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Re:Shelter in place for Bay Area counties by nomel on Monday March 16, 2020 @10:17PM (#22600825)
> They've been much worse off than the US so far.

I think this is a simplistic view. We're not only talking about infection rate here.

edit: Social safety nets, medical debt, etc.

Re:Shelter in place for Bay Area counties by dcftoapv on Monday March 16, 2020 @10:19PM (#22600841)
Okay, sure. Lets talk about fiscal. Italy's going go re-enter another sovereign debt crisis because they were already in recession before they shut down their entire economy.

Lets talk about medical. I haven't heard anything about hospital bed shortages in the US yet. Again, not saying we won't get there, but China had to build entire new facilities because they didn't have adequate infrastructure.

Lets talk about essentials. American stores might be temporarily out of toilet paper, but Wuhan is currently dealing with dramatic food shortages.

Re:Shelter in place for Bay Area counties by ikiris on Monday March 16, 2020 @10:29PM (#22600924)
You seem to be missing both the growth rate curve and the time lag. If anything the US still has its head in the sand and is heading for 5-40 million deaths due to just swamping the hospital capacity for critical care.
Re:Shelter in place for Bay Area counties by dcftoapv on Monday March 16, 2020 @10:36PM (#22600980)
I'm not going to sit here and defend the US government's approach to this situation. Not producing test kits, not investing in additional medical supplies earlier, etc. Those were the wrong decision.

That said. Italy basically denied having a problem until they couldn't anymore. China's safety net health system did everything they could to cover up the crisis until it exploded in their face. Other countries haven't been doing much more to prepare than the US.

People like to hate on it, but the US government still functions are a comparatively high level while maintaining a degree of individual freedom that other countries do not.