You may be right about getting scared. COVID-19 hasn't been as big a problem in South Korea. One of the reasons they were able to mobilize so quickly was that they had a serious MERS outbreak, it scared them badly, and they got ready for the next time. Maybe we'll learn the lesson after this.
It wasn't that those facilities were not needed; my understanding is that they were needed, but they went unused.
Do you really think the CDCs entire budget is spent on outbreaks and pandemic responses? Do you really think the Director of the Center for Chronic Disease Prevention which gets 1.2 billion of that budget should be fired because of something that had absolutely nothing to do with her? Wouldn’t it make a little more sense to investigate what went wrong with the people actually involved and hold people accountable accordingly at all levels instead of just blankly calling for the whole agency to be dismantled for no reason?
Since I have sung in a choir or chorus and go to a gym too, my experience is that they are not at all similar. In a choir or chorus, members are standing immediately next to one another, less than a foot apart.. as well as being in a relatively confined space, at least for rehearsals. In a gym, at least at the gyms I have been to, unless they are really crowded, which obviously now should be avoided, people there are generally far apart enough to help somewhat. My gym has reopened, although I have not yet been back to it, and they are only opening for relatively brief "sessions", they are limiting the number of people allowed in, and they have said that they will be spacing people there about 10 feet apart. The spacing was already pretty much provided for even before this all started, since the various "machines" are pretty widely separated. After the virus entered the picture, but before they closed, they were, at least on the bikes, treadmills, and ellipticals, only allowing one in three of them to be used, further separating the people using them. Plus, my gym is as spacious in nature as is a grocery store, with a large floor area and a very high ceiling. I'm sure not all gyms are like mine, but the fact is that some, if not many, are.
Switzerland is more similar in size??? Switzerland is comparable in size to Denmark, but definitely not to Sweden, which, in land area, is probably the largest of the Scandanavian countries. The populations of the two countries might be considered relatively similar (is that what you meant?), but not the sizes.
You say this like it's bad....Sweden has tried gambling on the herd immunity theory....and only in the long run (like in about 12 months) will we all know whether they were right...or wrong. But, either way, you are playing with peoples' lives....either way (which is something that is all too often forgotten, or not given sufficient prominence imho).
Well, people may not be huffing and puffing in a Kroger store, but it sure seems to me there is at least as much potential for exposure in those limited (aisle space) environments than in a large gym area. Also, as uncomfortable as it may be, masks can and probably should be required in a gym setting.
Meanwhile governor Cuomo sent Covid patients to nursing homes, where they spread the infection to the most vulnerable people possible. I heard last night that he has finally woke up and stopped doing that. I sure hope so.
