Public service - what the USA did wrong with coronavirus response

 

Saw this today - interesting read.

5 former CDC directors on where US went wrong in its COVID-19 response 

"The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 is higher than anywhere else in the world with at least 159,000 deaths. Nearly 5 million Americans have been diagnosed with the virus. As 31 states see a rising number of daily deaths and 25 states see increasing rates of positive cases, President Donald Trump in recent weeks claimed the U.S. has the virus "under control" and that the country is in "really good shape."  

 

"Every one of those falsehoods drives away our opportunity to improve our mitigation efforts… and it causes confusion in everyone's mind," said Koplan, who directed the CDC from 1998 to 2002. 

He said that even when the information needs "sugarcoating or even if it's something that seems bad news and people will be upset, the truth is really what counts."

Except -- it doesn't count with one particular individual in a particularly influential position.