The US is in such terrible shape that lately, I’ve been writing only about this country. American media almost always do that, which helps to keep us ignorant. They give us the news they think we want to hear rather than what we need to know. Right now, we need to know why so many countries are dealing with COVID-19 so much better than we are.

This little blog is not the place to detail ways other nations are bending the curve and saving the lives of their residents. (One good article that does so is at https://time.com/5851633/best-global-responses-covid-19/) The methods vary, from severe lock-downs to widespread contact tracing. The only thing these nations have in common is that their leaders reacted to the virus quickly with action, generous use of public resources, and consistent messaging.

Of course in the US, our leader knew about the virus two months before he did anything at all. Since then, he has called the virus a hoax, refuses to wear a mask, won’t tell people to take simple precautions, cuts ties to scientists, cuts funds for testing, and keeps pushing states to re-open businesses and schools as though the virus has gone away even though he knows it’s spiking. Trump is killing Americans.

One thing we learn from watching other nations, and even from watching the US states that are keeping cases down, is that people can radically change our behavior when we know we must in order to survive. We change our work patterns, our child care arrangements, our social interactions, the way we shop and entertain ourselves. And we can make these changes literally overnight.

This is good to know. Because we as a species have a lot of changes to make, big changes that have to happen quickly if humanity is to survive. We have to stop using non-biodegradable plastic and fossil fuels, for example. We have to stop cutting down rainforests and start planting billions of trees. Keeping the planet habitable will require people to make much less stuff and use much less energy. This will be hard. But once we know that’s what we have to do, we can do it.

Without sane leadership, Americans are too confused to take effective action. We can begin to change that, this November. Then the real work of saving ourselves must begin.