Originally Posted by
Mesabah
The President is not in charge of state response. If it is a lack of federal resources, that is the fault of Congress. The reason the virus spread, is because the US health system is not setup to handle a pandemic like other countries. Instead of acting as a cut off point for the virus like in South Korea, in the US, healthcare facilities were the primary spreading vector.
Also, airborne spread of Covid is just a theory, masks might not even play a role.
So my fiance is an epidemiologist and when this all kicked off all of her co-workers, who went through SARS and Ebola, said we were not nearly as prepared. Trump did cut their budget, which did reduce their table top exercises, and most importantly, reduced their PPE stockpiles. PPE 'expires' every few years, so when it expired, they couldn't afford to replace it. Anecdotal, but also supported if you want to look it up (I don't right now).
Also, it's pretty clear that COVID spreads via ACE2 receptors, which are present in your eyes, nose, throat, lungs, and stomach, in which case masks would definitely help prevent someone infected from spreading it around. Just because you're more likely to get it from eating a sandwich doesn't mean you're safe if you're walking behind someone coughing without a mask. And once again, it's all theoretical, so even the stomach thing could be wrong and masks could be the silver bullet. But the countries doing the best right now have really stiff fines for not wearing a mask, so I'm going to continue thinking they're doing something right.