Ahead of the 2024 US presidential election, BMJ Today, we highlight the lessons we can learn from the United States' experience with COVID-19 and the actions needed to prevent the loss of another million Americans in the next pandemic and improve and protect the health of our nation. We're starting a series that looks to the future.
Written by leading clinicians and researchers from across the United States, this article explores topics such as how systemic racism and economic inequality have contributed to the disparities caused by COVID-19. I am. Mass incarceration and poor prison hygiene as drivers of the pandemic. Labor market inequality. and the effects of “hollowing out the state” (reducing the role of the public sector).
The authors call for a series of important institutional reforms that they believe should be central to the manifestos of 2024 US presidential candidates.
Importantly, the purpose of this series is not to place blame; there is much work to be done, but to look to the future and transform U.S. public health and preparedness to further improve the health of our population. It is to suggest important steps to take. Wide.
In an editorial kicking off this series, guest editors Gavin Yamie of Duke University's Duke Global Health Institute and Ana V. Diez Lu of Drexel University's Urban Health Collaborative discuss the devastating global coronavirus pandemic. It explains how the United States suffered an “eye” during the viral pandemic. Death rates are “alarmingly high” compared to the rest of the country.
They wrote that the 1.16 million Americans who have died from COVID-19 represent 16% of the global death toll in a country with 4% of the world's population. Approximately 300,000 children are estimated to have lost one or both parents, creating a significant burden from prolonged COVID-19 infections.
This series documents the many complex and interconnected causes of America's poor pandemic response, underpinned by two important contexts.
The first is the country's existing structural and systemic features that contributed to the devastating consequences of the pandemic. These include disparities in medical and public health systems, lack of social safety nets and workplace protections, deep social inequalities, and systemic racism.
“These are the main reasons why this country has had a higher death rate from COVID-19 than comparable countries, and why pandemic deaths in the United States are so closely patterned by social class and race. “This is the main reason why,” the authors write.
Second, although the United States has many scientific resources, the government is unable to generate reliable information, communicate it in a timely and consistent manner, and translate it into sound policy. There was a problem.
Yamay and Dies Roux argue that these failures start from the top. President Trump has lied frequently about the pandemic, and his suggestion to use bleach to fight COVID-19 “has become emblematic of the chaotic presidential communications of the first year of the pandemic.”
Inadequate communication of existing evidence also contributed to confusion and delays in action. Such miscommunication is one reason for partisan differences in states' rapid response to public health protections and excess mortality rates during the pandemic. Especially now that a vaccine is available.
Inadequate communication of evidence also contributed to the inappropriate conduct, they added.
For example, some municipalities and states have closed parks, playgrounds, and beaches even after studies showed that transmission by fomites (objects and surfaces) is rare and transmission outdoors is much lower than indoors. It remains closed.
And too many jurisdictions kept schools online-only after studies showed they could safely reopen with basic public health measures in place.
Furthermore, communication disorders were further exacerbated by federalism. Federalism, the division of power between the national government and the 50 U.S. states makes the response to COVID-19 dependent on zip codes, revealing the limits of federalism in the face of emergencies . A deadly pandemic.
However, they note that despite these failures, the pandemic has also shown the United States how different roles of government and society are possible in protecting health.
These include rapid vaccine development with public funding, as well as federal funding for expanded unemployment benefits, food assistance programs, child health insurance coverage and Medicaid enrollment, and public school upgrades. introduced. Suppresses suffering and death.
“Particularly relevant to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, these studies highlight how a range of government actions beyond health insurance could be critical to protecting health in the next pandemic and beyond.” It shows that.''
In the first article in the series, George Washington University's David Michaels and colleagues discuss how COVID-19 has affected America's frontline workers and how they can be better protected in the future. Consider what you need to do to
They argue that COVID-19 has disproportionately affected low-wage workers who have had to leave their homes and go to work to maintain society's functioning, and the U.S. Department of Labor and Public Health They argue that the agency's actions fell far short of what was needed to make workplaces safe during the pandemic.
They acknowledge that temporary social and economic interventions during the pandemic have provided some relief to these workers, but they acknowledge that protecting workers' health in the next pandemic requires a paid They say we need to put in place policies for family and medical leave, better social support and better workplace protections now.
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Reference magazines:
Yammy, G. other. (2024). Pandemic lessons for the 2024 US presidential election. BMJ. doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q150.
