i was talking about this a bit last night.
first of all, trump is actually right. sort of. simply adding up the number of cases and dividing out the number of deaths is a facile and naive way to calculate the death toll, and the who shouldn't be doing it like that, and they know it.
trump initially argued that the quarantine measures were working and that's why the number of cases in the united states was so low; this is the ignorant statement. the death toll in the united states is actually alarmingly high - 11/158 = 7%. if the true mortality rate were 7%, this would be a very scary virus! but, the mortality rate is nowhere near that anywhere else....
what the who is doing wrong by just performing a simple division operation is making an apples-oranges comparison across a wide variety of health care scenarios. the bubonic plague killed millions of people in the middle ages; nowadays, it's easily treated with anti-biotics. so, a morality rate is a piece of data that is intrinsically connected to the care systems in place. you should be talking about "the mortality rate, in a specific healthcare delivery system".
so, if you live in western europe, canada or just about any other oecd country with the glaring exception of the united states, which is frequently an oecd outlier in health-related concerns (including infant mortality) due to the overwhelmingly capitalistic nature of the care system, the mortality rate is <0.5%, and actually really is on par with a strong flu. a strong flu, perhaps. but a flu.
on the other hand, if you live in iran, which is suffering under crippling economic sanctions that make it difficult to buy medical supplies and basic medicine, then the death toll is much higher. and, if you live in china, it appears to be in between - which is around 2-4%.
so, what is the true mortality rate? there is not one. but, i'd like to think the american health care system can at least keep up with china's, even if it lags far behind the rest of the oecd. it would follow that the quarantine process is actually not working at all, and there must be hundreds or thousands of unreported cases in the united states. otherwise, you need to accept that america's health care system is so dysfunctional that it's about as useful as the one in iran, when they are under sanctions.
so, what is the true mortality rate? there is not one. but, i'd like to think the american health care system can at least keep up with china's, even if it lags far behind the rest of the oecd. it would follow that the quarantine process is actually not working at all, and there must be hundreds or thousands of unreported cases in the united states. otherwise, you need to accept that america's health care system is so dysfunctional that it's about as useful as the one in iran, when they are under sanctions.
american capitalism: delivering domestic health care results that are almost as good as the countries it sanctions, since 1993.
the sanctions on iraq are estimated to have killed millions, and were particularly vicious on the children.
the sanctions on iraq are estimated to have killed millions, and were particularly vicious on the children.
but, when i said this was the best argument for universal healthcare, i actually meant in terms of preventing the spread of the virus. the video mentions reasons why people might not get tested - no sick leave, no insurance, etc. but, what that also means is that there's potentially far fewer checks on the spread of the virus, and that if there really are thousands of cases in the country then it may be acting as an incubation region - viruses are constantly evolving, constantly mutating. if you don't treat people properly, if you make it so difficult to get treatment, if you just let it run wild, you risk making your country the epicenter of mutations, and potentially creating the dangerous pandemic that people are currently irrationally projecting.
so, it's not just the case that america should be embarrassed for lagging so far behind the oecd in it's morality rate. it's also the case that one of the ramifications of america's capitalist health care system is that allowing this to go untreated could allow it to mutate into a more deadly strain.
the cubans used to sarcastically send doctors to the united states on humanitarian missions. they don't do that anymore.
but, the country could legitimately use some help from some ngos, like doctors without borders, to get these tests out there.
this shouldn't be a crisis - the mortality rate in western europe proves that we have the science to beat this. but, capitalism might turn it into one, if we let it.
so, it's not just the case that america should be embarrassed for lagging so far behind the oecd in it's morality rate. it's also the case that one of the ramifications of america's capitalist health care system is that allowing this to go untreated could allow it to mutate into a more deadly strain.
the cubans used to sarcastically send doctors to the united states on humanitarian missions. they don't do that anymore.
but, the country could legitimately use some help from some ngos, like doctors without borders, to get these tests out there.
this shouldn't be a crisis - the mortality rate in western europe proves that we have the science to beat this. but, capitalism might turn it into one, if we let it.
