Noone I’ve ever voted for has advocated or even excused wilful vandalism. However it is surely the case that many people in both the USA and the UK have genuine grievances that should be addressed.

My view is that Trump and his approach are part of the problem, and offer no lasting solutions to deeply entrenched socio-economic problems in the United States. Fires are not extinguished by petrol.

The locality I live in is not noted for being some kind of ‘bourgeois bubble’, by the way. That said, what (legitimate IMO) protests there have been have been generally peaceful and good-natured.

Obviously, I am sorry to hear of your predicament and hope your move goes as well as it may.

and your playing dumb about how Trump has mishandled this crisis and divided the country over it, isn’t improving your comments either.

I’ll give you a couple of examples:-
1. Trump holding indoor political rallies;
2. Trump and others refusing (until very recently?) to recognize that wearing masks protects others and slow the spread of the virus.

When I have more time I will give a you longer list if you would really like me to do so.

Why do you seem to be clinging on to Trump? Even Foxy is beginning to realize that it’s time to let go and move on.

Various way, of course: confusion; delusion; politicization; unnecessary rivalries; attempts to discredit those who speak uncomfortable truths … (I could go on for a long time)

There does seem to be a correlation between the quality of the top political leadership and the effectiveness of the response to the pandemic. Merkel, Conte and even Macron (to whom I do not warm, by the way) have, relatively speaking, succeeded where Trump, Johnson and Bolsonaro have failed.

The Trump mindset is significant if only because it impedes productive collaboration; viruses are not stopped at state lines.

Dying from what exactly? How many of those deaths were caused by a disease that is spread by people in close proximity to one another?

“The Bubonic Plagues that swept your country were far worse than Covid-19”

A false comparison. You are talking about something that happened in the 1300s, medicine was significantly less advanced back then. If covid-19 had happened back then it would have been FAR more devastating than the plague was, mostly because of the way the disease is spread. Bubonic plague is NOT something you can contract simply by being close to an infected person the way covid can.

“The “Trump mindset” means little, as it is the states that set the lockdown and reopening rules here.”

However it is Trump that is dividing the country and inciting people to ignore, or demand they be lifted too soon, state rules about locking down and wearing masks.

Don’t hold your breath on herd immunity: don’t forget that the common cold is often cause by a coronavirus and there’s no long-term immunity from, or vaccine for, that. Probably the best bet will be prophylaxis (as is being used to reduce the spread of HIV) – once they find a drug that dramatically reduces the chance of SARS-CoV-2 being able to use us as a host. Or sometimes viruses just mutate and become less of a theat to human health. But herd immunity? I don’t think so: I’m arriving at the opinion that it was another of those poxy English ideas (which I thought at the time might hold out some hope) back at the start …

A daily death toll of 750 is not insignificant, of course; the increase on two weeks ago (c. 200 per day) alone is more than the equivalent of a Vietnam War (from the perspective of US fatalities) every year. That’s not “moving up just a bit”, is it? Well, I don’t think it is.

Responsible Americans should train their sights on the Trump mindset, without which a well-managed reopening of the US economy would be so much more likely to be accomplished. Otherwise the Orange Death will continue to kill, whether through infection or through hardship.

(As of yesterday, the seven-day daily average stands at a little over 750 deaths, up over 200 on a couple weeks ago, and around ten times that of the UK – which was proportionately hit much harder at the start, of course.)

We’ll keep wearing those masks! After all, it is, along with distancing and avoiding unnecessary social contact, probably best thing most of us can do to keep some kind of workable balance between safety and ‘getting on with life’ as best we may.