America is drunk on a warped idea of freedom, and now it's killing people.
By Will Bunch, Philadelphia Inquirer. Excerpts:
"There’s a plethora of reasons why countries across Europe — even Boris Johnson’s United Kingdom, for God’s sake — crushed their coronavirus curve while the United States didn’t. Their shutdowns were somewhat longer, their reopenings came with better testing and contact tracing, their leaders set good examples, and their people showed common sense about social distancing and masks. But especially masks.
"The University of Washington says universal mask-wearing in the United States would reduce the coronavirus death toll between now and October by a whopping 33,000 human beings.
" But for millions of Americans — not a majority, mind you, but enough to cause a public-health hazard in a pandemic — the idea of masks has been launched into a different orbit where freedom talk is injected with the uniquely American viruses of free-market capitalism and media manipulation, maybe with a dollop of supremacy."
"No other nation has botched its coronavirus response so badly because no other nation holds science in such low esteem. “Who made you perpetrators over my life?” the self-proclaimed Trump Girl demanded of the experts at the Palm Beach County meeting.
"In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Stanford psychiatry prof Keith Humphreys noted that the United States simply can’t impose a coronavirus testing regimen like South Korea or Singapore because we don’t trust the government on public health.
"Clusters of gun-toting protesters opposing public health measures are a real — and uniquely American — problem,” he wrote, “but it’s the much more prevalent distrust in government’s role in public health that would curtail the success of any test, trace and isolate program.”
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16 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Just caught this on John Oliver's show. Oh dear. Somewhere the message of personal freedoms and the requirement of the elected government to protect the people has come to blows.
Pretending that I'm an American for a moment, I have the right to peacefully assemble, and pursue happiness by not wearing a mask, but unless I'm a connoisseur disease then my right to happiness is potentially curtailed by society not donning them. So at times, the government may need to take action to protect the people through the enforcement of new rules.
At the time of writing Scotland (population 5.5 million) has had no COVID deaths for four days.
Sofabeast
Level 7
June 29, 2020
0
It needs, perhaps, a man who has caught Covid-19 to go out in the street, wearing a mask, and approach a group of "liberty-loving, free-breathing, unmasked defenders-of-the-faith" and stand only two feet away from them. When the inevitable comment about about wearing a mask is made, the man should say he not wearing it to protect himself from them, he's wearing it to protect them from his infection. Then he should say "but if you insist", remove his mask and walk right into the group, exercising his right to freedom of movement.
Meanwhile, someone else uploads a video of the incident to every social media platform.
Petter
Level 9
June 29, 2020
3
Sad and true. I am fortunate in that here in Philadelphia, people have generally been good about compliance and wearing masks. Despite being a (in parts) densely populated city, we appear to have done a good job managing the virus.
Mitch07102
Level 8
June 29, 2020
1
Reagan, "We are from the government and are here to help you." Got a laugh every time. He has done well to make many sheep, serfs.
dalefvictor
Level 8
June 28, 2020
3
Yeah it's pretty sad how so many that need that help the most are the ones so contemptuous of it. It's almost like there's a casual link...
It really is all about the science. And for some odd reason, we don't believe in science from scientists. We listen to random people on Facebook, Twitter etc who do not know what they are talking about. We know more now then we did in March and we should be doing everything we can to slow the spread. But we are not.
GreatNani
Level 8
June 28, 2020
4
Well said. IMO those who deny science should be doomed to do without it
Pretty accurate. Lots of quotes that are on point. And I love it when you say plethora
BudFrank
Level 8
June 28, 2020
1
Will Bunch is the author of the article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
That's why I put paragraphs in quote marks.
In the future, I will credit the author at the top of articles.
America is too proud of the ignorance it has acquired since I was in school. My teachers warned us of this.
HippieChick58
Level 9
June 28, 2020
5
We have our problems in Canada and still getting minor out breaks here and there but we jump on them ,People are respecting the medical professionals and if certain areas are demanding mandatory masks people are doinging it out of respect for the other person, and we are keeping our numbers low with some areas and provinces at ZERO cases in over a month,The Canada/Us border is closed to non essential crossings and Canadians want it that way even though it is costing us tourist dollars but our health and of others comes first ,Certainly hope some one can inject some common sense in to the public instead of everyone for themselves not giving a dam about the next person and the damage and death they are inadvertently causing ,,Want to really see what is going on in the US ,come to Canada and wtch our news casts compared to your own country and you will get a clear un biased picture of what is truely happening ,All I can say is stay home,wear a mask when you have to go out and keep yourself and family safe
RoyMillar
Level 9
June 28, 2020
4
That would be because Trumpers are absolute imbeciles. At this point am I the only one who is fascinated by the fact they can function with such low IQs combined with such high entitlement?
redhog
Level 7
June 28, 2020
2
@Fred_Snerd meh. Capitalism, Communism, Socialism they all have the exact same death flaws. Human nature and greed. None is better or worse than the other.
The concept of the "Ugly American" is alive and well, and right here for the whole
world to see.
It's really a shame that this virus is so indiscriminate.
Some people really need to be culled from the herd.
KKGator
Level 9
June 28, 2020
5
Because culling is caring.
The article is based on the false insinuation that the US is the worst affected country. If you want to compare how different countries are doing you have to look at deaths per million. At least eight European countries have a higher death rate than the US. The virus is still spreading in the US because we are a large spread-out country.
