tallpilot

Some have suggested the US handled this poorly. The facts say otherwise. Mistakes were certainly made but we aren't the worst.

Mesabah

If you cut out the States that put Covid patients in nursing homes, the US has had one of the best responses.

BobZ

Convenient how that happened, isnt it?

Duffman

Apparently New York (20%), Michigan (32%), California (41%), New Jersey (43%) and Pennsylvania (67%) put COVID19 patients in nursing homes. (Percents) mark the COVID deaths linked to nursing homes:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...ing-homes.html

To be honest, they don't particularly stand out from the other states though; NH (81%), MN (72%), RI (79%), etc. Most states are 40% or higher. Just presenting the data.

Either way, until something changes with either a vaccine or the way we're handling the virus, I'm sure we can expect much of the same. Hopefully those 15 minute test kits work as well as they say.

Purpleanga

A bit of delusion there. Lots of other states that really matter like Texas did very poorly. It took like 5 months for the president to even wear a mask. I’d say the leadership was abysmal.

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.

BobZ

Texas did poorly? By what measure?

Last I checked with a population many times the size they had a fraction of NY deaths.

By your claim if Texas did poorly the media feted hero governor of NY was a mass murderer

Duffman

According to the CDC, TX had the most deaths of any state, today. It also has had almost 3x the infections as NY, but that's probably because they couldn't actually test for COVID until recently, so it was under-counted early on

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases


I think what Cuomo did with nursing homes was dumb, but bringing that up without calling attention to Trump's mistakes just comes across as partisan politics. "American Exceptionalism" doesn't apply to a virus and until there's a vaccine or a big cultural shift in how we're handling it, then I see no reason why things would change.

Purpleanga

No but apparently he is in charge of all the Covid hoaxers. They do listen to what he tells them. I wonder what the outcome would be if we were all on the same page.

Duffman

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.