1. How the spread of infectious disease in a country may be impacted by the degree to which that country's health care delivery system is run by the government vs. private sector.Compare and contrast two different countries using information on their health care delivery system (Commonwealth Fund) and capacity to treat COVID-19 patients.The US should be one of the two countries, with the other coming from a list that would include Italy, Great Britain, Canada, Germany, France and South Korea.
2. Health care industry supply chain/inventory preparedness for an infectious disease outbreak. There are several potential areas to explore here, including medical technology, personal protection equipment/supplies, medications, hospital beds and/or skilled medical professionals. Start with a discussion of how much capacity is needed to maintain normal "production" of health care, and the lead time needed to meet extraordinary demands from an unexpected infectious disease outbreak.A particularly interesting one involves COVID-19 testing materials and supplies, where demand went from zero to millions of units within a very short time period.Think about who should bear the costs of producing/maintaining surplus pandemic capacity as well.