tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2736612120087106800.post6085948055323786056..comments2024-03-24T00:27:42.082-07:00Comments on mormonomics & mormonethics: The Perfect VirusRoger Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01833699821255820282noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2736612120087106800.post-85168091114247467722020-11-18T09:46:02.832-08:002020-11-18T09:46:02.832-08:00I won't quibble with your conclusion that Trum...I won't quibble with your conclusion that Trump's response to the pandemic has been much like his response to everything else--to the extent that it's been right, it was because he outsourced that part of the response to someone else. <br /><br />But, your concluding statement that "America [is] number 1 in coronavirus deaths" is simply not true by any meaningful measure. It's like the old riddle about why white sheep give more wool than black sheep--because there are so many more white sheep. So too with the coronavirus death toll: the relevant statistic is deaths per total population. By that measure, the U.S. lags behind places like Peru and Brazil and Chile, Mexico, and Argentina, but also models of state-run health care systems such as Belgium (with a death rate over 70% higher than the U.S. rate), Spain, the U.K., and Italy. There's no question that the current system of paying for health care in the U.S. is inefficient and wasteful, but don't blame the death rate from coronavirus on our health care system--because the virus doesn't really care.<br /><br />Also, you ignore increased deaths from other causes, whether failure to get timely treatment for other diseases or shutdown-induced economic disruption (this last is expected to result in the death by starvation of upwards of 100,000,000 worldwide). Don't those people matter?Mark B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/03077876759025539174noreply@blogger.com