The writer is executive director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Twenty-two months after I took charge of Standard Chartered, one of the world’s largest international banks, Lehman Brothers collapsed, triggering the 2008 financial crisis. Some 22 months after I moved to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a new strain of coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China. My friends have asked me to warn them if I switch fields again.
The early response to the disease known as Covid-19 feels eerily reminiscent of the lead in to Lehman’s fall. We are seeing a weird mix of panic and denial; business leaders looking like rabbits in headlights as their share prices plummet; and a potpourri of uncoordinated, inward-looking interventions across different countries.