US response to the virus is met with incredulity abroad

[Judi Lynn]

Nicole Winfield and Lisa Marie Pane, Associated Press
Updated 8:49 am CDT, Sunday, August 9, 2020

FILE - In this July 30, 2020, file photo, passengers board a Casco Bay Lines ferry bound for Peaks Island in Portland, Maine. America's failure so far to contain the spread of the coronavirus as it moves across ... more
ROME (AP) — The United States’ failure to contain the spread of the coronavirus has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe, as the world’s most powerful country edges closer to a global record of 5 million confirmed infections.

Perhaps nowhere outside the U.S. is America’s bungled virus response viewed with more consternation than in Italy, which was ground zero of Europe's epidemic. Italians were unprepared when the outbreak exploded in February, and the country still has one of the world’s highest official death tolls at 35,000.

But after a strict nationwide, 10-week lockdown, vigilant tracing of new clusters and general acceptance of mask mandates and social distancing, Italy has become a model of virus containment.

“Don’t they care about their health?” a mask-clad Patrizia Antonini asked about people in the United States as she walked with friends along the banks of Lake Bracciano, north of Rome. “They need to take our precautions. ... They need a real lockdown."

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/article/US-response-to-the-virus-is-met-with-incredulity-15470058.php