There was an interesting article that made a point similar to the one in the title of this one published last month in Scientific American [1].<p>In October 2019 a project led by the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security released a comprehensive assessment of the global health security capabilities of 195 countries [2].<p>On pandemic preparedness, the US was found to be the most prepared in the world. Second was the UK. New Zealand was #35 and Vietnam #50. The COVID came alone and the outcomes where way off from what you'd expect from that ranking.<p>(Note: when they said the US was #1 and the UK #2, they were not saying they were well prepared. They found that preparedness was fundamentally weak and no country was prepared for an epidemic or pandemic. So #1 just means the experts expected the US to do badly, but others to do worse).<p>According to the article, the people making the report should have had anthropologists, psychologists, and historians who understood politics and culture included among their experts. Social factors shape pandemic responses more than do medical factors.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/expert-opinion-cant-be-trusted-if-you-consult-the-wrong-sort-of-expert/" rel="nofollow">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/expert-opinion-ca...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.ghsindex.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ghsindex.org/</a>