US on brink of 5M infections
The United States’ failure to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe, as the world’s most powerful country edges closer to a global record of 5 million confirmed infections.
Perhaps nowhere outside the US is
America’s bungled virus response viewed with more consternation than in Italy, which was ground zero of Europe’s epidemic. Italians were unprepared when the outbreak exploded in February and the country still has one of the world’s highest official death tolls at 35,000.
But after a strict nationwide 10week lockdown, vigilant tracing of new clusters and general acceptance of mask mandates and physical distancing, Italy has become a model of virus containment.
Much of the incredulity in Europe stems from the fact that America had the benefit of time, European experience and medical know-how to treat the virus that the continent itself didn’t have when the first Covid-19 patients started filling intensive care units. Yet, more than four months into a sustained outbreak, the US is about to hit an astonishing milestone of 5 million confirmed infections, easily the highest in the world. Health officials believe the actual number is closer to 50 million, given testing limitations and the fact that as many as 40 percent of all cases are asymptomatic.
“We Italians always saw America
as a model,” said Massimo Franco, columnist with daily Corrieredella
Sera. “But with this virus we’ve discovered a country that is very fragile, with bad infrastructure and a public health system that is nonexistent.”
Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza has not shied away from criticizing the US, officially condemning as “wrong” Washington’s decision to withhold funding from the World Health Organization ( WHO) and marveling personally at President Donald Trump’s virus response.
With America’s list- leading 160,000 dead, politicized resistance to masks and rising caseload, European nations have barred American tourists and visitors from other countries with growing cases from freely traveling to the bloc.
France and Germany are now imposing tests on arrival for travelers from “at risk” countries, the US included.
“I am very well aware that this impinges on individual freedoms, but I believe that this is a justifiable intervention,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn said in announcing the tests last week.
Mistakes were made in Europe, too, from delayed lockdowns to insufficient protections for nursing home elderly and critical shortages of tests and protective equipment for
medical personnel.
The virus is still raging in some Balkan countries and thousands of maskless protesters demanded an end to virus restrictions in Berlin earlier this month. Hard-hit Spain, France and Germany have seen infection rebounds with new cases topping 1,000 a day and Italy’s cases inched up over 500 on Friday. The United Kingdom is still seeing an estimated 3,700 new infections daily, and some scientists say the country’s beloved pubs might have to close again if schools are to reopen in September without causing a new wave.
In the US, new cases run at about 54,000 a day — an immensely higher number, even when taking into account its larger population. And while that’s down from a peak of well over 70,000 last month, cases are rising in nearly 20 states, and deaths are climbing in most.
In contrast, Europe appears to have the virus somewhat under control.
When the virus first appeared in the US, Trump and his supporters quickly dismissed it as either a “hoax” or a virus that would quickly disappear once warmer weather arrived.
Trump has defended the US response, blaming China, where the virus was first detected, for America’s problems and saying the US numbers are so high because there is so much testing.
Health officials watched with alarm as thousands of bikers gathered Friday in the small South Dakota city of Sturgis for a 10-day motorcycle rally. The state has no mask mandates and many bikers expressed defiance of measures meant to prevent the virus’s spread.
Dr. David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, who is leading a team seeking treatments for Covid- 19, decried such behavior, as well as the country’s handling of the virus.
“There’s no national strategy, no national leadership and there’s no urging for the public to act in unison and carry out the measures together,” he said. “That’s what it takes and we have completely abandoned that as a nation.”
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has taken the unusual step of criticizing the US when she urged Washington to reconsider its decision to break ties with the WHO. She also issued veiled criticism of US efforts to buy up stocks of any vaccine that might prove effective, vowing the European Union would work to provide access to everyone “irrespective of where they live.”