The US Covid Recovery is Exceptional. Why? What did it do different?

[gwynne]

Lately there has been far to much realism in my escapism. Disney has always been my vacation from real life. There are an infinite number of places to argue this stuff I don't see why it needs to corrupt the happiest message board on earth too.

There are plenty of threads at this site. It's really easy to skip the discussions that don't interest you, and move on to ones that make you happy.

 

[NannyBeBe]

This pandemic hit us like a ton of bricks. We were not prepared for it and did not know how to fight it at first. Masks and other PPE were hard to find. The only true place to blame is China. Rather than continue to accuse and blame, we must fight this together until we conquer it. And we will conquer it.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

Lately there has been far to much realism in my escapism. Disney has always been my vacation from real life. There are an infinite number of places to argue this stuff I don't see why it needs to corrupt the happiest message board on earth too.

Stay out of the Community Board and you'll avoid it. The rest of the board is Disney centric.

 

[wvjules]

Lately there has been far to much realism in my escapism. Disney has always been my vacation from real life. There are an infinite number of places to argue this stuff I don't see why it needs to corrupt the happiest message board on earth too.

You must be new to the Community Board...this is not the happiest message board on earth. lol

Besides, the title of this thread was very clear about the topic. Just scroll past it.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Lately there has been far to much realism in my escapism. Disney has always been my vacation from real life. There are an infinite number of places to argue this stuff I don't see why it needs to corrupt the happiest message board on earth too.

There are way worse threads than this. Best to leave the community board if this one gets to you. It's been pretty mild so far.

 

[JimMIA]

And I'm not sure it matters when the most populated state has approximately half the rate of uninsured. It's not about the denominator.

The denominator matters when you cite the raw number of uninsured. That's the numerator. If you are using that as your standard, the denominator also matters.

If you talk about your state's rate of uninsured compared to California's, you're also using the denominator to make a valid comparison.

But if you're just using raw numbers, then I would certainly expect Texas to have far more people in any category than a state like Rhode Island.

It's about choosing to provide coverage for your population. And when a population is not provided access to medical care, consequences happen.

Agree. The choice states were given was to expand Medicaid at their own taxpayers' expense, or not. Some states expanded; other states did not.

Those decisions were made by state legislatures -- the elected representatives of the people of the states. And they did what legislators do -- they prioritized their spending of taxpayer money. In some states, they chose to raise taxes, or reduce other services, or add debt, in order to fund expanded Medicaid. Other state legislatures placed other priorities ahead of expanding Medicaid.

The choice is not between good or bad; it's not that simple. The decisions require a ranking of priorities competing for a finite amount of money. And it's a zero-sum game with winners and losers. In your state, and mine, increasing coverage for Medicaid recipients didn't make the cut.

 

[HiStitch626]

The only true place to blame is China.

No one is to blame. Diseases happen.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

How related to do think this is with the US having the highest healthcare cost in the developed world and one of the lowest life expectancies?


https://www.healthsystemtracker.org...lth-u-s-spends-disproportionate-amount-health
https://www.healthsystemtracker.org...ctancy-at-birth-in-years-2017_dec-2019-update

 

[FlightlessDuck]

The only true place to blame is China. Rather than continue to accuse and blame, we must fight this together until we conquer it.

Then why mention China at all?

 

[HiStitch626]

Several things go together with high health care costs and lower life expectancy. Part of the lack is the lack of universal health care. When people cannot afford a trip to doctor, or do not have a regular family doctor, they rely on urgent care and emergency rooms. These are more expensive to start with, and often people require more critical care as they waited until their symptoms worsened. The US also does not have universal pre-natal care, so women may not see a doctor until they are in labor. Smaller issues that may have been easy to treat early in pregnancy are not treated and become more significant later. The US has a much higher premature birth rate and a much higher maternal mortality rate than we should. Treatment of premature babies in a NICU is extraordinarily expensive. And, some of the babies do not survive which lowers the life expectancy of the population as a whole.

The law requires hospitals to treat people, even when they cannot afford to pay. But, someone has to pay, so those costs are passed on to cash customers and those with insurance.

 

[sam_gordon]

Lately there has been far to much realism in my escapism. Disney has always been my vacation from real life. There are an infinite number of places to argue this stuff I don't see why it needs to corrupt the happiest message board on earth too.

Because you're forced to click into the thread? There are a LOT of threads I really don't care about, or want to read. The scroll wheel works great!

 

[cobright]

Being mindful about the rules, I am from Ireland and I can offer some insight...

This was exactly the sort of observation I was hoping for.

Do you live in the US? Do you watch the news and know what's going on with our government? If so, then you already know the answer to this.

Yes, I have some opinions about why this is going the way it is, and I think some polite discourse on the subject is interesting, but I'm mostly asking about what was different rather than why was it different.

Seriously? It is impossible to answer your question without getting into politics. IMO, a public health crisis should not be political, however, it was politicized from the beginning, and that is unfortunate.

It shouldn't be impossible to talk about the differences in policies and conditions around the world and the differences in outcomes owing to them ... or not owing to them.

It was designed to be political.

