Countries practically carry threat assessments yearly to plan for future mitigation of various types of threats. Sectioning a part of the budget to the risk analysis is mandated by governments. Healthcare platforms get a lump sum amount from the budget. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. COVID-19 spread has become a global issue, a disaster to the healthcare systems and running of governments. With the increased numbers of patients, the strain impacts profoundly on healthcare platforms. Of course, what follows is the medical supply shortage. Nevertheless, the delivery systems are also tested. The policies formulated today will have future impacts. Therefore, the paper evaluates the US healthcare systems' response to the pandemic. However, the response is also correlated with other countries, especially on economic and socio-cultural factors.
US Healthcare Delivery Systems Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Economic
The pandemic has forced some countries to develop and advance their healthcare systems. Governments have opted for home hospital programs. Social services have also been restricted. Hence services at these social scenes become essential unlike before. However, the effects on the healthcare platform are vital. It means that governments have to incur promiscuous costs, especially on supplies based on the current economy (Hegadekatti, 2020). In looking at the economy as a factor affecting the US government response, the paper evaluates the influence of Economic growth, Foreign exchange rates, Trends in the economy, cost of raw materials, taxation rates, Unemployment, and government activities.
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Economic Growth
In the US healthcare system, spending has always been on the rise. Even though a large percentage of the population has health insurance plans, it still does not fully cater for the medical expenses of the patients who have contracted COVID-19 (Sharif, Aloui & Yarovaya, 2020). Demand for medical care today may lead the world to an economic recession. People now practice social distancing and minimize out of house activities to be safe. Primary care practices have been reported to reduce by up to 70 percent. It means that salaries get reduced or frozen for some workers. This will in turn lead to the freefall of the financial markets. The US government has called for restraint from experts spelling doom about the impacts of the pandemic since it brings a threat to the economy. By reducing economic activity, money circulation reduces significantly, according to Sharif, Aloui & Yarovaya (2020). However, for future recoveries, saving more lives necessitates. Italy and the UK at large are now fighting to increase more recoveries. The UK member countries have vouched to pay those at risk of losing their jobs in preventing damage. This move should be incorporated in the US budget for the aid of the healthcare platform.
Foreign Exchange Rates
There has been much pressure caused by the pandemic. Even with the crisis, the world is facing, the US dollar appreciates (Martin, 2020). Many policies have been fostered in foreign exchange. The spread of the pandemic has weakened the Japanese yen, The Swiss franc, among other state currencies apart from the US. Changes made by the US government possesses challenges, especially to healthcare. Fluctuations in currency impact the salaries of employees. For the US citizens, their allowances have been reduced and increased for foreigners to ease the burden. Foreign Healthcare practitioners in the US have been leveraged on their working conditions. Nevertheless, foreigners have traveled back to their homelands. Additionally, the US government has instilled the use of its citizens in curbing the pandemic. On the other end, Italy incorporates foreigners to their aid, unlike in the US practices. All over the world, foreign investors have retracted from the US, according to Martin (2020). The pandemic has already wiped out trillions of dollars worth of various companies' valuations. The epidemic has led to the closure of businesses in an attempt at preventing interaction at social places. Meanwhile, China has shown a relaxed response to the COVID-19 pandemic even though it was the first country struck by it. Trump has imposed tariffs on raw materials from China, and hence many businesses has been forced to rethink their strategies (Martin, 2020). China relaxed these tariffs but not on exports, and that is why it is almost turning back to normal. What the US is imposing may impact the supply of medical facilities in the fight against the pandemic.
