National Response

As the one year anniversary of COVID-19 in the United States approaches, the hard realities of the pandemic highlight that our country needs to reexamine our national pandemic-response. Current failure to manage transmission is caused by pre-pandemic societal flaws like cultural ideology and the structure of social safety nets, all intensified by failures in national leadership. Though they are separate elements of the response, the problems they created were amplified due to their co-occurrence.

Fig 1. Segment of line for New Jersey foodbank, that reached almost a mile in 3 directions via NY Times

The COVID-19 pandemic illuminates numerous flaws within the United States government, including lack of a secure social safety net, healthcare for all, and an effective pandemic response plan. Overall excess deaths during the pandemic are hard evidence of the toll that structural inadequacy has exacted on the population compared to other countries. A comparative study has found that the United States consistently reports roughly 25% more overall deaths compared to other wealthy nations and even more than 85% higher than places such as Germany, Israel, and Denmark (Imbert 2020). This overall increase in deaths demonstrates not only the U.S. government’s failure to contain the virus but signals that American socioeconomic factors have facilitated excess death.

In the U.S., the first COVID-19 infection was reported on January 19, 2020 in a traveler returning from China; however, recent studies of blood samples from December 2019 suggest that the virus may have already been present “in California, Oregon, and Washington as early as Dec. 13-16, 2019, and in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin as early as Dec. 30, 2019 - Jan. 17, 2020” (Red Cross 2020). This revelation highlights the lack of a unified response plan, as well as the failures of the USA government to act quickly and effectively. Even if it had been airtight barrier, the virus was present inside the U.S borders. The fact that 8,000 Chinese and foreign travelers entered the U.S. during the first five months of this ban and 27,000 Americans returning from mainland China in the first month after the restrictions took effect demonstrates how futile a public health measure it was (Braun 2020). The additional statistic of how U.S. officials lost track of more than 1,600 of these travelers who were supposed to be monitored for virus exposure is additional evidence to the weak nature of the traveler precautions. (Braun 2020).

To alleviate the economic stressors of the pandemic, the U.S. government responded with numerous fiscal measures which were similarly inadequate. On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed the CARES Act, “a $2.2 trillion stimulus package that included direct payments to Americans and expanded unemployment benefits for those affected by the pandemic” (Imbert 2020). This major component of this bill provided Americans making under $99,000 with a one-time $1,200 payment and incentivized small businesses to keep their employees on their payroll which may appear generous at first glance (Imbert 2020). But as with comparative caseloads, the U.S economic response falls flat compared to other similarly wealthy nations. In total, this stimulus accounted for about 13% of the country’s GDP, significantly less amount spent when compared to other developed nations (Japan-42%, Germany-33%, France 21%) (Beaubien 2020). In comparison, the US stimulus plan was short-lived and failed to provide any long term relief, whereas countries like Canada and Australia are providing monthly payments and countries like Denmark, the UK, and the Netherlands are providing upwards of 75% of one’s salary. These policies outside the US have allowed individuals to take more precautions in regards to covid without the fear of losing their jobs or essential resources.

Fig 2. Mike Pence refuses to wear a mask with a covid patient at the Mayo Clinic via Daily Boulder

Though the COVID-19 pandemic is a biological phenomenon, the way it spread across the world was impacted by culturally based social patterns. In order to understand the U.S’s national failure through a cultural lens, the dichotomy of individualism and collectivism is poignant, as the U.S is associated with high rates of individualism. Multiple studies have found individualism alters beliefs about virus origins, infection prevention methods, and how powerful their own self sacrifice appears to be.

In a UK Social Psychological survey study, researchers found that individualist mindsets, “which prioritize individual freedom over group harmony” scored higher on likelihood conspiracy theories belief compared to those with collectivist mindsets. This view moderates one’s willingness to take part in collective good in the form of lowered vaccine intentions due to a sense of powerlessness (Biddlestone, Green & Douglas 2020). This lack of participation in public health measures was a risk to the US from the pandemic’s beginning but became a real issue in part because citizens across the nation had a strong example of not following voluntary precautions in President Trump. He advocated for Americans to pursue individual nonessential needs and the opening of the country for the sake of “the economy” over the country's collective health. Unlike in other countries, there were no structural penalties for not following mask and social distancing guidelines in the United States and despite this being the only way to keep the virus under control many Americans felt justified to act against public health recommendations.

However, it should be noted that this framing of the national response ignores the flexibility of a group’s cultural values as studied by Van Den Bos, Van Veldhuizin and Au in 2015. Their work in the Netherlands and Singapore found that individuals with one set of cultural values can model opposite values if primed to do so. Dutch participants were able to shift “to observed reactions that are indicative of a more inclusive view of the self in which both personal and group treatment matters to participants” meaning that temporary change in favor of public health measures is possible, and may become a more fruitful effort once upper levels of the administration no longer contradict prevention efforts (Van Den Bos, Van Veldhuizin and Au 2015).

The combination of weak political measures, charged rhetoric surrounding the pandemic, and the individualistic attitude of the American public primed the United States to be the example of ‘what not to do’ as we failed to flatten the curve after the first wave of cases, plateaued after the second wave, and continue to have daily cases and deaths skyrocket. While no singular aspect or individual person in our response can be blamed for the United State’s poor performance in the Covid-19 pandemic, our compiled failure to address a disease effectively is frankly embarrassing, considering that we boast well-funded and successful medical research programs, top universities, and a previously initiated pandemic plan. However, we cannot move backward or dwell too much on our failures. With vaccines on the horizon and the end to the year in sight, we must use our mistakes as opportunities for reflection and growth, not as a mode of blame placing and further politicization.

Image Credits

Header. As of October the U.S has had people die at a 50% higher rate than other studied countries since May

Figure 1. Segment of line for New Jersey foodbank, that reached almost a mile in 3 directions via NY Times

Figure 2. Mike Pence refuses to wear a mask with a covid patient at the Mayo Clinic via Daily Boulder

Figure 3. Trump speaking to many unmasked, not socially-distanced fans at a rally in Tulsa, on June 20, 2020.