Europe’s Coronavirus Fate Is Already Sealed. One reason Britain and Italy are struggling: Their medical systems are too dependent on government.

Wall Street Journal ^ | March 12, 2020 | Joseph C. Sternberg

[karpov]

Scientists around the world have worked overtime to get a handle on Covid-19, yet one great unknown remains. We still don’t know for sure whether this is only a medical crisis, or also a medical system crisis.

The distinction matters for the novel coronavirus for the same reason it matters for other “natural disasters” that aren’t entirely natural. It is now widely understood that famines arise from local political failures in the trade and distribution of abundant global food supplies, not from local crop failures. Floods devastate communities not because the local rivers are unusually watery but because poor zoning and subsidized flood insurance encourage people to build homes in flood plains.

This is the context for a conspicuous feature of Covid-19: It is not untreatable, but many health systems are struggling to deliver effective treatment. Nowhere is this more so right now than in Italy, where nightmarish reports are emerging from hospitals in the hardest-hit areas.

Doctors in Italy know what to do to treat severe cases, such as using ventilators in intensive-care units. But hospitals lack the beds and equipment for the influx of patients and Italy doesn’t have enough doctors even to make the attempt. Ill patients languish in hospital corridors for want of beds, recovering patients are rushed out the door as quickly as possible, and exhausted (and sometimes sick) doctors and nurses can’t even muster the energy to throw up their hands in despair.

Is this more a result of the severity of Covid-19, or of long-term failures to invest in the Italian health-care system? One starts to suspect the latter.

Italy lags other large European countries in provision of acute-care hospital beds, furnishing 2.62 of them per 1,000 residents as of 2016, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

[Magic Fingers]

Gotcha, thanks.

[Sam Gamgee]

Because we always kiss UK butt sadly.

[FreedomForce]

These numbers look a little better for the U.S. i wonder which ones are correct.

https://ccforum.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/cc11140

[CharleysPride]

How does the exclusion apply to Ireland?

Is Ireland not counted as Schengren?

Confusing, but their geography could be an obvious reason for different treatment.

[Billthedrill]

Is Ireland not counted as Schengen?

Ireland isn't one of the 26 Schengen countries. That was an issue during the Brexit debates.

[CharleysPride]

Ahhh, interesitng.

Thanks for the info.

[ELS]

In today’s press conference, Pres. Trump responded that with the U.K.’s increasing number of cases, that the situation will be watched and the decision reconsidered.