I & I Editorial BoardI&I Editorial
If the Democratic National Convention made anything clear, it is that Democrats are entirely invested in making the coronavirus pandemic look worse than it is in the United States.
Almost every speaker decried the response and blamed President Donald Trump for the scale of the disease in the country.
In his acceptance speech, Joe Biden said “Just judge this president on the facts. Five million Americans infected by COVID-19. More than 170,000 Americans have died. By far the worst performance of any nation on Earth.” Later he said, “We lead the world in confirmed cases. We lead the world in deaths.”
Fact checkers somehow missed Biden’s flagrant abuse of statistics. NPR’s “fact check” of Biden’s speech said only that, if anything, Biden undercounted the number of COVID-19 deaths.
But the number of infections and deaths is meaningless out of context. What matters is how many have died per capita, how many who’ve been infected have succumbed to the disease and where the trends are right now.
When you do that, the picture looks far less bleak.
The U.S. is far from the worst in the world in terms of the death rate per million population. The U.S. ranks 10th for per capita deaths worldwide, and notably better than the United Kingdom with its socialist health care scheme, and Sweden, which adopted a much more laissez-faire approach to the pandemic than the U.S.
On confirmed cases per million, the U.S. ranks 9th, but this is in part due to the extensive testing we’ve done. In fact, despite what Biden and Co. will have you believe, we are in the top group when it comes to COVID-19 tests per capita. (Note that only four of the other 36 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations do better than the U.S. on tests per capita. Also, every country that does better than the U.S. has a significantly smaller population — some just tens of thousands. In fact, if you add up the populations of every country in the top 17, it equals a little more than half the U.S. population. )
When it comes to the case fatality rate – the share of confirmed cases who have died – there is no comparison. Not only does the U.S. outperform most countries – as well as the world overall – the case fatality rate in the U.S. has been steadily declining.
Finally, there’s the chart Democrats really don’t want you to see: The number of new COVID-19 cases peaked a month ago and has been trending downward ever since.
Not only is the epidemic becoming less deadly, but its spread has slowed.
Democrats don’t want you to know any of this, and neither does the Trump-hating press. Democrats can’t let you know if they hope to reclaim the White Hosue and take control of Congress based on fear and panic.
So share these charts far and wide.
Editor’s note: The above chart has confused some readers. The countries that have conducted more than 1 million tests “per million” actually have tiny populations. Andorra, for example, has just over 77,000 people, but has conducted more than 135,000 tests, according to Worldometer. When you convert these numbers to tests “per million” it works out to 1.8 million. Also, this chart only shows the top 18 countries by this measure, not the entire list of more than 200 tracked by Worldometer. And as we note in the body of this piece, every country doing better than the U.S. has significantly smaller populations than the U.S.,
Editor’s note: After publishing this piece, we came across a study published by the prestigious National Bureau of Economic Research, which finds that masks and lockdowns have had no meaningful impact on the spread of the disease or the number of deaths. These interventions “have varied in their timing and implementation across countries and states, but the trends in outcomes do not,” the study finds. This is the sort of science that Democrats and the press repeatedly claim to revere, yet they have studiously ignored this and other similar findings in their zeal to politicize the pandemic.
Armando Simón
Using these vague “policy violations,” Google is now threatening to demonetize us. It’s part of Big Tech’s effort to silence conservative voices.
If you separate the five worst states from the other 45, then the rest of the U.S. looks excellent compared to all other countries.
Correction: If you separate the five worst Democrat managed states from the other 45, then the rest of the U.S. looks excellent compared to all other countries.
We’re testing almost 1 million people per day. It’s an insane amount with an obvious over-focus on asympatomatics.
This both inflates our case numbers and reduces CFR significantly.
The only numbers worth monitoring are hospitalizations and deaths (by date of death, not reported date).
“The only numbers worth monitoring are hospitalizations and deaths (by date of death, not reported date).” Good luck finding that data. This whole COVID reporting is basically numerology, lots of numbers nothing of value. Keeps the Lame Steam Idiots and their followers typing.
“The only numbers worth monitoring are hospitalizations and deaths….”
True, but those numbers will never be known, because everything “WITH” C19 is reported as a Civid death, whether Covid was the cause or not. (Died of cancer, but happened to get C19 while in the nursing home — Covid death.) Inaccurate recording makes the truth impossible to ever know.
The inflection point where cases begin trending toward the second peak would be two weeks before June 14. The 2nd peak is the affect of the George Floyd protests/riots/funerals which acted as super spreaders and which vitiated the tolerance of the rest of us for discriminatory social distancing rules. Herd immunity will eventually drive infection levels down.
