The U.S. is going to echo Europe's performance soon enough. And it's not just the leadership skills (such as they are) of the president, but also of the governors as well. States are going to inevitably shut down again, but the time to shut them down is probably 6 weeks before they actually do. In my state, just as cases are starting to rise, we fully re-opened all the restaurants. Exactly when they should be closed, they instead fully re-open. I understand why. Any governor that shuts the state down now can kiss their political careers goodbye, and some governors and mayors have had their lives severely threatened. It would also be highly ineffective anyway, since few would honor it. It's a no-win situation. It's really discouraging.Heksagon wrote:Having a low number of Covid cases was nice while it lasted, but now the cases are skyrocketing in Europe again.
I never had a very high opinion of the crisis management skills of European political leaders and health care authorities, but it's just unbelievable how slow they were at reacting to the second wave.
(I just noticed this very second an announcement that parts of my state is reversing the re-opening "phases". That's good, but it's probably too little too late.)
And for those who say "all this over a virus with a low death rate, and only kills the elderly and people with comorbidities!". I personaly know four people who've caught it. They are all in their 30s to 50s. Two of them were hospitalized, one of them several times. Two of them have been chronically ill for months with cognitive and neurological impairments. Their symptoms may go away, or they may be permanent. As for the one who was not severely affected - she only had a cold for a week - the virus ripped through her entire family, hospitalizing several of them and killing an aunt. Sorry, but I don't think it's unreasonable - especially as someone trying to raise a child - to not want to get so sick that I have to be hospitalized, or be permanently impaired..