The government response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. and China have both been placed among the worst in the world, a new report by FP Analytics concluded.
A special report released Thursday that examined the government responses of 36 nations scored the U.S.’ response to COVID-19 as 31st, followed by Mexico, Turkey, Indonesia, Iran and China.
New Zealand, which has received international praise for its early action taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within its borders, ranked the highest, followed by Senegal, Denmark, Iceland and Saudi Arabia.
Led by Prime Minister Jacinda Arden, New Zealand has reported 1,569 cases of the COVID-19, 22 deaths and 1,524 recoveries. New Zealand has a population of 4.8 million.
The report concluded that the U.S.’ poor performance “stems from the federal government’s limited use of facts and science; limited emergency health care spending; insufficient testing and hospital beds; and limited debt relief.”
With a population of 328 million, the U.S. has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world at more than 4.8 million, with 158,300 deaths and over 1.5 million recoveries.
China’s last-place score was driven by “its failure to report reliable testing data, as well as its minimal financial response; it also received low scores on press freedom and fact-based communications with the public,” the report found.
The analysis examined 36 countries — including “Group of 20” nations and a small handful of developing and middle-income countries that experts saw having “notable experiences” in its response to the pandemic.
