Why does the Corona epidemic spread in the United States so quickly?

The United States spotted the first infection with the Corona virus at the end of last January, and soon the infection spread to include one hundred thousand people on Friday, which made this country the head of the world in the number of infections, amid questions and public anger over this spread of the epidemic.

The death rate is still much lower than in many European countries, it does not exceed 1.5% of the number of injured, compared to 7.7% in Spain and 10% in Italy, but the death of about 1,600 people was sufficient to spread terror in the hearts of Americans.

Causes of spread
Many people today wonder why the crisis in the United States is what it is today, and the answer may be summarized in two main points:

1- Delaying tests: At the beginning of the epidemic crisis, US President Donald Trump was accused of underestimating its severity when he contradicted the views of health officials, and said that the spread of the virus locally is not "inevitable."

However, the authorities seemed unable to effectively monitor people who had been in contact with the injured due to the lack of widespread testing, as the government refused to allow states to develop their own tests, and restrictions were only lifted on February 29 when the first death occurred in the United States, after More than a month after the first infection was detected.

Gabor Killen, director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, explained that if they had been able to monitor those who had communicated with the injured, they would have isolated the major outposts.

2- Weak federal coordination: New York State has become the epicenter of the epidemic in the United States, with about 45,000 cases recorded, and more than five hundred deaths as of Friday, followed by New Jersey, California, Washington, Michigan and Illinois.

Thomas Tsai, Professor of Public Health at Harvard University, believes that what his country needs "is a true national effort in coordination". Each state has a special policy, which has caused transmission of infection from one state to another.

What then?
David Visman, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto, believes that "the death rate cannot be reassured," adding that "it will increase because it takes time for deaths to occur. I expect the United States to be at the gates of an absolutely catastrophic epidemic."

Experts agree that social exclusion measures are necessary to continue to "reduce the course" of the epidemic, i.e. slowing the number and speed of new infections to avoid, as far as possible, the exhaustion of hospital capacities as in New York.

Over time, the virus is likely to mutate into a less lethal form - according to Gabor Killen - and heat and moisture may slow its spread.

The College of Medicine at Washington University expects that if the current path continues, the peak of the epidemic will be in mid-April, with the death toll reaching around 80,000 as of next June.

The model set by the college indicates that this number will range between 38,000 deaths as a minimum and 162,000 as a maximum.

By comparison, the flu resulted in 34,000 deaths in the United States in 2018-2019.