We Should Have Seen this Coming (Unformed Thoughts)
As I write this, I glanced at the Johns-Hopkins University "COVID-19 Global Cases" interactive map. As of right now (26 March, at 9:30 AM EDT, there are 487,648 confirmed cases worldwide, with 22,030 deaths. That is a death rate of about 4.5 percent. The U.S has 69,197 cases, with 938 deaths, a death rate of 1.4 percent. However, it seems clear from tracking the interactive map, the U.S. will overtake first Italy, and then China, in number of cases, in the next week or so. It is significant because China has a population four times larger than that of the U.S. Here is the thing--we should have seen this coming. One of the benefits of American federalism is that state governors actually have power. South Korea has a much more top-down form of federalism. Thus, South Korea's government proved quite effective in testing its population for this virus. In the U.S., our brand of federalism is a lot more messy. Governors and state attorneys general regular