Trends in The Economy
The pandemic has raised a severe alarm, especially to the economy of the U.S. More than 26 million. Americans have vouched to apply for unemployment benefits (Stoye, 2020). The US economy is perceived to be weak based on The Associated Press(AP) investigations. These have been due to low wages, unpaid leaves, and reduced working hours due to the pandemic, and also government restrictions on movements. It means that even in the typical healthcare facilities, working hours have been reduced, which have also been followed up by low wages. Of course, low wages in the state would mean healthcare practitioners move to go slows since they are the ones involved in helping the patients. Before the pandemic, more than 87 million were uninsured. Currently, most US citizens have lost their jobs and hence cannot afford medical expenses, without including the money needed to sustain their basic needs (Stoye, 2020). Health care in the US is tied to employment. Thus Americans would have exhausted their insurance plans before the end of the pandemic. China, on the other hand, supports the needy on medical issues. Hereafter, the US should foster these procedures in helping the population regain its stature. The Federal Reserve has reduced its interests and embarked on purchases of assets. The pandemic has brought a shortage of drugs and masks made explicitly in China (Stoye, 2020). This means that if the US is to reduce such occurrences in the future, then the state should advance in the healthcare platform through the revamping of production and manufacturing sectors.
Taxation rates
The United States has bolstered its economy through tax filing and tax reductions. It has fostered tax extensional on individuals in due diligence to the outbreak of the virus ("Jurisdictional tax measures and government reliefs in response to COVID-19", 2020). Taiwan pays for the insurance plans of its citizens and foreigners for at least six months. However, the US healthcare system is a mixture of private and public facilities. The high levy of taxes on international companies by president Donald Trump made foreigners retract from supplying the US with medical facilities. Even though the United States is ranked as the most prepared on the pandemic but well different states have the medical supply shortage, including Washington. This scenario made US diagnostics agencies faulty in the reporting on cases on coronavirus. Testing was delayed due to lack of proper and adequate equipments. Hence president Donald trump had to use his emergency powers. He had to compel private companies to assist in the manufacture of ventilators for the safety of the patients. Masks went out of stock since the US does not indulge in the production and manufacture of the gadgets. Hereafter, the US government has even gone ahead in advocating for free tests regarding the coronavirus pandemic.
Government Activities
Private companies' practices and services are the boosters of the US healthcare system. The market enables the wellness of the healthcare platform. Since the US operates under the many states it has, the centralization of services becomes a challenge (van Holm, 2020). America responded slowly to its policies concerning other countries based on the response to the pandemic. It has the highest number of cases on the epidemic. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the united states government has committed over $750 million in emergency health (van Holm, 2020). The US government has taken drastic measures in curbing the spread. In different states, the total lockdown has helped in the reduction of the range, including Boston. It has also restricted traveling for individuals who have accessed high alert areas. The government has shown concern for the people, unlike in European countries, including Hungary and Turkey. According to Van Holm, the US government offers access to loans for businesses, especially the private health companies and hospitals, in the fight against the pandemic according to Van Holm (2020).
Unemployment
The US economy feels devastated due to the increase of the unemployment rate up to 14.7 percent (Drie, 2020). Hospitality payrolls have shown significant drops also. However, the government needs to borrow over $3 trillion for the pandemic's spending, also covering other sectors. It limits revenue creation and funds in support of the people who may need medical assistance. The medical covers alone may be exhausted after a while. Some states, such as China, have relaxed their restrictions because they acted first to the pandemic (Drie, 2020). The US needs to feed the unemployed and provide necessary services for their wellbeing. The unemployment rate impacts the health sector profoundly. Since also health personnel are forced into unpaid leaves or reduced working time. People without financial aid may end up lacking health care. The pandemic may also accelerate due to a lack of access to healthcare facilities. However, the US medical facilities have many employees compared to France and Germany, but many are administrative. Hence still a shortage in the workforce. Well, President Trump refuted Obamacare, which was instrumental in covering the needy in society. The act advocated for affordable healthcare services for all US citizens.
