I thought that was a terrific question as well. Thank you very much for asking it in such a gracious way, I might say.
The global health security index—Jeremy and I are both involved in that—had the United States top of the list in terms of health capacities, and the International Health Regulations require all countries to develop core health system capacities to be able to rapidly detect and respond to novel outbreaks.
A very valid question is, why were high-income countries in North America, Europe and Asia hit so hard? I think the answer is that health systems are not enough. We need to prepare and plan, and we need leadership to act. As the Prime Minister of New Zealand says, “Act hard and act early.” We didn't do that. Certainly the United States and Europe and many other countries didn't do that.
I would come back to what Jeremy said in his opening statement. I was quite impressed—but I'm always impressed with what Jeremy says—about the idea, and I have said this, that trust is Public Health 101. You need to get the public's trust.
I note that there is something else we haven't discussed, which is the populist undermining of science and experts. One sees this in the attacks on WHO, one sees it in the undermining and sidelining of the U.S. CDC, and now even the White House coronavirus task force, and you see it in Brazil and other places.
Leadership matters, so we need two things. We need a strong health system, but we also need to take these things seriously and get the public on board with a consistent message of solidarity.