The U.S. response to the novel coronavirus divides many Americans along partisan lines. Democrats criticize President Donald Trump for a mismanaged response with grave consequences, and Republicans defend him, downplaying the need for social distancing and measures that ensure it. In a newly released interview, historian Niall Ferguson rejects both sides of the divide, condemning what he considers a disastrously slow U.S. response that led to widespread isolation and the economic damage that it wrought — while sparing Trump the blame for the nation’s botched effort. Ferguson, who spoke to Yahoo Finance on May 14, instead faulted federal agencies and public health officials, which he says should have been better prepared for a viral outbreak. “The real story here is a massive policy screwup,” says Ferguson, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning Hoover Institution, based at Stanford University. “Which is going to have all kinds of unintended consequences that will be far greater in their social impact than the pandemic itself.” “We've inflicted on ourselves a very much bigger economic shock than I believe the public health emergency warranted,” adds Ferguson, who taught history at Harvard University for more than a decade. When asked by Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer if the inadequate U.S. response is Trump’s fault, Ferguson demurred. “I don’t think it is,” he said, but then acknowledged: “I mean, I don't think he's covered himself in glory, to put it mildly.” “The president isn’t really supposed to micromanage our response to a predictable event like a pandemic,” Ferguson says, instead calling the response a “failure of the bureaucracy” in the U.S. government. “Sure, the buck stops at the presidency,” he says. “But let's face it, in a thing as large and complex as the federal government, there is ultimately such a thing as departmental responsibility.”Subscribe to Yahoo Finance: https://yhoo.it/2fGu5Bb About Yahoo Finance: At Yahoo Finance, you get free stock quotes, up-to-date news, portfolio management resources, international market data, social interaction and mortgage rates that help you manage your financial life. For the rest of this article please visit: https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-coronavirus-response-is-a-massive-policy-screwup-but-not-donald-trumps-fault-niall-ferguson-121627244.html Connect with Yahoo Finance: Get the latest news: https://yhoo.it/2fGu5Bb Find Yahoo Finance on Facebook: http://bit.ly/2A9u5Zq Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2LMgloP Follow Yahoo Finance on Instagram: http://bit.ly/2LOpNYz