04-24-2020, 07:04 AM
I think there are a couple confounding factors when comparing the US to countries abroad:
1) We're on the far end of federalization, and these public health decisions lie mainly with states. Those agencies look to the feds for guidance, to be sure, but they don't have the authority to issue SiP orders or other public health measures, which lie with states, counties, cities, etc. A notable exception would be allowing travel into the country, where there was some action taken on the early side (although of questioned efficacy).
2) Given the above, their job is in some sense easier than other governments, since it's more of a coordination/advisory role, rather than leading the response. Has the federal government done that adequately? My sense is overwhelmingly "no", from the spoiled CDC test kits to the lack of coordinating supply delivery (that as far as I know is still going on), but I'm not super interested in digging through that here.
Ultimately I don't think this question even really matters. I know that in some sense it's unfair to judge a country's leaders in a vacuum and not take an international perspective, but at the same time no one does that. How many voters during the great recession were saying "well the situation sucks here but it's way worse in Europe"? My sense is "literally zero". The response has been bad, that the rest of the world made similar mistakes doesn't mean that they weren't mistakes, it doesn't mean we can't blame those in charge for their mistakes, and it doesn't even mean (though it may be suggestive) that different US politicians would have made the same mistakes (we can never actually know). It seems like a waste of time to me.
One thing I will say, though, is that I think one of GR's points (maybe here, maybe elsewhere) is spot on in that we won't really know the full story of what happened until years have passed (when do archives get opened? will we even live to see it?). My hunch is that it will be if anything more damning than what we know now from the live reporting, but that's very heavily informed by my priors so grain of salt and all that.
1) We're on the far end of federalization, and these public health decisions lie mainly with states. Those agencies look to the feds for guidance, to be sure, but they don't have the authority to issue SiP orders or other public health measures, which lie with states, counties, cities, etc. A notable exception would be allowing travel into the country, where there was some action taken on the early side (although of questioned efficacy).
2) Given the above, their job is in some sense easier than other governments, since it's more of a coordination/advisory role, rather than leading the response. Has the federal government done that adequately? My sense is overwhelmingly "no", from the spoiled CDC test kits to the lack of coordinating supply delivery (that as far as I know is still going on), but I'm not super interested in digging through that here.
Ultimately I don't think this question even really matters. I know that in some sense it's unfair to judge a country's leaders in a vacuum and not take an international perspective, but at the same time no one does that. How many voters during the great recession were saying "well the situation sucks here but it's way worse in Europe"? My sense is "literally zero". The response has been bad, that the rest of the world made similar mistakes doesn't mean that they weren't mistakes, it doesn't mean we can't blame those in charge for their mistakes, and it doesn't even mean (though it may be suggestive) that different US politicians would have made the same mistakes (we can never actually know). It seems like a waste of time to me.
One thing I will say, though, is that I think one of GR's points (maybe here, maybe elsewhere) is spot on in that we won't really know the full story of what happened until years have passed (when do archives get opened? will we even live to see it?). My hunch is that it will be if anything more damning than what we know now from the live reporting, but that's very heavily informed by my priors so grain of salt and all that.