As Covid-19 cases spiral, leaders around U.S. lose urgency on prevention

But public health experts around the country told STAT they were deeply worried that there has not been a correspondingly urgent response from federal, state, and local leaders. As a result, they warned, the country is set on an even more dire course as it moves deeper into the fall and holiday season.

Even as cases spiral, many state leaders wary of inflaming a worn-out public, dismissive of the pandemic, or philosophically opposed to government intervention are not implementing the types of measures that succeeded in reining in major outbreaks in the spring and summer. By and large, public leaders some Democrats but particularly Republicans are putting the impetus on individuals to take steps to slow transmission instead of spearheading new campaigns to curtail the coronavirus.

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Things are completely out of control in Utah right now, and they re not really doing anything about it, Stephen Goldstein, a virologist at the University of Utah, said last week about government officials in his state, which has seen record infections and deaths in the past week and where hospital administrators have warned that clinicians might have to start rationing care because of the crush of patients.

via www.statnews.com