My friend BP points out that much of government disease mitigation was directed to avoid overwhelming of health services.
Assume he is correct.
Countries around the world responded with different policies to the pandemic. Is it possible to estimate the value of government spending in saving lives, as opposed to preserving the availability of hospital care?
Dear Robert
the government not only spend resources in vaccines. The PCR to do diagnosis, the isolation center for the patients with the disease, to cover the spend money in the alimentation, subsides to the people that remain in the home. All this in differents way contribute to save lives
luis
In Pakistan, despite meagre resources to spare for COVID-19, the Government helped the poor families with financial aid, and then helped the industries to continue working by selective lock-downs.
Now Pakistan is one of the few countries with good COVID-19 pandemic statistics, and has improved its economy and its exports by sensibly managing people to work.
I think that it is not only the responsibility of governments to face the pandemic or any other crises! Sometimes, reluctant and non-obedient behaviors of the general community would add further burdens that the government will not be able to treat.
In this sense, in communities where people refuse to wear masks and avoid social gathering, the virus keeps spreading fast with high rate of hospitalization and deaths.
Of course, in such conditions, even if the governments assign big budgets to control the problem, their efforts will be overwhelmed!
you can find a good analysis on this paper:
"A Cost-Effectiveness Evaluation of Hospitalizations, Fatalities, and Economic Outcomes Associated with Universal Versus Anaphylaxis Risk-Stratified COVID-19 Vaccination Strategies"
Article A Cost-Effectiveness Evaluation of Hospitalizations, Fatalit...
Governments did NOT save people from dying. Instead they sent them home without any instructions (sick without a remedy?).
There was a remedy established by a doctor some time ago that would have prevented many deaths: it was called ivermectin and the discoverer got a Noble Prize for it! That is how important it was.
It prevented the disease getting worse and eventually sending the patient to hospital for oxygen and possibly death.
Maybe you find this article helpful
€93 Billion Spent By Public Sector On COVID Vaccines and Therapeutics in 11 Months, Research Finds
https://healthpolicy-watch.news/81038-2/