They announced just 264 new virus cases 6 days ago….
That was for the WHOLE country…
The difference around the world has been political and health leadership from the top and support from the bottom in dealing with the virus….
The European Union has just announced a ban on Americans traveling there due to the virus situation in America…
Of course some NorthEastern US States have announced quarantine’s for those traveling to them from some Southern and MidWestern states also…
Three months ago, public health officials feared that America would be swamped by Covid-19 like Italy. Today, the U.S. would be lucky to swap its coronavirus crisis for theirs.
Italy’s sudden surge of coronavirus in March swamped hospitals, pushed the nation into a strict lockdown and forced its doctors to ration life-saving ventilators. About 200,000 Italians were sickened and 29,000 died from the virus by May 1 alone. Global health officials seized on Italy — as the first country outside of China to be battered by the virus — as a disturbing case study for the rest of the world. In private meetings, White House officials worried that Italy was a preview of the storm about to hit the U.S. health system.
“I think there are going to be states in our country that can replicate Italy,” said Ashish Jha, head of Harvard’s Global Health Institute, noting that New York has made its own dramatic strides in containing the virus.
“But I would rather spend this summer in Rome with my family than in Phoenix.”
Italy is not alone in driving coronavirus down to manageable levels. Its Western European neighbors Spain and France grappled with damaging outbreaks that killed tens of thousands and prompted lockdowns, only to drive daily new cases below 500. Meanwhile, Germany was able to fend off the virus with relatively low mortality, which some credit to the nation’s robust test-and-trace strategy. The collective recovery of the European nations — punctuated by Italy’s apparent turnaround — stands in stark contrast to the muddle facing many parts of America, where the death toll has now topped 120,000.
Jha and other public health experts say that America’s piecemeal, politicized approach to fighting coronavirus has left the United States ever-further behind the Western European nations that were similarly threatened by the virus but moved more judiciously to fend it off…..
image…The historical Piazza della Signoria square in Florence, Italy, in early June. | Andrew Medichini/AP Photo
Nate Silver
@NateSilver538
People in NYC and elsewhere in the Northeast are eating in outdoor bars and restaurants (indoors in places too) and the numbers in the NE generally look a lot like Europe’s, which may not be a coincidence since they have similar climates (nice outside in June) and seroprevalence.