In Covid's Wake

How Our Politics Failed Us

By: Stephen Macedo, Frances Lee

Narrated by: Curtis Michael Holland

The Covid pandemic quickly led to the greatest mobilization of emergency powers in human history. By early April 2020, half the world's population were living under quarantine. The most devastating pandemic in a century and the policies adopted in response to it upended life as we knew it. In this book, Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee examine our pandemic response and pose some provocative questions: Why did we ignore pre-Covid plans for managing a pandemic? Did we adequately consider the costs and benefits of different policy options? And, aside from vaccines, did the policies adopted work as intended?

With In Covid's Wake, Macedo and Lee offer the first comprehensive—and candid—political assessment of how our institutions fared during the pandemic. They describe how, influenced by Wuhan's lockdown, governments departed from their existing pandemic plans. The policies adopted largely benefited the laptop class and left so-called essential workers unprotected; extended school closures hit the least-privileged families the hardest. Science became politicized and dissent was driven to the margins. In the next crisis, Macedo and Lee warn, we must not forget the deepest values of liberal democracy: tolerance and open-mindedness, respect for evidence and its limits, a willingness to entertain uncertainty, and a commitment to telling the whole truth.

©2025 Princeton University Press (P)2025 Tantor Media

The COVID after-action report I desperately needed

I am deeply grateful to the authors of this book, who performed a courageous critique of their own socioeconomic class and political party as a demonstration of the ideals of liberalism. As a healthcare provider in mental health during COVID I watched devastation inflicted by our response that I am still processing. I am a registered Independent, but hold the ideals of liberalism in high regard. I was baffled by the insistence of government leaders that we needed to “follow the science” when I was doing exactly that and not understanding the actions and rhetoric of the very leaders insisting that questioning them was to “question science [itself]”. I watched as families, friendships and doctor/patient relationships were torn apart and trust in our institutions was fractured. To be honest, my own trust in our highest public health and government institutions (primarily during the Biden administration) lead to my own loss of trust and thoughts of leaving healthcare entirely if it could not hold itself to its own ideals and treat ALL patients with respect.

The authors appear to have undertaken this endeavor in good faith and made an earnest effort to explore the topic without bias. There were additional points that I felt could have been explored, but I question if these were omitted for length or to avoid backlash (or a combination of both factors). Either way, I am grateful for this work and I strongly recommend it.

Alarming but not completely surprising

The clarity and honesty of the facts is likely unmatched in any other analysis. Thanks