Why is the USA Unable to Do What Germany Has Done in the Pandemic?

As we approach 120,000 lives lost due to COVID-19 and our new cases each day hover at 20,000 and deaths between 300 and 1000, one might ask whether this is just something we must reconcile ourselves to, or is there another path?

 Germany, with one fourth of the population of America, has had 8,847 deaths, or approximately one thirteenth the fatalities that the USA has suffered.  This ratio will certainly increase in the months ahead.  Germany’s current ten-day average for deaths is twelve!

The USA is registering an average of close to 20,000 new cases each day.  Germany’s ten-day new case average is now in the upper 200’s, 1/100^th of ours!

Why was Germany able to reduce its new infection count to such a low and manageable number and keep its fatalities so low?  Was it a miracle?  Was God smiling on the Germans?  Are we comparing apples and oranges?  Does America have a much more challenging situation? 

First of all, I would argue that Germany is more susceptible to mass contagion than the USA in general because of a larger population density throughout the country, so any attempt to dismiss their success as due to an easier situation doesn’t hold water.

I would attribute their success  to the following:

• Excellent national leadership guided by science with support from all of the states and parties
• An early recognition of the severity of the crisis and initiation of dramatic steps to contain it.
• Massive early testing and subsequent contact tracing and quarantine
• Waiting until virus counts were at a level that they could be managed before opening the country to business as usual
• Excellent universal healthcare systems
• A population willing to listen to and believe scientists, and follow instructions

At our current fatality rate, we will lose well over 200,000 people and perhaps as many as 300,000 before a vaccine is available.  I am pretty sure this is not the type of exceptionalism that Americans like to boast about.

Shall we give it another try?