The COVID-19 Pandemic: Failing Forward in Public Health

Although most governments were heavily scrutinized and looked bad early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU was most noticeable for its absence. This might seem strange, for an institution whose public health role has been forged through crisis—from the thalidomide tragedy and the scandal of HIV-infected blood supplies, to “mad cow disease” and the underwhelming H1N1 influenza pandemic. A closer review of the EU’s health governance, however, reveals it to have performed exactly as expected and intended. An initial phase of disorganization and national egotism, unavoidable given that member states have historically restricted the EU’s health capacities, has been followed by a substantial new health policy agenda and a reinforcement of the EU’s market- and fiscal-based health influence. This is leading, we posit, to further integration.