ROME (AP) — The United States’ failure to contain the spread of the coronavirus has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe, as the world’s most powerful country edges closer to a global record of 5 million confirmed infections.

Perhaps nowhere outside the U.S. is America’s bungled virus response viewed with more consternation than in Italy, which was ground zero of Europe’s epidemic. Italians were unprepared when the outbreak exploded in February and the country still has one of the world’s highest official death tolls at 35,000.

But after a strict nationwide 10-week lockdown, vigilant tracing of new clusters and general acceptance of mask mandates and social distancing, Italy has become a model of virus containment.

“Don’t they care about their health?” a mask-clad Patrizia Antonini asked about people in the United States as she walked with friends along the banks of Lake Bracciano, north of Rome. “They need to take our precautions ... They need a real lockdown.”

Much of the incredulity in Europe stems from the fact that America had the benefit of time, European experience and medical know-how to treat the virus that the continent itself didn’t have when the first COVID-19 patients started filling intensive care units. Yet, more than four months into a sustained outbreak, the U.S. is about to hit an astonishing milestone of 5 million confirmed infections, easily the highest in the world. Health officials believe the actual number is closer to 50 million, given testing limitations and the fact that as many as 40% of all cases are asymptomatic.

“We Italians always saw America as a model,” said Massimo Franco, columnist with daily Corriere della Sera. “But with this virus we’ve discovered a country that is very fragile, with bad infrastructure and a public health system that is nonexistent.”

Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza hasn’t shied away from criticizing the U.S., officially condemning as “wrong” Washington’s decision to withhold funding from the World Health Organization and marveling personally at President Donald Trump’s virus response.

After Trump finally donned a protective mask last month, Speranza told La7 television: “I’m not surprised by Trump’s behavior now; I’m profoundly surprised by his behavior before.”

With America’s list-leading 160,000 dead, politicized resistance to masks and rising caseload, European nations have barred American tourists and visitors from other countries with growing cases from freely traveling to the bloc.

France and Germany are now imposing tests on arrival for travelers from “at risk” countries, the U.S. included.

“I am very well aware that this impinges on individual freedoms, but I believe that this is a justifiable intervention,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn said in announcing the tests last week.

Mistakes were made in Europe, too, from delayed lockdowns to insufficient protections for nursing home elderly and critical shortages of tests and protective equipment for medical personnel.

The virus is still raging in some Balkan countries and thousands of maskless protesters demanded an end to virus restrictions in Berlin earlier this month. Hard-hit Spain, France and Germany have seen infection rebounds with new cases topping 1,000 a day, and Italy’s cases inched up over 500 on Friday. The U.K. is still seeing an estimated 3,700 new infections daily, and some scientists say the country’s beloved pubs might have to close again if schools are to reopen in September without causing a new wave.

In the U.S., new cases run at about 54,000 a day — an immensely higher number even when taking into account its larger population. And while that’s down from a peak of well over 70,000 last month, cases are rising in nearly 20 states, and deaths are climbing in most.

In contrast, at least for now Europe appears to have the virus somewhat under control.

“Had the medical professionals been allowed to operate in the States, you would have belatedly gotten to a point of getting to grips with this back in March,” said Scott Lucas, professor of international studies at the University of Birmingham, England. “But of course, the medical and public health professionals were not allowed to proceed unchecked,” he said, referring to Trump’s frequent undercutting of his own experts.

When the virus first appeared in the United States, Trump and his supporters quickly dismissed it as either a “hoax” or a virus that would quickly disappear once warmer weather arrived. At one point, Trump suggested that ultraviolet light or injecting disinfectants would eradicate the virus. (He later said he was being facetious).

Trump’s frequent complaints about Dr. Anthony Fauci have regularly made headlines in Europe, where the U.S. infectious diseases expert is a respected eminence grise. Italy’s leading COVID-19 hospital offered Fauci a job if Trump fired him.

Trump has defended the U.S. response, blaming China, where the virus was first detected, for America’s problems and saying the 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 back that line.

