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As I See It

The greatest country on earth got it wrong at nearly every turn

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The United States is, we are told, the greatest country in the world. Then how did we get things so wrong? While other countries have been successful in preventing deaths and slowing transmission of the coronavirus, the U.S. leads the world in number of cases, and the number of deaths. How did it happen? It seems at just about every turn, we made mistake after mistake, despite being ranked as the nation most prepared to deal with a pandemic. First and foremost, we lacked a federal response to dealing with the virus. Even though the virus doesn’t respect geographical boundaries, the federal government left it to the states to come up with their own response plans. That led to states bidding against one another, and even other countries, in trying to secure the necessary test kits and PPE’s. We didn’t test quickly enough and we didn’t administer enough tests. There has been a lack of investment in public health. We rushed to reopen too early. After a couple months of trying to flatten the curve through social distancing, states suddenly reopened. People fed up with quarantining lost their fear of the virus, and suddenly cases spiked, with seemingly no end in sight. It seems that if there was a mistake to be made in handling the coronavirus, the greatest country on earth found a way to make that mistake.

Scott Robert Shaw serves as WIZM Program Director and News Director, and delivers the morning news on WKTY, Z-93 and 95.7 The Rock. Scott has been at Mid-West Family La Crosse since 1989, and authors Wisconsin's only daily radio editorial, "As I See It" heard on WIZM each weekday morning and afternoon.

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2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Reese

    July 21, 2020 at 6:00 am

    I don’t need to be told America is the greatest country I know because I live here. No country is perfect but America has the greatest freedoms which spark ingenuity at every turn. We have a constitution that gives us the rights to live our lives as we see fit. If you want to live in fear of this virus you can choose that. If you think this is just a bad seasonal flu you can believe that too. I get tired of people that dont seem to think America is great or want to change it to fit their liking.
    Here’s the door see ya!

    • Bite Me

      July 26, 2020 at 6:24 pm

      We (REST OF THE WORLD) laugh every time Merkins make this claim. Look around and you’ll realize you are the world’s punchline.

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