Great Piece on America's Response to Covid-19

Read a great article today comparing how America's govt and the Chinese communist party responded to the Rona (so far) and their outcomes. Basically on how political pressure from the top for optics reasons (no virus in Wuhan, no virus in USA) affected initial responses to the virus, and in my opinion has made US policy so far extremely reactive when we had more of a chance to be proactive about it at least. Here's one of my favorite quotes:

Without the threats and violence of the Chinese system, in other words, we have the same results: scientists not allowed to do their job; public-health officials not pushing for aggressive testing; preparedness delayed, all because too many people feared that it might damage the political prospects of the leader. I am not writing this in order to praise Chinese communism—far from it. I am writing this so that Americans understand that our government is producing some of the same outcomes as Chinese communism. This means that our political system is in far, far worse shape than we have hitherto understood.

The Coronavirus Called America's Bluff from Anne Appelbaum at the Atlantic

Her comparisons to Vietnam, SK, Singapore, and more, remind me again that Iran is being hit harder by covid-19 due to sanctions (they had an informative app taken off google play store even). How many times will people die due to someone wanting to look good, win elections, have power? Can't help but see some other comparisons that aren't quite people dying but certainly is all in a bid for money, reputation, and power. Here's a meme that I took from @aggroed's dump

Cheers, be safe, socially distance, vote for real people w/o dementia, help your neighbors, ignore your enemies, smok weed.