The elephant in the room (re: the pandemic response) is the privatized health care system. With costs so high, people will avoid treatment, and with few security nets, people will go to work sick. How exactly do you prevent a rapid spread in that situation?
The simplified answer: the US is a late-stage civilization in gradual decline since either post-WW2 or about 1960.<p>The "frog" has been "boiling" slowly for a long time and is almost cooked.<p>See also:<p>- <i>America: The Farewell Tour</i> by Chris Hedges<p>- Chalmers Johnson's <i>Decline of Empires: Signs of Decay</i> <a href="https://youtu.be/Q2CCs-x9q9U" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/Q2CCs-x9q9U</a><p>- <i>The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</i> by Gibbon<p>- <i>The Rise and Fall of the Great Empires</i> by Taylor
But according to Western media, free, rich, and democratic America, with our great President Trump, should be able to handle this crisis, much better than poor, enslaved, and totalitarian China.<p>This is what the Western media has been pushing down our throats for the past 2 months. Did something just change in the past week?<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/why-democracies-are-better-fighting-outbreaks/606976/" rel="nofollow">https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/why-democr...</a>