Lawrence Summers says national pandemic response lacking

Friday, June 19, 2020 - 12:10 in Psychology & Sociology

This is part of our Coronavirus Update series in which Harvard specialists in epidemiology, infectious disease, economics, politics, and other disciplines offer insights into what the latest developments in the COVID-19 outbreak may bring. Harvard economist and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers panned America’s COVID-19 response this week, decrying misplaced priorities and missed opportunities even when viewed through an economic, rather than public health, lens. “I think the risks that we will look back at this moment and say, ‘We didn’t try enough. We weren’t aggressive enough. We didn’t do enough,’ are an order of magnitude greater than the risks that people will say, ‘They spent too much money. They were too ambitious. If they just let things go, it would have been OK,’” said Summers, who served as Harvard’s president from 2001 to 2006 and is currently the Charles W. Eliot University Professor. Summers was Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration,...

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