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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNYT: How the Virus Won
How the Virus WonNew York Times, 6/25/20
A media-rich exploration using cell phone and genetic data.
Top federal health experts concluded by late February that the virus was likely to spread widely within the United States and that government officials would soon need to urge the public to embrace social distancing measures, such as avoiding crowds and staying home.But Mr. Trump wanted to avoid disrupting the economy. So some of his health advisers, at Mr. Trumps urging, told Americans at the end of February to continue to travel domestically and go on with their normal lives.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-spread.html
dalton99a
(81,513 posts)Igel
(35,317 posts)Pointing out that the travel bans from China (and later from Europe) would be completely pointless and, in the case of China, racist?
No?
While the NYT argued against them, they should have been both much more stringent and earlier.
The NYT did make the point that with the loopholes, they'd leak like a sieve. However, the appropriate argument would have been, therefore, to close the loopholes. Instead, the loopholes were assumed to be appropriate if not required, which would undo even the weakest effect of the ban.
Pointing out somebody else's bad doesn't work so well when you argued for a worse and just hopes everybody forgets. Just makes you look like a self-righteous hypocrite. That confidently assumes others' stupidity.
DanieRains
(4,619 posts)The rest of the world not ran by psychos is doing a lot better.
Us, Brazil, Russia? Not so much.
Leadership matters.
he could not have pulled off this level of calamity without the help of the Senate and Trump-humping governors
Celerity
(43,402 posts)Solly Mack
(90,769 posts)A rational country with intelligent leadership would have long ago established the necessary health care and economic safety nets for the just in case of life. For life, period.
Would have improved on it all as new scientific facts came in letting us know what we could expect in the future. A sane country would have adapted and prepared for it.
America has no chance against a pandemic with selfish and ignorant people in charge or their selfish and ignorant supporters. Fools all.
We needed actual leadership, especially with the already existing deficiencies - lack of health care for all, the ravages of poverty, racism, the anti-science idiots, the selfish and the greedy. A lack of common cause caused by years and years of attacks on science and intelligence. Of labeling all things that require change as elitism. The cultural wars waged by conservatives against any change whatsoever.
Even with the best leadership the worst can happen, but with incompetent leadership the worst will happen.
It is happening now.
The last widespread lockdown showed who actually created the wealth - the workers. Don't want to pay a living wage, job, safety, or health care but you can't open the economy without them.
Which is why Trump and others were all about opening up far too soon and were against shutting down at all. Trump was looking bad. They weren't worried about the workers, it was all about the economy.
This country needs its workers. It needs labor. It needs the people.
But if you're killing people through greed, bad policy, a lack of health care, and poverty, there won't be many workers left. Add a pandemic into the mix and it goes from tragic to catastrophe.
Try propping up the economy then.
Dead people can neither work nor spend.
A country that doesn't take care of its people is a shithole country.
canetoad
(17,167 posts)Can't add anything to that.
-Laelth