Preventable - Andy Slavitt

 Sub-title: The inside story of how leadership failures, politics, and selfishness doomed the U.S. coronavirus response

I've avoided reading books from policy makers and government participants as it can be just too much and particularly too one-sided, not to mention not always very well written or edit.  This book does a good job of sharing an insider's view of the response in the US to the covid-19 pandemic up through March 2021.  I think it would be worth re-reading a few years from now too.  The author, Andy Slavitt, worked in the Obama administration on the ACA launch, was a former acting administrator of CMS and with the Biden administration on the response to the pandemic.  He started a twitter feed at the beginning of the pandemic and launched a podcast, "In the Bubble" where he interviews those responsible for aspects of the U.S. response.

Reading the book made me aware of how different an education is provided in advanced (he went to Wharton and Harvard) institutions.  Implicit in his analysis is the strategic, global, problem-solving approaches I've read and studied but never was particularly good at myself - I was the worker bee who executed the strategies and reported on the results.  

The book is, of course, focused mostly on the faults of the administration though it does try to point out the bigger issues in America as a whole.  The suggested remedies are documented as an appendix that is specific yet not necessarily actionable or time-bound.  Interesting read.

Quotes:

"We were like people who had never seen fire before and who wouldn't believe it was dangerous without sticking our hands in the flames first."

"History would judge us on two things....how many people did we lose? and what did I do to help during the difficult times?"

"Save the next life."

"There are a set of personality traits required to face a crisis - separate yourself from the problem, continually weight choices based on current information; focus on the bad news and look skeptically at good news; empathy for people who aren't right in front of you; a willingness to make tough decisions that forgo short-term gains in favor of solutions that work; the ability to communicated that brings people together."

"We were novices who considered ourselves experts.  This is part and parcel of the feeling of American exceptionalism.  Th US doesn't have the humility to follow.  We think we must always lead.  We keep telling ourselves we're the best even when evidence suggests we are not.  Our mentality suggest we would rather risk being last than come in second or third."

"We don't need to solve all of society's ills to respond better to a pandemic, but we will have to do more than invest in a better first line of defense--we will need to break our pattern of indifference."

Published: 2021  Read: October 2021  Genre: Non-fiction, history