America will need to learn these lessons quickly if it wants to save itself from potentially horrifying outcomes, both now and in future pandemics.
It's fair to say there are three broad levels to any pandemic response, each built on top of the other.
The foundation is the national health care system, which provides the necessary broad access to testing and treatment.
The second is the state's administrative bureaucracy and welfare state, which coordinates additional response measures.
Of all these, mass testing deserves special emphasis, because without it any emergency response is all but hamstrung.
They also had pandemic response plans drawn up after the SARS outbreak in 2002, which had been regularly reviewed and practiced.
Perhaps worst of all, Trump, Republican politicians, and right-wing media consistently downplayed the epidemic for weeks as it gathered strength. »
