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i think there is a lot of superiority feeling in Western countries over Asia and then in Western countries against each other. For example when things started h

i think there is a lot of superiority feeling in Western countries over Asia and then in Western countries against each other. For example when things started happening in Italy the Germans thought that it's an Italian problem. As far as the US goes it was pretty clear that the administration didn't want to deal with this at all at home. So they were constantly behind the curve and did things only when basically forced.

davidw 6y ago
> For example when things started happening in Italy As someone who lived in Italy and now lives in the US, this was driving me absolutely crazy. They have a great health care system, and are a transparent democracy. When things started to happen rapidly there, it was very, very clear that the same situation would play out in the US, and yet there were still a lot of "just a flu" people.
- ardy42 6y ago
  > When things started to happen rapidly there, it was very, very clear that the same situation would play out in the US... When it was still restricted to China, I was able to reassure myself into complacency with memories of the original SARS. China contained that, so maybe they will contain this one, too? As soon as it hit Italy hard, that story didn't work anymore, and it was clear it was only a matter of time before it spread everywhere.
- briandear 6y ago
  However the history of flu in Italy is interesting— they have a much higher fatality rate in general than the rest of Europe. Their 2017 flu season killed as many people as Coronavirus killed this year. Italy doesn’t have a great track record with infectious disease and they also have among the fewest ICU beds of any developed country: about 8 beds per 100k while the US has 32 beds per 100,000 population. They also have some ridiculous politics that led them to not closing borders sooner. Didn’t the mayor of Florence have a “hug-a-Chinese” day in February? There was so much political correctness around banning travelers from China that it probably cost significant lives.
  - davidw 6y ago
    > Didn’t the mayor of Florence have a “hug-a-Chinese” day in February? There was so much political correctness around banning travelers from China that it probably cost significant lives. They were one of the first countries to ban travel from China. What you call "political correctness" was just an anti-racism message. Italy certainly had some things go wrong in some areas, but they were also unlucky in some ways, being the first country to get hit hard.
    - jakeogh 6y ago
      A lot of power is derived from and dependent on pretending there is division where there is not.
  - fspeech 6y ago
    And yet the Chinese community in Italy didn't suffer much from Covid outbreaks https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-chinese/from-zero-to-hero-italys-chinese-help-beat-coronavirus-idUSKBN21I3I8 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-..., neither did Chinatown in San Francisco https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/us/san-francisco-coronavirus-chinese-hospital.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/us/san-francisco-coronavi...

davidw 6y ago

> For example when things started happening in Italy As someone who lived in Italy and now lives in the US, this was driving me absolutely crazy. They have a great health care system, and are a transparent democracy. When things started to happen rapidly there, it was very, very clear that the same situation would play out in the US, and yet there were still a lot of "just a flu" people.

ardy42 6y ago
> When things started to happen rapidly there, it was very, very clear that the same situation would play out in the US... When it was still restricted to China, I was able to reassure myself into complacency with memories of the original SARS. China contained that, so maybe they will contain this one, too? As soon as it hit Italy hard, that story didn't work anymore, and it was clear it was only a matter of time before it spread everywhere.
briandear 6y ago
However the history of flu in Italy is interesting— they have a much higher fatality rate in general than the rest of Europe. Their 2017 flu season killed as many people as Coronavirus killed this year. Italy doesn’t have a great track record with infectious disease and they also have among the fewest ICU beds of any developed country: about 8 beds per 100k while the US has 32 beds per 100,000 population. They also have some ridiculous politics that led them to not closing borders sooner. Didn’t the mayor of Florence have a “hug-a-Chinese” day in February? There was so much political correctness around banning travelers from China that it probably cost significant lives.
- davidw 6y ago
  > Didn’t the mayor of Florence have a “hug-a-Chinese” day in February? There was so much political correctness around banning travelers from China that it probably cost significant lives. They were one of the first countries to ban travel from China. What you call "political correctness" was just an anti-racism message. Italy certainly had some things go wrong in some areas, but they were also unlucky in some ways, being the first country to get hit hard.
  - jakeogh 6y ago
    A lot of power is derived from and dependent on pretending there is division where there is not.
- fspeech 6y ago
  And yet the Chinese community in Italy didn't suffer much from Covid outbreaks https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-chinese/from-zero-to-hero-italys-chinese-help-beat-coronavirus-idUSKBN21I3I8 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-..., neither did Chinatown in San Francisco https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/us/san-francisco-coronavirus-chinese-hospital.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/us/san-francisco-coronavi...