Thursday, March 26, 2020

Was The U.S. The Best Prepared Country For A Global Pandemic?



FOX News: US was more prepared for pandemic than any other country, Johns Hopkins study found

The United States was ranked the best-prepared country in the world to handle a pandemic in late 2019 by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHCHS) -- an assessment seemingly at odds with claims by Democrats that the Trump administration left the country vulnerable to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

The Global Health Security Index was was "developed with guidance from an international panel of experts from 13 countries, with research by the Economist Intelligence Unit" from 2018 to 2019, The Washington Post reported last year. "More than 100 researchers spent a year collecting and validating publicly available data.”

At the same time, the paper noted that the U.S. score was still not perfect, and that "factors driving down the U.S. score include the risks of social unrest and terrorism, and low public confidence in government."

Read more ....

Update: 2019 study found US best-prepared country to handle a pandemic (NYPost)

Update #2: Dated from February 7, 2020 .... Here's the Johns Hopkins study President Trump referenced in his coronavirus news conference (John Hopkins).

WNU Editor:  Besides the U.S. there are other countries that the John Hopkins study points out were more prepared for a pandemic but are not faring very well right now. France is one of those countries. I think the problem is that while these countries  were the best prepared, they failed in not enforcing their borders, enforcing quarantines on people returning to their country, and not quarantining regions in their country where the outbreak was occurring. Russia is a country that was (and is) not ready for a pandemic. But it was the first country to block its border with China, and I think that bought them at least two months of time. Unfortunately, from what I am now hearing from my family, friends, and contacts in Russia is that the pandemic is now spreading in Russia very quickly.

The Global Health Security Index (GHS Index) is a project of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHU) and was developed with The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The report is here .... The Global Health Security Index.

Update #3: A reader just made a good point to me. There is really only one country in the world that has the resources and brain power to lead the way to research and develop the proper treatment and vaccines for this pandemic. And that country is the U.S..

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

For weeks, Russia seemed to have dodged a bullet. As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) raged just across the border in China, Russia was virtually untouched, reporting just seven confirmed infections as recently as 10 March. Since then, the number has risen fast: Russia has now reported 840 infections, about two-thirds of them in the Moscow region.

Some health care providers have questioned whether Russia truly kept the novel coronavirus at bay. Anastasia Vasilyeva, head of Russia’s Alliance of Doctors trade union, has pointed out that pneumonia cases in Moscow spiked in January—they were 37% higher than in January 2019, according to Rosstat, Russia’s statistics agency. She asserts that COVID-19 must have accounted for at least part of the increase. Others attribute the increase to a greater number of pneumonia patients, anxious about the new coronavirus, seeking treatment.

With COVID-19 cases now indisputably on the rise in Russia, authorities are moving fast to ramp up detection and hospital bed capacity. Russia’s federal coronavirus coordination council says 193,000 tests based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have been done to date. Swabs initially had to be shipped to Siberia for analysis at the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology VECTOR. Russia’s Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor)—the country’s analog of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—has just expanded testing to its regional laboratories and the Anti-Plague Research Institute.

Anonymous said...


"There is really only one country in the world that has the resources and brain power to lead the way to research and develop the proper treatment and vaccines for this pandemic. And that country is the U.S."

I would also think of Israel for a cure or treatment. About 1/2 the people there are sane; the other half are ...

Anonymous said...

Well, America is a rotting empire in decline.

So its got that going for it, which is nice.

Amp1776 said...

Wrong the democrats are in decline. That problem being solved America über alles.

Anonymous said...

The nation’s television news outlets, especially the three major cable-news networks, are grappling with a nagging paradox as President Donald Trump continues to orchestrate his White House briefings on the novel coronavirus pandemic.

On the one hand, their ratings have never been higher, and viewers’ appetites for the live sessions have shown no signs of dwindling. On the other hand, journalists and executives at MSNBC, CNN and the often Trump-friendly Fox News—which scored an impressive 6.2 million viewers for Sunday’s installment of the Trump show, according to Nielsen—are increasingly facing the likelihood that they are becoming an uncritical and unvetted transmission belt for propaganda and misinformation.

