[twomoretime]

I'm the one who brought up the EU. The purpose was as a size comparison. Look at the differences in covid "stage" between different EU states - that difference is primarily a function of geography - the time it takes for the virus to spread is about the same as the time it takes to isolate and suppress it.

Now consider that the US is substantially larger and more sparsely populated. That alone ensures that it doesn't make any more sense to say "US is at stage 1" than it does to say "EU is at stage one", because that fails to capture the range of different stages in different geographic regions (countries/states). That doesn't even begin to capture policy differences.

That was the sole reason I brought it up. Nothing defensive anywhere.

[Johnjonjoan]

Just like it makes no sense to say the UK is at stage one because London is ahead. You need to stop being so pedantic. I get you guys want to compare but you're beating a dead horse.

[bhupy]

The difference is that the UK is a unitary State[1], and as such its COVID strategy is dictated at the UK-level. The sub-national units are not sovereign.

The US and the EU are federations[2][3], and their sub-national units are sovereign. Like the EU, the US’s COVID strategy has been left to the States[4].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitary_state

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation#Federations

[3] https://gizmodo.com/why-is-the-united-states-considered-a-co...

[4] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-stay...

[Johnjonjoan]

The post I was replying to clearly said that the issue was size not governance. But even with regards to that point I really don't understand how it affects what I said.

My point was that you can't say even a country is in a certain stage because the outbreaks are much more local than that. London is a month ahead of some parts of the country. So its just as incorrect to say the UK is at a certain stage as it is to say it about the EU and USA.

[bhupy]

I misunderstood you, agreed.