JOHN DLUDLU: Lessons from the past for a crisis the world has not seen before
In tackling the coronavirus menace there is much to learn from how SA handled the 2008/2009 financial fallout and from countries such as China
There is an adage that says you should fight a war with the army you have, not the army you wish you have. This came to mind in the last few days when US President Donald Trump declared that the coronavirus pandemic was his war, and he was the wartime president. That was before he mischaracterised the crisis at hand — which he had underplayed for weeks — as an economic challenge, not a health crisis, since, according to him, the US has the world’s best health-care system.
Lest we forget, Trump has undone most of Barack Obama’s efforts in the health-care space, including legislation such as the emblematic Obamacare (formally known as the Affordable Care Act), which significantly expanded access to affordable health care for the most vulnerable Americans, such as students, people with pre-existing conditions and small business owners battling to insure their workers...
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