South Korea and the U.S. detected their first active cases on the same day. Here is an article on our respective responses.
US and South Korea detected their first coronavirus case on the same day -
As of 3/18/20, the ROK has 84 deaths. Today, 3/19, the U.S. has 189 deaths. The ROK identified where the cases were, which made them able to counter the threat. In the U.S., we missed the window of relevance of containment. All we have left is mitigation by flattening the curve - that is, by making it take longer to all get infected, so that facilities are not overwhelmed. "All" is a bit much, but for infection to be widespread.
Tommy, if you're thinking "It's still just a few thousand cases," you need to think like a hockey player.... it's not where the puck is, it's where it's going to be. Here's an article on exponential spread:
Why 'Exponential Growth' Is So Scary For The COVID-19 Coronavirus
Even today, POTUS was asked why the federal gov't can't get the supposed millions of masks we have where they are needed. He says "They're not a shipping clerk." This paints a picture of federal stockpiles while governors and mayors are freaking tf out because they're having to re-use masks some places. King County, WA., is building a field hospital in a soccer field. Do you think it's really happening yet? Were you calling the virus a "hoax" a month or two ago? Or maybe a week ago?
Well into when "experts" were telling him that yes, this is really happening, Trump was on TV calling it a hoax, then saying it was a hoax that his enemies wanted him to respond, then saying that one day soon it would all go away and it will be like a miracle, and so on. There are still a lot of people who are trying to score points with hard core denialists by claiming that it's not a big deal.
Here some of the facts of the response. The whole tick-tock is here:
Timeline: Trump administration’s response to coronavirus
Dec. 31, 2019, AP report of China's virus outbreak
(1 week passes)
Jan. 6, 2020 CDC's first move, way below presidential level, CDC warns travelers to China to take precautions
Jan. 14, WHO says no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission. I.e., inaction is still excusable.
Jan. 21, first confirmed U.S. case in Seattle
Jan. 22, Trump's first remarks... Coronavirus "is going to be handled very well." Also, China "is in very good shape."
Jan. 29, White House names task force
Jan. 30:
Since on 1/30/20 we have 5 confirmed cases, presumably walking around shedding virus, please check your assumptions about whether we "kept COVID-19 out," once the "border"-intensive measures below were followed.
Jan. 31 - Maybe this is what he means by "I closed the borders"?
The Trump administration
suspends entry into the United States by foreign nationals who traveled to China within the last 14 days (excluding Hong Kong and Macau). This does not apply to lawful U.S. residents and family members/ spouses of U.S. residents or citizens.
But wait. What if U.S. nationals also got sick?
Feb.2 -
President Trump interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity
“Well, we pretty much shut it down coming in from China. … We've offered China help, but we can't have thousands of people coming in who may have this problem, the coronavirus.”
Feb. 18
The CDC
issues an order requiring airlines to provide information about any passenger coming from China within 14 days of their entry into the U.S.
So you bop around for 2 weeks in the U.S., nobody knows anything about your whereabout, and 2 weeks after you land, Delta or whoever has to say you landed at XYZ airport. Also: You can be asymptomatic for up to 3 weeks. I certainly hope that every such passenger was located, their contacts were isolated, the whole kit and caboodle were quarantined, and they were in quarantine 3 weeks! Otherwise your "we closed the borders!" spiel sort of falls apart.
Feb. 24
Wow. Was it really just 3 weeks ago that he was proclaiming the "stock market starting to look very good"?
Feb. 25
Lots of developments. Again, the coronavirus is "well under control" and there are "very few people" with it. Romney expresses disappointment that we have not stockpiled medical equipment/supplies. Trump brags about "closing the borders" to certain parts of the world for the first time, along with chest-thumping about how well the U.S. is doing... etc.
Feb. 29 he's bragging about how few cases we have, meanwhile - and this is key to the epic fail of footdragging - we're not testing.
There's a clear straight line between refusing to test and bragging that we have few confirmed cases. The theory behind it seems likely to be that markets would be rattled if they knew how many cases we had. The error is that the markets are responding to the real life math of how people will have to behave -- they will have to not go places where they will consume goods and use services. The classic example is the restaurants, but anything brick and mortar. You can't fix a virus with a rate-cut gimmick and you can't keep people afloat by cutting the taxes of the rich. Now we're suddenly up against the very boogeyman that he thought he could beat with a show of market support.
The problem is that a virus doesn't get beat by shows and slogans about foreigners. We have the virus in this country. We will have it now until it's "run its course," and much of the goal now is to make it take longer to run its course. But I digress.
March 5 - Trump brags on twitter, "With approximately 100,000 CoronaVirus cases worldwide, and 3,280 deaths, the United States, because of quick action on closing our borders, has, as of now, only 129 cases (40 Americans brought in) and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!"
There are now "only" 10,000+ (3/19). Two weeks, nice round number, 129 cases to 10,000. Of course, part of that is we've started actually trying to test and find it.
If necessary, please go back and read the link about exponential spread.
March 9, Trump is saying it's okay, because people die from the flu too...
Fauci keeps saying that it's nice to test now, and it's still important , but it's not to contain the virus anymore. We missed our chance to do that.
The pep rally shlitz (and the media bashing and dem bashing etc.) has to go. If you don't think there's a pandemic, really, just go somewhere else and mourn the loss of Brady to TB. I mean, that would be the main story then, innit?
If you think there
is a virus, but Trump stopped it, why is the case count skyrocketing?
Ask yourself why he's trying to rebrand the virus, talk down the power of the virus, and otherwise try to talk the virus to death.
We're about to see some heavy duty **** in this country. It's absurd that people are
still running around to save talking points, even at the expense of human lives.