Then they did us a favor by driving us towards herd immunity despite the insane lockdown orders by our Governors and Mayors. If not, then natural selection will weed out the less desirable among our citizenry (and by that, I mean the gullible, ignorant, or those prone to violent behavior). Either way, that’s a win.
Noting in the last chart, that the most recent spike began just about two weeks after the end of May…hmmm…I wonder what began happening then?
Both parties have distorted the Covid-19 comparative statistics by using absolute figures. The Dems like to use the absolute number of deaths in the U.S. to make their case. Trump, on the other hand, uses the absolute number of tests administered to make the case that no country on Earth has fought the pandemic as vigorously as the U.S. The relative figures for both of the above measures tell a very different story.
The tests per million chart is silly. Other than the UAE, all those top countries have really tiny populations. It’s not until you get down to Denmark that you find one with a population in the neighborhood or larger than New York City
Note too the weird scale going to 1,800,000 tests per million. Multiple tests per person or erroneous scale?
As we noted in a reply to a previous comment, the countries that have more than 1 million tests “per million” have tiny populations, and so have been able to test their people more than once. Andorra, for example, has a population of 77,000 and has conducted 137,000 tests, according to Worldometer. Do the math, and that works out to the equivalent of 1.8 million tests per million people.
While the world tries to make sense of all the data for the China virus, the underlying fact that data collection is highly disparate means there is a lot of apples to oranges comparisons in those stats. If you have any knowledge of statistics, you know the term “GIGO” and that would apply to the virus statistics.
Thank you for presenting accurate data. The Main Stream Media and those who stand to benefit from the pandemic have managed to instill a sense of doom in many Americans. Combining the shut down and false Covid data is making many Americans scared to go outdoors. Among the data not presented are the demographics of who gets sick, where do they live and how many actually get really sick? Thousands have had the virus, recovered and gone on about their lives. There is a big difference in the outcomes between college kids and old folks with pre-existing conditions. I agree with the approach of the South Dakota Governor. Treat the sick and let the rest of the population tend to business.
How is this accurate when it ignores that fact that 95% of the worlds countries have a much more effective response to the virus than the US. How is it accurate when it ignores the fact that our death rate is 95 times, yes, 95 times, greater than S. Korea’s even though both countries had their first cases on the same day? How is it accurate when it ignores that fact that our death will surpass most of the 5% of countries doing worse than we are by Oct. 1. In fact the only other countries that will be worse by then will 3rd world countries and places like Brazil whose President continues to insist that covid19 is not a danger.
Perhaps the 95% higher rate that you preach is not really that correct. The whole of the deaths reported has a problem in that if you tested positive to the virus yet died from something else you were counted as a virus death. No accuracy in the reporting of deaths from this virus.
While countries like the UK may have a ‘more effective response’, they also have a significantly higher death rate per million. And how one knows today what the situation will be Oct. 1 escapes me. I really think you need to reread the article and to take time to digest its statistical indications. (Oh, and don’t forget that many of the countries having a ‘more effective response’ to this Red Chinese virus are using HCQ, zinc, and Z packs, just as President Trump wanted here. Those countries, though, are lucky enough to be free of another plague, viz. the mendacity of a politically compromised mass media that has lied boldly about the effectiveness of this proven and inexpensive drug in treating the CCP virus.)
Something seems amiss. The article states “…we are in the top of the pack when it comes to COVID-19 tests per capita. (Note also that only four of the other 36 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations do better than the U.S. on tests per capita.)”
Yet the chart labeled “Tests per Million” shows the US below 17 other (mostly very small) countries, some of whom are testing > 1M people per Million – testing everyone more than once?
I think that chart is mislabeled … what is it supposed to show?
In those smaller countries, that appears to be the case. According to Worldometer, Andorra has a population of 77,000 and has conducted 137,000 tests. Monaco has conducted 52,000 tests in a population of 39,000. It’s worth noting that if you add up the populations of all the countries that do better than the U.S. on per-capita testing, it’s equal to a little more than half the total U.S. population.
I think it’s supposed to show testing density or something. If your country is really small you can test the entire population several times with just 1 shipping container of test kits. Could be useful for follow ups I guess. NJ tests at least 20,000 per day, and is one of the smaller US states. In just 3 days that’s the population of Bermuda. FL tested a “Bermuda” of people in just 1 day in early July.
Case fatality rate is an almost meaningless statistic. If, as the US saw in July and early August, there is a an explosion of new cases the fatality rate goes down. It doesn’t mean we are doing better. It just means that we have a lot of new cases.
