Eric Zuesse
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Eric Zuesse
As of the start of 24 June 2020:
Chile has 13,120 cases per million inhabitants, and 236 deaths per million, but U.S. has 7,324 cases per million and 373 deaths per million.
Strictly on deaths, Belgium and UK are the worst. Belgium has 838 per million, and UK has 632 per million. Belgium has 5,247 cases per million, and UK has 4,511; and, while those figures on the sheer numbers of cases aren’t as high as America’s and Chile’s, they’re even worse on the deaths.
Also terrible is Sweden, on both the cases and the deaths, with 6,025 cases per million, and 511 deaths per million. Also, Peru has 7,913 on cases, and 255 on deaths. So, both of those countries’ Governments are also failures. And Brazil is likewise getting up there, now at 5,418 on cases, and 248 on deaths.
Some of the Arab monarchies, such as Qatar, have astronomically high cases per million (Qatar has 31,094 cases per million) but extremely low deaths per million (Qatar has 35 deaths per million) because almost all of their cases are foreign workers and maybe the sick ones are expelled, or else those countries are actually providing stellar medical care to their coronavirus-afflicted. (It’s not clear which, or whether it’s both.) Wikipedia says “As of 23 June 2020, Qatar has the highest number of confirmed cases per capita of any country in the world. … The number of deaths in Qatar has been low relative to the number of reported cases, which may be in part due to the country’s adequate healthcare system and the fact that a high proportion of residents are young and healthy.”
At the extreme opposite end, with stellar low case-numbers and death-numbers, are China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Syria, Venezuela, and Vietnam. (Some other countries also have extremely low numbers, but have been reported to be systematically undercounting.)
However, it is, by now, clear that at least Chile, U.S., UK, Belgium, Sweden, and Peru, have terrible governments — failed governments — unquestionably among the world’s worst, as regards their handling of the coronavirus-19 challenge.
One can argue about the reasons for this, but one cannot argue about the outcomes, thus far. Furthermore, on June 19th, the Moon of Alabama site, which is one of the most reliable news-sources on international affairs, headlined “Coronavirus — The U.S. Has Given Up”, and it showed a stunning graph, of the daily new cases of coronavirus infection in the United Sates versus in the European Union,
https://www.moonofalabama.org/images10/ccurve1.jpg
and what the graph indicated is that whereas both areas had almost the same amount of daily new cases during the ascent, which was up till the end of March, at around 30 thousand daily new cases in each of those two global areas, the numbers of daily new cases as of June 17th in America were 23 thousand, but in Europe had plunged to only around 4 thousand, so that whereas America was continuing to get even worse, Europe wasn’t. America is continuing to get even worse, right along, now, with Central and South America, and, though Europe isn’t doing nearly as well as many Asian countries are, it’s doing far better than Western Hemispheric countries (with the exception of Venezuela, which is doing superbly). In this sense, Europe might actually be closer to Asia than to even North America. (In this context, Canada’s cases per million are 2,701, and deaths per million are 224. The global average is, respectively, 1,199, and 61.4; so, though Canada isn’t nearly as atrocious as the U.S., it’s still bad. Mexico’s numbers are 1,436 and 175.)
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
No mention of Brazil’s terrible government? As for: “Also terrible is Sweden, on both the cases and the deaths, with 6,025 cases per million, and 511 deaths per million. Also, Peru has 7,913 on cases, and 255 on deaths. So, both of those countries’ Governments are also failures. And Brazil is likewise getting up there, now at 5,418 on cases, and 248 on deaths.” WHAT?!?! Today, June 24th 2020, Brazil has the second highest number of cases after the exceptional US. So far today, Brazil has 5,972 new cases and 180 new deaths to add to the following… Read more »
My article is clear that its focus is on “coronavirus cases per million residents” and on “coronavirus deaths per million residents” — not on absolute numbers irrespective of a nation’s population-size. It mentions that on these ratios, Brazil is bad, but Brazil’s ratios aren’t YET as bad as Peru’s, and as Chile’s, and as America’s. That’s just a fact. Why do you object?
I did quote cases per million!
I wrote: “Russia has had 58 deaths per million. Compare that with 374 per million in the US, and 249 per million in Brazil.
How about the absolutely stellar low case-numbers and death-numbers in New Zealand? 4 deaths per million not worth mentioning?”
@ Eric Zeusse & Smoking Eagle For the last seventy years, the death rates (deaths from _all_ causes, annually) in the United States stayed strictly between 8,124 and 9,649 per million. In year 2018 alone, for instance, the annual rate was 8,685 per million of inhabitants. The *daily* mortality rate from all causes in 2018 was therefore about *24 per million* (8,685/365 = 23.79). On the other hand, the number of deaths attributed to the covid virus per million of U.S. inhabitants *over the entire duration* of the recent covid epidemics – about three months, i.e., 90… Read more »
Dishonesty and $$$$s clearly have a nasty habit of skewing figures not only in the case of this pandemic but also with many other issues. The US accuses other countries of under-reporting Covid cases and deaths while over-reporting them itself? I wonder why a hospital would receive $30,000 when a Covid patient dies? Do all hospitals in the US receive this amount per Covid death? I have read accounts by people who don’t have health coverage in the US regarding the cost of being tested (around $3,000) and treated ($30,000 to $34,000). Is the $30,000 reimbursement to hospitals to… Read more »
Today’s figures show that Peru has 260 deaths per million, so it now has seven deaths per million more than Brazil. Chile has 248 per million, so it has five fewer than Brazil. These three countries are all in the same ballpark. The exceptional US at 375 deaths per million is still winning!
Wait! Aren’t the ‘countries’ of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts the worst, Covid-19 ridden countries in the world, re: deaths per millions of population?Those US States have the same amount of population as many European and small south Asian ones, greater GDP’s and as many resources…..
Just sayin’……
How can the us give up? It didn’t do anything to start with.
To put the Covid deaths into an easily understandable format it is clearer to use a monetary example. Thus far, Britain has had 632 deaths per million of the population due to Covid19 OR Covid19 related ( whatever that means). In monetary terms it means that a One Hundred UK Pounds savings account (10,000 pence) would have lost a total of SIX Pence ( 0.0006p ) per One hundred pounds saved. If my math is correct a Government loss of 120 million pounds for ignoring Covid19 is preferential to the loss, thus far, of 400 billion pounds.… Read more »
Why is it that neither government nor mainstream media is telling us that most all of those inflicted with Covert 19 are among the 50% working poor?
Could it be because the 50% most educated in society hoard all the land, wealth and healthcare?
It is not an honest representation of the data to suggest Sweden has high per capita deaths with c19. Beligium as you acnoledge has the worst per capita c19 death’s in the world, but this is followed by the UK, Spain, and Italy, with Sweden having marginally higher c19 death’s per capita than France. So Sweden cannot be described as having high c19 death’s per capita This does not even including south American countries with high per capita c19 death’s like Peru Looking at overall excess mortality, as countries define C19 deaths differently, and have vastly different testing regimes (making… Read more »