‪“There’s no reason to fear any sickness that’s out there,” said Julia Ferjo, a mother of three in Alpine, Texas, who says she is “vehemently” against wearing a mask. ‪Ferjo, 35, teaches fitness classes in a large gym with open doors, where she doesn’t allow participants to wear masks.

‪“When you’re breathing that hard, I would pass out,” she said. “I do not want people just dropping like flies.”

And health officials watched with alarm as thousands of bikers gathered Friday in the small South Dakota city of Sturgis for a 10-day motorcycle rally. The state has no mask mandates and many bikers expressed defiance of measures meant to prevent the virus’s spread.

Dr. David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, who is leading a team seeking treatments for COVID-19, decried such behavior, as well as the country’s handling of the virus.

“There’s no national strategy, no national leadership and there’s no urging for the public to act in unison and carry out the measures together,” he said. “That’s what it takes and we have completely abandoned that as a nation.”

When he gets on Zoom calls with counterparts from around the globe, “Everyone cannot believe what they’re seeing in the U.S. and they cannot believe the words coming out of the leadership,” he said.

Even the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has taken the unusual step of criticizing the U.S. when she urged Washington to reconsider its decision to break ties with the WHO. She also issued veiled criticism of U.S. efforts to buy up stocks of any vaccine that might prove effective, vowing the EU will work to provide access to everyone “irrespective of where they live.”

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

“The coronavirus has brutally stripped bare the vulnerability of a country that has been sliding for years,” wrote Italian author Massimo Gaggi in his new book “Crack America” (Broken America) about U.S. problems that long predated COVID.

Gaggi said he started writing the book last year and thought then that the title would be taken as a provocative wake-up call. Then the virus hit.

“By March the title wasn’t a provocation any longer,” he said. “It was obvious.”

___

Pane reported from Boise, Idaho. AP reporters from around Europe contributed.

When did cases vs hospitalizations and deaths become the benchmark?

This article (and I suspect the poster of it) is nothing but anti-American drivel.

We live in a federalist republic so we have state run responses. The most thoughtful among us (read: not my governor) are also attempting to weigh other costs than just COVID19 issues into our equations; there are unintended consequences to draconian responses that focus only upon the virus.

A virus which will run its course just like any other virus. The experts, no matter how low we bow to them and their edicts, cannot save us from that.

Better to listen to Sweden than the Italians.

Cut and pasting from reporters that don't any more than any other Joe on the street is useless scare mongering.

One massive editorial from people who don’t know their butts from a hole in the ground.

I frankly , could give a rat's ass what some schmuckos write about this blown out of proportion Charlie Foxtrot!

Are we still comparing Italy to The United States of America?

And did our die hard journalists ever find "Patient Zero?" Or did we give up on that once we started rubbing shoulders with October 2019?

LOL

I'd run for President if I thought these fugk tards deserved me.



Dave the 'Flave

F the Italians.

When the counters manipulate the numbers, as in labeling every death by COVID-19, something is in the works. Whatever they got planned isn’t going to be in our best interest.

Advice and bewilderment fom Rome Italy?

That would be like getting hunting tips from a vegan.

Got to be from the Onion.

Remember when Italy and VaChina were comparable to the US?

LOL

EFFICACY!!!!

I thought the focus was flatten the curve and only essential services. Did that. Keep wearing masks and we can reopen. Did that. We need a vaccine. In tests now.

Then they moved the goalpost....again....and again.

The virus, though nasty and sometimes fatal isn't the enemy. The enemy are those who use it to control the citizens.

The Onion first came to mind when reading it.

Were it really Italian, somewhere within the article it would have said ‘itsa makea me crazy ‘.

In Italy it's called "The Garlic."

Those countries can only envy our level of freedom from government dictates.

Bentquick is a sock puppet and an idiot.

Another troll, who’s primary source of information is the Huffington Post or similar leftest publications! memtb

BY golly they are not liking the fact we aren't stepping in line with their globalist new world order, we should be ashamed. Hey, Italy go work on making a car that actualy runs and learn to wash under your arms.

BenDick, the OP here is a mega troll, here to stir the pot.

Why the anti- American post? We all know.

The virus is spreading throughout the globe. There is no way to prevent that now. Some countries are testing vigorously and some aren’t. That means some post numbers and others don’t.

