The Covid Crisis Group (originally the Covid Commission Planning Group) was created in 2021 by four foundations (Schmidt Futures, the Skoll Foundation, Stand Together, and The Rockefeller Foundation) to lay the foundation for a National Covid Commission. Led by former 9/11 Commission Executive Director Philip Zelikow, the group assembled experts from around the United States and beyond, mapped the landscape of the crisis, and held listening sessions with nearly 300 people.
Two years later, with no commission in sight, the 34 members of the Covid Crisis Group felt a duty to speak out. The result is a forthcoming investigative report, Lessons from the Covid War, to be published by PublicAffairs on April 25, 2023.
This powerful report on what went wrong—and right—with America’s Covid response shows how Americans faced the worst peacetime catastrophe of modern times.
Nonpartisan and plain-spoken, Lessons from the Covid War makes sense of the American pandemic response. Zeroing in on key choices, it spotlights how we can do better next time. Because there will be a next time.
This comprehensive investigative report tells the story of how America’s scientific knowledge has far outpaced the country’s ability to apply it in a crisis. Improvising desperately, many Americans displayed ingenuity and dedication during the war against Covid, yet encountered leaders and institutions that made success difficult and failure easy.
Lessons from the Covid War helps Americans take stock, learn hard truths, come together, build on what worked, and prepare for global emergencies to come.