South Korea reported their first case within a day of the US. They actually have things under control now with few new cases and deaths. They have 234 deaths to date. They did far less damage to their economy than we are doing. Now I know we are bigger, actually by a factor of about 6. So if we did as good a job we wouldn’t be looking at 234 deaths, but adjusted for population we should be looking at less than 2,000 deaths when we finally get things under control. We are over 40,000 now and Trump says we’ll be doing very well if we can keep it to 60,000 deaths!!!!!! The additional deaths over 2,000 are directly due to Trump’s continual failure to listen to scientists and experts of all types. How many times have we heard him say “I know more than the” .... you fill in the blank.
South Korea was successful because they were aggressive early. They immediately mobilized their industries and started to make tests, started to do contact tracing and isolate the infected. This strategy ONLY works if you start immediately when you have few cases. Once you allow the virus to get out of control like Trump did it is too late to employ these measures. We waited too long and that is why we have had shortages of tests, ventilators, PPE, etc. That’s why we had to lockdown to he extent we did. The longer you wait to respond effectively the more resources you need to fight the virus. Our scientists and health professionals are every bit as capable as any other country but they were held back by a President who has been dragging his feet and slapping them down at every opportunity instead of leading when we really needed leadership. Trump’s early strategy was hoping for a miracle that would turn 15 cases into 0 instead of the 700,000 plus and climbing that we have now.
There is no reason why we couldn’t have done what South Korea did other than Trump dragging his feet and ignoring the experts instead of leading. Now Trump and Fox “News” are trying to place the blame for Trump’s failure on the WHO and China. The WHO and China didn’t stop South Korea from doing what needed to be done and they didn’t stop the US either. He’s also trying to shift responsibility and thus the blame to the states. The states don’t have the power to mobilize American industries that the Federal Government has through the Defense Production Act. They also don’t have the leverage to deal with other countries when a supply chain requires it that the Federal Government does. It’s just more deflection, whining and lame excuses.
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