[ekianjo]

> Europe can relax because they worked hard in the beginning to get everything under control.

Where do you see that COVID19 is over?

> under control

A very steep second wave of infection is, to me, the opposite of "under control". Do you actually check data?

https://covid19.who.int/region/euro/country/fr

Also, just routinely mentioning:

"No country knows the total number of people infected with COVID-19. All we know is the infection status of those who have been tested."

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-testing

Also, the US tests about twice more (per thousand people) vs the rates of testing in Europe, so you should expect at least 2x more cases discovered in the US just by this mere fact.

Most of Europe also has only a "symptoms-based" testing policy, while the US also has an "asymptomic" testing policy.

[rockinghigh]

It's under control from a death perspective. Daily deaths number have been in the 0-20 range for 2+ months in France. The numbers are 100x higher in the US (500-1500/day) over the same period with 5 times the population.

[esrauch]

I'm curious about the death rates in the European countries on your WHO link; both France and Spain have clear resurgence in cases but very near zero deaths. Did they actually reduce the morbidity by 100x, or is there some other fundamental difference?

[SpicyLemonZest]

Morbidity has definitely reduced some, both because testing is now covering non-severe cases and because treatment protocols have improved.

But a major factor is that deaths have consistently been a lagging indicator for this disease, both because the progression is quite long and because the most active spreaders tend to be younger and healthier. It's likely that they'll see a matching resurgence in deaths over the next few weeks, as other areas of the world with case surges have consistently seen.

[refurb]

The most vulnerable died and now it's younger, less vulnerable people being infected and we have safety measures to protect the remaining vulnerable populations?

It will be interesting to see the death rate once this is all over. It might be much lower and the initial numbers were skewed by cases in the elderly.

[ekianjo]

> both France and Spain have clear resurgence in cases but very near zero deaths.

We are getting better at treating COVID19. We are not as clueless as 6 months ago.