
How Did It Happen? America’s Unique Failure to Control the Virus - pseudolus
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/us/united-states-failure-coronavirus.html
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Accujack
In short: We failed because our country wasn't capable of controlling the
virus. We're just not good enough at being a nation right now.

A corrupt system that's been in decline for years has produced an artifact
that makes us aware of our decline: a President who is incapable of leading,
but got elected anyway because corruption limited both the number and variety
of leadership choices.

As our governmental system has declined, it was inevitable that we would
eventually encounter some crisis we could not handle, like an aging man that
one day discovers he can no longer perform certain activities without injuring
himself.

We're probably lucky that the problem that came along wasn't one that would
have quickly resulted in death for everyone on the planet. Had we been unlucky
enough to have another Cuban missile crisis like situation with Trump to
handle it, we might have ended up in a nuclear winter with the majority of
humanity dead or dying.

There's no secret as to why we failed to control the virus. The answer is that
our government and society have decayed enough that they're not up to the
task.

We used to be, and I think a lot of people are surprised by this "sudden"
change... but it's not sudden. We've been on this path for decades. The
momentum from the post world war II years and the values of the generation
that have been in power since the late 60s have masked the problems, but
they've been there.

Trump is a symptom of a much larger problem, one that won't be solved quickly
or easily. We not only have to undo decades of slow corrosion, but we have to
change the government and our society so it doesn't happen again.

Whether we're capable of that in our current state, only time will tell.

~~~
Fjolsvith
After 200 plus years, we haven't even controlled the cold or flu. Why should
this one be different?

And what country _is_ controlling coronavirus?

~~~
shadowgovt
New Zealand. [https://theconversation.com/100-days-without-covid-19-how-
ne...](https://theconversation.com/100-days-without-covid-19-how-new-zealand-
got-rid-of-a-virus-that-keeps-spreading-across-the-world-143672)

It required fast, concerted action and a populace willing to comply with
significant new temporary policies.

~~~
Fjolsvith
And... New Zealand's population is not quite 2% of the US, and it is quite
small and able to easily control borders.

Edit: Thanks for responding. When no one else does, I can always count on you.