Cost of Raw Materials
There is an excellent interruption on the supply-demand chain from a different country with an emphasis on China. Governments must spend now to avoid a future meltdown. These have been the US activities for the last three months based on Impact Assessment On Supplies and Logistics Sourced by Unicef Supply Division (2020). The US has invested heavily in the purchase and stocking of commodities to prevent an economic downfall. Countries also which depend on only the sales from their raw materials would suffer heavily due to trade restrictions internationally. Well, China has almost every commodity produced with readily available raw materials compared to any other country. In the future, once the pandemic is done, many countries will have more goods that would stall sales. Hence would cause a meltdown to the producers of these raw materials since their sales would go down. A recent press release even evaluates the response of President Trump on the cut off of trade deals with China. However, this is due to the heightened increase in the sales of the raw materials and, additionally, the tariffs imposed by the US government ("COVID-19 impact assessment on supplies and logistics sourced by UNICEF Supply Division", 2020). Nevertheless, even though China is an established metallic industry, it also needs raw materials to feed its smelters. Lockdown has inflicted a lack of accessibility to raw materials, which has become a problem and costlier. For instance, cobalt comes from Congo while zinc from Peru. The two countries are the largest suppliers of China's raw materials.
References
Sharif, A., Aloui, C., & Yarovaya, L. (2020). COVID-19 Pandemic, Oil Prices, Stock Market, and Policy Uncertainty Nexus in the US Economy: Fresh Evidence from the Wavelet-Based Approach. SSRN Electronic Journal . doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3574699
Martin, F. (2020). Economic Realities and Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Financial Markets and Monetary Policy. Economic Synopses , 2020 (10). doi: 10.20955/es.2020.10
Stoye, E. (2020). The pandemic in pictures: how coronavirus is changing the world. Nature .
doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01048-7
Jurisdictional tax measures and government reliefs in response to COVID-19. (2020). Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2020/03/jurisdictional-tax-measures-in-response-to-novel-coronavirus-covid-19.html
van Holm, E. (2020). The Role of Partisanship, Circumstances, and Action on Citizen Views of Government Effectiveness during the Initial COVID-19 Response. SSRN Electronic Journal . doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3594967
Drie, J. (2020). The effect of COVID-19 and disease suppression policies on labor markets: A
preliminary analysis of the data. Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-effect-of-covid-19-and-disease-suppression-policies-on-labor-markets-a-preliminary-analysis-of-the-data/
COVID-19 impact assessment of supplies and logistics sourced by the UNICEF Supply Division. (2020). Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://www.unicef.org/supply/stories/covid-19-impact-assessment-supplies-and-logistics-sourced-unicef-supply-division
Hegadekatti, K. (2020). Post COVID-19 Fractal Economics and Economies. SSRN Electronic Journal . doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3599223
Socio-Cultural Factors
Culture shapes people's way of living. Our bodies will experience biological reactions that vary globally. Every major pandemic in history occurred due to the effects of cultural behavior (Ramaci, Barattucci, Ledda & Rapisarda, 2020). For instance, the development of measles in the United States. Populations such as the minorities are always blamed due to ignorance of the knowhow. Well, there are also other determinants of the US response to the COVID-19 pandemic. There have been impacts on the socio-cultural community, if not contributors to the exploding of the epidemic. Socio-cultural factors have influenced the spread of this pandemic significantly. For instance, the US government had to impose lockdown restrictions to curb movements. We all know that it is movements that have occasioned the spread of the pandemic. In addressing socio-cultural factors, the following elements form an input. These include Lifestyle, population changes, cultural trends, demographics, education, income distribution, and Accessibility to healthcare services.
Lifestyle
On March 29, President Donald Trump recommended that the restrictions on physical distancing should be fastened up to the end of April (Kamerow, 2020). The response by the US on the pandemic is yet to bear fruits. The local government at the state faces challenges in maintaining people in their homes. Social places, especially restaurants, airports; have the means to spread the pandemic very fast. The cases are escalating in the US while in Hong Kong, they are on the low. The lockdown in European countries contained the spread of the virus. In America, social places were still running, even when the directives were issued. Up to 47 percent of netizens of the US believe that the government is not doing much in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic (Kamerow, 2020). On the other hand, South Korea had the first case on the same day as the US has stringent testing systems. The US in late February had faulty testing kits and depended on China for the medical resources. The emergence of the virus found the US in a sorry healthcare state. The public was divided and was used to living with the rot of the Lifestyle until the pandemic. The government lacked a plan against the epidemic compared to China and other European countries.
