I read the article and I believe it was generally factual in terms of hard data presented. In terms of the commentary, I will note to non-US readers that America is actually a union of 50 sovereign states that choose to grant their federal government certain rights and responsibilities, for example, conducting foreign policy, to issue a national currency, military defense, a postal service, enforcement of certain federal laws, border controls and a few more misc items such as radio spectrum and setting up agencies like the FDA and CDC.

Any right not specifically so-granted remains in the power of the States.

The power to respond to weather catastrophes, civil disturbances and pandemics was never delegated to our federal government.

Be that as it may, the federal government does have agencies in place to assist in these emergencies. In my opinion the US federal government did rise well to the occasion by encouraging the manufacturing of ventilators, so many that we export them to countries in EU and other places that need them. It has taken other steps to nationalize drug and PPE manufacturing to greatly lessen dependence on foreign counties to have these when we need them. It has even assisted in the construction of special hospital facilities in certain hard-hit states and even commission navy hospital ships to assist the governors who for reasons beyond my understanding did not use them. Much federal assistance was available and done but not all was accepted.

But the operational and logistic responsibilities lies with the State governments alone.

The rest of the world, not knowing this, will naturally, in the present time, place the “blame” on the federal government as the supreme decision making authority responsible for 200K deaths + from covid which in the case of the US includes deaths that may include co-morbidities as being simply “covid”. That is how we do it and a deep dive into that rabbit hole (the CDC 6% figure) will serve no one.

What we have is 50 governors who each implemented their own plans, some doing a great job, others doing not so great. As the article states, history will be the judge and the further we go out in time, current political opinions begin to vanish and the facts (such as the one I just mentioned) come into light by more accurate historians. I am comfortable with that. Certain USA governors may not be.

It is not (or certainly should not be) a political or partisan US issue. The author was correct in stating history will be the final judge but he may be surprised as to what the final judgement may be after he remembers from his civics class 101 how the US federal government is actually structured.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

One life lost is an unbearable toll for their loved ones. My father died in 2007 due to lung cancer. It truly felt unbearable and going back to work had me feeling sick each day. The color slowly returned to my life, in small increments, mainly through the efforts of my remaining family and my coworkers. To this day I can't see a picture of him and think about how much better my life would be with him in it.

From cancer.gov, "A total of 1,806,590 new cancer cases and 606,520 deaths are expected in the US in 2020, which is about 4,950 new cases and more than 1,600 deaths each day." If body count is indeed the measure, then by all means, let's bend our efforts to ending this calamity.

 

Agreed... gender is not the determining factor in Covid success. Those who govern with a sense of duty and compassion and an understanding of Science and who allow experts in the field of Epidemiology to guide them are indeed the determining factors ...

 

Comparing these with COVID is not a valid comparison. Cancer, liver disease and motorcycle deaths are not communicable diseases.

Many people use this convoluted logic as a reason to reduce controls on the spread of COVID. The only reason COVID deaths are so small is because of the controls in place to reduce its spread.

If the controls were removed, as many want to do, then YES there would be a cause for panic.

 

The Philippines is lookin' pretty good!

 

Here is a comparison with similar population.

I am not surprised that Michigan and Florida have similar rates for relative population size. Governors cannot enforce a mask mandate by themselves. It's like state cigarette tax or assault weapons ban--stuff just flows across state lines. Here we are in Negros Or., obsessing over a patient crossing a land border from the neighboring province. Taiwan, with a woman president, had a national mask mandate. As does Russia, as it happens.

Are women leaders more intelligent? One might think so, looking at college admission and graduate rates. But that's another question. In my opinion the problem with some male leaders is that they are overly emotional. They have the mental disability of hollow machismo. As examples, the three worst-performing countries for fighting covid--(in no particular order), the USA, Brazil and India.

 

Maybe I misread your post but Michigan under "Gretchen Whitmer" has 197,406 cases with 7,699 deaths on the other hand
Florida under "Ron Desantis" has had 802,547 cases with 16,769 deaths.... over 4 times as many cases and twice the deaths ....
I fail to see how you come to the conclusion that Florida has managed the Covid response better than Michigan.... that is if I read you correctly ....

 

Well there are countries that are succeeding in limiting the dreadful effect of this and are containing it to a reasonable degree until a more satisfactory solution is developed. And there are countries such as the USA who are not applying common sense and leadership and are suffering the consequences. Much has been commented on here about some of the measures taken locally in Dumaguete and its surrounds but the point of it is, containment has generally been good except for one recent example where that person ignored all reanable advice and just did what he wanted to do. Be thankful that Corona has not run riot in Negros the way it has in the USA and some other countries.

 

I disagree. Yes, the numbers of deaths per capita would be a better parameter to track, but since deaths trail the outbreak of new cases by about 20 days (and reported deaths trail by even longer) that is not really an alternative.

No. As I already mentioned in another thread, Iceland, Denmark, Singapore and the United Kingdom all tested considerably more than the USA, yet have far fewer confirmed cases. Also, Italy and France tested a similar number as Canada, yet have double and triple the number of cases. Case numbers are NOT proportional to testing, that is a myth.

Err, better treatment has no impact on the number of reported cases whatsoever. Yes luckily the mortality rate overall has come down quite a bit from the early days.

I believe authorities are most concerned with balancing hospital and intensive care admissions with capacity on the one hand, and economic pressures on the other hand when deciding on relaxing or tightening lockdown measures. If confirmed cases were the deciding factor we'd have seen a renewed tightening of measures in much of the developed world much earlier.

 

England almost reached 7,000 new cases on Friday and the rest of UK to add to that. The 'R' rate is estimated at between 1.3 and 1.5, meaning every 1,000 with the virus are infecting a further 1,300 - 1,500. Likely UK is heading for full lockdown soon, with huge slices of humble pie being eaten.

The latest excuse issued by the UK Govt is that UK citizens do not like giving up their freedoms, leading to more social interaction etc. Could be something in that with the US too, certainly when measured against China. Although there are countries with similar constitutional freedoms as the US and UK that are faring much better, these are likely societies with better developed sense of social responsibility (said as the opinion of a Brit).