Nothing has been “botched”. Nature is running its course and in time the epidemic will be over. It would help if people would write optimistic articles that promote unity and mutual respect rather than these back-bitting articles that spread fear, hatred and divisiveness.
WilliamFleming
Level 8
June 28, 2020
0
Coronavirus: A Horrifying Rise in U.S. Cases is Explained.
June 26, 2020
We clearly didn't read the same article.
Hate to say it, but from the charts I can find, other than Chile, in cases per 100,000 population, we're the tops. That's not "nature", it's mismanagement.
To that Sir, I'd say Bullshit in extremis.
Australia went into National Borders Lockdown situations A.S.A.P. then State Borders were closed, Social Distance Rules came into being just as quick, etc, etc.
Our Infection rate is way lower than anywhere else, our Death Toll is far less than 1% of any other country in the world BECAUSE our Government listened to the Medical Advice and acted upon it IMMEDIATELY.
IMO, your Blithering, Dithering, Self-Righteous, Egocentric, Ego-maniacal piss-poor excuse of a PoTUS is the prime cause of the Death and Infection Tolls the U.S. is racking up on a daily basis simply because, imo, he'd be hard pressed to tell his arse from his elbow on any given day of the year.
Wow William. You are beyond tone deaf and ignorant on this subject. I suggest you educate yourself.
@seenoevil9620 The federal government has limited power to control an epidemic. Each state sets its own rules and that is the way it should be because conditions are different in different places. Through the CDC the federal government is empowered to limit interstate travel and to quarantine international travelers. It can also assist in and help coordinate the efforts of the states.
Using DT as a scapegoat is not very rational. No one else would have done things much differently
@SeaGreenEyez @redhog @Paul4747 Deaths per million:
US 388
UK 642
Spain 606
Italy 575
France 456
Sweden 523
Belgium 840
Netherlands 356
Andorra 673
Texas 83
California 150
Florida 159
Arizona 218
As anyone can see, in terms of deaths per million the US is not especially hard-hit, and those horrifying statistics about Florida, Texas etc. are not translating into many deaths yet. Death rates seem to be falling slightly.
The total number of cases is not very meaningful because only a small fraction of cases are ever reported.The number of reported cases depends on who was tested and how many were tested. Totally ignored is that most of those in that figure have long since recovered.
@WilliamFleming The number of cases is meaningful, since, as you say, most are asymptomatic and never reported. For every one, there may be ten more spreading the virus. And without the virus, there's no deaths, which would seem obvious.
I could argue that the number of deaths in the US are not as meaningful, since the measures localities took (largely on their own and ahead of the Trump administration, sometimes in defiance of the Trump administration!) managed to blunt the impact so that we suffered only (!!!!) 100,000 deaths, not the 2 million that the worst case scenario predicted. The difference between the US and Europe can be accounted for by the fact that Europe was hit first, and our hospitals had some time to prepare; time which was denied their counterparts.
If the US is not behind the rest of the developed world in our virus response, I find it hard to understand statistics like this:
total cases per million population:
USA 7.967
Spain 6.328
Italy 3,975
Germany 2,326
Sweden 6,450
UK 4,584
Japan 145
Phillippines 324
India 398
China 58
Papua New Guinea 1
World Average 1,314
From the same source you cite, but a different page. [worldometers.info]
@WilliamFleming Thank you for posting the body count numbers.
I like to look at the body count numbers.
However, I still agree with the overall consensus of the others posting here, because, where I live, Wichita, Kansas, by far most folks are not wearing their masks, and our body count is starting to move up. We have 500,000 people in this county, and, for nearly a month, our body count stood at only 21, and seventeen of those were from nursing home clusters. Then, within the last week, our body count jumped to 28. Body count jumps, folks quit wearing their masks. More dead. Less masks. Do you see why I am worried?
I guess we'll find out when there are no more COVID deaths. Don't forget that the US has the luxury of much lower population density than most of Europe. Perhaps 1/3 that of the UK.
This is a good source for numbers: [coronavirus.jhu.edu]
@seenoevil9620 What would you have done differently?
@seenoevil9620 I really don’t think the president has that authority.
Sgt_Spanky
Level 8
June 28, 2020
9
See no reality, hear no reality
Ohub:
Bingo right there.
That's why I always carry my COVID-19 spritzer, also known as MAGA-away.
What the.... “Who made you perpetrators over my life?” What does that even mean?
Sounds like she caught the Covfefe virus.
Paul4747
Level 8
June 28, 2020
4
... and a secondary infection of TRUMP-16.
Is it me, the editing, or are the majority of the screaming maskholes women? Is that significant or are they just the ones that bothered to show up?
@prometheus Good question. I don't have cable TV, so I couldn't really answer this one.
Might be a good research project for someone though...
America has been drunk on the idea of itself for a long time. now it has cirrhosis of the liberty.
hankster
Level 9
June 28, 2020
7
They are a failing empire... it is like watching the collapse of the roman empire in real time. Their culture and their attitudes and ways of life will be their own undoing. They are regressing to a developing nation status with each passing year.
@demifeministgal hmmm....agreed. its not they where i live, its we.
ah I see. The way you wrote your post made me think you lived outside the USA 
@demifeministgal no worries. I can see that. perhaps I wished I was somewhere else sometimes. but not really. there's good stuff too. I'm just hating watching it get trashed, even more than it was before.
I've heard that eating too many freedumb fries is a cause of that!
@prometheus its gonna gonna take a lot of catch-up to get things back to the normal kind of screwed we're used to.
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