Posted on 05/15/2022 7:59:49 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
MELBOURNE, Australia — If the United States had the same COVID death rate as Australia, about 900,000 lives would have been saved. The Texas grandmother who made the perfect pumpkin pie might still be baking. The Red Sox-loving husband who ran marathons before COVID might still be cheering at Fenway Park.
For many Americans, imagining what might have been will be painful. But especially now, at the milestone of 1 million deaths in the United States, the nations that did a better job of keeping people alive show what Americans could have done differently and what might still need to change.
Many places provide insight: Japan, Kenya, Norway. But Australia offers perhaps the sharpest comparisons with the American experience. Both countries are English-speaking democracies with similar demographic profiles. In Australia and in the United States, the median age is 38. Roughly 86% of Australians live in urban areas, compared with 83% of Americans.
Yet Australia’s COVID death rate sits at one-tenth of America’s, putting the nation of 25 million people (with around 7,500 deaths) near the top of global rankings in the protection of life.
Australia’s location in the distant Pacific is often cited as the cause for its relative COVID success. That, however, does not fully explain the difference in outcomes between the two countries, since Australia has long been, like the United States, highly connected to the world through trade, tourism and immigration. In 2019, 9.5 million international tourists came to Australia.
So what went right in Australia and wrong in the United States?
For the standard slideshow presentation, it looks obvious: Australia restricted travel and personal interaction until vaccinations were widely available, then maximized vaccine uptake, prioritizing people who were most vulnerable before gradually opening up the country again.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
Here is the bottom line according to this article:
Dozens of interviews, along with survey data and scientific studies from around the world, point to a lifesaving trait that Australians displayed from the top of government to the hospital floor and that Americans have shown they lack: trust, in science and institutions, but especially in one another.
When the pandemic began, 76% of Australians said they trusted the health care system (compared with around 34% of Americans), and 93% of Australians reported being able to get support in times of crisis from people living outside their household.
In global surveys, Australians were more likely than Americans to agree that “most people can be trusted” — a major factor, researchers found, in getting people to change their behavior for the common good to combat COVID, by reducing their movements, wearing masks and getting vaccinated. Partly because of that compliance, which kept the virus more in check, Australia’s economy has grown faster than America’s through the pandemic.
But of greater import, interpersonal trust — a belief that others would do what was right not just for the individual but for the community — saved lives. Trust mattered more than smoking prevalence, health spending or form of government, a study of 177 countries in The Lancet recently found. And in Australia, the process of turning trust into action began early.
Here they had to turn us against each other so that Donald Trump could be removed from office. It didn’t matter the cost in lives. It never has.
In the USA, it’s been politics from the get go, not health. It’s never been about anyone’s health here.
“saved lives”
Did it really? For some reason I just kind of doubt that.
Bullfauci.
When you are counting different things, numbers are meaningless.
The New York Times channels Mary Baker Eddy ... wow!
They'll NEVER surrender!!!
What is the morbid obesity rate in Australia?
May be the first time in the US that Medical Misadventure exceeded 1 million deaths for one occurance.
That’s an olympic size steaming plant load
“When you are counting different things, numbers are meaningless.”
So true.
What is the current excess mortality rate for both countries?
The phrase “I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery” comes to mind. They basically turned into a prison colony again for two years.
The success was FL, make sure to keep the most vulnerable safe, such as those in nursing homes and let the Coof spread among the healthier population to get immunity. The economy remains healthy and people are free and happy.
RE: For some reason I just kind of doubt that.
Folks, I know that you are skeptics of this article, but I wish you’d at least tell us your reasons for disbelieving what it says instead of simply saying: “I don’t believe it.” ( or in similar words ).
And, did Australia send infected individuals into nursing homes?
Maybe we should send them Cuomo.
Behind The Curtain: How The New York Times Manufactures Lies For Democrats To Attack Their Opponents
“Trust”?-—HAH!
I “came of age” in terms of political awareness during the Watergate hearings and the fall of Saigon.
I “came of age” in terms of voter eligibility shortly before Three Mile Island.
My generation learned one simple truth: Government and their “experts” LIE.
The Millennials and Zinzers don’t have enough mileage....
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