Former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster Releases COVID-19 Report

NEW YORK, Oct. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In collaboration with the U.S. Civilian Corps (USCC) and executive search firm Odgers Berndtson, Lieut. Gen. H.R. McMaster and a research team at the Hoover Institution have released an in-depth report detailing the lessons learned in the course of domestic COVID-19 response and issuing guidance for the improvement of government and private sector pandemic response in the future.

"Data consistency and coordination between government sectors will be vital in the next stage of our response to this devastating pandemic," said McMaster. "We can't let these lessons go to waste. We have to capture these experiences and these lessons learned and make them available to people."

Based on extensive open-source research and more than 45 oral history interviews with practitioners, the paper, entitled "Preparing for the Next Pandemic: Mobilizing And Integrating Responses Across The Government And The Private Sector," finds that an effective and timely pandemic response was hindered by a lack of coordination between numerous federal agencies; local, state, and federal governments; and public- and private-sector organizations. The report provides recommendations for public and private sector leaders, policymakers, and legislators.

Some of the report's key findings include:

• The data with which COVID-19's behavior was evaluated were all too often incomplete, non-representative, or inconsistently labeled, which hamstrung the ability of lawmakers, healthcare facilities, nursing homes, and individual citizens to mount accurate mitigation or treatment strategies.
• There were misunderstandings across multiple levels of government about regulatory standards pertaining to PPE, critical medical supplies, and the licensing requirements of volunteer medical personnel—all of which hindered the rapid mobilization of critical medical supplies, personnel, and tests.
• There are currently insufficient economic incentives for US companies to produce critical medical supplies domestically—yet a steady supply of these goods is essential during a pandemic. Facing extraordinary demand and dire needs, procurement teams in care facilities, government organizations, and the private sector actively bid against each other for PPE, frontline medical personnel, and critical care equipment.

"As a country we need to move past the politicization of COVID-19 response and build a clear-eyed picture of what we did well, what we did wrong, and what kinds of systems we can put in place to ensure better resiliency in the future," said Noah Sheinbaum, cofounder of the US Civilian Corps. "This report begins that process."

About the Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution at Stanford University is the nation's preeminent research center dedicated to generating policy ideas that promote economic prosperity, national security and democratic guidance. It is the only such institution composed of both a fellowship of scholars and a world-renowned Library & Archives. Over its 100-year history, Hoover scholars have created innovative ideas enacted for the betterment of humanity and have contributed to the translation of those ideas into the implementation of public policy.

About the US Civilian Corps
Founded in 2018, the US Civilian Corps (USCC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to strengthen America's resilience by creating pathways to public service. The USCC vision is for a country where every American is able to serve, strengthening our nation's social fabric and galvanizing the free will of the American people to counter authoritarian forces around the world. The organization initially focused on part-time, remote, volunteer service to the nation's national security enterprise, harnessing the perspectives of Americans around the world to inform policy makers.

About Odgers Berndtson

For more than 50 years, Odgers Berndtson has delivered executive search, leadership assessment, and development strategies to the world's biggest and best organizations. Odgers Berndtson's 250+ partners cover more than 50 sectors and operate out of 59 offices in 29 countries. The U.S. wing of the firm launched in 2011 and is one of the fastest growing search firms in the Americas. Odgers Berndtson currently has U.S. offices in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington DC.

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