Viral myths: why we risk learning the wrong lessons from the pandemic

Institute of Economic Affairs -
This report argues that there is no obvious measure of ‘Covid performance’ which would allow us to rank countries by how well they dealt with the pandemic. This paper claims that the best performers didn't do well because they have low public spending levels but because they have open economies, or that they did well because they have non-NHS-type health care systems. It puts forward the argument that an effective pandemic response is compatible with a variety of public spending levels, a variety of trade regimes, and a variety of health care systems.

• Report
• Institute of Economic Affairs - publications