It wasn't. Even in the rare thread where I talk about political division, I'm careful to avoid judgement of one party or another. I don't think like that, our politicians are an expression of our political will as a people and when I'm not happy with a political outcome I look at it as a national failing, not a political one. This thread should not be about a political division, it's about the outcomes that affect us all.

I don't see an option to report an entire thread for violating the rules. Perhaps that's something these boards need. There is no good outcome from this IMHO.

I think introspection and the constructive criticism of outside viewpoints is usually a good outcome.

Why just those select countries? Why is it always US bad when other 1st world countries are worse. What about the UK, Italy, Brazil? What about the beloved did it perfect the best in the world Sweden? Sweden is worse than us and revered by all buying into the fear to have done it right.

Edit: UK and Sweden flopped to the other side of the US by a near imperceptible amount since the last time I gathered numbers.

I did run through most wealthy developed nations. I left Brazil out of the direct comparison because it's government actively denied the Pandemic and took steps to discourage social distancing for several months. Even then Brazil's current average daily death rate is 80% of ours and falling. Sweden Largely had the same attitude and paid a horrible price for it, their current average daily death rate is very low but their daily new cases is skyrocketing to nearly double the highest its ever been! Being a lagging indicator, I think the death rates will have to jump as well in the near future.

There are a number of countries with crude death rates a little higher than the US's, usually owing to very small population sizes that magnify the impact of small increases in cases. But in most of those, even the UK, Italy and Spain, that rise in death rate past the US level comes at the end of 3+ months of following the bottom of the graph. Spain and Italy in particular are hard to judge because they took on such a large surge in the beginning before the world really got a handle on just what was happening.


But in any case, my comparison is between the US and the large body of states that have fared far better than us. To the extent that there are a number of states with daily crude death rates near or above the US's, then add them to the US's side of the comparison if you like.

But, pick any metric of morbidity you like and look at the US's chart versus that of most of the rest of the world and it has a distinctive shape.

 

[JimMIA]

My daughter is away at college, so I'm much more concerned about riots in her city than Covid in Kosovo.

 

[cobright]

However, what would the authority have been for a federal mask mandate? There is none.

The Public Service Health Act gives the federal government some very broad powers concerning establishing and enforcing quarantine. I think requiring a mask as a condition of breaking quarantine would be within that power.

But that doesn't really matter for this thread. This thread is not about covid -- it's just another "Orange Man Bad" thread.

It really isn't. That should be evident by the number of good, fair, or at least interesting ideas on this subject you have brought up so far.

1) This whole thread is "Fake News". Look at the title... "The US COVID recovery is exceptional". Doesn't 'exceptional' usually mean "good"?
2) Anyone else surprised the OP hasn't been back?

1 - the first definition for the word relates to being outside the normal. example: For many, Covid is an exceptionally dangerous disease to get. I used the word correctly.
2 - I posted this yesterday. I get my Dis fix when I get my Dis fix.

The only true place to blame is China. Rather than continue to accuse and blame, we must fight this together until we conquer it.

That's an interesting pair of sentences to chain together. So what do you think was different about China that let them essentially eradicate new cases within 3 months and nearly end the deaths within 4?

 

[JimMIA]

The Public Service Health Act gives the federal government some very broad powers concerning establishing and enforcing quarantine. I think requiring a mask as a condition of breaking quarantine would be within that power.

This is the kind of statement that convinces me this is just more "Orange Man Bad" propaganda.

Nobody in their right mind is even joking about a nationwide quarantine!

Although...a nationwide quarantine might help prevent riots...

 

[MrsBooch]

This is the kind of statement that convinces me this is just more "Orange Man Bad" propaganda.

Nobody in their right mind is even joking about a nationwide quarantine!

Although...a nationwide quarantine might help prevent riots...

that's like the second time you've mentioned riots - it's almost like you are trying to make this political......

 

[SaintsManiac]

This is the kind of statement that convinces me this is just more "Orange Man Bad" propaganda.

Nobody in their right mind is even joking about a nationwide quarantine!

Although...a nationwide quarantine might help prevent riots...

why do you keep mentioning riots? What riots are going on? I don’t watch much news anymore, so forgive my ignorance.

 

[JimMIA]

why do you keep mentioning riots? What riots are going on? I don’t watch much news anymore, so forgive my ignorance.

I'm just expressing that there are other priorities besides what Luxembourg is doing about covid.

Riots are happening regularly whether you read about it or not, and they are more of a concern than what Europe is doing.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I'm just expressing that there are other priorities besides what Luxembourg is doing about covid.

Riots are happening regularly whether you read about it or not, and they are more of a concern than what Europe is doing.

Ok you didn’t answer my question but whatever.

 

[MrsBooch]

I'm just expressing that there are other priorities besides what Luxembourg is doing about covid.

Riots are happening regularly whether you read about it or not, and they are more of a concern than what Europe is doing.

Well I live about 15 minutes away from Philadelphia, PA - they are literally burning things down due to various reasons - my opinion of which are irrelevant - and I am more concerned about what the COVID plan is.

So - Riots aren't more important in my opinion, than figuring out what should be done about COVID.