(06-21-2020 03:41 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-virus-i...1592748000


“ Some fans are looking across the nearest ocean with envy. European and Asian leagues have returned to the field after getting slammed by the virus, but they also benefited from swift national responses that were far more successful than the U.S.’s effort. The entire country of Germany, for example, had fewer cases on Friday than some Florida counties.”

The bolded is just simply inaccurate.

There has been no correlation between "national responses" (read: lockdowns) and deaths per capita.

As for "swifter," the virus got started in Europe earlier than here, so their (ineffective) lockdowns started earlier.

As for "far more successful than the US," over the course of COVID, the US has experienced 26% more deaths than the historical average for the same calendar period (excess mortality). As for the big European countries:
Sweden 29%
Italy 47%
France 27%
Spain 57%
Belgium 44%
UK 57%
Netherlands 34%

Germany has experienced excess mortality of only 6%. But they did not institute any greater lockdown measures than the US, as measured by Oxford's government response index, and when US and German responses are plotted together, they are basically identical. So something other than governmental action is behind the discrepancy.

Japan and South Korea are completely inapposite comparators. Mask-wearing in Japan was already part of the culture before the virus arose, and contact tracing in South Korea is hypereffective because citizens' cellphone data is not private.

The article is behind a paywall, so no idea who wrote it, but he/she should stick to sports.