I repeat, there is nothing that can be done to STOP the spread of the virus right now. Not lock downs not masks not Social Distancing. Those measures may slow the spread, but to what advantage is that unless you believe that not only a vaccine is really at hand, but a super effective treatment is also about to marketed? All current measures are doing is taking a 24 month outbreak and turn it into a 48 month lingering problem. I suspect we will get global herd immunity before we can develop a vaccine and give it 8 BILLION people. After all, isn’t this thing ultra contagious??? How do you stop that?

I can base that past pandemics. 1917-18 Spanish Flu, 1957-58 Asian Flu, 1968-69 Hong Kong flu, 2009-10 H1N1.


The virus will stay in Italy and Germany and it will be spread there just like it is here. That article is a worthless piece of slanted journalism as I’ve seen. Conclusions about the YS from Man in the Street interviews in Rome??? Pleeze!

last time I checked, people were protesting draconian Covid-19 rules in Europe too.

We're going to do what we are going to do, if they want to ban Americans from traveling to their countries, I'm fined with that. We need more banning between countries.

I wonder how they count there numbers. 6% of of those in the U.S. who have died from COVID died only from COVID. That's ~10,000 without doing the math. The others had COVID in their system with 2 or more health problems or died from something else but had COVID in their system. Some of those other health problems have been gunshots and vehicle accidents. George Floyd had COVID so was that what killed him?

Had to go to DMV the other day (not stuff you can do on-line).

I am in a very rural solid red community.

Big line... many many morbidly obese people. 100% mask compliant people in line (except me). Filthy nasty masks on many... 80% standing in line 1-2' apart... I am 10' feet away in the shade... they are all standing hot full sun.

Inside... NO DMV EMPLOYEES were wearing masks... yes they are behind a semi glass window, but they were in and out of the lobby constantly no masks.

The mask shaming cast upon me was brutal... but people have a tendency to back off when you "approach without a mask"... and they know they will surely die from Coronavirus if they do not yield.

Kinda like brandishing... but with nostril hair.

Point being... Good Gosh there are so many incredibly pathetic and stupid people in America.

It's like a 450 pound woman... smoking like a chimney... open diabetes lesions on her arms and legs...

In a stark raving panic that she is going to die from the bite of a King Cobra.

It’s true Covid can be lethal to some individuals, but the idea a mask will save everybody forever is a fantasy. You can’t protect people from every doorknob, surface, or gas handle.

This times 1 billion^^^... It’s unfortunate that some fools will believe anything they’re told.

You can die from a doorknob?

PLEASE DONT MAKE THAT PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE OUTSIDE OF 24 HC.

I'm not going to give anyone schit about wearing or not wearing a mask.

I wear a mask because its required at the grocery, home depot and tractor supply. That is the only 3 places I go. Any restaurants I go to have outside dining and we do that without a mask.

My wife teaches at a school. She starts next week, she works with special needs kids - kids that wear a diaper,can't blow their nose or wash their hands - much less wear a mask. Its going to be interesting to see how that falls out about 3 weeks in.

The article by the OP suggests there is "unanimity" among those in Europe that "their" response is right, and ours is wrong. Except there is not "their" response, because every country there has their own rules, and there is no "our" response, as every state has it's own rules.

I've spoken with people in Europe and Singapore just this last weekend, and some are skeptical about the government response. My old friend in Singapore is basically home bound, on the 23rd floor of a high rise, with his mother in law, and is very limited in where he can go, though they do have outdoor restaurants open. Infections there are very low, but he seemed perplexed when I asked how long they were going to keep people locked up.

The virus is not going to go away, not until we've all had it. So lets get on with it.

And that, my friends, is possibly the best analogy I've yet seen on this whole ridiculous COVID 'pandemic' response.

US testing is a bad joke at best; no better than a 40% accuracy rate & every positive being called a "case" & considered as active.

As long as that goes on, C-19 will never "go away".

MM

It's the Associated Press. And, it's Italy.

Pure bulshit.

What else would you expect?

As Tucker says, EVERYTHING that happens in an election year is related to the election. Period.

