From Outbreak to Pandemic: Year Two and Counting

Following the outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus identified in 2019 in Wuhan, China, was a series of epic failures and missteps that led to a pandemic — and it’s still raging 18 months later. The global death toll for 2021 already exceeds all of 2020. How did we get here and what will be the lasting impacts of this public health crisis? POLITICO’s Renuka Rayasam will moderate a panel discussion assessing some of the most consequential failures, successes and impacts of the COVID19 crisis to date. Panelists are Dr. Helen W. Boucher, Interim Dean at Tufts University School of Medicine; Jonathan Haughton, Chair of Economics at Suffolk University; and Social Scientist Jan Vogler. Together the panel will help us understand how we moved from outbreak to uncontrolled pandemic, the impact of the pandemic geographically, economically and what pandemics of the past can teach us about how to anticipate what the new normal will be. _This talk is part of the series Politics in the Era of Global Pandemic 2.0, produced by Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University, the Political Science & Legal Studies department at Suffolk University, and the GBH Forum Network. For six weeks students, faculty and guest speakers examine the issues at play in year two of the COVID-19 pandemic._ ### Resources “Pandemics and Political Development: The Electoral Legacy of the Black Death in Germany” Daniel W. Gingerich and Jan P. Vogler: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0043887121000034 “Hot Vax Summer, meet Not Vax Summer” Politico Nightly 06/23/2021 https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2021/06/23/hot-vax-summer-meet-not-vax-summer-493347 Check out Dr. Boucher’s recent video on “[Antimicrobial Resistance, the Silent Pandemic](https://youtu.be/qUfXzjFDhSc)” See the New York Times Vaccine Rollout tracker: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-vaccinations-tracker.html

Dr. Helen W. Boucher

Dr. Boucher’s clinical interests include infections in immunocompromised patients and S. aureus infections. Her research interests focus on S. aureus and the development of new anti-infective agents. She is the author or coauthor of numerous abstracts, chapters and peer-reviewed articles, which have been published in such journals as The New England Journal of Medicine, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Clinical Infectious Diseases, and The Annals of Internal Medicine. She is Associate Editor of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. She has been included in Best Doctors in America since 2009. In 2011, Dr. Boucher was elected Fellow and Member of the Board of Directors of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. In 2012, she was elected to the American Board of Internal Medicine Infectious Disease Exam Writing Committee and in 2014, to the American Board of Internal Medicine Infectious Diseases Subspecialty Board. In 2015 she was appointed to the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria, and elected Treasurer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. She was awarded the IDSA Society Citation Award in October, 2015. Dr. Boucher serves on the Board of Trustees of the Physicians of Tufts Medical Center and The College of the Holy Cross.

Jonathan Haughton

Professor Haughton has held faculty positions at Wellesley College (1996-97), Northeastern University (1989-1996), and University of Maryland Baltimore County (1983-1987). Research Associate, Harvard Institute for International Development (1987-89), and Instructor, Harvard University (1982-83). Affiliations include Research Fellow, International Tax Program, Harvard Law School (1989-96); Université de Toulouse I (2006-2007) Visiting Professor, National Economics University, Hanoi (Jan-May 1994); Visiting Professor, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics (occasional, 2012, 2013, 2014); and Université Cheikh Anta Diop (2012, 2017), Kaplan/Schweser (2001-2018), and Temple University, Japan (summer 1987). Has undertaken assignments for the World Bank, USAID, African Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Department for International Development (UK), IFPRI, Government of Rwanda, Economist Intelligence Unit, Ford Foundation, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, UNDP, and Soros Foundation.

Jan Vogler

Jan Vogler joined the CLEAR Lab as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Political Economy of Good Government (Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics & the Democracy Initiative). He recently completed his Ph.D. in political science–with a specialization in political economy and political methodology–at Duke University. His dissertation is entitled, “The Political Economy of Public Bureaucracy: The Emergence of Modern Administrative Organizations.” Prior to earning his Ph.D., Jan received a B.A. in political science from the Free University of Berlin and a M.Sc. (with distinction) in international relations (research) from the London School of Economics and Political Science. While completing his undergraduate degree, he studied economics as an additional minor and spent one year at the University of California, Berkeley. At UVA, he is working on a number of topics, including state-citizen interactions, the interruption of self-government, and the quality of public institutions.

Renuka Rayasam

Renuka Rayasam covers Texas politics, policy and health care for POLITICO. Her reporting career has taken her from Austin, Texas to Berlin, Germany with a stop in Washington, D.C., along the way. Rayasam joined POLITICO Pro after seven years freelancing for various publications including The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic and Quartz. Prior to moving to Germany, Rayasam led financial services coverage for The Kiplinger Letter, covered small business at U.S. News & World Report and was a general business reporter at The Austin American-Statesman. Rayasam grew up outside of Atlanta, Ga. She studied political economy and German at the University of California, Berkeley and has a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University.

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