The Shift from Public to Private in Health Emergencies

Five years ago, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Since then, there have been lockdowns, a recession, two presidential elections and more than a million American lives lost from the disease. In many ways, life feels like it’s back to normal, but David Wallace-Wells, a writer for The New York Times, argues that the pandemic still has a grip on American life, from our faith in public health institutions to the way consumers feel about the economy. On the show today, Wallace-Wells walks us through how Americans neglected to process the seismic impact of the pandemic in the rush to recover from it, and how it’s left us more self-interested and less empathetic. Plus, how this can help explain disgruntled consumers and a growing appetite for risk-taking in the economy.

Then, we’ll get into how responses to public health emergencies have shifted to the realm of the private sector. And, we’ll hear listeners’ reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic, five years on.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• “Opinion | How Covid Remade Our America, Five Years Later” from The New York Times
• “30 Charts That Show How Covid Changed Everything in March 2020” from The New York Times
• “Gyms, pets and takeout: How the pandemic has shifted daily life” from The Washington Post
• “It’s Not the Economy. It’s the Pandemic.” from The Atlantic
• “Opinion | Covid’s Deadliest Effect Took Five Years to Appear” from The New York Times
• “More Universities Are Choosing to Stay Neutral on the Biggest Issues” from The New York Times

Got a question or comment for the hosts? Email makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.