He supports BLM and ANTIFA calling conservative bleck Patriots racoons.

Schlongs like BenDick the OP post crap like this as a passive-aggressive shot at the Right, but how so?

How would President Hillary done it differently? We locked the country down completely for 5+ weeks and continue to have restrictions on everything from school to entertainment. I promise President Hillary would have done what the Europeans do because she is a globalist. News flash! Trump did what the globalist Europeans did too. Maybe some countries locked completely down a week or so earlier, maybe they remain somewhat more restrictive in SOME, but we are now the same as they are. A country of misinformed mask wearing conformists afraid of our own shadows and witnessing a major health event and are about to experience seismic changes in our country, economy and society that will have been made worse by the politicization of a health crisis.


2021 will see business bankruptcies large scale. Airlines, rental cars, hotels, commercial real estate will all suffer. There will be chronic 8-12% unemployment to deal with from that. Wages and earnings will drop.

Good news? Illegal immigration will slow if there are no jobs here.

People will flee the urban scene of trendy loft apartments and celebrity chef restaurants and live outside the urban sprawl and work remotely. Business travel will basically cease. Cities will struggle after the working chic flee. Back to the urban decay of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

So the more restrictive the policies are over the next 6-12 months will determine how hard the economic fall will in many sectors of the economy. Lefties, of course don’t see it.

That sir is a very astute observation.

My speculation is that the vast majority of people including conservatives have no idea of the pain and suffering that is coming to America with the economic gyrations we are about to commence.

Hey leftard idiot, Italy has widespread use of Hydroxychloroquine, available over the counter cheap and given free to those who can't pay for it. Take every one of your leftist retard posts and shove them up your @ss.

https://www.independentsentinel.com/italy-goes-all-in-on-hydroxychloroquine/

#1, In the United States, positive tests and deaths are being vastly exaggerated.

The actual numbers are probably 1/3 of what is being reported.
We have all listened to first hand reports of people who never took the test, but got positive test reports, and Doctors being ask/told/threatened to lie on death certificates.

#2 90% of the news being reported is bull chit, and few if any know how to sort fact from fiction.
At any given time, one can find a dozen ”News Stories” by so called “Experts” that present conflicting opinions as facts.

#3 Europe needs to understand that most of the world consider them idiots and do not care what they say or think.

I forgot to mention the end of how many restaurants? That business is tough with 100% of tables open and impossible on 50%. What happens when cold weather closes patio outdoor dining?

Big indoor Malls are doomed. They’ve been suffering but I can’t see them surviving. That’s big chunks of real estate empty for a long time.

All this stimulus money, we’re talking Trillions, usually means inflation.

Hawaii will be an economic mess. 61% of all business in Maui reported ZERO income for April. All tourist related from hotels and restaurants to surfing and excursions. 26% fir all of Hawaii in April.

We should listen to the Italians. They run a tremendously successful country! Their accomplishments include:



Uuuhhh...



Hhmmm. I'll have to get back to y'all later on that.

I wonder how many people actually bother to look up the European stats? My bet is not many. If you go to the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) and look at the stats you find something pretty eye opening. First off you see a lot more cases in what they classify as the "America's" and this can be mostly chalked up to the USA doing a lot more testing that every other nation. More testing, more positive results. See the following:

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/geographical-distribution-2019-ncov-cases



One thing to note is that the ECDC includes Russia in the European count and only a fool would believe any figures that Russia provides. Russia has never given true numbers on anything. Be that as it may, the USA does show more cases than Europe but not by a really huge number 4,998,017 compared to 3,062,264 which makes sense due to the aforementioned increase in testing.

However that isn't the important stat. The important stat is the deaths. For that I invite you to the following:



Take a moment and really look at the figures. The USA has more cases but it has lower deaths. That means Europe is doing much worse because their mortality rate is much higher per capita which means it is much more dangerous to be infected in Europe than in the USA. And once again look at the Russian figures, they don't jive with the rest of the areas numbers which probably means they are skewed or false.

How about the fact that wearing a mask provides no protection at all.

Period.

Yeah everybody seems to forget the “flatten the curve” bullschit they used to scare everyone to death.