“These White House sessions—ostensibly meant to give the public critical and truthful information about this frightening crisis—are in fact working against that end,” wrote Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan, summarizing such concerns. “Rather, they have become a daily stage for Trump to play his greatest hits to captive audience members. They come in search of life-or-death information, but here’s what they get from him instead: Self-aggrandizement… Media-bashing… Exaggeration and outright lies.”

Anonymous said...

How the Coronavirus Shattered Trump’s Serene Confidence

Anonymous said...

Only the US?

Are you kidding me?

Germany came up with the best test and is likely the one developing the cure first. Just that Trump couldn't buy that company/they refused

Usa lol

Germany is where it's at - minus the violence and gun crime - minus all the social issues, race and sex pandering..

The US Achilles heel couldn't be more obvious. Over confidence. Under delivering. But great at marketing/messaging

Anonymous said...


"How the Coronavirus Shattered Trump’s Serene Confidence" - Squirelly Hope

Reality

In the Same Poll Where Trump Triumphs on COVID-19 Response, the Media Come In Dead Last.


Squirrel, well because someone had to come in last place. Actually that is giving too much credit to squirrel. I do not think he was in line, when God was handing out brains.

Anonymous said...

In the Same Poll Where Trump Triumphs on COVID-19 Response, the Media Come In Dead Last.

COVID 19 Polls

60 Trump
59 Congress
44 Media

Keep it up trolls, leftists and idiots

Anonymous said...

As a troll, leftist and idiot, I resemble these remarks.

Remember CHUDS, America has lots of "brainpower". Brains so big, so powerful, really just the biggest brains you ever did see.

Anonymous said...

A WEEK AND A HALF AGO, ONE OF THE ASTUTE COMMENTS HERE SAID ONLY 38 DEATHS NOT SO BAD. AND NOW?
Coronavirus Live Updates: U.S. Death Toll Passes 1,000

Anonymous said...

WHEN POLLS LOOK GOOD FOR TRUMP, CHUDS POST THEM; WHEN BAD, YOU CAN NOT TRUST POLLS

Anonymous said...

Internal Emails Show How Chaos at the CDC Slowed the Early Response to Coronavirus — ProPublica
Caroline Chen,Marshall Allen,Lexi Churchill
10-13 minutes

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

On Feb. 13, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out an email with what the author described as an “URGENT” call for help.

The agency was struggling with one of its most important duties: keeping track of Americans suspected of having the novel coronavirus. It had “an ongoing issue” with organizing — and sometimes flat-out losing — forms sent by local agencies about people thought to be infected. The email listed job postings for people who could track or retrieve this paperwork.

“Help needed urgently,” the CDC wrote.
Obtained by ProPublica, highlighting added.

This email is among hundreds of pages of correspondence between federal and state public health officials obtained by ProPublica through a records request in Nevada.

During the period in which the correspondence was written, from January to early March, health officials were trying to stay ahead of the coronavirus outbreak underway in China. By mid-February, when the CDC job postings email went out, the virus had a toehold in the United States, where there were already 15 confirmed cases. In another two weeks, the first case of community transmission would be reported in California, followed shortly by cases in Washington.

The documents — mostly emails — provide a behind-the-scenes peek into the messy early stages of the U.S. response to the coronavirus, revealing an antiquated public health system trying to adapt on the fly. What comes through clearly is confusion, as the CDC underestimated the threat from the virus and stumbled in communicating to local public health officials what should be done.

The same week the CDC sent out the email about the job openings, the agency sent Nevada officials alerts about 80 potential coronavirus patients to monitor, documents show. Four were not Nevada residents.

A state epidemiologist, in each instance, corrected the agency, informing the CDC that the person was from New York, not Nevada. (The CDC then redirected each report to New York, the documents show.)

The confusion sometimes went both ways. On March 4, a program manager in the Nevada Health Department reached out to the CDC to ask about congressional funding for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

“There seems to be a communications blackout on this end,” the program manager wrote, wondering if funds would be distributed based on the number of cases in each state or by population.

