[Buddahaid]

Originally Posted by 3catcircus

This. Unless you've spent time in the US, you generally don't appreciate the vastness of it in comparison the most European countries. It takes longer to drive across Texas than it does to drive from Rome to Berlin, the example.

Likewise, of population density is much much lower than European or Asian countries in most cases.

Because of this, it's very very likely that 100x as many people have gotten covid than has been reported. Many people never knew they had it until they got tested it of curiosity. I've heard lots of anecdotal "I think I had it, I felt awful for two days earlier this year" from various people. Then they got tested and lo and behold, they've got the antibodies...

It doesn't help that reporting of covid cases became political and/or there was a perverse financial incentive for medical facilities to report as many covid-19 cases as they could.

Hospitals are required to report cases. It's not an option and it's not a particularly welcome change dictating modification of rooms and procedures, suspension of elective surgeries, shortages of PPE and parts to maintain the PPE. Staff having exposure anyway and self isolating creating staffing shortages, etc.