Last night I recorded an Economics Explained podcast interview with my good friend and former Treasury colleague Joe Branigan of Tulipwood Economics on the economic impact of coronavirus and the economic cost of responding to it.

Use these timestamps to help you jump to the highlights:

• 1:50 – Joe reviews international data on coronavirus cases as at 1 April
• 5:00 – how case fatality rates depend on the testing regime
• 7:30 – why Italy has been so badly affected compared with Australia
• 11:05 – what is a Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY)?
• 13:00 – discussion of whether cost-benefit analysis is relevant in assessing coronavirus responses
• 20:50 – Sweden identified as a country which appears willing to tolerate a worse public health outcome to avoid enacting draconian measures
• 23:20 – discussion of pros and cons of a full lock-down strategy, following a replay of an excerpt from my interview with Nicholas Gruen last week
• 30:20 – “No one knows what the right answer is” – recognition we have much to learn from the variety of responses and experiences around the world
• 32:00 – major takeaway is that each country is on its own trajectory and policy responses need to be specific to each country