How Many Americans Have To Die From COVID Before The Country Unites Behind Science And Expertise And Casts Out The Devil's Sowers Of Doubt?

 

CNN fact checker Dale told the L.A. Times that Trump lies so much that he can't keep up with them and that he's decided to stop counting each individual lie and "just focus on the big stuff." Although Trump claims that doctors are being paid to exaggerate the numbers of COVID cases and COVID deaths, those stats are a lot easier to keep up with that the lies Trump spouts-- by one count, a lie every 75 seconds at his super-spreader rallies. Friday in Green Bay, for example, he told the morons in attendance that without him it would be illegal to say "Merry Christmas" and that if Biden is elected "There will be no heating in the winter, no air conditioning in the summer, and no electricity." As for the pandemic, the U.S. is worse off than any other developed country-- and most undeveloped country by every metric conceivable. Trump's inability to lead has lead to 86,293 new cases yesterday, bringing our national total to 9,401,590 cases and 236,072 deaths.

A key metric to judge how each country, regardless of size, is handling the pandemic is to look at the number of cases reported per million residents. Here's the U.S. compared to 2 dozen other developed countries. (keep in mind that anything over 20,000 cases per million is pretty much the definition of an out-of-control pandemic)

• Belgium- 35,524 cases per million residents
• Israel- 34,185
• USA- 28,406
• Spain- 27,042
• Chile- 26,616
• Brazil- 25,981
• Argentina- 25,740
• France- 20,937
• Netherlands- 20,480
• Switzerland- 17,779
• U.K.- 14,876
• Ireland- 12,400
• Sweden- 12,288
• Austria- 11,628
• Italy- 11,243
• Russia- 11,086
• Denmark- 7,993
• Germany- 6,340
• Canada- 6,195
• Australia- 1,078
• Japan- 795
• South Korea- 517
• New Zealand- 391
• China- 60
• Taiwan- 23

The prime minister of Belgium announced yesterday his country is shutting down again, calling it a "last chance" to keep the country’s health care system from collapse. France and Germany have already done so and the UK is about to do likewise. But, back in Trumpistan where there isn't even a national mask mandate, the 17 worst hit states-- those with the most cases per million residents-- are all states where majorities (or pluralities) voted for Trump in 2016 and where many people-- including those in government-- listen to Trump's gaslighting rather than to public health experts when it comes to dealing with the pandemic. States you want to avoid going to for now:

• North Dakota- 57,628 cases per million residents
• South Dakota- 51,988

• Iowa- 40,561
• Mississippi- 40,374
• Louisiana- 39,208
• Alabama- 39,216
• Wisconsin- 38,707
• Tennessee- 38,170
• Florida- 37,366
• Arkansas- 37,176
• Idaho- 36,153
• Nebraska- 36,565
• Utah- 35,763
• South Carolina- 34,302
• Georgia- 33,981
• Arizona- 33,790
• Texas- 32,996

Wall Street Journal reporter Elizabeth Findell reported that "The percentage of tests for Covid-19 coming back positive in South Dakota has soared to 46%. That’s more than eight times the World Health Organization’s recommended 5% threshold for businesses to be open. As Covid cases surge across the U.S. and in Europe, South Dakota and North Dakota hold a distinct position: Each has more new virus cases per capita than any other states have seen since the pandemic began. South Dakota has the most and North Dakota the second-most."

Recently, Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, who very much needs to be tried for negligent homicide, penned an OpEd about her abject failure to protect her state, although she congratulated herself for doing a great job and worked once again to mislead Dakotans about the effectiveness of wearing masks, concluding that "if folks want to wear a mask, they should be free to do so. Similarly, those who don’t want to wear a mask shouldn’t be shamed into wearing one. And government should not mandate it. We need to respect each other’s decisions-- in South Dakota, we know a little common courtesy can go a long way."

No one is more guilty of spreading COVID across America-- other than President Super-Spreader and Vice President Super-Spreader-- than Noem. Her motorcycle rally and state fair have caused tens of thousands of cases across the Midwest and cost the U.S. taxpayer an estimated $60 billion in medical treatment. Friday's much-discussed Stanford report-- The Effects of Large Group Meetings on the Spread of COVID-19: The Case Of Trump Rallies can and should be applied to Noem's events as well and no doubt will be if she is ever indicted and tried. The report focused on the spread of contagion and death for 10 weeks after 18 of Trump's super-spreader rallies across the country. They concluded that these 18 rallies have-- so far-- "resulted in more than 30,000 incremental confirmed cases of COVID-19" and more than 700 deaths.

And in case you missed it the first time I ran it...