The constant feature of this pandemic has been underestimating the severity of the virus due to the significant delay between actions and consequences. Multiple problematic new mutations are spreading right now, and we don't even have a decent grasp on it due to severely lacking genetic surveillance. The country is ignoring the reality of the mutated strains because the consequences are not yet visible. Of course, once they are visible, we'll be in a very dire situation, with no capacity to respond to a drastically increased number of people requiring hospitalization. We could be vaccinating folks far faster if we included the Oxford vaccine in our mix, but it hasn't even been approved yet, for what appears to be entirely political reasons.
Beyond all of that, though, the crucial underlying feature of the pandemic in the US has been that a large percentage of the population just doesn't seem to give a shite if the virus kills other people, as long as they calculate they themselves are likely to survive. We have been revealed as a nation of latent sociopaths.
In fairness, Trump isn't responsible for all 400,000 deaths, Even in nations where the Covid response was handled responsibly, say, Germany for example, they've had problems, So maybe had Trump acted responsibly we'd have 200,000 deaths instead of 400,000. I don't think as big and interconnected nation as the US was ever going to mostly avoid all Covid impacts, as a few countries (New Zealand, Australia, South Korea) seem to have been able to.
The reductions of Covid restrictions is mostly state-level decisions, because those decisions were not made at the federal level. There are various reasons why our restrictions are so lax. Some states just followed Trump's lead because that is the Republican position and they are good Republicans. Which is of course a terrible reason. But a lot of others, who had restrictions in the first few months, eased them in the late summer and fall and haven't re-implemented them this winters despite the situation being far worse not than it was in the early days.
Why? Two main reasons. One, the public has tired of restrictions, and returning to them would be politically damaging to the governors, In the end, being re-elected is one of their prime motivations in their decision making. The other is state budgets. Their revenue is down drastically, and they have to balance their budget so they don't want to curtail businesses generating that revenue for them.
The constant feature of this pandemic has been underestimating the severity of the virus due to the significant delay between actions and consequences. Multiple problematic new mutations are spreading right now, and we don't even have a decent grasp on it due to severely lacking genetic surveillance. The country is ignoring the reality of the mutated strains because the consequences are not yet visible. Of course, once they are visible, we'll be in a very dire situation, with no capacity to respond to a drastically increased number of people requiring hospitalization. We could be vaccinating folks far faster if we included the Oxford vaccine in our mix, but it hasn't even been approved yet, for what appears to be entirely political reasons.
Beyond all of that, though, the crucial underlying feature of the pandemic in the US has been that a large percentage of the population just doesn't seem to give a shite if the virus kills other people, as long as they calculate they themselves are likely to survive. We have been revealed as a nation of latent sociopaths.
In fairness, Trump isn't responsible for all 400,000 deaths, Even in nations where the Covid response was handled responsibly, say, Germany for example, they've had problems, So maybe had Trump acted responsibly we'd have 200,000 deaths instead of 400,000. I don't think as big and interconnected nation as the US was ever going to mostly avoid all Covid impacts, as a few countries (New Zealand, Australia, South Korea) seem to have been able to.
The reductions of Covid restrictions is mostly state-level decisions, because those decisions were not made at the federal level. There are various reasons why our restrictions are so lax. Some states just followed Trump's lead because that is the Republican position and they are good Republicans. Which is of course a terrible reason. But a lot of others, who had restrictions in the first few months, eased them in the late summer and fall and haven't re-implemented them this winters despite the situation being far worse not than it was in the early days.
Why? Two main reasons. One, the public has tired of restrictions, and returning to them would be politically damaging to the governors, In the end, being re-elected is one of their prime motivations in their decision making. The other is state budgets. Their revenue is down drastically, and they have to balance their budget so they don't want to curtail businesses generating that revenue for them.