How the United States Flunked the COVID-19 Test: Some Observations and Several Lessons

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has already caused enormous economic and human life losses in the United States and it is still ravaging the country. In this article, the authors argue that the pandemic has exposed key issues of concern in several areas of the American government system ranging...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American review of public administration 2020-08, Vol.50 (6-7), p.568-576
Main Authors: Xu, H. Daniel, Basu, Rashmita
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Data collection
Decision making
Disease control
Emergencies
Emergency management
Emergency response
Evaluation
Federal state relations
Federalism
Health aspects
Health care disparities
Health care policy
Health surveillance
Intergovernmental relations
Pandemics
Political aspects
Politicization
Public administration
Public health
Public health administration
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Summary:The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has already caused enormous economic and human life losses in the United States and it is still ravaging the country. In this article, the authors argue that the pandemic has exposed key issues of concern in several areas of the American government system ranging from federalist intergovernmental relations to public health system and to health care policy. These issues of concern include the strained federal-state relations in emergency management, inadequate data collection and data reporting for disease surveillance and control, politicization and diminished role of science and evidence in administrative decision making, and underinvestment in public health programs especially in minority health. Based on their analysis, the authors admonish that it is critically important for the U.S. government to learn from the failed response to the pandemic and offer several recommendations for improving its response to future public health emergencies and research in public administration.
ISSN:0275-0740
1552-3357
DOI:10.1177/0275074020941701