Giveaway: The Next Pandemic

Professor of Economics Peter van Bergeijk believes that all sorts of mistakes have been made during the coronavirus pandemic. What kinds of lessons have we learnt so far that will allow us to do better during the next pandemic? He performs some analyses in his latest book, entitled De volgende pandemie (The Next Pandemic).

In his book De volgende pandemie, Professor of International Economics Peter van Bergeijk looks back on the first stages of the coronavirus pandemic and draws up a practical plan that will allow regular people, companies and government agencies alike to be better prepared for a new pandemic that may take place at some point.

“In the next ten to fifteen years, we will have to make proper preparations for pandemics at all levels of society,” Van Bergeijk told Erasmus Magazine at the beginning of this year. In his new book, he gets us off to a start, by identifying the lessons learnt from the coronavirus pandemic.

 

For instance, last year much of the economy ground to a halt because of the restrictions. Most people were not allowed to travel or go shopping, and factories stopped manufacturing their products. Van Bergeijk argues that different choices could have been made at the time. Suppose, for instance, that the government would only rescue companies that were doing well in the first place, and that it would help employees find new jobs. This would give the economy a much better chance of recovering from a crisis.

The solutions Van Bergeijk proposes in his book are highly diverse. In readily understood prose he explains the various ways in which a future pandemic may be averted, including things such as redesigning cities or rationing health care.

 

Peter van Bergeijk tells about his book – at Studio Erasmus