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Who here thinks Sweden had the right approach?

Who thinks the "area under the curve model" is roughly accurate?

Yes.

Will we actually implement logical actions based on any of those learnings the next time a bug comes along?  I have my doubts.

While I agree the degree of risk was minimized quite early, it didn't last very long, as I recall.  I'm not sure Trump's comments early on had any impact on how it was handled.  Verbiage is usually just that, sound and fury.

I look more at actions.

Nancy Pelosi - Chinatown - February 24, 2020 - YouTube

As do I.


Biden to regulate travel from China after previously calling Trump xenophobic | Fox News

We've learned nothing
it's a damn shame

I think China is currently proving out the area under the curve.

I understand that, but while what the president says doesn't dictate state/local action, it does influence the opinions of citizens.
When there were like 15 cases, having an utter dipshit saying that number has peaked and will decrease down to zero and it'll just "go away" causes a % of the population to be woefully ill-informed.  Those people will build on such misinformation in the following years, creating an army of ignorant, vocal people who are not helpful. 
.
I'll never understand people who defend a person so ignorant (not saying you are). 

Why not.  It’s the woketard playbook.    You just laid out exactly what the high level politicians did- Cuomo, Pelosi, Schumer, the dipshit mayors of NYC and Frisco, the list goes on and on.  And they all proved it when caught on camera when they didn’t know it.  And all of it facilitated by the MSM they control, and Social media.

And Play number 1 in the playbook is your post- accuse the  “other side” for exactly what you yourself are doing.

I think many countries around the globe have shown that it really didn't matter what president was behind the podium when the virus hit

was gonna be a shit show

I read back over a lot of our early postings yesterday.  "We" (and they) just didn't know very much at the time.  Sure, the politicization was unfortunate, but frankly, nobody anywhere handled this remarkably well.  As noted above, COVID was going to do its thing regardless.  We had the myth the vaccine would stop it in its tracks despite many noting the virus would mutate.  We had the early myth you could get it from food and hard surfaces.

As for who would have handled it better, I agree with the above comment that COVID was going to do its thing no matter what "we" did about it beyond perhaps changing the shape of the curve.  Germany was held out as a model to emulate but they have not done well either.  China, well, they did "flatten the curve" for a while.

What I learned I think is to protect the elderly and vulnerable as well as possible and then carry on.

you may think Trump killed a bunch of people and that Obama or some liberal may have saved more

as has been mentioned - local and state leaders had a bigger impact

sending COVID patients back to nursing homes in NYC from hospitals had a more direct impact on deaths