Morally, the pandemic reminded us of our vulnerability, of our mutual dependence: “We are all in this together.” Public officials and advertisers reached instinctively for this slogan.
The years leading up to the crisis were a time of deep divisions-economic, cultural, political. Hospitals and state governments found themselves bidding against one another to acquire testing kits and life-saving ventilators.īut beyond its lack of logistical preparedness, the country was not morally prepared for the pandemic. As the contagion spread, the wealthiest country in the world found itself unable to provide even the medical masks and other protective gear that doctors and nurses needed to treat the flood of infected patients.
Despite warnings the previous year from public health experts about the risk of a global viral contagion, and even as China contended with its outbreak in January, the United States lacked the ability to conduct the widespread testing that might have contained the disease. When the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, the United States, like many other countries, was unprepared. Join the Forum Network for free using your email or social media accounts to share your own stories, ideas and expertise in the comments. Aiming to foster the fruitful exchange of expertise and perspectives across fields to help us rise to this critical challenge, opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the OECD. This extract from The Tyranny of Merit by Michael Sandel (Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), is part of a series in which OECD experts and thought leaders - from around the world and all parts of society - address the COVID-19 crisis, discussing and developing solutions now and for the future.
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