Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

[Thryleon]

Let’s crunch the numbers.

With a population of 25,670,300, Australia has had 897 deaths. With a population of 328.2 million, the US has had 214,000 deaths. Per 100,000 people, the death rate is 3.5 in Aus & 65.2 in the USA. The US death rate is over 18 times Australia’s.

Feel free to post your own calculations. I took the first stats that appeared in the google searches, so better stats might be out there.

Did they lock 20% of the country in isolation for 6 months to achieve that?

As a percentage of total population how do our stats look? 

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality

On this ranking our case fatality rate is actually higher.

Did we just end up with more vulnerable infected or how does this stat work?

FYI even with the numbers you counted as a proportion of population the number of dead still comes to under 1% in both nations cases.

[Baggers]

Coincidentally, the only thing I know about Robert Reich is a 10 minute YT clip by Richard Wolff, which I only watched this morning. Filtered through Wolff's eyes, he sounds like an advocate for the Nordic Model, i.e capitalism with lots of regulation and government intervention. Basically a belief that capitalism can be fixed and made to work.

...only with strict govt regulations, as you mentioned.

I see what Reich is on about as an achievable first step and one reasonably palatable to the community at large. He was a senior minister and friend of the Clintons, until he realised that they'd stiffed him and were deep down inside, as you point out, just more of the same. He resigned disillusioned and started campaigning on his own. His Netflix doco, Saving Capitalism (not really) is terrific and enlightening viewing.

Starting with something like he advocates would point us in the right direction, but, ultimately, your mate Chris Hedges is absolutely right and where we need to be if we're to survive as a species. I'm not optimistic.

[madbluboy]

Imagine if we had 300 million people here and 50 states?

[Mav]

The numbers give you the answer: we’d have 200,000 fewer deaths than the US!

[PaulP]

Do a Google search for "Trump's handling of covid". Say what you like about other aspects of his presidency, but it makes for pretty dismal reading.

[madbluboy]

The numbers give you the answer: we’d have 200,000 fewer deaths than the US!

Really? NSW has more people than Victoria.

[Lods]

US numbers don't look good anyway you look at it
But there are so many variables that play into this including State structures and responsibilities, population density and movement that comparisons are difficult.
There is a wide variation in state numbers.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

Contrast Alaska and Hawaii which can be locked down and separated much more easily than say New York.

[cookie2]

@ Lods

From what I understand there are many anomalies and inconsisties in the way data is collected and stats put together so reported numbers should be treated with caution.

[PaulP]

Condemnation of Trump's handling of covid is widespread, bordering on universal. There are no guarantees in anything - even if his handling of it was beyond reproach, the numbers may still have been the same. But that's no excuse for the way he conducted himself : reckless and negligent.

Whatever good things he has achieved are completely swamped by a whole lot of negatives. He will undoubtedly go down as the worst president in US history, and with good reason.

[cookie2]

If we are to learn anything about how best to manage this virus we should be basing that learning on accurate data and information.