How has Europe's National healthcare performed.

THIRD WAVE, NO VACCINE, ONLY LOCKDOWN STRATEGY 

BUREAUCRACY IS SLOW, STUMBLING, INEFFICIENT

The much touted and often proclaimed health care model for the world has performed dismally in the covid outbreak. As of today, vaccinations are only being given in good numbers in the UK. Some EU members cannot get any vaccines, while the EU bureaucracy cannot make a decision to allow Russian vaccine to be accepted by member nations. What is going on is much like some states in the United States, their only strategy is lock down everything in a much more authoritarian manner than anywhere in the world. The result has been riots, protests, and a lack of faith in the governing bodies.

In the early stages of this pandemic, the U.S. media kept comparing our response to that of the EU. They kept pointing out that it was going to be a test of the free market approach compared to the national healthcare systems of Europe. They truly believed that their system was superior to ours. Germany did seem to perform better than the rest of the EU and the United States. That is now an open question, as they are now experiencing a third and more serious wave of infections. Overall the death rate from this virus seems to be comparable wherever it appears. Lockdowns just seem to prolong and extend the time it takes for the virus to work through a population.

What has been different in the U.S. has been the rapid development of vaccines that hopefully diminish the death rate quickly. This was only accomplished by a concerted effort to cut the red tape and overcome the bureaucratic delays that are always the hallmarks of Government run institutions. Much of the time to accomplish anything in government top down environments is the time things are shifted around from desk to desk or in bins, sometimes for weeks or months. Most drug developments takes years, if not decades, most of time is spent in government bureaucracy.  This is the same problem with building or any enterprise that has to depend on approval from government agencies. The United States is as bureaucratic as the EU but the Trump administration was able to cut much of the bureaucratic stalling in this case.

What happened to the great pharmaceuticals of Germany and Switzerland, I suspect they have been hamstrung by layers of bureaucracy that makes quick responses impossible.

The EU neighbor, Russia, has now produced 3 different vaccines, some in the traditional manner, that may be the safest type. While they are distributing and allowing production in over 50 countries, the EU bureaucracy has refused to allow Russian products to be used in the EU, due to political considerations. They have had plenty of time to test and consider these vaccines, they have been available since August 2020. Some the Eastern EU members have begun to use these vaccines without the EU approval. 

As the United States meets the demand of the local population, vaccines will likely be made available to the EU, we will have to wait some more time to see if they can overcome their bureaucratic hurdles and get it distributed in a timely manner.