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How did Spain get its coronavirus response so wrong?
The Guardian UK ^ | 3/26/2020 | Giles Tremlett

Posted on 03/26/2020 1:38:56 PM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom

It is one of the darkest and most dramatic moments in recent Spanish history. In the chilling table of daily dead from the coronavirus pandemic, Spain has taken top position from Italy - with 738 dying over 24 hours.

Spain is now the hotspot of the global pandemic, a ghoulish title that has been passed from country to country over four months – starting in Wuhan, China, and travelling via Iran and Italy. As it moves west, we do not know who will be next.

What went wrong? Spain had seen what happened in China and Iran. It also has Italy nearby, just 400 miles across the Mediterranean and an example of how the virus can spread rapidly and viciously inside Europe.

Yet Spaniards cannot blame that proximity. There are no land borders with Italy, while France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia – all countries that are doing much better – do have them.

This may, in fact, be one of the reasons for the country’s late response. Spain thought it was far enough away. “Spain will only have a handful of cases,” said Dr Fernando Simón, the head of medical emergencies in Madrid, on 9 February. Six weeks later he gives out daily figures of hundreds of deaths. The number of dead per capita is already three times that of Iran, and 40 times higher than China.

On 19 February, 2,500 Valencia soccer fans mixed with 40,000 Atalanta supporters for a Champions League game in Bergamo which Giorgio Gori, mayor of the Italian city, has described as “the bomb” which exploded the virus in Lombardy.

In Spain, Valencia players, fans and sports journalists were among the first to fall ill.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Health/Medicine; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: spain; wuhanflu
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To: riverrunner

I would believe that they are understated.


41 posted on 03/26/2020 3:06:05 PM PDT by Hieronymus ("I shall drink--to the Pope, if you please,-still, t Conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.")
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To: patriotfury

There’s one report out of the China that is probably accurate.

McDonald’s announced that 95% of its locations there are open again.


42 posted on 03/26/2020 3:07:17 PM PDT by SaxxonWoods (Epstein pulled a Carradine, the bozo.)
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To: Reverend Wright

I think I’ll have a coke.


43 posted on 03/26/2020 3:10:11 PM PDT by Hieronymus ("I shall drink--to the Pope, if you please,-still, t Conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.")
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To: dfwgator

My guess is that the Romans and the Chinese employ math in similar fashions, up to a point. Rome, however, does have a press.

Give it three weeks.


44 posted on 03/26/2020 3:11:38 PM PDT by Hieronymus ("I shall drink--to the Pope, if you please,-still, t Conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.")
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To: Oshkalaboomboom
You heard it here first:

Ambassador Colonel (Ret.) Doctor Deborah Birx will get the Medal of Freedom wearing her Army retiree uniform in the White House after all this is past.

45 posted on 03/26/2020 3:18:55 PM PDT by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom
Spain doesn't have 2 trillion dollars to get its economy back on track.,p>A few of us still remember the acronym PIIGGS.
46 posted on 03/26/2020 3:26:20 PM PDT by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
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To: higgmeister

I thought it was PIGS but I know what you mean, the EU welfare countries.


47 posted on 03/26/2020 3:32:17 PM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: Cronos
The USA just overtook China in terms of total number infected and detected. 82,000 and still growing rapidly.

And President Trump just pointed out that it is because we have been testing better than China would ever hope to do.

48 posted on 03/26/2020 3:34:03 PM PDT by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
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To: jerod

We are in lockdown now until April 12th at the earliest.


49 posted on 03/26/2020 3:37:33 PM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: RetiredArmy
I cannot believe somebody here has watched or even cares about foreign "football."   I know I don't.   Frog Soccer, good grief.
50 posted on 03/26/2020 3:44:58 PM PDT by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
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To: riverrunner

Now that we’re seeing actual data out of Europe and NY, we know for certain that China has been lying about everything, including their numbers, from the beginning. And that’s even making allowance for Italy cooking their own books as well.


51 posted on 03/26/2020 3:47:54 PM PDT by absalom01 (You should do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, and you should never wish to do less.)
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To: dfwgator

Let them.


52 posted on 03/26/2020 3:52:04 PM PDT by Chickensoup (Voter ID for 2020!! Leftists totalitarian fascists appear to be planning to eradicate conservatives)
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To: patriotfury
As well, we also had CV-19 earlier than most Americans know, or have “learned”.

We believe our Daughter, Son-in-law and Granddaughter had it and are just getting over the remnants of it now. They live in State College, Pennsylvania (Penn State). All it would have taken is one Chinese student to go home for Chinese New Year and back to spread China Plague everywhere with none the wiser.

53 posted on 03/26/2020 3:54:20 PM PDT by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom
It morphed.
Other variants included PIIGGS to refer to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, United Kingdom (the second "G" standing for Great Britain), and Spain.

54 posted on 03/26/2020 3:57:40 PM PDT by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

Did Spain have mandatory vaccination efforts in place for all citizens like Italy? I know that there was a Pneumonia and Meningitis Mandatory requirement in Italy this year. It has been noticed that here in the US having had the Flu shot ups your chances of contracting Covid.


55 posted on 03/26/2020 4:14:29 PM PDT by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
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To: American in Israel

Never heard of mandatory flu shots here.


56 posted on 03/26/2020 4:21:08 PM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: dfwgator

If the Chinese want to bail the Yurps out this time.....Let ‘em! We sure as hell don’t need to be bailing them out yet again.


57 posted on 03/26/2020 4:46:38 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: Cronos

Don’t you have some children to go eat?


58 posted on 03/26/2020 5:07:12 PM PDT by Zirondelle76
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To: American in Israel
"It has been noticed" that here in the US having had the Flu shot ups your chances of contracting Covid.

That throwaway comment needs some substantiation before an intelligent person should believe it.   What is your source?   Who noticed it?   How could anybody have ever collected the data to even analyze and make that conclusion?   How in the world could getting a flu vaccine make anybody more susceptible to the Coronavirus?

Why are you spreading foolish gossip this way?

59 posted on 03/26/2020 5:50:09 PM PDT by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
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To: mdmathis6

First, we still must service the debt regardless of who holds it. Second, the publicly held debt is about 75% of the total debt with intragovermental debt (mostly SS and HI Trust funds) about 25%.

I am not saying we cannot pay the debt servicing costs, which are increasing each year as a portion of the federal budget. The CBO estimates that the $389 billion in debt servicing costs in FY 2019 will grow to $914 billion in FY 2028. Couple that with the increasing costs of SS and Medicare and you have a recipe for a financial disaster.

NB: 40% of all Medicare costs come from the General Fund. And all of Medicaid costs for 70 million recipients come from the GF.


60 posted on 03/26/2020 8:05:07 PM PDT by kabar
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