THE CONTINUING COST OF TERM-LIMITING W:

The report describes one failure leading to another, from the "slow, cumbersome and indecisive" pandemic alert system, to the years of preparedness plans that failed to deliver, to the disjointed and even obstructive responses of national governments.

Public health officials stumbled, too. Investigators said they could not understand why a World Health Organization committee waited until Jan. 30 to declare an international health emergency. (The Chinese government had lobbied other governments against declaring such an emergency).

And despite the decades of predictions that a viral pandemic was inevitable, and years of committees, task forces and high-level panels aimed at preparing the W.H.O. for that emergency, reforms were slow to come. "The failure to enact fundamental change despite the warnings issued has left the world dangerously exposed, as the Covid-19 pandemic proves," the report says.

But the W.H.O.'s stumbles did not excuse the repeated failing of world leaders. For even after health officials gave a clear warning signal, the report notes, "In far too many countries, this signal was ignored."

The report also faults public health leaders for responding slowly to early evidence that people without symptoms could spread the new coronavirus. Early reports out of China, and one in Germany, documented this phenomenon. But leading health agencies, including the World Health Organization, provided contradictory and sometimes misleading advice, a New York Times investigation previously found. [...]

Details in the 34-page report are thin, but it says that China had genome sequencing evidence that a novel virus was circulating in Wuhan in December 2019. Health authorities there could have moved more quickly and decisively to contain the outbreak, the report says, yet country after country repeated many of the same mistakes.

"There were lost opportunities to apply basic public health measures," the report reads.

Instead of rallying behind proven health responses, governments and their citizens were fractured. Mask-wearing and social distancing became political statements. Conspiracy theories spread wildly. And governments failed to conduct the routine testing and contact-tracing needed to control the disease.

Too often, investigators found, national leaders made health decisions with an eye on keeping their economies afloat, though they did not single out many nations for criticism. That proved to be a false choice. The panel found that countries that responded forcefully and effectively to the outbreak also fared better economically even as the global economy lost more than $7 trillion.

"This is clearly a case where billions can save trillions," the report says.

That conclusion is an implicit rebuke of countries like the United States, where President Trump demanded that the country stay open for business. "We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself," he said in late March, when 30,000 Americans had tested positive.

That figure is now over 23 million, and the country leads the world with nearly 400,000 deaths.

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