How's The Pandemic Coming Along Where You Live?

One way to measure and compare which states have been hit worst by the pandemic is by is by looking not at the raw cases, but by looking at the cases per million residents. By that measurement, Vermont (2,470 cases per million residents), Maine (3,188 cases per million) and Hawaii (4,289 cases per million) have had the easiest time of it so far. On the other end of the spectrum, exactly a dozen states each has over 20,000 cases per million residents.

• Louisiana- 30,485 cases per million residents
• Florida- 27,623 cases per million
• Arizona- 27,051 cases per million
• Mississippi- 25,645 cases per million
• New York- 23,600 cases per million (stabilized)
• Georgia- 23,511 cases per million
• Alabama- 22,999 cases per million
• New Jersey- 21,928 cases per million (stabilized)
• South Carolina- 21,438 cases per million
• Nevada- 20,919 cases per million
• Tennessee- 20,624 cases per million
• Texas- 20,568 cases per million

By way of comparison, not one European country comes anywhere near these numbers. The worst-hit western European countries haven't been hit half as badly, not even the countries like France and Spain that have already begun Wave II:

• Spain- 8,723 cases per million residents
• Sweden- 8,515 cases per million
• Belgium- 6,976 cases per million
• Ireland- 5,643 cases per million
• Portugal- 5,441 cases per million
• U.K.- 4,778 cases per million
• Switzerland- 4,574 cases per million
• Italy- 4,270 cases per million
• Netherlands- 3,856 cases per million
• France- 3,645 cases per million
• Denmark- 2,802 cases per million
• Germany- 2,790 cases per million

In fact, France, which had 4,586 new confirmed cases reported on Friday, bringing the national total to 234,400, sits between Maine and Hawaii, two of the least impacted American states! Worst-hit European country Spain had 3,650 new cases confirmed Friday, bringing its national total to 407,879-- 8,723 per million Spaniards, somewhere between Alaska's 6,272 per million residents and Washington's 9,439 cases per million. Trump is the worst national leader America has ever had. Putin got more than he ever bargained for by investing just a few million dollars in the 2016 election.

It would be hard not to notice that most of the worst-hit American states are "red" states where Trump won in 2016 and where Republicans control state government policies and are responsible for inadequately dealing with the emergency-- a combination of just too many idiots and morons in the population and governments guided by partisan right-wing ideologues rather than by public health experts. Yesterday, CNN reported that Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation researchers are projecting that the U.S. death toll, which Friday stood at 179,200, will by over a quarter million by election day.

The Institute's director, Dr. Christopher Murray, says the acceleration of cases can be stopped and their model could be defeated: "The public's behavior had a direct correlation to the transmission of the virus and, in turn, the numbers of deaths." He told CNN that if 95% of the people in the US wear masks, the spread could be cut by 40% and more than 66,000 lives could be saved between now and the end of the year. I drove to a pharmacy yesterday to pick up some meds for my neuropathy. It's about 2 miles from my house. I saw at least 100 people on the drive and in the 3 stores I stopped in. Mask use was 100%, including homeless people who hang out in the parking lot of one of the supermarkets. 100% means that not even one person was being an idiot. I'm proud of Los Feliz!

On Thursday, Dr. Fauci told CNN that "The US has what it takes to get Covid-19 case levels down to more manageable levels by Election Day if it uses masks and other 'fundamental tenets of infection control'-- but it needs to get serious now. We can be way down in November... if we do things correctly, and if we start right now... I really do believe, based on the data we see in other countries, and in the United States, in states and cities and counties that have done it correctly, that if we pay attention to the fundamental tenets of infection control and diminution of transmission, we can be way down in November. Everybody on the team of American citizens needs to pull together... It's up to us,' he said."

It's up to us? OK, if by "us" he means the folks in Los Feliz, I feel fine. If by "us," he means the folks in the red states, I feel like we're all gonna die. Because it isn't a quarter million deaths by election day that will make these idiots take this seriously; it's a million or two million deaths-- or strictly enforced mandates, not shooting them like mad dogs, but... putting them where they can't endanger society. How about Wyoming? Build a wall around Wyoming and put all the people who refuse to wear masks there; seal it up and unseal in 2030.

Badge Of Honor by Nancy Ohanian

Most Americans blame the catastrophic U.S. response to the pandemic on Trump and his enablers, as they should. If that doesn't show up as a GOP wipeout up and down the ballots, you'll know the election was rigged and democracy has died, along with those quarter million Americans (Over 300,000 by Inauguration Day 2021, according to the model.)