COVID-19 in the Americas: Strategies that Mark the Difference.

Abstract

Four months after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, it has found a new epicenter: the Americas. With over four million cases and nearly half a million deaths at this writing, the United States is providing the best example of a failed response to a crisis in which GDP is not proving the best predictor of success. Zero coordinat-ed national strategy combined with unnecessary delays in testing, confusing and often contradictory messaging, and politicization of even the most elementary measures to combat the virus have led some US states to surpass infection and death rates in even the most hard-hit countries. Brazil, where government fi nally resumed reporting, is second only to the USA, its authorities admitting 2.4 million cases and over 300,000 deaths thus far. And by all counts, as in many countries, numbers are vastly underestimated.