Yes, they had isolation we don't, but also had fewer resources to work with by far, and are much closer to the outbreak in China with tons of travel between countries. I would say having a reasonable, thoughtful population that wanted to avoid being someone who spread the virus and killed people, so followed instructions nearly without exception, compared to the U.S. who had a leader denouncing closings, masks, and social distancing and a population that was happy to spread the disease for political reasons. I think that has WAY more to do with our horrific , worst on the planet per capita despite the most resources by far outcome.

We only have two borders to close. Canada is easy, just ask nicely and they'll stay home. The border with Mexico is a problem, granted, I found it odd Trump didn't use emergency powers to finish his fence when he had a legitimate reason, but that would mean admitting Covid is dangerous, but if we cooperated with Mexico to secure the border we could have minimized all international travel early.

Back to Canada, with two open borders. They have 23000 and a population of 37.59 million, so they also have a per capita death rate well under 1/2 ours, close to 1/3, and they also could have done better if we had done better. It's impossible to figure out what percentage of their infections came from the U.S., but it's definitely a significant number.

Other nations have divisions, if not states, provinces, prefecture, or some other separation of areas. I don't agree that because we have states in our country we are like the EU, because a federal law or executive order covers all states and territories, the EU has no such mechanism as far as I know.

We were the only nation with an international Global Health Security and Biodefense unit, with teams in China and elsewhere, designed to identify new diseases early to avoid pandemics. Trump is totally responsible for dismantling that office, meaning there's a likelihood every non Chinese death and most Chinese deaths would have been avoided had Trump not been butt hurt over a good system set up by Obama. His racist and political hatred put the planet at risk. That alone puts most deaths, U.S. and global, directly on his hands.

Also, the EU population is double ours, meaning with all the multiple open borders and haphazard mix of regulations from different countries, and the enormous immigrant populations, and some actual temporary lockdowns in some of their countries (but not all by far) their infection/death rates are barely over 1/2 what ours are per capita. That's not on par, sorry.

Some of their leaders have some blood on their hands because of poor or slow decisions, but few actually fought against all science and public health measures, denying the mortality rates and doctor's recommendations to convince their populations to do nothing at all to mitigate the pandemic...Brazil did....look at them now. Yes, the president of Brazil absolutely has blood on his hands, and his response mirrored Trump's.

We are about the worst country in the world ATM but not for lack of stupid regulations.

Wearing masks in closed spaces where you meet strangers is obviously good while not 100% effective. Same goes for large groups, packed, for prolonged time outside.

The jury is still out on what "being vaccinated" or "having antibodies" means exactly for the spread of the disease.

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). It's been a problem for decades but is getting worse. It's a prion disease, similar to Kuru and Mad Cow.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/zombie-deer-disease-spreading-us/story?id=61107970

Not really the first, but the most ridiculous in quite a while.

Some democrats don’t care about sensible gun laws. Some do want little more than actual background checks for all sales, like me. I don’t want violent felons to have easy access to them, nor people with active charges for kidnapping, murder, stalking, terrorism, etc. I don’t see any need for a public registry, although a closed/non public registry would make tracking firearms found after being used in a crime easier, as well as removing guns from people deemed a threat due to real, diagnosed mental defect or disease. This bill was insanely lax in defining what qualifies there, one of many things that made it not just bad, but horrific....and doa.

It’s odd, my brother, who lives in Austin too, says the same thing. He loves to blame ex-Californians for crazy laws, but most of the laws and regulations he complains about don’t exist here. I guess we got rid of our nuts? Thanks for taking them off our hands!

I’ll watch it later when the wife’s asleep.

What?

Nice you FINALLY have come around to the fact that Biden won not only the election but also the electoral college and the presidency....but things are far from fine thanks to the inconceivable incompetence from the last administration.

The Trump pandemic, thanks to zero leadership and seeming intentional sabotage by the outgoing administration, is the worst it’s ever been, things aren’t fine. It is the absolute wrong time to “open up and go about your business “. That’s simply asinine. It’s time to enforce stay at home orders and public masking, social distancing, etc by arresting and putting anti maskers and idiots who won’t social distance in prison. Put them in the Maricopa tent prison, feed them green bologna. Sorry, the prison hospital is full, just don’t be sick. That methodology worked in other countries, maybe because their government didn’t support and encourage anti maskers, anti social distancers, COVID deniers, didn’t give up on control in favor of disasterous herd immunity (except Sweden who abandoned it), nor did they encourage the civil unrest, attacks on government officials, super spreader events, refusal of all public health orders, and denial of the virus.

Nice that you’ve FINALLY come around to the truth that the Trump pandemic is real, not a hoax, not a mild flu. It only took nearly 500000 dead Americans to convince you. Of course, you’ll never admit you were wrong no matter how many are dead because of those mistaken beliefs.

This is a nationwide issue, not a state issue. The federal government needs to divert funds, manpower, facilities, ppe, equipment, logistics, vaccines, testing, and training. Operation warp speed failed on every count.

Since not getting treatment is a national public health issue as well as a personal issue, it is a federal issue. Poor people not getting testing or treatment spreads disease to everyone, not just to more poor people you don’t care about. This means yes, the fed should pay for medical treatment as a public health expense, especially since this public health disaster was exacerbated if not caused by the total failure of the federal government to act. Korea was infected the same day, they barely had an issue compared to the US.

Because you simply can’t get a funeral nationwide, and have no choice but to use the few facilities that will accept a body no matter the cost or service, and because this is a federal health emergency, this is a federal issue.

