[earthtourist]

I'm basing my comments on data: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

In what way did the U.S. "completely drop the ball"?

As far as I can tell there are two things that could have been done better:

1. Much more funding for the National Stockpile of PPE and ventilators.

2. An early attempt to do a lock down.

Testing could have been done faster, but given that no attempt was made at containment, this likely would not have made any difference. It may have made things worse in some cases.

How many other countries even have a National Stock pile with PPE and ventilators? How many have cargo planes flying supplies? Hospital ships sent to hot spots? Field hospitals like the ones designed by U.S. Army Corp of Engineers? An organization with the capabilities of the CDC? The rapid-testing from Abbot Labs?

The U.S. has done a reasonably competent job as far as I can tell. The U.S. has a very good expert leading the federal response, in Dr. Fauci. How many countries have such an expert in charge of their response?

[TeMPOraL]

> Testing could have been done faster

Testing could have been done at all, period. Until ~two weeks ago, US hasn't been doing any meaningful testing; courtesy of a) FDA/CDC bureaucracy boondoggle, and b) both state and federal governments still thinking "it's just a flu".

> no attempt was made at containment

And why is that?

> would not have made any difference

Monitoring hotspots as they develop would vastly improve the ability to control the spread. Perhaps social distancing measures would've started earlier.

> How many other countries even have a National Stock pile with PPE and ventilators?

You mean the one that's being made by seizing PPEs earmarked for hospitals?

> How many have cargo planes flying supplies?

Everyone who has a cargo plane or can charter one.

> Hospital ships sent to hot spots?

It's just a moving hospital.

> Field hospitals like the ones designed by U.S. Army Corp of Engineers?

Everyone has their version of a field hospital.

> An organization with the capabilities of the CDC?

CDC was even more impotent in this case than WHO.

> The rapid-testing from Abbot Labs?

Strangely not used when it mattered.

--

The rest of the world has been watching US response for almost two months now. It's hard to see it as anything but the worst in the entire Western world.

[earthtourist]

1. Early mass testing might have have flooded hospitals with scared people, the same way it seem to in Italy. Whether it was incompetence or reluctance, it may have been a positive thing that there wasn't mass testing.

2. Containment wasn't seen as a viable strategy among virtually any free and democratic country. Locking citizens up in apartment buildings wasn't considered an option. What free country has achieved containment? Maybe South Korea?

3. The U.S. national stock pile had millions of PPE and 12,000+ ventilators. The U.S. miltary also supplied thousands of ventilators. I'll ask again: which other countries had comparable national stockpiles?

4. Commercial cargo is extremely expensive currently which means demand is high and supply is constrained. I'll ask again: which countries have their own fleet of global-reach cargo planes?

5. Okay it's "just a floating hospital" so how many other countries have fully equipped hospitals they can float into port within days?

6. Is everyone's version of a field hospital up to the specifications of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers? I doubt the U.S. field hospitals are inferior to any country's.

7. The FDA and CDC has been working with drug and testing companies quite competently, as far as I can tell. Other countries will almost certainly benefit from the work the U.S. FDA/CDC are doing.

8. The Abbot Labs test is in use, and it matters now. Again, who else had such sophisticated tests so quickly?

You (and many others) seem to be watching a lot of news media that is designed to entertain you, so you keep watching. It's not a bad thing that the U.S. is held to a higher standard but you shouldn't be ignorant that you're holding it to a higher standard. And you should keep your facts straight. Otherwise you risk buying into a narrative that, while entertaining or appealing to your biases, may be largely false.