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How the Pandemic Defeated America
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How the Pandemic Defeated America

A virus has brought the world’s most powerful country to its knees.

Ed Yong
The Atlantic, 2020
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Editorial Rating

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Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Applicable
  • Bold

Recommendation

The United States failed to protect its people from the SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and widespread economic calamity. Despite an administration that disrespects expertise, a dysfunctional health care system and a gutted social safety net, Ed Yong argues in The Atlantic that this disaster was not inevitable. Yong discusses the coronavirus pandemic’s medical, public health and political implications. He concludes that the scale and scope of the United States’ failure proves difficult to assess.

Take-Aways

  • Despite ample warning, the United States failed to bring the coronavirus under control.
  • Poor public health funding impeded the United States preventing the virus’s spread.
  • President Trump turned the virus crisis into a “culture war.”

About the Author

Staff writer at The Atlantic Ed Yong covers science. He is the author of I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life.

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