Juliette Kayyem Says the U.S. Isn’t Ready for What the Coronavirus has in Store
17 Mar 2020
Speaker and CNN National Security Analyst, Juliette Kayyem has a warning for the United States: even with the government’s response on the coronavirus (COVID19), many people will be in peril unless they take the proper precautions. Kayyem wrote in the Atlantic that the U.S. is anything but prepared without sound guidance. As the former federal and state homeland-security official, Kayyem, who studied safety and resiliency issues and advises companies on their emergency response plans, emphasizes that what will help this epidemic is to be “calm.”
As the nation’s leading expert on organizing government responses to major crises, Kayyem is enforcing people to wash hands and avoid large gatherings to help prevent the coronavirus. However, she says that the U.S. government is misleading people, especially with Trump’s administration ignoring the threat and giving unrealistic promises. Kayyem wants Americans to know that advising everyone and taking precautions is helpful, but that no amount of preparation will be perfect. “Preventing all infections is no longer a possibility, and the measure of success is how much public-health authorities can reduce the number of people who die or fall seriously ill.” Drawing on her experiences handling such crises as the BP Oil Spill, the H1N1 Outbreak and more, Kayyem delivers important lessons for both the public and private sectors by sharing that emergency management planning is the responsibility of all leaders.