Sami, this is a pretty good take. This virus has been completely politicized by both sides. While I agree with what Trump has done with OWS and some of the task forces, his messaging has been absolutely horrible and childish. And equally stupid stuff has come out of the mouths of people like Pelosi and Murphy.
I do think, however, the China must be held accountable for their lack of transparency in communicating early on. This virus has been responsible for probably 2 million deaths and the undermining of the worlds economy. Whether it came from a lab or a wet market, China failed in preparing the world for the contagiousness.
seeing what has happened in this country and globally, it comes down to the same two things that would have improved our outcomes. First of all, we should have Closed our borders and limited Movement between states. I find it interesting that states like Vermont and Maine have some of the lowest deaths per hundred thousand even though they are in the north east. Both states have very severe restrictions on quarantining for coming in or for leaving. Yes, they are more rural states but their numbers are the best in the country.
The other thing we should’ve done was to protect those most at risk instead of shutting down everything. We failed miserably at that.
Finally, knowing that a vaccine will take at least a year to be available to everyone, there should’ve been an emphasis on having immediate focus on healthy living. If we spent half the energy that we have making it all about the mask, we would’ve been able to avoid many more hospitalizations and deaths just by doing that.Yeah you hear crickets on the topic. In fact, I would wager a year later we are even an unhealthy or population just based on the kinds of food people are buying in this pandemic and getting less exercise. I was speaking with someone buys for an online retailer That tracks by customer. Over the past nine months most of their customers have gone up a size when ordering.
