Responding

IN SOME COUNTRIES, the virus hit hard. In others, the epidemic was much less severe, seemingly more easily controlled. Among the countries in which the virus hit hard were the United States, Russia, Brazil, and Great Britain. Among those where Covid19 was more gentle were Germany and South Korea, among others. There are commonalities. All four of the large countries hardest hit have right wing, populist governments, governments which at first treated the epidemic dismissively, and were late in responding to it, in terms of medical necessities. The countries in which the outbreak was contained early started dealing with it early, took it seriously from the start, and, unlike the less successful countries, did not have any big national debate on whether the virus was serious, and whether there should be an economic shut down. When the dust has settled, and the analysis begins in earnest, it will be noted that the United States had the worst case of the virus in the entire world. It wasn't even close, and the statistics, which never lie, bear that out. More than twenty five percent of the infected people and more than twenty five percent of the deaths cause by Covid 19 were in the United States. More than one hundred thousand people dead soars above any other country; the next closest is Brazil, with slightly fewer than twenty five thousand deaths Future historians, near future historians, will be asking why, and they will construct a timeline of events, which after all is all that history really is; or, as a famous historian once said, "one damned thing after another". It will be noted that the Trump administration at first called the pandemic a "hoax", and then suggested that it was merely another form of the flu, and then suggested that it could be cured by ingesting disinfectant. The nonsensical comments never stopped. Just as there will soon come a time when the Trump administration is recognized as the most inept, most corrupt in American history, the response by the administration will be seen as having been disastrous, having cost tens of thousands of American lives. These are facts, and no amount of sycophantic future Trump supporter's lies and deceit can conceal it.