As the nation exhales at the sight of descending curves of Covid-19 infections and deaths, top global health experts assessed the Biden administration’s handling of the pandemic, and the reviews weren’t good.
“I think we’ve done very, very bad this year,” said Michael Mina, an epidemiologist, immunologist, and physician who has been a leading voice — and an often critical one — during the Covid crisis.
From a lack of preparation, to “an inability to look past the moment,” and stymied creativity in facing the nation’s public health crisis, U.S. leaders have repeated the same mistakes, year over year, said Mina during a panel discussion at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics on Thursday.
Mina, who left a faculty position at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health last year for a top position at rapid test startup eMed, said that he would have treated the Covid pandemic more like a war. Following the Trump administration’s inaction and missteps, he said, President Biden and his team should have made decisions as if thousands of Americans were dying every day, because they were, and they still are. “And we didn’t act like it. And we still have not acted like it,” said Mina.
