Sadly https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/top-uk-covid-1... says that the lead author of the study has COVID and likely was infectious while he attended a press conference on COVID.
No.
Our response in the west is just terrible because of all the political nonsense, the fact that scientists don't influence our countries, and most people are just too stupid or too spoiled to listen. Look at our countries, have you seen the kids partying in Miami? The people still protesting in France? How about everyone still going out for dinner?
Don't go blaming other countries' good performance for our crappy one.
Edit: on that note, other countries have been testing people on entry for months on entry. Russia has been testing people on entry. The Philippines tests everyone on the public transportation.
There are also many Chinese accounts of thousands of bodies just being cremated without being tested. to be fair, Italy is now supposedly experiencing the same thing now due to hospitals being overwhelmed.
Since this is a disease with the highest mortality for the older age groups, Italy was always going to have a higher mortality rate.
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S120197121...
2. This white paper may explain Newsom’s numbers.
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/s...
The growth is exponential and not linear which throws off most people. Surprisingly, even though the paper’s R0 is on the conservative side (2.2-2.4) and so is their case fatality rate. However, their simulations still predict 2.2 million deaths in the US if there’s no gov intervention for social distancing