Experts Agree that Trump’s Coronavirus Response Was Poor, but the U.S. Was Ill-Prepared in the First Place

As the coronavirus pandemic exerts a tighter grip on the nation, critics of the Trump administration have repeatedly highlighted the administration’s changes to the nation’s pandemic response team in 2018 as a major contributor to the current crisis. This combines with a hiring freeze at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leaving hundreds of positions unfilled. The administration also has repeatedly sought to reduce CDC funding by billions of dollars. Experts agree that the slow and uncoordinated response has been inadequate and has likely failed to mitigate the coming widespread outbreak in the U.S. However, it is also important to acknowledge that we have underfunded our public health system for decades, perpetuated a poorly working health care system and failed to bring our social safety nets in line with other developed nations.

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Will Coronavirus Change Europe Permanently?

As scary, surreal and disruptive as it is now, the long-term political and economic consequences of the biggest public health challenge the continent has faced since the 1918 Spanish flu are likely to be huge. Aside from quarantining, the past also has some possible lessons for Europe about how infectious diseases can leave a long-term imprint, say historians. They say plagues and pestilence have reshaped countries before, changing politics, contributing to instability, retarding economic development and altering social relations.

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Oxford Scientists Develop Rapid Testing Technology for COVID-19

Oxford University scientists have developed a rapid testing technology for the novel corona virus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). The new test is much faster and does not need a complicated instrument. Previous viral RNA tests took 1.5 to 2 hours to give a result. The research team has developed a new test, based on a technique which is capable of giving results in just half an hour – over three times faster than the current method.

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Editor’s note: U.K.’s Course Correction

Britain’s initial response to the COVID-19 outbreak – opting for the more gradual “mitigation” over the more draconian “suppression” — has been criticized by some experts as an unnecessarily risky gamble (see, for example, Helen Jenkins, “The British Government’s Response to the Coronavirus Has Been a Disaster: It Dropped a Plan for ‘Herd Immunity,’ but the United Kingdom Is Still Moving Way Too Slowly,” Washington Post, 16 March 2020; and William Hanage, “I’m an Epidemiologist. When I Heard about Britain’s ‘Herd Immunity’ Coronavirus Plan, I Thought It Was Satire: Vulnerable People Should Not Be Exposed to Covid-19 Right Now in the Service of a Hypothetical Future,” Guardian, 15 March 2020).

Yesterday, Monday 16 March, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the United Kingdom was changing direction, replacing the mitigation approach with a version of suppression, which brings the United Kingdom closer to the policies adopted by most other countries (President Emmanuel Macron of France on Monday announced a suppression policy which is  more sweeping that that announced by Johnson).

Tom Solomon (“Coronavirus: The U.K. Approach Explained,” HSNW, 17 March 2020) explains the mitigation approach initially adopted by the United Kingdom. Another article (“From Mitigation to Suppression: U.K. Gov Changes Its COVID-19 Response,” HSNW, 17 March 2020) explains the reasons behind the U.K. government’s course correction.

Coronavirus: The U.K. Approach Explained

Faced with the coronavirus epidemic, China and Italy have imposed draconian measures which, in China at least, now seem to be having an effect. These measures, however, have enormous economic and social costs. The U.K. has, so far at least, adopted a different approach: When a virus passes through most of the population, infected individuals develop antibodies to the infection, and the population as a whole thus acquires herd immunity. This means that enough people have been infected and developed an immune response so that there is nowhere left for the virus to go, and circulation stops. In theory, a prolonged lockdown, by slowing virus circulation, could mean a population never gets herd immunity, and so the lockdown has to continue indefinitely, or until a vaccine is developed. Health experts say that between 30 percent and 80 percent of the U.K. population will eventually get infected – but that 99 percent of them will recover completely after experiencing only slight discomfort, with only about 1 percent, or 53,000 people (in the event of 80 percent infection) requiring some medical attention. The reward of this approach: less economic and social disruption, and herd immunity which buys scientists more time to develop a vaccine and treatments.

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U.S. Takes More Big Pandemic Response Steps; Europe COVID-19 Cases Soar

The number of COVID-19 cases in other parts of the world yesterday topped China’s total, fueled by surges in Europe—especially in Italy—and Iran, plus outbreaks picking up steam in other nations, including the United States, where New York City yesterday shuttered its schools and the Federal Reserve slashed its interest rate again. As testing capacity slowly ramps up in the United States, about 600 more cases were reported, putting the nation’s total at 3,244, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker. So far, West Virginia is the only state that hasn’t confirmed any cases.

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