When China, after ignoring the coronavirus, finally acknowledged the epidemic outbreak in Hubei province, it did what totalitarian governments do: it walled off an entire region to prevent the infection's further spread.  Video also emerged of potentially infected people being carted away, locked in boxes.  In Italy, the government has done much the same, although without the brute force and, apparently, with the people's acquiescence. Both are countries in which the socialized medicine infrastructure means fewer physicians and beds than a free market would support, as well as fairly primitive medical treatment at the best of times.  Both are also countries with extreme pollution, aging populations, and high cigarette smoking rates. In America, beginning with Trump's closing the border to China in January and instituting quarantines on travelers, the goal has been to slow coronavirus's spread. The accepted theory is that, because...(Read Full Post)