After getting international recognition for successful Covid-19 strategy, Pakistan’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has been appreciated by the former US treasury secretary and renowned economist Lawrence Summers, who said America could have saved $10 trillion had it followed in Pakistan footsteps.
While speaking to CNN on the show “Fareed Zakaria GPS”, Mr. Summer, who is former chief economist of World Bank, former chief of economic advisory council of President Obama and adviser to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, said, “Heck, if the US had handled the pandemic as well as Pakistan, we would have saved in neighbourhood of $10 trillion.”
He commented on the US strategy to control COVID-19 that the costs of an expanded testing system are trivial compared to the costs of tens of thousands of early deaths. “The costs of an expanded testing system are trivial compared to the costs of tens of thousands of early deaths. Expanding testing should be a matter of utmost urgency.”
From today's show: @LHSummers on his estimate of Covid-19's $16T cost to the US–& why spending more on testing, tracing, & economic relief should be an easy call pic.twitter.com/k0DRtAJpXB
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) October 18, 2020
Lawrence Summers then took the Pakistan praise to Twitter and tweeted, “Told @FareedZakaria on GPS @CNN , America’s failure on COVID-19 is almost unimaginable. Heck, if the U.S. had handled the pandemic as well as Pakistan, we would have saved in neighborhood of $10 trillion.”
Told @FareedZakaria on GPS @CNN, America’s failure on COVID-19 is almost unimaginable. Heck, if the U.S. had handled the pandemic as well as Pakistan, we would have saved in neighborhood of $10 trillion.
— Lawrence H. Summers (@LHSummers) October 18, 2020
There has been a record of 8.35 million coronavirus cases in the US, 224,389 deaths, and over five million people have recovered from it.
