Peter Daszak (
Gerald T. Keusch is a professor of medicine and international health and the associate director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories at the Boston University School of Medicine, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Health Aff (Millwood). 2021 Feb;40(2):204-211. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2020.01544. Epub 2021 Jan 21.
The US has experienced a series of epidemics during the past five decades. None has tested the nation's resilience like the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which has laid bare critical weaknesses in US pandemic preparedness and domestic leadership and the nation's decline in global standing in public health. Pandemic response has been politicized, proven public health measures undermined, and public confidence in a science-based public health system reduced. This has been compounded by the large number of citizens without ready access to health care, who are overrepresented among infected, hospitalized, and fatal cases. Here, as part of the National Academy of Medicine's Vital Directions for Health and Health Care: Priorities for 2021 initiative, we review the US approach to pandemic preparedness and its impact on the response to COVID-19. We identify six steps that should be taken to strengthen US pandemic resilience, strengthen and modernize the US health care system, regain public confidence in government leadership in public health, and restore US engagement and leadership in global partnerships to address future pandemic threats domestically and around the world.
在过去的五十年里，美国经历了一系列的流行病。没有哪一次像 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行那样考验美国的适应能力，这场大流行暴露了美国在大流行防范和国内领导能力方面的关键弱点，以及美国在全球公共卫生领域的地位下降。大流行应对措施已经被政治化，经过验证的公共卫生措施受到破坏，公众对基于科学的公共卫生系统的信心降低。这是由于大量公民无法随时获得医疗保健而加剧的，而这些公民在感染、住院和死亡病例中所占比例过高。在这里，作为国家医学院的重要健康和医疗保健方向倡议的一部分，我们回顾了美国应对大流行的准备情况及其对 COVID-19 应对措施的影响。我们确定了应采取的六个步骤，以增强美国的大流行适应能力，加强和现代化美国的医疗保健系统，恢复公众对政府在公共卫生方面领导能力的信心，并恢复美国在解决国内外未来大流行威胁方面的参与和领导地位。
