I'm about to go on a rant, so get ready.

To go back to Germany’s response to the pandemic, from what I experienced while I was there, the country’s original response was actually quite similar to the US’ original response. (1/?)

Some states that were more heavily impacted by the spread of coronavirus like Bavaria decided to close down schools and businesses before others, and the federal government under Angela Merkel said at the time that this was a decision to be made by states (2/?)

Like I said before, Germany has dealt with the pandemic so well because of the strong actions taken, likely recommended by their own public health experts, to test those suspected of being infected, track people in contact with the infected and isolating them (5/?)

While it was impossible for the US to achieve the number of mitigated deaths Germany has due to the lack of universal coverage of all Americans, deaths could have been mitigated if the federal government had a consistent collective response, and not constant infighting (8/?)

between health and economic officials. Trump's response was not good. It is still not good. He should not be praised for the work he has done. He could have done more, but he just didn't. This thread isn't even about calling for a better health system (which there should be) (9/?

as each state had different circumstances. However, as it became clear that this was a virus that shouldn’t be taken lightly, states began to close down schools, and eventually Merkel changed her tone, implemented extreme social distancing measures (3/?)

such as banning groups of more than two people in public, and addressed the nation in her first ever direct address to the people, saying that the country hasn’t been challenged like this since World War II. (4/?)

and additionally, having a strong healthcare system stocked and ready to tackle this pandemic along with insuring everyone within their borders so no one has to worry about seeking out testing or treatment. (6/?)

While it did take Germany some time to get a federal response, they finally came through and responded aggressively. The data clearly show that the way this was handled there was far better than it was in the United States (7/?)

There should have been a strong federal response from the beginning. Public health experts should have been listened to, but they're being ostracized because in this administration's eyes mitigating short-term economic loss is more important (10/?)