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Now that
Christmas trees are littering street corners and the champagne's run
out, it feels like the right time to think about what's next and how we
climb out of this pandemic. Which brings us to rule No. 1 of any
successful plan: You need a catchphrase.
This summer, the winner for the Covid recovery slogan competition was Build Back Better.
You might remember Triple-B from when Joe Biden adopted it as his
campaign slogan. Or when it was taken up by leaders in the UK, New
Zealand, and Scotland, as well as other organizations around the world.
- If this was high school
English, they'd all flunk for plagiarism. "Building Back Better" was
adopted as part of the United Nations' Sendai Framework for disaster
recovery in 2015. The basic idea is using a disaster like a tsunami as
an opportunity to build back with more resilient infrastructure, better
preparations, and a more equitable society.
We have a lot of building to do
Starting with the obvious: pandemic preparedness, which moved from the government's "nice-to-have" to "we need this more than a premium Zoom account” list.
There's no shortage of reports about
how pandemic game plans were weakened before Covid arrived on American
shores, and how a lack of to-do lists, institutional knowledge, and
scientific leadership factored into the severity of the U.S.' early
outbreaks.
Step 1 to building back better: Do
the opposite of whatever that was. Experts have recommended that Biden
(and future presidents) strengthen the President's Council of Advisors
on Science and Technology and the White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy. The Oval Office can't coordinate everything, but it
does need to coordinate.
- Agencies involved
in the coronavirus response, including the CDC, DHHS, and DHS, weren't
always keeping up with the group text. The White House needs a
designated leader to coordinate cross-government action and
communication with states and cities.
- Speaking of, it also needs a clear framework for federal, state, and local governments’ responsibilities.
Step 2: Spend
money. States may need their own pandemic budgets. The CDC needs to be
better equipped for tasks like setting up national testing and tracing.
Federal, state, and hospital stockpiles need some topping off. Whoever
makes vaccines needs a raise.
- The WHO's Global Preparedness Monitoring Board estimates that good pandemic preparedness investments would cost $5/person annually.
"It would take 500 years to spend as much on investing in preparedness
as the world is losing due to Covid,” the board writes.
Step 3: Make sure your friends stay friends. The Council on Foreign Relations recommends
that the U.S. remain in the WHO. Though it’s a flawed institution, the
council argues, it's the best multilateral body to coordinate
international action, aid, and accountability.
- Also make frenemies. "We
will have to work with China," former diplomat Nicholas Burns told the
WaPo. "Our political leaders have a responsibility to compete, but in a
smart way and not drive this relationship into a ditch."
Step 4: Untangle
the supply chain. Covid-19 exposed our dependence on China for critical
medical supplies (along with other goods) and showed that global supply
chains have become increasingly complex
without becoming more resilient. Supply chains "were designed for cost
and efficiency, but without really a thought to what could go wrong
along the way," per McKinsey partner Susan Lund.
Great, now we're prepared for the next health crisis. But how do we emerge stronger from the current economic crisis?
It should equitable
The pandemic highlighted the racial inequalities present in American society. Black and Hispanic or Latino workers have been more likely
to lose their jobs and to serve as essential workers in frontline,
low-wage roles. And Black, Hispanic, and Latino business owners were
less likely to get CARES Act funds.
To build
back better, more efforts are needed to address racial and class
disparities in the recovery itself. You might have heard of the "K-shaped recovery," in which wealthier Americans generally rebounded while those at the bottom have been left even farther behind.
- To turn that K into a
Nike swoosh, the U.S. needs to address the historical disinvestment that
has left some communities and groups of workers behind. Aid should be
progressive to help lift the most vulnerable and impacted, according to
the OECD.
Some areas to start: Unemployment benefit programs, paid sick leave, food assistance programs, rural economic development, broadband access to allow more workers to participate in the remote work revolution, and programs to train or reskill workers at the local level.
- Harvard economic policy professor Jason Furman suggests
tying future responses to improvements in economic indicators (instead
of arbitrary timeframes) so that assistance scales up or down depending
on how much we need it.
The recovery also needs to be green
The climate clock is ticking down, and the brief dip in emissions from the pandemic's shutdowns is bouncing back.
An equitable and successful economic recovery can align with other long-term needs
for a sustainable future, such as reducing emissions, protecting
biodiversity, creating more circular supply chains, and generating jobs
in new industries.
- The government's "most
effective tool" for the latter is increasing infrastructure investment,
Furman said. The Biden administration has promised $2 trillion in
infrastructure spending that it says will create 10 million jobs tied to
clean energy.
Full circle: Climate
change is also linked to pandemic preparedness. "The economic pressures
driving biodiversity loss and the destruction of ocean health can have
cascading impacts on societies, and may increase the risk of future
zoonotic viruses (those which jump from animals to humans)," the OECD
writes.
Big picture: Covid-19 has arrived during a pivotal moment
for American capitalism. Tying together all these ways we could
improve—healthcare, access and equity, infrastructure—"is the need for
urgent decisions taken today to incorporate a longer-term perspective,"
the OECD writes.
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