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Insight and Health

Why US society is so vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic

The economic and healthcare policies pursued by the US in recent years have failed to prioritise public health and made it vulnerable to a pandemic. Could things be different?

By Chelsea Whyte

24 March 2020

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

People who are homeless are some of the most vulnerable to covid-19

Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

THE coronavirus outbreak is a once-in-a-century event – and it seems the US has spent the past 100 years unwittingly weakening its defences.

In fact, the US is probably the developed economy with the worst type of healthcare system to tackle covid-19. Many economic and healthcare policies it has enacted don’t prioritise public health, and it is finding out first-hand how dangerous that can be.

The impact of this has been seen in the past month or so in the lack of testing –…

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