States have been BEGGING for this assistance and more for almost a full year now, your implication that states just need to ask for help is a proven falsehood. The federal government under Trump actually worked against states procuring their own supplies while telling them to procure their own supplies. Repeatedly, when states found the supplies they needed, the federal government would confiscate them, then hand the supplies over to private businesses to resell them to the states to the point that states stopped telling the fed they had found supplies and shipped them in secret to avoid having them stolen. We can only hope Biden has dismantled that ridiculous system the Trump administration set up.

Ah yes, law and order. Breaking laws to avoid legal inspections so they can continue breaking the law.

Dude is blaming the wrong people. Yeah, they can't stay open and he can't pay his staff. He shouldn't need to in a fucked up, once-in-a-century situation like this. The governments in other supposedly civilized countries are paying citizens so they don't NEED to work. So they can stay home and help prevent the spread of this disease. Are they handling it perfectly? Fuck no! But you can't look at the per capita death rate in this country compared to other countries and think our approach is working.

Keeping people home as much as possible and limiting opportunities for viral spread: these are are what's needed in order to get us back to some semblance of normalcy as soon as possible, with as few unnecessary deaths as possible. The federal government could make this happen, but segments of it have chosen not to. THAT is who he should be blaming, and complaining to. Mitch McConnell and his cronies in the Senate are literally killing American citizens, and businesses like this guy's, by refusing to actually help.

I'm overweight as well. 5'6" @ 150lbs. Gained 3 lbs over the past 8-9 mths. I got asthma since childhood. Got much better in my 20-30s. I'm in my late 40s and I have a take the steroidal puffer every night. It's very hard, and not that safe, to be active during these Covid-19 "new normal" times when everything is partially closed (gym's closed and I must wear a mask outside, instantly trigger the short-of-breath for me. So I gave up going outdoor except grocery).

You're absolutely right. I don't get the fat pride thing either. It's not OK health-wise no matter what angle you look at it. Personal "freedom" choice, genetic, physical/mental disease... the latter 2 causes are not shameful, and 99% constantly struggle with it in different degrees of difficulty. But "choice"? That I can't respect.

I think it's on point.
Doctors rarely tell people forcefully enough that being obese will kill them and make their lives miserable and prone to disease. Not being obese helps your health in every way.

No, it's not a guarantee you won't get sick, a seatbelt isn't a guarantee you won't get hurt in a crash, but it absolutely helps your odds of not being hurt and minimizes injuries when you are.

No, being healthy doesn't mean you can't spread disease, but being health conscious means you would know better, and know how to be safer. If you weigh 500 lbs it's clear health isn't your priority with very few exceptions.

Bill has been saying this for decades....it's like he's suggesting fireproof surrounds for wood stoves. Just because people are burning their houses down in huge numbers now is not a reason to stop advocating for safety, it's more reason to be louder.

Most doctors don't. They nudge, hint, maybe say "if you eat more baby, we're going to have to take your foot" (Simpson's), they don't tell 65 year old women "you weigh 350 lbs, you need to drop 200 lbs now or you're going to die and we aren't going to waste money and effort treating you if you won't lose weight". They should, imo.

Being overweight should be treated like smoking, it's a choice for 99%+, and that choice effects others. Covid proves it, many can't be treated at all because so many have horrible illness, far worse than most other thinner and healthier countries.

Fat acceptance, even fat pride is a thing, there are millions who claim they're obese and healthy, and it's fine to be obese. Take Lizzo as an example.

Full disclosure, I'm not obese, but I am overweight at 5'9" 170lbs.

Trump should stop eating little children.

It has not been verified but he is 100% doing it.
Very inappropriate.

He has shrunk away from having a policy on anything, now he only has insults, name-calling and baseless accusations to work with.

"Im not going to fact check you" basicaly means he can get away with murder in Times square, what is the point of asking if he can make up anything in response?

Very difficult to get a meaningful interview from someone who lies habitually. Unless you fact-check every single piece of crap that comes out of his mouth you get flooded.

Were doing the most testing. Were doing well we understand the disease. We have the best economy probably ever. I feel masks possibly work. I tell people to wear masks. These are the biggest rallies. We actually have plans. We have come up with many plans.

Sure you do.

I liked how he tweaked his song lyrics

"The great disease was mighty. People were sick everywhere.
The great disease was mighty. People were sick everywhere.
It was an epidemic
and it travelled through the air."

*promote the best SNL performance i've seen in ages

So, if these (very soft) numbers are taken into account and this (highly infectious) disease continues to spread throughout the whole of the US, there's going to be this rough breakdown:

0-18: 2217 dead
20-49: 23,840 dead
50-69: 417,000 dead
70+: 3,029,400 dead

Total deaths nearing 3.5 million. And this is considered something to dismiss without concern?

Of course, this is ignoring the fact that there can be long term implications for people who are infected, but survive, too.

I have AS. This video is an extreme example of what can happen with this disease. It hurt my soul just to watch it. Most people (like me) just experience back pain, inflammation, and maybe some relatively mild fusion compared to what you see here.

I feel for the guy, and really happy to see his resolution.

The political system is what it is, and technically it is still a democracy, so yes, he was elected.

The system is broken.

America is broken.

Trump is a symptom and ultimately not the cause of America's problems. Like many symptoms, he is problematic, but to assume he is the disease is a huge mistake.

Corporations and the ultra-wealthy now run the country. Wealth disparity is at an all-time high. Employers weaponize the medical system to force fealty from employees.

The truth is, America has long been an Oligarchy and is rapidly slipping into Fascism. Trump may have accelerated the process, but it was there all along.

What are you going to do about it?