the medical
community identifying more effective treatments,
to the research scientists racing to find a
vaccine, we are watching in real time the
benefits of intellectual collaboration that does
not stop at national borders.
?But the nationalistic turn in global politics over
the past two decades has reduced investment in
and undermined the legitimacy of the very
institutions that facilitate international
partnership at the very time they are needed
most.