It doesn't matter how your healthcare is organized if you screw up containment, lie about the virus, minimize its impacts, etc.

Wonder how many didn't get medical care because they couldn't afford to go to the doctor or go to the hospital for treatment.

It's the same old decision... Can't get treatment because it costs too much or you don't have insurance.

people can afford to go to the doctor. If you don't, people can't afford it and will wait until they are so ill they have no choice.

So if the containment plan is no plan, then you're screwed.

in a universal system, there will be less compartmentalization. Staff and facilities can be used where needed, because they are part of a larger whole.

Our system is also currently set up on a "just in time" supply system for profit maximization.

The people in charge care about the dollars, not the people.

They don't care about staff, doctors, nurses, patients, nope. It's all about how many dollars they can convey to the top.

Either way, we're screwed, because our health care system AND our government are run by those who only see us as 'human capital'.

Infection rate has nothing to do with medical coverage. If your argument is that the US NEEDS "socialized health care" because of the infection rate, you could just as easily argue that the countries that have it DON'T need it for COVID.

and it has nothing to do with how the disease is treated. New York has actually done as well or better thsan the European countries in flattening and sloping the curve.

One might say that in the broader sense, countries with socialized medicine operate with a greater sense of community than societies without it. Societies with a strong sense of community can act with greater cohesion, which in this crisis translates into better compliance with public health directives. So having socialized medicine is one facet of the basic difference in attitudes between Europe and China and the United States.

The cause of the recent increase in rates of infection by this plague in the United States has much more to do with politics. In no other 'first world' country did powerful political leadership agitate for defiance of effective public health measures. People were actually mobilized against compliance, deliberately, and because our society does have much less cohesion, much less of a sense that 'we're all in this together', that agitation for defiance of scientists and doctors and experts fell on fertile ground. Note that the pattern within the United States was initially of roughly the same form as in the other countries charted, but leveled off and began to rise with the political mobilization against compliance, and its translation in many areas onto official policy.

to do with virus spread.

Your graph is the wrong graph... you should compare hospitalizations v outcomes between the two systems.

In both socialized and for profit medical care, people are going to avoid the hospital because of the perception (probably correct) that going to hospital runs the risk of coming down with Covid-19.

In any case, the vast majority of people that catch or spread the virus do so outside of the medical system.

Our failure is due to misinformation and lack of social discipline needed to fight the spread... brought on primarily by our leadership.

are more likely to go untreated in a for-profit system that pushes many into medical bankruptcy. Probably a big reason why COVID is such a danger to people of color and others who can't afford to go to the doctor for regular checkups and treatment.

We're less healthy than the Europeans or Canadians b/c healthcare is rationed on ability to pay.

We need Medicare for All now more than ever.

What about a public option?

There is a lot of public transportation (trains, subways, buses, etc.). Normally people have to walk a ways from their home to the station or bus stop, then after they exit the train/bus walk a ways to their destination; then reverse the walks on the trip back home. Walking is good; I suspect many Americans don't get much of it.

I lived in Europe for a while in the 70s and loved not having or needing a car.

I'm sure that some of the early shut-down protestors included people who were worried about loss of income.

And the anxiety made some of them angry about the containment efforts in general, even mask-wearing.

A guaranteed minimum income would've been nice in this situation.

Edit: And countries with socialized medicine are probably more likely to have COOPERATIVE citizens, not the dog-eat-dog and self-centered attitudes that are so prevalent in the USA.

While medical care matters, as mentioned above, in terms of overall health/resilience of the population. This is a public health crisis not a medical crisis. This is all about a failure of leadership.

There are numerous states with curves that look like that. It’s not socialized medicine. It’s a competent pandemic response.