As the latest hybrids continue to reveal themselves, COVID-19 has proved to be the biggest global public health and economic challenge in history. Although it has posed the same threat across the globe, countries have responded very differently and some are faring better than others.
UCLA historian Peter Baldwin has followed how various countries have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, with some clearly faring much better than others. He is joined for this conversation by epidemiologist William P. Hanage, researching the evolution of viruses at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University.
His recent book, “Fighting The First Wave: How the Coronavirus was tackled so differently across the globe,” offers examples of how nations responded to the crisis based upon the political tools available - and how firmly authorities could order citizens' lives and how willingly the strict rules would be obeyed.
In Asia, nations quarantined the infected and their contacts. In the Americas and Europe, they shut down their economies, hoping to squelch the spread of the virus. In some countries, like England, there were fines for disobeying lockdown limits. Others, above all Sweden, responded with a light touch, putting their faith in social consensus over coercion. Whether citizens would follow their leaders' requests and how soon they would tire of their demands were crucial to their hopes of taming the pandemic.
The story of how different countries have tackled this problem is still evolving, since the publication of this book in April. Some have now changed strategy due to recent surges in the Delta variant in Australia, Canada, Europe and elsewhere.
