Corruption Vulnerabilities in the U.S. Response to the Coronavirus
Jodi Vittori warns that the current COVID-19 crisis presents new opportunities to corrupt actors, as seen during previous pandemics. “As the United States ramps up its health-related procurement, lessons learned in health-sector corruption elsewhere show that procurement and contracting malfeasance could lead to deadly consequences—inflated prices or poor-quality goods, perhaps in exchange for bribes.” She notes the vulnerability of pharmaceutical and medical supply chains, the more thinly spread public accountability due to journalistic layoffs, government agencies delaying the release of information to the public, and relaxation of regulations as troubling developments. She argues that top-down and bottom-up transparency, accountability, and good governance (TACCGG) measures can help limit coronavirus–associated corruption.