La Cosa Nostra & Mannlicher-Carcano rifes?

It seems to me that something has a very terrible stench.They know that Hydroxychloroquine goes a long way toward alleviating coronacrap yet they refuse to prescribe it. Why? My take is it's a cheap drug and Big Pharma can't rip off we the people with some high priced God only knows what. No help from our illustrious Congress as Big Pharma has them in their pockets. I think that makes them highly responsible for at least some of the deaths.
I know a young lady, well she's fifty something but a lot younger than me who has come down with the coronacrap twice and hospitalized twice. Both times they refused to give her Hydroxychloroquine to alleviate her symptoms. When she asked why not, all she was told was it was an oder from above to not use that medicine. She's over it now but is really screwed up healthwise from the experience and is scared stiff if she comes down with it again that it'd be a death sentence.
Now our illustrious Congress who looks after us like a loving parent has supposedly given Big Pharma immunity if their vaccine kills people. That tells me whose side those hijo de puta are on and it ain't we the people.
Paul B.

The anti Trump politics at hand in this country is the immediate disease of worry. The COVID-19 disease is troublesome however the numbers are falsified greatly. False positive testing (upping case numbers) and false COVID-19 deaths abound throughout the data. It is without a doubt in the interest of the TDS crowd to supply as much disinformation as possible to inflict as much panic as can be had. It is a large confederation of haters that are in on this plan. Information control by Facebook, Twitter, Google. Media propaganda from CNN, NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, etc. Democrats and DNC trying desperately early on to take Trump out with Russia Hoax, Ukraine Impeachment Hoax, etc, now COVID-19. The only card they all have left in this insurrection is the virus. I have my suspicions that China is on board with the Dems as well and feels the virus couldn’t have come at a better time. They have now orchestrated the use of Teachers/Unions along with School Superintendents to hamper in the lock down and the use of state, city, local medical providers and County Coroners to falsify Covid-19 numbers. Yes they too have a large contingent of TDS personnel that will do anything to take out Trump. Think about Florida a prize swing state reporting all the erroneous positive testing percentages weeks back, they were off by a factor of 10X the real number. Scaring the older voters into going Biden was all they had in mind with that crap. Teachers demanding things beyond Covid-19 concerns like defunding the police and gun control or they won’t return to teaching so as to join in on the pain of keeping children home and punishing parents with the unenviable choice of providing care or going back to work. All these parameters are not a coincidence, they are an orchestrated 2020 campaign attack on Trump and his voters. We have seen the despicable in action for over four years now. Think long and hard about what is the deep state, it’s all around you with Antifa and BLM now providing foot soldiers and the visual intimidation. It’s all tied together in a nice big package of insurrection and dare I say treasonous behavior.

Almost every death in American hospitals is being attributed to the Bologna virus in order to get extra Fed money (see, our tax dollars) and the libs are using all these BS numbers to make Trump look as bad as possible before the election.

Europe can GFT.

All this makes my blood boil. Peoples lives are at stake and the profiteers want more money so bad they'll deny life-saving medicine to get it in the form of their precious vaccine or other untried wonder drug. How is denying treatment ethical if not outright criminal?

https://sebastianrushworth.com/2020/08/04/how-bad-is-covid-really-a-swedish-doctors-perspective/

Fireball2 came to flap in the wind some more



Raise your arms , soldier Fireball

lol

I remember when Italiens embraced and welcomed the NAZI's to their country. Not surprised you admire NAZI's over freedom loving AMERICANS

Typical Journalist/s.....Probably shopped around to find 1 or 2 idiot people to talk and make stupid statements.

You've all seen it before here in the US...Journalists shop around, find some idiot with green teeth, tatoos on face, hair that looks slicked down with SAE 30, homeless looking WT...and thats who they interview as an expert.

[quote=ribka]I remember when Italiens embraced and welcomed the NAZI's to their country. Not surprised you admire NAZI's over freedom loving AMERICANS



Ribka..........you need to get your facts straight. The majority of Italians did not embrace the NAZIs. They hated them along with Mussolini who was the dictator and he embraced the NAZIs. The Italian people finally revolted and killed Mussolini and hung him and his wife upside down in the city square.

