U.S. COVID response could have avoided hundreds of thousand of deaths - research

[DonViejo]

Source: Reuters


MARCH 25, 20216:20 AM UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

By Howard Schneider

5 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States squandered both money and lives in its response to the coronavirus pandemic, and it could have avoided nearly 400,000 deaths with a more effective health strategy and trimmed federal spending by hundreds of billions of dollars while still supporting those who needed it.

That is the conclusion of a group of research papers released at a Brookings Institution conference this week, offering an early and broad start to what will likely be an intense effort in coming years to assess the response to the worst pandemic in a century.

U.S. COVID-19 fatalities could have stayed under 300,000, versus a death toll of 540,000 and rising, if by last May the country had adopted widespread mask, social distancing, and testing protocols while awaiting a vaccine, estimated Andrew Atkeson, economics professor at University of California, Los Angeles.

He likened the state-by-state, patchwork response to a car’s cruise control. As the virus worsened people hunkered down, but when the situation improved restrictions were dropped and people were less careful, with the result that “the equilibrium level of daily deaths ... remains in a relatively narrow band” until the vaccine arrived.




Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-economy-idUSKBN2BH1DK

[hlthe2b]

1. 'Hard to recommend, but it needs to be seen (like the earlier Lancet study) by as many as possible

Since it is on reuters, I hope most MSM do cover it.

[underpants]

3. Oh but that would cement Trump's legacy

and directly tie all his suck ups directly to it. That could literally kill the horse and there’d be no race to watch.

[Botany]

2. This is 100% on Trump, his voters, and the GOP

400,000 dead = the # of Americans who died in WW II.

[piddyprints]

4. Not just widespread mask, social distancing, and testing,

but also the damage done by the propaganda against vaccinations. I cannot understand why every adult in the country is not checking and registering and checking again to see how fast they can get vaccinated, like most of DU is doing. The fact that such a high percentage of Americans refuse to get vaccinated is troubling. I believe it will cause tens or hundreds of thousands more deaths in the long run as the variants keep getting more deadly.

[IronLionZion]

5. Republicans are "pro-life"

and claim to be pro-business and pro tax cuts. They don't do public health measures.

Many of these assholes were trying to spread it faster to achieve their murderous interpretation of "herd immunity" assuming it will mostly kill people they don't like.