As Dems try to say President Trump’s response to COVID-19 was particularly bad, here’s a reminder that Europe totally failed in stopping COVID-19 as well. This means something went badly wrong at an institutional level and it should be above politics to get to the bottom of, but, alas, we doubt it will happen.
Anyway, THREAD ==>
Europe failed every bit as much as the US, if not more. https://t.co/S14OIVQsby
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 8, 2020
On January 22, coronavirus wasn’t even a concern:
"EC President von der Leyen mentioned efforts to end the civil war in Libya… But even as she declared “we have learnt the importance to invest more in long-term stability and to prevent crises,” she did not say a word about the virus outbreak in China."
This was Jan 22.
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 8, 2020
The WHO wasn’t any help:
"That very night, Chinese authorities announced that they were locking down Wuhan… In Geneva that evening, an emergency meeting of WHO ended inconclusively,… announced its experts were not yet ready to label coronavirus as a public health emergency of international concern."
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 8, 2020
But as the warnings started to appear, coronavirus was still considered “low danger”:
"On January 26, four days after von der Leyen and Hatchett spoke in Davos, Tom Ingelsby, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in the U.S., took to Twitter to urge world leaders to anticipate the worst."
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 8, 2020
With the benefit of hindsight, the travel ban (ours and Italy’s) came too late:
Trump out a travel ban on 1/31.
So did Italy, but that was far too late.
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 8, 2020
Fast forward to February 13 and still nothing:
"The message didn’t sink in among EU member countries. Just three days later, when the EU’s health ministers gathered in Brussels for a first emergency meeting on February 13, their resistance to taking coordinated action was on full display."
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 8, 2020
Vacations went on as scheduled:
"… there was no similar worry as schools across Europe closed for Carnival week on Friday February 21, and many families headed for annual ski vacations. In retrospect, it would be the start of an avalanche of infections, spread person to person, throughout the Continent."
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 8, 2020
Still no desire to close any borders on February 25:
On FEB 25!
"The next day, health ministers from Austria, Italy, France, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany and Croatia arrived in Rome. They agreed closing borders would be “disproportionate and ineffective at this time,” and that big events shouldn’t be automatically canceled."
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 8, 2020
Remember when we could shake hands? The good old days:
"At the end of the conference, the officials stood up and shook hands, as reporters and others crowded around them."
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 8, 2020
And, finally, once it did sink in, tests were not available:
March 2:
"In a sign of Belgium’s own lack of preparedness, Council officials said employees believed to be at risk of infection were unable to get tested."
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 8, 2020
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