2021 must be the year for preparedness
In the months and years to come, commissions and historians will investigate how the US experienced 25 percent of recorded worldwide COVID cases; but with only four percentage of world population, despite having world-leading scientists, the CDC and a health-care system which is among the most expensive in the world.
Beyond the rancorous political point scoring, the US administration was slow to react to the Coronavirus outbreak with an effective public outreach.
An early warning system which reached the right decision-makers would have likely aided efforts to mobilize PPE equipment, ventilators, identify and help mitigate the risk to vulnerable populations; adopt effective surveillance and tracing programs and ensure the correct scientific expertise was mobilized and its recommendations made widely available.
The implications of a slow response from the US administration was reflected in the chaos this spring across the country at the state, city and business level. Employees across the country were told to work from home, but many businesses did not have the correct IT infrastructure to support the transition; cities battled with decisions as to whether allow dining, sports games, and what defined an essential business. The list could go on.
