How in the world did it happen? The United States has the highest rating in the world on the Global Health Security Index, which assesses prevention, capacity for detection, preparedness and planning, resources for health care, and other aspects of responding to health threats. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is home to the foremost public health training program, the Epidemic Intelligence Service, and may well have the highest density of expertise in infectious disease the world has ever known. The Food and Drug Administration has long been the world model for regulating health goods and services. The nation had forewarning from its health experts and intelligence services as a pandemic gestated in China and then southern Europe. Yet the United States now faces the largest challenge from—and has mounted one of the worst-managed responses to—the coronavirus pandemic in the developed world.
The explanation cannot be insufficient scientific or medical expertise, nor lack of familiarity with managing global infectious disease. US experts have been among the world’s leaders in dealing with HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Legionnaire’s, SARS, MERS, measles, polio, and influenza. What, then, explains the government’s ineffectual response to the coronavirus outbreak, especially in its crucial early days? What caused a multitrillion-dollar catastrophe that will consume tens to hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide? Although there is likely plenty of blame to go around, our aim here is not to point fingers but to highlight the need to understand what went wrong so the nation can make sure it can never happen again. And our particular focus is on what Congress needs to do differently to assure the nation’s safety in the future.
Read Full Article »