Education
The pandemic has deeply affected educational programs globally. Schools were set to be in session ever since the emergence of the epidemic. The future leaders, the shapers of the future world, who are the students, have been greatly affected. During this period, assessments tests were to be administered and some students were also supposed to graduate. The pandemic is shaping the systems. Not many educational institutions fostered technology in the pedagogy and administration of learning resources to its students. Well, not as much as in China. Hence at least 120,000 public schools had to be affected (Sahu, 2020). Nevertheless, not many Americans have access to technology even if the virtual instruction process were to take place. Hence the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many educational facilities, from which more medical personnel would have been found to assist in the crisis. There is a need to develop alternatives to the instruction process. Even the government waivers could not assist the continuation of education for the students. The epidemic has reshaped the mode of education instruction. And those countries willing to adapt will recover fast; for instance, China's education system was not much affected dissimilar to some schools in the US. However, the homeschooling platform for US netizens proves to be more costly (Sahu, 2020). In Hong Kong, students learn through the use of Educational Interactive apps while at home. However, if more cases continue to emerge, the gap in students learning would widen.
Income Distribution
Meanwhile, the pandemic has shown the capabilities of many governments in response to threats. COVID-19 has crumpled weak systems and fastened the stronger ones. President Trump signed a law to help revive businesses, in a move aimed at safeguarding the US economy. Most of the low-income earners have no health insurance or pension plans. That means that they have no hope of retiring comfortably. Additionally, the US population is occupied by 30 percent earners of less than $ 10 in an hour, which is below the poverty level ("World Bank Group Announces Up to $12 Billion Immediate Support for COVID-19 Country Response", 2020). Hence the rich always remain rich and the poor poorer. Already there is a semblance of income inequality among the US netizens. Conversely, even the economic measures being advocated for in the state raises many questions. Before the epidemic, there were jobs without benefits, homeless people, and low wages to the workers. For instance, restaurant workers earned just a peanut. And now the pandemic retrenched them, forcing them into forced unpaid leaves. The US had created more jobs than before in 2019. Well, the pandemic is meant to change tables. Face-to-face services and the leisure industry foster a more significant part of the economy. These are the same social places that have been shut down. However, the pandemic proves to increase even further the income gap between individuals.
Accessibility to Healthcare Service
The size of the vulnerable population has been on the rise in the US even before the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence progress against health problems has always been blocked by the poor accessibility to health facilities. It is due to the uneasiness of insurance infrastructure, which does not meet the needs of the inferior Americans. Many, if not insured, may lack access to health facilities. Even though the Affordable Care act brought relief to the Americans; some still lacked coverage. There are disparities in access to Care by race, ethnicity, and family income in the United States. However, in stopping or controlling the epidemic, it requires healthcare access. This means that inclusive infrastructure to manage the occurring risks is needed, according to the article on the Center for American Progress (2020). President Trump claims that the state is prepared, but the state of the health care insurance and the low-income earners in the state says otherwise. Before the pandemic, Medical staff were advocating for increase of staff. In advocating for universal health care, Congress still arrived at the possibility of more hospital bills for the Americans. As Americans are fighting for universal healthcare, China already had a comprehensive healthcare plan in the system. Hence, it necessitates for America to look at the functionality of universal Care first and administer it to the public. Like in European countries, companies contribute in terms of taxes on the wellbeing of the countries' netizens.
