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Hubris is the main reason USA has the largest number of Covid cases
The US needs a national masking mandate immediately
The CDC director Rober Redfield told the Senate yesterday he believed face masks were “the most important, powerful public health tool we have” to combat coronavirus. “This face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid than when I take a Covid vaccine” he said.
When Covid emerged in China in December 2019, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore all acted swiftly to impose wearing masks and social distancing before any significant cases were observed. Japan did not shut down the economy and most other countries in Asia shut down only parts of the economy for short periods. All these countries had experienced the SARS epidemic and had developed protocols that were put into action immediately. The result is some of the lowest infection rates and deaths per capita in the world.
The most apt comparison is with Japan which has a large population and a highly developed economy. Japan’s population is one third that of the US and it has recorded 1500 deaths versus our shameful 200,000 despite having twice as many seniors per capita. The US has 13 times the number of deaths for 3 times the population. The number of Covid cases per million of population is 40 times that of Japan. and the…
