Analysis - Legal infrastructure for pandemic response: lessons not learnt in the US

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

 

 

Covid-19 related mortality in the US was higher than in every western European country. Compared with its closest neighbour, Canada, also a federated country with a decentralised health system, the US fared far worse. With over 1.1 million dead at the end of 2023, leaders and academics have begun a painful postmortem. What went wrong, and what can be done to make authorities in the US better equipped for the next pandemic?

 

In this article, part of a BMJ series examining US covid-19 lessons (http://bmj.com/collections/us-covid-series), we focus on the role of legal infrastructure, including both the law itself and the capacity to wield it effectively.... From almost the beginning of the pandemic, criticism was levelled at the White House and some state governors for failing to implement or maintain essential interventions to combat covid-19. Even where legal powers were wielded, trouble arose.

 

Governmental powers proved too fragmented and limited in some respects, making it difficult to erect a nationwide net of community mitigation measures such as stay-at-home orders; school and business closures; mask, vaccination, and testing requirements; and restrictions on gatherings....  Political forces have pushed reform efforts strongly in one direction—weakening public health legal powers—with potentially dangerous consequences for present and future health crises and preparedness.

 

(more)

 

https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj-2023-076269

 

[save the frogs]

Yes, but the AI Overlords will be taking over soon anyway.

 

So Covid is small potatoes.