The coronavirus pandemic has done more than damage the economy and public health in the United States: it has damaged the country's standing on the global stage. In a new 13-nation Pew Research Center survey, the United States's reputation has declined more in the past year with allies and partners like Germany and the United Kingdom. In several countries, the percentage of the public surveyed with favorable views of the U.S. is as low as it has ever been since Pew stated polling on the topic almost two decades ago.
The results of the poll suggest that the major nations of the world disagree with how the U.S. has handled the pandemic, with a median of 85% of the survey's respondents saying the country did not do a good job.
Belgium, Germany, Denmark and South Korea gave the U.S. the lowest scores with under 12% agreeing with how the nation handled the pandemic. The United Kingdom, Canada, Italy and Spain gave the highest ratings, with those at least 16% of those surveyed saying the U.S. did a good job.
In contrast, most surveyed stated that the World Health Organization and the European Union have done a good job, with the 64% viewing the W.H.O. positively and 57% having the same opinion of the E.U.
The U.S. currently ranks first in overall confirmed cases and deaths.
Treatment Update
Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) announced Monday that its rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib when combined with Gilead Sciences's (NASDAQ: GILD) remdesivir helped shorten recovery time for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Eli Lilly plans to seek a potential Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration based on the results from its Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial.
The clinical trial of over 1,000 participants found that baricitinib reduced the median recovery time for COVID patients by about a day when added to remdesivir, compared to patients treated only with remdesivir.
Notably, U.S. hospitals have begun to turn down some supplies of remdesivir that are offered by the U.S. government. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told Reuters that between July 6 and September 8, public health systems in the U.S. accepted about 72% of the remdesivir offered.
The slowdown in purchasing suggests that their is no longer a shortage of the only F.D.A. approved drug to treat severely ill COVID-19 patients--a big turning point for the pandemic.
Some hospital told Reuters that they are still stocking up the medicine to build an inventory for another large potential outbreak during the winter months. Currently, most major hospital systems in the U.S. say that their supply of the drug is adequate, in part because drug is being saved for only the most severe of patients due to its steep cost and ultimately limited supply.