Josh Marshall gives a nice rundown of how China is calling us out. He catalogs how China both A) originally downplayed and tried to hide the virus and then B) did mostly everything right. Both are true. What is also true is that we did a terrible job with the lead time we did have and - more importantly - CONTINUE to do a poor job.
Those who continue to throw shade at China are simply trying to distract from the disastrous response that we had and continue to have. It is mind-boggling that we still don't seem to have any sort of national plan for widespread testing. Some countries nailed it from the start, some are getting better. What is amazing is that we have no national plan to deal with this. Instead, we are giving a veto to any yahoo who thinks this is overblown because he isn't personally sick.
One other thing. Aside from Germany, when you look at countries that have handled this well, they are usually fairly remote - like Australia and New Zealand - or they have extensive experience with SARS - like Hong Kong or Singapore - or a combination of both - South Korea and Taiwan. Proximity to China actually HELPED these countries, because they had put plans in place after SARS. They wear masks all the time. Widespread masking and testing is really the only way we get back to "normal," whatever that might mean.
Are we great again yet?
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