**6. Conclusions**

Although the "point at which preparedness dissolves into panic will always be context-dependent ... the best outcome of this pandemic would be being accused of having overprepared" [7] (p. 1875). Governments will thus need to begin carrying out extensive and systematic triage assessments of their (sub)national PPPs in order to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article o ffers an initial conceptualization of PPP triage processes, but hard and decisive decisions still need to be made on both current and planned PPP projects. If PPPs are going to be a central tool for national economic recovery e fforts, "trust, shared vision and long-term commitments" are needed so "contracting parties [can] change their adversarial relationships to a more cooperative, team-based approach" [25] (p. 441); see also [26]. Through cooperation, openness, and innovation, PPP stakeholders can collectively craft win–win incentives that maximize opportunities in the face of shared risks [27].

Overall, "[d]ue to the complexity, intensity, and frequency of complex disasters, global leaders in healthcare, government, and business will need to pivot from siloed approaches of decision-making to embrace multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary levels of cooperation" [28] (p. 3838). Doing so will fundamentally change the way transportation, transit, school, and hospital PPPs are designed and operated. Although "a lot of projects have been able to continue, and some, such as hospitals and schools, have even been accelerated[,]" governments still need to provide relief to struggling projects to ge<sup>t</sup> them through this tough time [29]. After all, "[p]erfect is the enemy of good, especially during crises when prompt action is required" [14]. Moving forward, much more work still needs to be done to combat COVID-19 and prepare for the next pandemic. Let us not repeat the same mistakes. Instead, let us challenge the complacency of construction managemen<sup>t</sup> research, "engage in more robust critique and analysis of construction systems, as they are realised in practice[,]" and develop sustainable, resilient, and future-proofed PPPs [30] (p. 1).

**Author Contributions:** The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: conceptualization (D.B. and C.B.C.); writing—original draft preparation (D.B.); writing—review and editing (C.B.C). All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** Article processing charges (APCs) for open access publication were covered by UCL's Open Access Team. No other external funding was received for this research.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
