The best indicator of how poorly the US has handled Covid-19 is that a lot of conservatives are debasing themselves to the level where “look, it’s not *that much* worse than Europe” is meant to be a defense — we’re talking about a continent where they don’t have ice cubes!

Italy and Spain are very nice — great food, been on fun vacations to both countries — but their per capita GDPs are closer to Mexico than to the USA. This is a sad comparison class we’ve found ourselves in.

Here’s America versus “fancy Europe” (PPP-adjusted GDP per capita > $55,000) — we’re somehow doing worse than Sweden which didn’t try to halt the spread of the virus.

But, yes, better than Latin Europe which in turn is better than Latin America.