In a newly released interview, historian Niall Ferguson condemns what he considers a disastrously slow U.S. coronavirus response that led to widespread isolation and the economic damage that it wrought — while largely sparing Trump the blame for the nation’s botched effort.
The U.S. response to the novel coronavirus divides many Americans along partisan lines. Democrats criticize President Donald Trump for a mismanaged response with grave consequences, and Republicans defend him, downplaying the need for social distancing and measures that ensure it.
“The real story here is a massive policy screwup,” says Ferguson, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning Hoover Institution, based at Stanford University. “Which is going to have all kinds of unintended consequences that will be far greater in their social impact than the pandemic itself.” “I don’t think it is,” he said, but then acknowledged: “I mean, I don't think he's covered himself in glory, to put it mildly.”
Ferguson noted that epidemiologists “have said for years that the key in any pandemic is early detection and early response.” On May 27, the U.S. surpassed 100,000 coronavirus deaths and reached nearly 1.7 million cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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