US hits 5 million confirmed cases of coronavirus, Europe is stunned

ROME With confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US hitting 5 million on Sunday, by far the highest of any country, the lack of the most powerful nation in the world to contain the pound is in the basket with surprise and alarm in Europe.

Perhaps nowhere outside the US is America’s bungled virus response seen with more consternation than in Italy, which was ground zero of the European epidemic. Italians were unprepared when the outbreak erupted in February, and the country still has one of the worst official death toll in the world at more than 35,000.

But after a strict national, 10-week lockdown, waiting traces of new clusters and general acceptance of mask mandates and social distance, Italy has become a model of virus containment.

“Didn’t they worry about their health?” a masked Patrizia Antonini asked about people in the United States as she walked with friends along the shores of Lake Bracciano, north of Rome. ‘They have to take our precautionary measures. … They need a real lockdown. “

Much of the injustice in Europe stems from the fact that America had the advantage of time, European experience and medical knowledge to treat the virus that the continent itself did not have when the first COVID-19 patients started using it. filling intensive care units.

More than four months after a sustained outbreak, the U.S. reached the 5 million mark, according to the current count held by Johns Hopkins University. Health officials believe that the actual number is often 10 times higher, as close to 50 million, given test limitations and the fact that up to 40% of all those who are infected have no symptoms.

“We Italians have always seen America as a model,” said Massimo Franco, a columnist with Corriere della Sera. “But with this virus, we have discovered a country that is very fragile, with poor infrastructure and a public health system that does not exist.”

With America’s highest death toll of more than 160,000, its politicized opposition to masks and its increasing caseload, European nations have prevented American tourists and visitors from other countries from growing free travel to the block.

France and Germany are now introducing tests on arrival for travelers from countries “at risk”, including the US.

“I am well aware that this affects individual freedoms, but I believe this is a fair intervention,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn said last week.

Mistakes were made in Europe as well, from delayed lockdowns to inadequate protections for the elderly for nursing homes and critical shortages of tests and protective equipment for medical staff.

Hard-hit Spain, France, Britain and Germany have seen infection rebounds with new cases exceeding 1,000 per day, and Italy’s cases exceeded more than 500 on Friday. Some scientists say Britain’s favorite pubs may have to close again when schools reopen in September.

Europe as a whole has seen more than 207,000 confirmed virus deaths, by the Count of Johns Hopkins.

In the US, new cases are running at around 54,000 a day – an immensely large number, even if you take into account the large population of the country. And while that is down from a high of well over 70,000 last month, cases are rising in nearly 20 states, and deaths are climbing in most.

In contrast, at least Europe seems to have the virus under control.

“If medical professionals could work in the States, you would be late in March to tackle this,” said Scott Lucas, Professor of International Studies at the University of Birmingham, England. “But of course, the medical and professional health care professionals could not go on without control,” he said, referring to The frequent distinction of President Donald Trump from his own experts.

When the virus first appeared in the United States, Trump and his supporters quickly dismissed it as a “hoax” like a gimmick that would soon disappear when poorer weather arrived. At one point, Trump suggested that ultraviolet light when injecting disinfectants would remove the virus. (He later said he was facetious).

Trump’s frequent complaints about Dr. Anthony Fauci have regularly made headlines in Europe, where American experts on infection are a respected figure. Italy’s leading COVID-19 hospital offered Fauci a job when Trump fired him.

Trump has defended the U.S. response, accusing China, where the virus was first discovered, of America’s problems, saying U.S. numbers are so high because there is so much testing. Trump supporters and Americans who have refused to wear masks against all medical advice are back on this line.

“There’s no reason to be afraid of any disease that is there,” said Julia Ferjo, a mother of three in Alpine, Texas, who is “violent” against wearing a mask. Ferjo, 35, teaches fitness classes in a large gym with open doors. She does not let participants wear masks.

“If you breathe so hard, I would pass,” she said. “I do not want people to just fall like flies.”

And health officials watched with alarm as thousands of cyclists gathered Friday in the small South Dakota town of Sturgis for an annual 10-day motorcycle rally. The state has no mask mandates, and many cyclists oppose measures intended to prevent the spread of the virus.

Dr. David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, who leads a team seeking treatments for COVID-19, decides such behavior, as well as land-treating the virus.

“There is no national strategy, no national leadership, and there is no coercion for the public to act in unison and implement the measures together,” he said. “That’s what it costs, and we have left that completely as a nation.”

When he gets Zoom talks with colleagues from all over the world, “everyone can not believe what they see in the US and they can not believe the words are coming out of the lead,” he said.

Amid the mockery of other countries, Trump gave national security adviser Robert O’Brien, newly recovered from an attack with the virus, Sunday an optimistic image on CBS ‘”Face the Nation.”

‘We’ll fight like heck. We work hard on faxes. We work hard on testing machines that are portable and fast. … We are working on therapeutics, “he said.” I am so impressed with our scientists and our doctors and our first responders and the people who are attacking this disease, and God bless them all. “

Many Europeans proudly point to their national health care systems that not only test but treat COVID-19 for free, unlike the US system, where the virus crisis has only increased incomes and racial inequalities in health care.

“The coronavirus has brutally eradicated the vulnerability of a country that has slipped for years,” wrote Italian author Massimo Gaggi in his new book “Crack America”, about American problems that COVID-19 has long predated .

Gaggi said he started the book last year and then thought the title would be taken as a provocative alarm clock. Then the virus struck.

“By March, the title was no longer a provocation,” he said. “It was, of course.”

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Fane reported from Boise, Idaho. AP reporters from across Europe contributed.

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