Future

Responses

How can the United States and other countries improve their responses in future times of crisis?

Public Confidence in the Government

One improvement that can be made upon the government's approach is increasing its credibility, thus increasing public confidence in the government. This would improve the trust between the public and the government, leading to more efficient action, as can be seen in Britain. One way credibility can be improved is having more doctors give updates and advice on the live-streamed press briefings. America can also learn from Taiwan, who provided hotlines with accurate advice on how to deal with Covid-19. This fast and reliable communication helps with public confidence, which can not only improve the current situation, but America’s ability to overcome future obstacles as well.

"Leader" Countries Act Quickly

Another improvement is to have large leader countries act quickly. In both times of crisis and day to day activity, countries reference one another to gauge each other’s stances on affairs. Especially during a globally impacted situation such as the current pandemic, countries look to each other and prominent “leader” countries to decide what their next steps should be. Countries should react as quickly as possible with the greatest transparency to allow both citizens to stay informed and to help other governments make their own decisions. One country’s actions can cause a domino effect locally and worldwide.

Types of Responses

There are two main types of responses that have occurred to Covid-19. --pause-- One is an aggressive centralized response, like the response China had. China’s government quickly blocked off the hot spot city, Wuhan, from the rest of China, which effectively lowered China’s number of cases. However, discourse between countries has also greatly slowed the response to Covid-19. Countries have not shared information about potential treatments or vaccines, slowing a treatment or vaccine that could greatly slow the pandemic.

Control of Panic/ Emphasis

Many countries have faced an inability to control both panic and the spread of disease due to a lack in more aggressive crackdown measures. Ambiguity between news outlets has also caused further confusion. Because Covid-19 is a constantly developing story, citizens also constantly raise questions pertaining to it. Because of this, it’s important that the public makes their questions known so that they can be answered and publicized. While the US has recently dealt with people refusing to acknowledge social distancing and other restrictions, increases in protesting have led many states to begin reopening. A lack of official data supporting reopening has also amplified the importance of a more aggressive crackdown on those who are not following restrictions. The overall panic in the beginning of lockdown in the US indicated a need for better control of widespread panic, By increasing the US’ efforts in crackdown/enforcement of social distancing efforts, and having news outlets stress the importance of protective measures, the spread of COVID-19 could be better controlled.

Need for an Outside Organization

Another improvement is to have an outside organization that a vast majority of citizens can trust. From the very beginning, the WHO should have been the proactive organization to combat the outbreak and be transparent in their response, considering each individual government’s political strains and issues that could possibly slow decisions made to stop the spread. However, the WHO’s response has proved otherwise, as cases continue to rise steadily. A reformation for the WHO would not only fix their shortcomings, but also make containing global pandemics in the future much more efficient. The United Nations should work in tighter relation with WHO and override government decisions to allow for more decisive and consistent responses by different countries regardless of government background.

Quantity and Quality Assurance for Testing

Lastly, when the outbreak first commenced, the CDC’s response lacked a proper description of the gravity of the situation. Rather than focusing on how to soothe the people at first, CDC should have stressed the potential of this outbreak to become a pandemic and encourage according practices earlier. The relative slow speed of the implementation of quarantine, airport screening, and the initial testing limitation had allowed carriers to spread throughout the country. More labs should have been authorized for testing, and thus sorting out carriers and foster quarantine more effectively.

Diagrams