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Comment by IgorPartola | Hacker News Reader

The US is a well off country and we have increasingly started moving all over it. I personally have family and friends on both coasts. I don't visit them much but I have many reasons to travel. Our travel is also extremely cheap. A friend of mine routinely drives from CT to NM and back. She has very limited income, yet is able to do that.

Also, it doesn't help that our leadership has completely failed to act on this situation, and is continuing to mostly fail to do so. This virus should rightly be called the Trump virus in the US. Our president* not only failed to act, he did things that actively enabled COVID-19 to spread faster. In these kinds of circumstances it's no wonder it's spreading so fast.

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> Also, it doesn't help that our leadership has completely failed to act on this situation

If we're being honest here, we as Americans have failed to act.

The Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Koreans and Singaporeans all have no issues with all wearing facemasks in public for example. Go to any supermarket in America right now. Almost no one will be wearing masks. That's just one example of everyone doing their part. What every individual is doing in those countries contributes to their success in keeping things under control.

If anything blaming leadership instead of each and every one of us acknowledging how we could do better is part of the problem. It's always easier to blame others than to take responsibility.

Honestly, I think US officials are NOT asking people to wear masks because they are afraid that it will cause supply to dry up, preventing medical staff from acquiring them.

All nations that have had better result of slowing covid-19 are all in places where wearing face mask in public is the norm.

I was told not to buy masks because healthcare providers needed them... We were getting clearly contradictory messaging (don't buy masks because it won't help you and also doctors need them) but for me the main takeaway was to leave the masks for those who really needed them.

That may be the real reason, but telling people that it won't help them as the reason certainly did not help.

Now the medical personal need a lot more masks than they would have if people had been more cautious and covered their face.

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