The first cases in Europe and the USA were around late January. So, it has been in the US since February and most places didn't lock down completely until late March, early April. So, 100K cases in 3+ months (the last two with shelter in place) is pretty good for a country of 330 million. Spain (27K in 46.7 mil), Italy (33K in 60.4 mil) and the UK (37.4K in 67.8 mil) have done much worse. You can make the same claims on potentially more dead due to lack of testing in those countries (they combine for 7.8 mil tests, while we have done 15.9 mil).
Had the local states, hospitals and population not responded the way we did in the US, we could have easily matched the rates of the UK or Italy and had 180-200K dead. Is it as good as places like South Korea with a culture developed on using masks and protecting against flu viruses over decades? No, but it is an impressive effort by most of our population in regards to social distancing and the health care workers.
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Originally Posted by MIJB#19
These are pointless comparisons. There is no other country in the world with the same or even similar demographics, geography, politics and economy as the USA. It might be possible to compare much smaller countries that are actually very similar in all those aspects, but even then you're talking apples and orange. Comparing any country with the USA is comparing apples with goat milk.
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People have no problem saying how terrible we are when compared to South Korea or Germany. Why is it different to compare us to Italy, the UK or Spain in the same vain?