Cultural Trends
Americans value cultural activities in how they invest in museums and cultural gatherings. Anyone can contract the COVID-19 virus regardless of their economic status. Even the US, with its unmatched, economic, military, and political superiority has still had trouble in containing the virus (Ozili, 2020). But that is not the case. The dollar increases daily because the united states view the global crisis as a positive-sum in overcoming the challenges with China. The world's most powerful countries are now at war over the spread of the pandemic. Meanwhile, what they have to understand is the more they waste time fighting and accusing each other, the more it spreads, hence containing it will take a great deal of effort. In response to the pandemic, the US should put in place efforts towards advancing various initiatives, especially in evaluating the quality, transparency, and infrastructure sustainability. However, nationalism is being fostered in all countries.. On the other hand, collectivism and individualistic attitude cultures would emerge after the pandemic (Ozili, 2020). For instance, China is likely to endorse collectivism due to its prevalence of the virus compared to the US. Individualistic societies, for example, the United States, only benefit themselves; hence, the behaviors of individualism may enhance the spread.
Demographics
The disease continues to outweigh the world response, with over 4 million cases and more than 280,000 deaths as of May 14, 2020 (Raifman & Raifman, 2020). The US still has led in prevalence and has a lot more deaths and confirmed cases, unlike in Italy and China. However, New York is the leading state among the 50. Nevertheless, it appears to disproportionately infect and kill more black Americans. However, this may be attributed to inferior Care at the health facilities in and around minority-dominated areas. Hence racism proves to be murderous to the minority population. However, these Black Americans do not seem to comprehend the strictness of the lockdown restrictions. It is not just a problem in America, China and Russia had to use force for people to stay in lockdown until further confirmation of socialization. And the results have shown for the past three weeks. The US, even if it is being blamed for its restriction response to the pandemic, has tried but not to the brink. It is so due to the decentralized systems in all 50 states. However, the elderly are also prevalent to contracting infectious diseases. Just like what other states are practicing in preventing further deaths.
Population Changes
Covid 19 has led to the relocation of residents in big cities to their homes and other less dense places. People prefer staying where there is a limitation to socialization (Frey, 2020). In doing these, the restriction on social distancing is applauded by the residents. Population growth has also been on the brink, as a result of reduced mortality and birth rates. Meanwhile, the pandemic's impact may lead to more population reduction due to deaths. It is also another primary concern since even the government, especially Italy, has to incorporate the decline of people when planning for the future.
Reference
Kamerow, D. (2020). Covid-19: Don't forget the impact on US family physicians. BMJ , m1260. doi: 10.1136/bmj.m1260
Sahu, P. (2020). Closure of Universities Due to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Impact on Education and Mental Health of Students and Academic Staff. Cureus . doi: 10.7759/cureus.7541
World Bank Group Announces Up to $12 Billion Immediate Support for COVID-19 Country Response. (2020). Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/03/03/world-bank-group-announces-up-to-12-billion-immediate-support-for-covid-19-country-response
The Coronavirus Crisis Confirms That the US Health Care System Fails Women - Center for American Progress. (2020). Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2020/04/23/483828/coronavirus-crisis-confirms-u-s-health-care-system-fails-women/
Ozili, P. (2020). COVID-19 in Africa: Socioeconomic Impact, Policy Response, and Opportunities. SSRN Electronic Journal . doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3574767
Raifman, M., & Raifman, J. (2020). Disparities in the Risk Population Prevalent to Covid-19 by Income, Race, and Ethnicity. American Journal of Preventive Medicine . doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2020.04.003
Frey, W. (2020). People Living in Coronavirus Prevalent Areas Retrieved May 15 2020, from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/04/10/who-lives-in-the-places-where-coronavirus-is-hitting-the-hardest/
Ramaci, T., Barattucci, M., Ledda, C., & Rapisarda, V. (2020). Social Stigma during COVID-19 and its Impact on HCWs Outcomes. Sustainability , 12 (9), 3834. doi: 10.3390/su12093834
