AZAR: The coronavirus results for the US could've been vastly worse

[kpete]

AZAR: The coronavirus results for the US could've been vastly worse

TAPPER: It's worse here than anywhere else

A: When you look at mortality rates, that's simply not correct

T: I'm looking at number of dead bodies

A: The US population has significant unhealthy comorbidities

Link to tweet

?s=20

[dawg]

1. There's still time.

[roamer65]

2. It could have been worse, except the governors of certain states assumed the mantle of leadership.

Like NY, CA and MI.

[paleotn]

16. Bingo!

Those states took the blow, allowing hinterland, red states could go all libertarian, psycho crazy. Had the outbreak centered on Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte, etc. their tunes would be significantly different down there. But Karma-19 isn't done yet. Pockets of infection continue to fester in those red states, so when we all go back inside this fall and winter, we will see explosive infection rates similar to NYC this past winter / spring. Dr. Bright's testimony will be seen as prophetic.

[roamer65]

17. THIS.

[leftyladyfrommo]

24. In our case in KCMO it was the mayor. nt

[gratuitous]

3. "Unhealthy comorbities," Alex?

Gosh, if only there was a cabinet level government agency tasked with citizens' health and the means to deliver services to them. Oh well Alex wouldn't know anything about that!

[blm]

14. ✔️✔️

[maxrandb]

21. It's you fat, lazy Americans fault (GOP Campaign Slogan)

[smirkymonkey]

27. Azar has to be the smarmiest, most condescending fuckwit in that administration.

I couldn't even finish listening to him. He just drips with slime. Ugh! Jake didn't push back hard enough on this creep.

[mr_lebowski]

4. 'The results' are not even fucking IN, you colossal shitheel ... and it ain't past-tense, bucko

And the eventual outcome? It also could've been MUCH BETTER with competent leadership ...

[Proud Liberal Dem]

18. Trump can rail all he wants about China and their mistakes and malfeasance in this matter

however, it is still the job of the POTUS and his team to make their own assessments and take the necessary precautions regardless of what other countries, WHO, etc. tell him. He was clearly warned that this could be bad and nobody would have faulted him from springing into action and even overreacting a little bit in the beginning if it ultimately meant that we kept things better. Trump decided to deny, delay, and distract instead of taking needed actions that might have lead to a better outcome.

[elleng]

5. Heckuva talking point!

[tblue37]

6. It could have, and should have, been WAY better. nt

[tanyev]

10. The shining city on a hill has become a dumpster fire.

[tanyev]

7. We're not done yet, Alex.

[CrispyQ]

8. "The US population has significant unhealthy comorbidities..."

And please tell us, which party works so damned hard to take health care coverage away from Americans?

[SoonerPride]

9. With 4% of the global population we should have 4% of the deaths

Not 25%

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. I suspect that when this all plays out we will end up with around 4% of the deaths.

For one thing, we're still at the very beginning, which means that even if each and every country were honestly reporting numbers, there's still a long way to go before this has played out. But a lot of countries are probably not reporting honestly, or their pandemics have just gotten started.

Also, deaths per million of population is a better number in my opinion than raw numbers. About twelve others have higher numbers in that category than we do.

Countries that have done an excellent job of keeping infections and deaths down tend to be smaller, relatively homogenous countries. Many of them are island nations. Others, like China, are totalitarian dictatorships and could completely shut down parts of the country without silly protests.

Meanwhile, I suspect that in the end India may well lose several million people, and Brazil several hundred thousand.

This is a five act Shakesperean play. We're in about scene two of Act I.

[Ms. Toad]

12. That's called damning with faint praise. n/t

[Under The Radar]

13. I totally understand! Because if Tua Tagaviloa wouldn't ...

...have gotten injured against Mississippi State, then Alabama May have won another national championship.
If in 2000 the supreme court had allowed a recount to continue in Florida making Al Gore President, then by today I am sure we would fear global warming much less.
If we had government leadership that was guided by facts, science and existing technology, it is quite likely we could have identified the virus and minimized the spread at its origin.
We can play “if only” scenarios all day long and not accomplish a damn thing. Not a single one makes Trump look any more qualified to me and it is just a waste of time to even have the discussion.

[bbernardini]

15. Blaming the victims. How classy (and on brand). nt

[lame54]

19. He blames Americans for our unhealthy lifestyles yet...

It's imperative that we keep our American way of life

[Solly Mack]

20. No wonder they can't add 2+2. They don't deal in accuracy

or actual results.

They simply decide the answer based on how it makes them look.

[gibraltar72]

22. tried blaming the victims.

Wants to look forward not back. Talks like it is over. Looks like they are now gonna blame CDC for the whole thing.

[Cha]

23. T: I'm looking at number of dead bodies .. TY Tapper for getting

that out there.

[area51]

25. "US population has unhealthy comorbidities"

Well, Azar, sounds like you're advocating for Medicare for All.

[Boomerproud]

26. Has Azar had the healthy lifestyle talk with his

boss? Just asking.

[Hav]

28. "Unfortunately, the American population is a very diverse.."

Wow, he stopped himself just a little bit too late.