2 ms·

Certainly not all of them, but the German healthcare system has dealt extremely well. There is plenty of testing capacity, and plenty of ICU beds. Thanks to cen

• zachrose 7y ago
  It's also hard to say just yet about how poorly the American system is failing.
  • car 7y ago
    I don’t mean to critize american healthcare, it’s one of the best in the world. Unfortunately not accessible for the part of society that is uninsured and undocumented. Marc and his family have donated so much for emergency medicine, the last resort for the uninsured, which is awesome. What makes me sad is to see how people can end up in an existential crisis, both for their health and financially, because the system is failing them.
    • zachrose 7y ago
      American healthcare should absolutely be criticized, I just meant that it’s too early to say, as Joe Biden did two months ago, that a socialized healthcare wouldn’t have helped COVID because Italy has socialized healthcare. We haven’t seen the full destruction of COVID to make an valid comparison.
  • curyous 7y ago
    But it’s just a case of how bad: really bad, or really really bad. When a basketball team can get tests, but ordinary citizens can’t, that is not a healthcare system, it’s a wealthcare system.
• juangacovas 7y ago
  Germany having top pharma factories for things like testing and other medical stuff seems a good reason
  • car 7y ago
    The testing availability and capacity there is also due to the many hospitals at the county level, each with their own medical testing lab. The RKI (German CDC equivalent) developed and distributed a PCR test in mid January, so they were primed.
• usaar333 7y ago
  The republican stronghold of Texas has one of the lowest covid deaths per capita in the United States, better than even California (which is doing relatively well). Deaths per capita at 16/million is lower than almost anywhere in Western Europe. It's not obvious to me at all you can make a political judgement from covid19.
  • parthdesai 7y ago
    Are you conveniently going to ignore the density of Germany compared to Texas and usage of public transport in Germany compared to Texas?
  • camgunz 7y ago
    It's a little more obvious if you compare places with equal exposure (numbers of European and Asian travelers) and density.
    • usaar333 7y ago
      Once you drop the exceptional case of the NY metro area, not really. What makes Washington, Illinois, and Michigan so bad compared to Texas, Virginia or California?
      • camgunz 7y ago
        California was hit early but acted very quickly and effectively. They're also pretty wealthy so they could get equipment and supplies before there was really a rush. Texas and Virginia had the benefit of getting hit when most people were taking this seriously (i.e. they didn't want to become NYC). You also have to consider public transportation use which is way higher in places like Seattle and Chicago than it is in Dallas, Houston, etc. So again it's mostly about exposure: density, travelers, being in contact with travelers, being in contact with people who've been in contact with travelers, etc. How quickly shelter in place was ordered (getting a testing system set up would also have worked but you have to act even faster and spend upfront money, which of course we were never going to do) has a direct effect in exposure. And then it's all about how well you get supplies to treat the infected.