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I think it& #39;s invaluable to look at how non-US media covers the US, and it& #39;s something that US media doesn& #39;t do enough of. So here& #39;s a brief thread on what French prime time news LCI said tonight about Covid in the US
1/ The panel, 2 doctors in studio, presenter, one doctor via webcam, labeled it the "American disaster" and then there were clips of Trump treating the virus nonseriously (they pulled punches - they left out the clip of him calling it a "hoax")
2/ The doctors on the panel bemoaned the fact that Florida had beaches full of spring breakers until very recently, and that there were still states that hadn& #39;t done anything beyond closing schools
3/ Then, they flipped to the role of cost of treatment, with a graphic breaking down how much of a Covid hospital stay (they used the figure $73k) would be covered on average by Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurance, mentioning a column in Time by someone who had a $34k bill
4/ "We French have a hard time imagining that there could be such injustice. In France of course this just isn& #39;t an issue," said one of the doctors. "We should realize how lucky we are."
5/ Following that, some commentary on how US population - including youth - might be particularly affected because of prevalence of hypertension, diabetes. Recurring shock that Trump could have treated this like a joke for so long.
6/ Finally, they talked about the danger the US might pose to the rest of the world because of its failure to get this under control. Several brought up the possibility of Europe closing borders to the US to prevent "re-importing" the virus.
7/ Overall, this was like a 20 minute conversation about Covid and the US, complete with clips and infographics. I& #39;ve rarely seen the equivalent happen wrt another country on US channels. Only asterisk is they bought hype about US Navy ship going to NY (that irl has 20 patients)
