late lockdowns, poor social distancing
On paper, United States of America and the United Kingdom are deemed as nations with the world’s top healthcare systems. In COVID-19 times, they also emerged as the worst-hit countries.
For many years people all over the world had looked up to the health systems in the US and the UK. Patients who could afford it would fly down to the US for treatment hoping that the best doctors would take care of them.
The Global Health Security Index published in 2019 put the US on top of the health care system, followed by the UK.
Add to that the many years spent preparing for an emergency medical situation. In all respects, the two countries were the best when it came to tackling medical conditions – on paper, that is. On the ground, the US and the UK turned out to be failures in tackling COVID-19.
Poor political decisions meant heavy loss of lives.
WHO’s warning on January 23, 2020, to all countries that they were at risk of an epidemic fell on deaf ears in the two countries. The advice to focus on ‘track and trace’ was not heeded and no urgent action was taken. In the early days, both countries lacked suitable PPEs (Personal Protective Equipments) for medical staff putting the lives of both doctors and patients at risk.
In the UK, there was chaos surrounding a new smartphone app to manage the crisis. To compound matters, Prime Minister Boris Johnson delayed taking stringent steps, waiting for the cases to peak. The reason given was that the public would get fatigued and compliance would drop off as the epidemic neared. And then, he, too, had to be hospitalised battling the virus.
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, touted hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19, encouraged supporters to defy stay-at-home orders and refused to wear a face mask. The US soon emerged as the country with the highest number of COVID-19 cases as well as deaths.
When forecasts were made of 100,000 to 200,000 deaths if precautions were not taken, the numbers seemed far-fetched. Uneasy at losing wages, people across the country wondered if the shutdowns were worth the wait. As the deaths kept rising, from New York to California, images of mass funerals and a lonely end to life kept the country on edge.