The first question at Wednesday's vice presidential debate was why the U.S. has fared so much worse than other countries in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. The New England Journal of Medicine had offered an answer hours earlier, in a very unusual editorial: The U.S. government has, uniquely in the world, "failed at almost every step." The 202-year-old medical journal's editors did not endorse Joe Biden, as Scientific American did last month, or mention President Trump by name, but the message was a clear prescription to vote him out in November.
"The United States came into this crisis with enormous advantages," the editors detail. But "the response of our nation's leaders has been consistently inadequate. The federal government has largely abandoned disease control to the states. Governors have varied in their responses, not so much by party as by competence. But whatever their competence, governors do not have the tools that Washington controls. Instead of using those tools, the federal government has undermined them."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Israel blames 'failures' for killing of medicsspeed read 14 Gaza medics and 1 U.N. employee were killed by IDF special forces
-
Why Russia removed the Taliban's terrorist designationThe Explainer Russia had designated the Taliban as a terrorist group over 20 years ago
-
China accuses NSA of Winter Games cyberattacksspeed read China alleges that the U.S. National Security Agency launched cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games in February
-
Russian strike kills dozens in UkraineSpeed Read The Sumy ballistic missile strike was Russia's deadliest attack on civilians this year
-
Inside the Israel-Turkey geopolitical dance across SyriaTHE EXPLAINER As Syria struggles in the wake of the Assad regime's collapse, its neighbors are carefully coordinating to avoid potential military confrontations
-
South Korea court removes impeached presidentSpeed Read The Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol after his declaration of martial law in December
-
Myanmar quake deaths rise as survivor search intensifiesspeed read The magnitude-7.7 earthquake in central Myanmar has killed a documented 2,000 people so far, and left scores more trapped beneath rubble
-
'Like a sound from hell': Serbia and sonic weaponsThe Explainer Half a million people sign petition alleging Serbian police used an illegal 'sound cannon' to disrupt anti-government protests
