China and the WHO are given an easy ride in the Covid blame game

Are you ready to relive 2020? That’s what Adam Tooze is offering as he tells the story of Covid-19 through the spectacular and terrifying economic consequences created by the global health crisis. For many, the answer will be a simple no. But for others looking to make sense of an utterly surreal year, Shutdown might seem an obvious place to start.

Unfortunately, the book offers less analysis and more ranting than would normally be expected from an economic digest — especially one written about one of the most startling shocks to the economy the world has ever seen.

Some readers may like the rant. If you’re of the opinion that ‘narcissist-in-chief’ Donald Trump, the ‘flat Earth brigade’ Republican party and politicians obsessed with ‘Brexit psychodrama’ are the major culprits of the pandemic, Tooze’s narrative will be comforting, perhaps even therapeutic. But anyone looking for a more rounded take on the Covid blame game will find Shutdown sorely lacking in nuanced perspective. Tooze’s hatred of Brexit and Trump runs so deep that he not only dials down criticism of other major players, he often finds himself making excuses for highly questionable behaviour at the height of the crisis.

The two biggest winners are the World Health Organisation and China. The WHO gets the easiest ride. Its catastrophic failures at the height of the crisis — regurgitating China’s talking points when it was trying to cover up the virus, keeping Taiwan out of crucial pandemic planning, moving at a snail’s pace to declare a pandemic — are explained by Tooze either as issues of underfunding or Trump’s personal disdain; or they are not mentioned at all.

Tooze’s view of China is a bit more complex. He doesn’t shy away from his analysis that Asian countries, China included, were right to take fast action last winter.