Why does the US seem to be carrying on almost as normal?

[ArtemisBean]

Given that their death rates are even higher than ours per 100,000 people, how is it that they seem to have largely avoided lockdowns, closures, restrictions on meeting others in so many areas? Is it that their hospitals are better equipped than ours so there's no bed crisis? Are they in denial? Or is the media just painting a rosier picture than the reality? Genuinely trying to understand and fully accept that I've been living under a rock as regards how overseas have been handling Covid!

My brother and his family live in Texas. Everything is carrying on almost as normal. They can go to bars and restaurants, visit friends and children are in school. Many do wear face coverings in public though.

I thought North Dakota has had the lowest rate of mask-wearing and any other anti-infection compliance measures? That is a leadership issue.

It will be a useful stat at the end of all of this to compare with places that took measures earlier.

I don't think they have avoided lockdown at all. It's very dependent on the state. Death rates in some states are extremely high whereas in others reasonably low. In New York and New Jersey one in 500 people have now died of Covid. In North and South Dakota (sparsely populated areas which probably would have had low death rates if they had been more careful) one in 800 people have died.

The amount of ignorance on this thread is incredible. In what way are we back to normal?! My kids go to school a maximum of 2 days a week, unless there’s a positive case and then the whole school shuts down again. School is otherwise entirely remote so they sit in lessons in their bedroom from 730-230. Their sports are pretty much all cancelled. Their out of school
clubs are all online. Many Colleges (that cost $$$$$) are still remote learning.

My husband’s office is closed until at least September so, at that point, he will have been working from home for 18 months. I lost my job entirely.

We have been wearing masks to leave the house since April. if we want to leave our State for more than 24 hours, we have to quarantine on return and then get tested. Our local hospital has turned the cafeteria into an ICU. Restaurants are at 25% capacity but now that it’s cold so you can’t sit outside, I don’t know anyone who is actually going to them, except for takeout. I have only seen 3 of my friends in person since March.

Yep, just SO normal!

I don't think, unless the news reported on every single sate, that you can generalise form what we see on the TV.

Their attitude (in many states) to school closures/openings has been entirely different throughout, for example. And mask wearing has been a thing in many states for longer.

@TomBradysLeftKneecap I think because what people see are either influencers on holiday at Disneyland on youtube, or the recent high jinx in congress on the news (I am not saying those people are normal in any sense of the word). I know it must be frustrating, but think about how much you know about the details of other countries' (those you have no family or friendship ties to) response to covid.

@Haffiana Agred! my point is that a sparse population alone isnt enough - the comparative low levels of mask wearing etc effectively squandered the natural advantage having a low population density offered.

Sorry to continue off on a road safety tangent @appalledandshocked but another reason kids no longer play on the street is because we have a different attitude to the 'acceptable' number of road deaths. There were 7000 a year in the 70s to 1700 in 2012 (presumably even lower now).

I have two friends whose siblings were killed by drivers in the 70s/80s, one was walking along a pavement, the other was playing.

Which brings us back to Covid. It's so hard to debate measures when 'all that matters is fewer deaths' ends all arguments.

It's absolutely not normal nor are people carrying on as nothing is happening.

My mother in California only leaves her house to take a short walk around the block. Groceries delivered and she hasn't seen a friend, other than Zoom, since last March.

@Bagelsandbrie My family are in the same area and haven’t been doing anything like that. All kids homeschooled and no family gatherings even at Thanksgiving!

Some places are strict others not so much. Each state sets their own rules and I believe within that state town and cities can either comply or not. As posted above, my friend in Maryland's daughter has been remote learning for nine months and cannot fo see her friends. My Boston friends kids are also remote learning, one mother is a key worker and there is no provision for the child to be able to go to school in that instance. Masks are compulsory outside.
As anywhere you can't make assumptions about the whole country based on a few reported incidents.

The parts of the country with cooler climates are suffering worse.

Also their death rate is better than ours, just about.

My relatives are outside of New York City. In their school district only younger children to Grade 5 have in person, everyone older is remote learning. My cousin hasn’t been inside a classroom since March and won’t again until September earliest. Restaurants, outdoor playgrounds, gyms are closed. It’s not normal at all.

But yes if you don’t care about avoiding the virus you can hop on a plane to Mexico. Possible but not typical. Maybe that’s who OP has seen online.

@PatienceVirtue yes, again though a large part of the reason why there are far fewer roads death, particularly of children, is because far fewer children are allowed on the street. Almost all the advances in car safety have been for the people inside the cars, not outside them. That is another difference with the Dutch - they do tend to have a more pragmatic approach to risk. I think that informed the Dutch approach to Covid were for quite a while they were pushing the same herd immunity idea as the UK was originally. However, I think partly because they value pragmatism so highly the Dutch government was able to pivot more quickly than the highest levels of the US government to containment measures. The US being much more attached to ideals (on both left and right) than pragmatism. That said, it also helped that Mark Rutte isnt insane. And thats not to say the Dutch approach has been perfect or that people are happy, but it has felt more rational (to me) than the US approach which has seemed to be one extreme or the other.

Mask wearing for example happened a lot later in the Netherlands than almost anywhere else (frustratingly). But it has been much less linked to politics than in America (where it seems many people are prepared to die for their ideals which is admirable in many ways, it just seems that some peoples ideals are baffling)

Our death rate is higher than theirs, despite more of their economy being open.

Masks.

Thanks to those who have taken the time to describe what they know about the situation in the USA 🙏
Clearly in many cases it is dire, we like to think that the USA must be worse off (because of The madness of trump) except we are worse 😳

@Doomsdayiscoming

The parts of the country with cooler climates are suffering worse.

Also their death rate is better than ours, just about.

Is climate the significant factor here?🤔

@Yohoheaveho

Thanks to those who have taken the time to describe what they know about the situation in the USA 🙏 Clearly in many cases it is dire, we like to think that the USA must be worse off (because of The madness of trump) except we are worse 😳

They were worse before we got the new variant.

ArtemisBean......
My daughter, aged 30, has lived in Illinois, USA, for 8 years.
She is a researcher in public health, makes no claims whatsoever to being an expert, but takes a keen interest in what's going on.
As other posters have said, in the UK our laws are pretty much decided by central government, whereas in the US individual states have much more autonomy.
Generally, Democrat states have stricter laws than Republican ones.
Republicans are, again generally, more concerned about the economy than health.
I've spent lots of time there the last few years, and there are just as many nice people, and dickheads, as there are anywhere else.
The biggest problem the US has had regarding Covid is their outgoing president.
If he can deny there's a problem, and think masks are for wimps, then his supporters will blindly follow him, and they have - hence all the rule-breaking, etc.
Most decent Americans can't wait to see the back of him, and I'm actually surprised no-one has tried to assassinate him, seriously!

I have colleagues in US, they've been homeschooling since March...

My grandparents live in california. Its grim. There is a policy currently that if anyone needs cpr for any reason there is a 20 minute time limit. They are really struggling.

@Unsure33 my daughter in law and son don’t believe covid is a real issue and her grandparents died from old age not covid though both had been hospitalised with covid in their final days.

I won’t argue it out with them as they are firm conservatives who believe it is mass hysteria.

Each to their own

[quote amatsip]@Unsure33 my daughter in law and son don’t believe covid is a real issue and her grandparents died from old age not covid though both had been hospitalised with covid in their final days.

I won’t argue it out with them as they are firm conservatives who believe it is mass hysteria.

Each to their own[/quote]
Except with an infectious disease it's not a case of "each to their own". It's unlikely that your son and daughter-in-law are being careful not to get infected all infect others if they don't believe it's a real issue.