# Is there any actual American exceptionalism in play in the virus response? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 29, 2020, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-actual-american-exceptionalism-in-play-in-the-virus-response/850553 "2020-03-29T00:53:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-actual-american-exceptionalism-in-play-in-the-virus-response/850553/1 "2020-03-29T00:53:37Z")
Inspired by this remark in another thread: > [@Anyone else questioning the extent of "social isolation"?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-questioning-the-extent-of-social-isolation/849671/366): > > What you need to do is actually quite simple. Close the borders, everybody stay home, massive test and trace. Ramp up production and distribution of the relevant medical equipment. Follow the various plans for a pandemic that we know the administration has on file. > > But the reason this isn’t happening isn’t because “there are things to figure out.” My immediate reaction was, that is indeed simple, yes, but it doesn’t sound easy. How to you enforce the entire country, including rural areas? What do you need to do to make it legal and force all the states to go in the same direction? It felt to me like there are reasons other than “there are things to figure out.” So that got me thinking a bit wider. Everyone is praising New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand (I think it was), and China (to an extent) for their responses. Is there any practical reason we in the United States couldn’t do the same things that they are, legal or otherwise? Is there any reason not to expect the same amount of success if we did try? Is it really only political will by our leaders that keep us from having their better numbers? How fair is it, or is it not, to compare take any country X’s plan and just drop the vital parts wholesale for us? ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-actual-american-exceptionalism-in-play-in-the-virus-response/850553/2 "2020-03-29T01:03:21Z")
You’re filled with a virulently anti-expert administration and sufficiently large numbers of ignorant voters that the lesson in exponents is gong to be painful. Stupid hurts. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-actual-american-exceptionalism-in-play-in-the-virus-response/850553/3 "2020-03-29T01:04:43Z")
Sweden is going with a weirdly casual approach to all this, too, so the USA might have a partner in exponential mayhem. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-actual-american-exceptionalism-in-play-in-the-virus-response/850553/4 "2020-03-29T01:09:22Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > You’re filled with a virulently anti-expert administration and sufficiently large numbers of ignorant voters that the lesson in exponents is gong to be painful. Stupid hurts. Yes, the latter is the part I was particularly wondering about. Even with perfect leadership, would it still be practical to follow the lead of other countries or not, because of the average individual American? Would we be better off with a culture like South Korea’s or New Zealand’s, in terms of how the individual thinks and reacts? ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-actual-american-exceptionalism-in-play-in-the-virus-response/850553/5 "2020-03-29T01:12:17Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Sweden is going with a weirdly casual approach to all this, too, so the USA might have a partner in exponential mayhem. yeah I saw that. The argument as I understood it was that peak incidents were within the carrying capacity of the country. Given how small differences explode under exponential curves you have to hope they’re right. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-actual-american-exceptionalism-in-play-in-the-virus-response/850553/6 "2020-03-29T01:39:47Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Yes, the latter is the part I was particularly wondering about. Even with perfect leadership, would it still be practical to follow the lead of other countries or not, because of the average individual American? Would we be better off with a culture like South Korea’s or New Zealand’s, in terms of how the individual thinks and reacts? We would have been better off being _prepared_. Since then, we’ve been building the airplane as we’ve been flying it. Don’t be surprised if said airplane crashes.