Italians not Italiens Learn to spell

The American economy is in the schitter. Down ONE-THIRD this year. For some context, the American economy was down 13% over the first 2.5 years of the Great Depression. All this "save us from the Covid" nonsense is tanking the one thing left in America that was left to save: the economy. According to the narrative in the mainstream, we should keep on destroying the economy to keep us "safe". For how much longer? As it is now, the economy won't recover for at least a generation, and maybe never. It's pretty obvious what the goal of this whole thing has been, and it has nothing to do with "save us from the Covid."

Oh my....maybe even scarier to them than our guns.

Correct...

My wife works in managment at a large private/public theatrical center.

Let's assume there's a production of The Nutcracker allowed by government in winter 2020... for example.

Tickets are usually $50 each. Social distancing requirements will require three out of every four seats to remain empty. This will make ticket cost $200 a piece. Factor in the additional cost of no performances whatsoever for the past 6 months and the next 2 months up until the Nutcracker performance. This labor burden will make the cost of Nutcracker tickets about $800 a piece.

Ain't nobody in the world going to pay $800 to watch The Nutcracker.

So, every live venue theater or Music Center... shut down.

Every movie center...

Sporting events... same

I could easily go on but I will not.

The government is training people to stay at home become obese/unhealthy/GOVERNMENT DEPENDENT.

To receive all their information from the Internet or television by not allowing or strictly limiting human interaction and thereby GOVERNMENT DEPENDENT..

Restaurants and diners that are allowed to remain open will struggle greatly with less than 50% occupancy. Virtually no outside dining in the winter. With laws in place restaurants that are compliant with .Gov socialist agenda will be permitted to stay open. i.e. restaurant owners and workers must buck up and tow the propaganda line... or be shut down.

What about weddings, funerals, Church, gun shows?

And yet, no one sees the open Warfare being committed by the Socialist.

Jack Mountain suggested a month or two ago that 80% of the population would be best served with a 22 bullet behind the ear. Initially I was horrified by such a statement.

To the very best of my ability I will never feed, shelter or repair the roof of anyone buying into my destruction with their embrace of the Socialist agenda/Warfare in front of us now.

Just another pre-election attempt to make Trump look bad masquerading as something not the Democrat Party.

Ole BenGay got so excited he confused bungled with bunghole.

First amendment to the bill of rights

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

IMHO. Government has used the virus to deny religious freedom and the right to assemble. If we examine governments role in denying freedoms because of covid 19, all of our freedoms are in grave jeopardy. Government has wrongfully detained people by ordering defacto household arrests.

My other thought, 40% of the population will have zero symptoms or issues with covid 19. Another 40% will have mild to moderate issues with covid. Why then do we need this massive shutdown? If, in 1941, we would have had the current attitude that government leaders have towards covid 19, we would have surrendered to Japan and Germany in 1941 rather than fight.

Yes, we knew covid 19 would impact people, but is governments reactions to covid 19 worth the cost?

Yeah....I don’t really put value on Euro opinions on how we do things. The globalist control is strong.

We are doing a tremidous amount of testing.

What matters is deaths and hospitalizations. Europe is far above us and I don't trust the numbers coming out of Russia, China or Iran. NY by far is the worst state maybe because they have an Italian Mayor and Governor.

Are you saying Wops are weasels... or wimps... or that just whine like a 13 year old girl at Peace Corp camp?

I'm confused...

Most Wops are ok but those 2 make the rest look really bad IMHO

Deblasio is not Italian,he changed his name to seem it, he is Warren Wilhelm jr.

Yeah he is 1/2 Italian.

Yeah, but....don't call 'em "Fredo." Ever.

We are well below Europe in case fatalities and deaths as a percentage of population. So the whole article is written on a false premise. Morons will be morons, and there is no shortage of those.


https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality

Thus ain’t about Big Pharna, it’s about politics.

Trump backed the use of Hydroxychloroquine early in. Whatever Orange Mans says is good, must be bad.

Look no further for an answer. Unless you include Israel not only endorsed its use but sent millions of doses to the US....