“Unfortunately, there is no clear answer to your questions,” responded a CDC staffer, apologizing for the lack of information. “We are hearing all of the rumor mills as well.”

“Thank you,” the Nevada program manager replied. “It’s good to be confused together.”

Anonymous said...

Donald Trump is getting hammered by millions of dollars in Democratic campaign ads depicting his response to the coronavirus as negligent and inept.

But the main super PAC backing his reelection has been silent in response — and Trump’s political advisers are not happy about it.

In interviews, more than a half-dozen White House aides, campaign officials and other Trump allies said they felt deserted by the group, America First Action, openly questioning why it’s leaving Trump exposed on the airwaves at the most vulnerable moment of his presidency.

“There is a major vacuum on the political front right now, with the White House focused on coronavirus response and the campaign, rightly so, echoing the White House,” said Chris LaCivita, who as chief strategist of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth orchestrated the 2004 John Kerry takedown.

“With attacks coming from all over, the simple question is: Where the hell is the president’s air cover?”

The campaign is legally barred from communicating directly with the super PAC. Trump’s reelection effort itself is not currently attacking Biden on the airwaves during the pandemic because it wants to focus on echoing the president's message.

Anonymous said...



The three states that President Donald Trump has formally declared coronavirus disaster areas have not received the disaster unemployment assistance that they expected to follow that designation.

New York, California and Washington state all requested access to several aid programs provided under a disaster declaration, including disaster unemployment assistance.

Disaster unemployment assistance allows workers who aren't eligible for traditional unemployment benefits, like Uber drivers and other gig economy workers, to receive 26 weeks' unemployment benefits if their job loss is attributable to a disaster that eliminates their job or keeps them from reaching their job site. To receive disaster employment assistance, a state must be declared a disaster area by the president.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which, in conjunction with the Labor Department, manages the program that disburses disaster unemployment assistance, said that "federal emergency aid has been made available" when the president issued the three "major disaster" declarations on March 20 for New York and March 22 for California and Washington state.

But the disaster unemployment benefits, arguably the most crucial funds freed up by a disaster declaration, were not made available, even as Goldman Sachs estimated that jobless claims nationwide rose last week by more than 2 million, "a roughly ninefold increase over the pre-virus level." The Labor Department will release its tally for the week ending March 21 on Thursday.

The only aid the Trump administration has yet released as a result of the three disaster declarations is for “crisis counseling.” Funds made available through a disaster declaration require separate approval, and are released at the discretion of the executive branch.

RussInSoCal said...

The US by and large is well prepared for just about anything. With the Chinese Coronavirus outbreak, you’ll find the hot spots mainly located in densely populated urban centers. Led predominantly by Democrat progressive people. Their brand of leadership has led to the disaster area that NY and NYC in particular has become. People in rural and suburban towns and counties are not seeing near the levels of infection that these cities are seeing. Where bad decisions and incompetence reign.

For instance Andrew Coumo refused to purchase thousands of ventilators just a few a years ago. After the was told the supply was depleted because of the H1N1 outbreak. The mayor of NYC is a walking disaster in and of himself and really needs no further discussion.

Trump should start the process of relaxation of these Stay At Home edicts by city and county. Let the cities and counties that have shown a lower risk begin to get back to normal and hold the cities that are higher risk to the quarantine regimen.

I can only imagine what we’d be going through right now if a malign incompetent like Hillary Clinton were in office. Luckily Americans are seeing the excellent job Trump and his ream of doctors and scientists are doing.

All the Dems can do is harp and hector and hope desperately that they can destroy the nation before the election so they can grab power again.

Utterly despicable.

Anonymous said...

stop your BS, Russ
we too have spouses and kids and grandchildrren..your statement is a disgrace

RussInSoCal said...

Got your goat, did it? Wanna see a disgrace? Go google up some recent video of your hapless presidential nominee. Go look at what Pelosi tried to do with the aid bill. Go study the behavior of virtually every progressive politician for the last 4 years.

That would be a disgrace.

Anonymous said...

Russ, you're the conservative hero America needs right now. You, sir, are the GOAT.

Now drop and give me 20! And cut the malarkey!