Question

Trade Offs Imagine having two critically ill patients but just one ventilator. That is the choice which could confront hospital staff in New York, Paris and London in the coming weeks, just as it has in Lombardy and Madrid. Triage demands agonizing decisions. Medics have to say who will be treated and who must go without who might live and who will probably die. The pandemic that is raging across the world heaps one such miserable choice upon another. Should medical resources go to covid-19 patients or those suffering from other diseases? Some unemployment and bankruptcy are a price worth paying, but how much? If extreme social distancing fails to stop the disease, how long should it persist? The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has declared that "We're not going to put a dollar figure on human life." It was meant as a rallying-cry from a courageous man whose state is overwhelmed. Yet by brushing trade-offs aside, Mr. Cuomo was in fact advocating a choice-one that does not begin to reckon with the litany of consequences among his wider community. It sounds hard-hearted but a dollar figure on life, or at least some way of thinking systematically, is precisely what leaders will need if they are to see their way through the harrowing months to come. As in that hospital ward, trade-offs are I unavoidable. Wherever you look, covid-19 throws up a miasma of such trade-offs. When Florida and New York take different approaches, that favors innovation and programmed matched to local preferences. But it also risks the mistakes of one state spilling over into others. When China shuts its borders to foreigners almost completely, it stops imported infections, but it also hobbles foreign businesses. A huge effort to make and distribute covid-19 vaccines will save lives, but it may affect programmers that protect children against measles and polio. [The Economist, 4-4- 2020) Economics is the study of how humans make decisions in the face of scarcity. It is about trade- offs. What trade-offs have you had to make during the covid-19 pandemic? How would you choose between some of the trade-offs mentioned in The Economist?

Answer 1