Originally posted by photoptimist Ok, then if you are saying that a 5 million person metro area is capable of testing 140,000 by March 5th (Singapore), then why couldn't all of the 5 million person metro areas in the US have tested 140,000 by March 5th? That would cover NYC, LA, Chicago, Dallas-Ft Worth, Houston, Washington DC, Miami, Philadelphia, and Atlanta.
Sure, the US is big, but air freight can get anything anywhere overnight and LA to NYC via truck can be done in under 48 hours. The US is big, but not that big when it comes to modern logistics and most of the population is concentrated in the cities. Country size was relevant when all we had was horse draw wagons but these days anything can be delivered anywhere in under two days if it's important. (As of March 19th, Russia beat the US in testing and Russia is 70% larger that the US and has 1/5th the GDP per capita of the US.)
My point is that the US did NOT test anywhere near what Singapore and South Korea DID. Complaining about what could have happened in the past is a total waste of time.
As for logistics: (note: the article is from the Seattle Times and they really do not like adblockers)
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/local-business/microsoft-push-brings-m...navirus-fight/
Relevant quotes:
2nd Paragraph emphasis mine
"Smith already had spent the prior
week helping his overseas teams negotiate the release of 240,000 desperately needed N-95 surgical masks from an undisclosed foreign government so they could be shipped to the United States in anticipation of an onslaught of hospitalizations caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
But after subsequently being flown overseas by Federal Express to a distribution center in Memphis, the masks sat untouched for 48 hours awaiting a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspector to arrive and sign them onward."
4th Paragraph emphais mine:
“The FDA was short-handed, and so those (masks) were stuck in Memphis from last Thursday to Saturday,’’ said Smith, adding it was already 8 p.m. ET when
he phoned Washington, D.C. “I actually reached out directly to the White House staff — specifically, people who work for the National Security Council … and they were able to scramble the FDA and get everything released by first thing Sunday morning.’’
So much for your swift Logistics eh? Again, the US is far behind on testing and even when large well financed corporations and their leaders try to help, it takes a personal call to the White House to get anything done. And yes size matters.
To extrapolate the actions from an island nation that sitting in 27 square miles where the government rounded people up for testing, forced the people to put trackers on their phones and when "carriers"/infected people were found - they went into their bank accounts so determine where they bought things to the current state in the US is laughable. The virus does not give a hoot about GDP, that is false logic. Logistic waving of the hand is false logic.
My argument is not about what
HAPPEND but what is
HAPPENING. By the way, our GDP has more than likely fallen like a rock over the last two weeks.