- [Announcer] China's response to the COVID19
corona virus outbreak was massive.
Entire regions were locked down,
factories mobilized to produce medical equipment,
hospitals built in days and millions of people quarantined.
But all that didn't stop the virus
from spreading around the world.
So if an outbreak hits the United States,
will the country be ready?
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- Now it's not so much a question of
if this will happen anymore but rather more a question
of exactly when this will happen
and how many people in this country will become infected.
- [Announcer] In 2018 President Trump did something
that most people probably didn't pay attention too.
He shut down the teams that dealt with pandemics
at the Department of Homeland Security
and the White House National Security Council.
He also cut funding to the Center for Disease Control's
Global Health section which had been working
around the world training local workers
in how to detect outbreaks, building up labs
and emergency responses.
The goal was to stop future outbreaks
where they start before they spread far.
But budget cuts forced that program
to leave 39 of the 49 countries it was working in.
Trump also tried to cut the Public Health Service
Commission Corp by 40%.
Congress resisted him on that one
but retiring officers haven't been replaced.
- The most important thing in a pandemic
is that you have a government that tells the truth
and you have a people that trusts
their political institutions.
Because those institutions are the one's
who are going to manage that risk.
It took Trump two months from the start
of the outbreak in China for him
to put someone in charge of the US response.
But Mike Pence doesn't have the best track record
when it comes to science.
Or when it comes to tackling outbreaks of disease.
And when Trump was asked about whether the deep cuts
to these health budgets and loss of experts
would make it more difficult to fight an outbreak,
he said this.
- And rather than spending the money,
you know I'm a business person,
I don't like having thousands of people around
when you don't need 'em.
When we need 'em we can get 'em back very quickly.
- [Announcer] So while it can seem like
the Trump administration doesn't
take disease prevention seriously the US does have
some of the world's best scientists and medical facilities.
What it doesn't have is universal healthcare.
- A lot of our healthcare system is dedicated
to finding ways to bill people.
And that's all just useless.
And it also, it scares people
'cause if you go to the hospital or if you go to the doctor
you might get some random bill for $5000 or $10,000.
I mean it's literally unbelievable when you explain it
to someone who's not in the American healthcare system.
And all that stuff is really bad in a pandemic.
- [Announcer] More than 27 million Americans don't
have health insurance and many more
don't have enough insurance.
Meaning that a lot of American's might put off
going to the doctor if they start showing symptoms
because it would be too expensive.
51% of people who get health insurance from their employer
say they or their family members have skipped
or delayed getting medical treatment because of the cost.
That's a major risk.
A delayed diagnosis gives the virus more time to spread
and that could be catastrophic.
- What you need in a pandemic is really
good surveillance of what's happening
and if people are afraid of the healthcare system,
which most people in America kind of are,
including doctor's by the way,
then people are going to be reluctant
to trust the institution.
- [Announcer] But in the United States the healthcare
systems priority is making money.
And the massive insurance and billing bureaucracy
as well as the rising cost of pharmaceuticals,
is part of the reason why medical care costs
more per capita here than most other countries.
- When there are problems in hospitals
because of the corona virus which there will be,
I mean does it even make sense to
have a billing department bring those people to work?
- [Announcer] And while a vaccine is at least
a year and a half away from being available,
former pharmaceutical lobbyist
and current Health and Human Services Secretary,
Alex Azar won't even commit to making it available
to anyone who needs it.
- I'm saying we would want to ensure that we work
to make it affordable but we can't control
that price because we need the private sector to invest.
- [Announcer] The CDC has warned that if
there is an outbreak Americans should
expect disruptions to their daily lives.
So what could that look like?
- You're gonna see a whole series of supply shortages,
everything from electronics to medication
to parts for industrial inputs.
It's gonna be really interesting to watch
but also we're gonna start to see in important areas,
you know the stores won't have stuff on their shelves.
And I don't necessarily just mean like retail,
I mean things like hospitals are gonna have problems
getting important you know, medical supplies.
- [Announcer] The US relies heavily on imports,
especially from China.
In 2018 China was the US's largest supplier of goods
accounting for over 20% of all US imports.
But right now businesses there are struggling
to stay profitable with so much of the country shut down.
This could potentially paralyze supply chains
and disrupt the flow of products to American consumers.
- That's why the markets are kinda crashing right now
because all of a sudden a bunch of corporate executives
who hadn't really paid attention to the opacity
of their supply chains are saying
"Wait, what's going on?
"Wait, why can't we produce?"
It's showing up in the financial markets
but it's gonna start showing up in the,
kind of in the stores and so forth.
- [Announcer] There's another huge
potential threat to the US.
This year's elections could be seriously impacted.
- What if mass gatherings are canceled?
Can you have a convention?
Can you have elections?
Right, how do you have elections?
Do people go to polling places and vote
when that's a gathering right, that's a health risk.
- [Announcer] If the virus does spread in the US,
a low voter turn-out could be a real risk.
Viral epidemics aren't new,
they've happened throughout history
and local breakouts aren't uncommon today.
But it's unclear whether the people currently in charge
in the US understand what's needed to respond effectively
to the challenge.
With air travel and urbanization helping virus'
spread around the world quickly,
governments need to ensure scientific research
is well=funded and that everyone has access
to basic healthcare.
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