This #COVID19 chart does NOT support a “back to work” order for the United States (from a scientific point of view) anytime soon

America has been testing people for the coronavirus at a slower rate than most other developed countries, yet the data also shows the rate of people diagnosed with Covid-19 in the US is steadily rising, more quickly than our peers abroad.

So we don’t yet know the full extent of the outbreak, but we do know America was less prepared for a pandemic than other countries in the first place. The US’s high uninsured rate, high out-of-pocket health care costs, and low medical system capacity combined to make the country more vulnerable to a pathogen before the coronavirus ever came to our shores. America’s lax response in the early days of the outbreak only compounded those preexisting problems.

“Everyone working in this space would agree that no matter how you measure it, the US is far behind on this,” Jen Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told Vox of the coronavirus response.

Here’s how the number of confirmed cases in the US compares to select other countries, based on days since each country reached 100 confirmed cases, according to data we analyzed from the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard.

 

Coronavirus: US may become global epicentre of COVID-19 outbreak, says World Health Organization

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h/t Builder

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