[Jordrok]

He's still an idiot. He chose to believe that not because of research or statistics or the advice of people with expertise, but because it was convenient. This was at the beginning of March when there had only been 11 deaths. He was making the argument that this is no worse than the normal seasonal flu, because he was loathe to take any drastic preventative action that might disrupt his precious stock market.

Well, here we are now, thousands have died, with thousands more on the way, and the economic damage has already been done. That's what happens when you let an idiot run the country.

[etrabroline]

I'm loathe to defend the current US president, but almost no Western country took this seriously until the last possible minute. There is clearly a deeper ideological issue infecting the entire West.

[darkteflon]

Australia and New Zealand have done a superlative job: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/have-australia....

[mcv]

It's absolutely true that most western countries underestimated this. East-Asian countries were better prepared and more willing to take drastic action to do what's necessary. Western countries assumed that, like SARS, Asia would solve this. Turns out it's way more contagious than SARS.

Still, once the seriousness became clear, most countries did take action. Trump continued to deny and spread misinformation, even to this day.

[ebcode]

> There is clearly a deeper ideological issue infecting the entire West.

Amen.