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worldwide- they were freaking out.  Just because our media didn't cover it extensively doesn't mean it didn't happen.  H1N1 and MERS are a huge concern and though MERS wasn't pandemic but more epidemic doesn't mean it wasn't a huge concern to WHO.  Here, we quietly tracked H1N1 cases using a system implemented as part of the NIMS (national incident management system) and ICS (Incident command structure) procedures to harvest data from emergency responders and hospitals 'live' databases and tracking systems, identifying and isolating as much as possible and while focusing the weight of resources and efforts at locations where it was concentrated and/or there was potential/threat of massive spread....

in short... the administration at the lowest levels handled it based on identified procedures captured during cross-decked communication including the CDC, WHO, down to the local health departments and mayors and without intervention from freaking the house and senate in an election year and with one of the most popular (and a populist) President in office.. They followed procedure.  We (average joe's) hardly noticed- but that doesn't mean there wasn't full out execution of response plans. It just means the media didn't want to impact the sitting president/messiah they so approved of.  It was actually handled correctly. 

then... after that 'success', it's followed along with a bunch of charlatans sewing fear and panic (but only after leading parades through China Town in various cities for a photo op) and the image (and image alone) that a sitting President was doing nothing.  which is bull shit.  but, 'they' painted him in a corner to where he took to the podium every single day- to the point the media began to ignore him- and he got involved, bringing deep state operatives such as fauci and scarf lady who were in stations neither of them should have been in (they were tools of the state and not of their appointed stations).  NOT ONE TIME has anyone asked Fauci "why was there no plan?"- instead, they got out in front and pretended there is no means to "know what to do when we don't know enough about it"- and that demonstrates 40 years of incompetence and begs the question "why were they getting paid?"- as it IS THEIR JOB to spitball- in the better sounding activity of 'think tank' possibilities and contingencies based on possibilities- to catalog them and store them in databases which can be referenced by interjecting queries specific to the conditions, and suitable responses immediately made available.  but... no.... they made a circus over it and for the gain of one political party- and at a moment when we damn well should have been united... 

Ahh, so you're only referring to the media coverage of this, not the actual government response?

I'm saying we didn't have lockdowns, or Operation Warp Speed, or any of those actual changes to government policy because this was a much more dangerous virus/disease than H1N1. 

I'm not talking about assigning blame, or how the media covered things, or whether there was political advantage for how this virus/disease was "spun". 

H1N1 was a mouse. This thing is an elephant.

Ahh, so you're only referring to the media coverage of this, not the actual government response?

I'm saying we didn't have lockdowns, or Operation Warp Speed, or any of those actual changes to government policy because this was a much more dangerous virus/disease than H1N1.

I'm not talking about assigning blame, or how the media covered things, or whether there was political advantage for how this virus/disease was "spun".

H1N1 was a mouse. This thing is an elephant.

More like a cat. 

Elephants are afraid of mice anyway.

The Bootlegger's Boy wasn't born on 3rd base

That's just because his family had already stolen it.

The 1918-1919 flu infected an estimated 30% of the world's population, and killed about ten percent of those infected, not 3%, maybe the zero was left out.

I'm saying it was ALL mishandled, and on the heels of a circumstance that was NOT mishandled.  I'm asking "why is that?"...

I'm opining that it was seized by media and the democrats, who are one and the same, and weaponized in effort to eliminate a political enemy.  I'm saying that media and politicians stayed clear of H1N1 and allowed policies and procedures to deploy and operate without meddling for 'optics'... I'm saying that Fauci and Birch were exposed as charlatans to anyone paying attention and were rolled out and fought over by both sides as political pawns.  I'm saying the lessons learned from H1N1 were completely lost when addressing COVID19.  I'm calling it plainly- a political operation.

Spanish flue impacted 3% of the global population.  The flu of 1968 has a harsh one.  2009/10 H1N1 impacted .03% of the population, and killed more than people realize.  COVID19 is not something to trifle with, however, and especially in the beginning there was knee jerk reactions taking place... why? because it was man made and 'novel'- people were unequipped to combat it.  Other than 'that' little bit of it (not little at all) it is no more threatening than H1N1- the infection rate is/was higher because of that. 

The mortality rate of H1N1--while highly infectious--was miniscule. They estimate there were 60M cases in the US, and only 12-13K deaths. It was significantly less fatal than the flu, which is why all the concern and media uproar died down so quickly. 

COVID-19 was highly infectious and significantly higher mortality than the flu, which coupled with the fact that it was novel, meant that the impact would be orders of magnitude higher. We didn't have solid numbers (still don't), but much of the estimates are somewhere between 0.5% and 1% mortality, probably on the lower end of that range. That means it's ~5x higher mortality than seasonal flu, we didn't have a vaccine for it, and we had no natural immunity. That's a bad combination...

H1N1 never would have resulted in the lockdowns, because H1N1 was a completely different beast. As for difference in media attention? I'll readily admit that the media made this about Trump and his response; ever since he announced his candidacy, everything in the United States has been about Trump. But the entire media effort would have fizzled out in a month if this thing was anything like H1N1. 

The initial rollouts came as the next steps in the process after the approvals.  They're all connected. The first doses were administered in the USA by mid-December and at that point tens of millions of doses were already in the manufacturing process.  If you're saying those had nothing to do with the sitting president at the time, well that's certainly a thing you could say.  If you're saying tens of millions of doses were NOT in manufacturing WIP until January 20th, well that's something else.

The USA handled all of that pretty well.  While Europe has faltered pretty badly.  There's no realistic way to view it any differently than that.

Looking into it further, I can give Trump some credit on this. Apparently the big contracts where the gov't agreed in advance to buy millions of doses of the vaccines if they were successful appear to be an executive branch action. 

Not to say another President or administration wouldn't have done the same, but I'll call a spade a spade on this one. Kudos to him and his administration for doing it. 

youre not playing the race card again are ya

Sounds like it

I type "everything...your whole situation" and you come away with race card?  This is revealing of where your head's at.  I don't find you worthwhile of remaining in this conversation that you weren't a part of in the first place.

The USA handled all of that pretty well.  While Europe has faltered pretty badly.  There's no realistic way to view it any differently than that.

Thank God for big government amirite???


From what I've read the biggest problem has been the EU, which is a much weaker version of a federal government compared to ours. Before they can take any action they need some sort of consent for every country, all while we could more or less just write checks to several companies without even Congressional oversight, which is what we did. Though I'm not sure there is a ton of American exceptionalism there. Pfizer took no money initially from us, but did in partnership with Germany, and their timeline was the same (and they did enter into contracts with out government later). The UK has been a bit better than us on vaccinations (Brexit?).