When the pandemic came to town

(Catching up on posts started a while ago. This one originally written around 5/15/20.)

Sometime after the first wave is done if we don't have a second wave too soon after, the US should set up a bipartisan committee to work at how we and other countries dealt with the arrival of the pandemic. Look at the preparedness and pandemic infrastructure and that kind of thing. Look at who did well and borrow the best of their ideas.

I've already started looking. Much of Asia did well, largely because they got blasted by the H1N1 pandemic, so they set up much more robust response infrastructure. Europe and the US, we were blind and dumb about it, so we're getting blasted by this pandemic.

But even in Europe, there's a contrast. I looked at Italy and Sweden. Italy was rather in denial, and more than a little angry that their tourist trade was dropping sharply. Wrong response and blind to what could happen. So there wasn't much of an official plan, not a lot of information, and the epidemic spread quietly until all hell broke loose in northern Italy. Then they had to shut down the entire country because no one knew how far it had spread. It was an object lesson to a lot of other countries, including the US.

Then there is Sweden.
 Public health measures 2/28
Workplace measures 3/4

Image: bbc.com

Extras. Great video from Italy.