Covid-19 vs. expanding bureaucracy

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has epitomized of how outdated all government structures are. The omnipresent ruling class of politicians and bureaucrats have demonstrated obvious incompetence in tackling the global challenges, in particular, in assessing risks, preparing for them, and mitigating their effects.

All major governments (US, Russia, UK, EU) spent billions and trillions dollars on expensive stockpiles of armaments, first class intelligence, and overseas military operations with the sole aim to protect own countries.

However, when it came to the real threat, they all failed and failed by large.

Despite vast networks of spies and surveillance technologies, they failed to investigate the cause and potential effect of the virus at the outbreak of the pandemic in January 2020 and provide correct factual data. As a result, almost all governments were completely unprepared and had to rely on misleading WHO press-releases in assessing the potential threat.

Many countries had large stockpile of various armaments, including tanks and ballistic missiles, but, unexpectedly, there was a shortage of simple masks and protective medical equipment. Not mentioning that traditional supply chains have been strained and broken, leading to supply disruptions and sky-rocketing prices.

In many countries, public health system was subject to budget austerity, and thus not having any buffer capacity, staff and beds, for sudden overload during the crisis. And it is important to understand that this crisis has such high toll that has not been seen since WW2.

In order to avoid such calamities next time, clear lessons should be drawn as to the efficiency and accountability of over-expending bureaucracy, its power and limits, as well as precise range of services it provides to the public and their quality assessments.

#covid-19 #publicservices #crisismanagement #risks #bureaucrats #governments