Equally important that the first two charts leave out very important information. There are 211 covid19 infected countries and territories. 199 of them have lower death rates than the US. In other words 95% of world is doing better than the US. Similarly, the tests rate doesn’t tell us much. A much more critical piece of information is what share of the tests are positive. Here the US fails again. Because the infection is so widespread our positive test rate is almost 7%. Any rate above 5% indicates that the infection is still growing. The best countries have positive test rates below 1%.
Sure would like to see flu chart this year and last 5 years to see if flu deaths are counted as covid
If you died with covid, they put you down as a covid death. What the actual cause was is irrelevant to them. The result is death certificates being falsified and the number of deaths being inflated. There have been some cases where the PTB were outed and the death recorded was changed to something else, but that happens in only a small number of cases. Testing is also questionable as many false results have been seen.
In short, Covid statistics are a farrago of errors, most intentional.
You need to factor into the statistics being presented the one hundred fifty million Americans who, Joe Biden said, who have died by gun violence in the past year. And the 85,000 Americans who have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic. This should skewer the Covid-19 results a bit differently than calculated before we lost half of our population last year to gun violence.
Yep. The severe loss of life due to gun violence, 150M by Bidens count, should have made the nation a ghost town in some areas. There should be bodies stacked everywhere. There’s not.
When I was in college, a few decades ago, there was a book entitled “How to lie with statistics”. Interesting book.
The folks reporting on the kung flu effects seem to have that thing, the fudging of the numbers to reflect what they want, down pat. If the “pinnochio” nose thing was a reality, the folks in the political circles would be poking each other’s eyes out. Big time.
Just sayin’.
New Mexico is almost COVID free, but most New Mexicans think we’re on the verge of annihilation from it. Here’s the truth: https://losalamosreporter.com/2020/08/14/devin-kennemore-a-fresh-look-at-covid-19-data/
Also, Here is an update on NM with trends and much more analysis: http://thegatherer.us/following-the-data-covid-19-and-the-state-of-new-mexico-august-26-update/
Sorry. The second chart, Tests per Million, is that supposed to be good that the US is at the bottom. Don’t you want as many tests performed as possible?
What the chart shows is that the U.S. is in the top 20 worldwide in terms of tests per capita, and that all the countries doing better have significantly smaller populations.
yeah, we’re tenth worst, out a 195. This means there are only about 185 countries that are doing better than us.
Add to this the fact the virus has never been isolated and there is no real test for it… If you read this article I probably don’t have to mention PCR tests do not test for specific viruses, but a strand of RNA sequence that is in every coronavirus on the planet and comes in a number other forms as well… but cases! Biggest psyop in the history of mankind, and decades in the making if you do the research.
Exactly!
Including the common cold.
Good information. However, it doesn’t account for all of the cheating and lying concerning Covid deaths…for money. It also doesn’t’ account for the false positives, and how someone having anti-bodies in their system is counted as a new “case”. Further, the charts fail to illustrate that this Covid is only about as deadly as the average flu (a recovery chart of people who have had it would be useful) How many people know that Covid has been around for a long time? This is only a new strain of it. How many people know the death count or infection rate of H1N1? How many people know that the variousflus of 1968, 1957, and 1918 were FAR more deadly and serious than Covid in terms of infection rates and deaths? How many people know that “science and medicine” REJECTED masks and social distancing after the 1918 Spanish flu? They were deemed as non-effective and were only a “security blanket”. Trump needs to issue an EO, stating that no one can be compelled to wear a mask anywhere at anytime. Only then, will sanity return to the USA and people will start to figure out that we were scammed. For what and why are totally different issues.
This article neglects to mention the outright fraud in reporting both infection and death rates. I wish I could but I do not trust any number being put out on the wu flu. The democRat party and their propaganda media have so thoroughly destroyed truth, objectivity and honest reporting in their attempts to overthrow our American republic that we the people cannot trust anything they put out on anything. Sad and pathetic
I believe you are correct, except the root of the deception goes far beyond the Demonrat party. This is a battle in the timeless war between good and evil, between Truth and Lies. It would not be humanly possible to account for all the lies and deception deliberately baked into the official data on this virus.
I’m so curious to see the comparison of the total death rate year to date & or year over year for the last few years since the CDC has almost made it a requirement for a doctor to list pretty much all deaths as a Covid cause of death. I believe that’s where the truth will really show what a scam this whole thing is.
As Reagan used to say:
There you go again
trying to confuse us with facts.
Silly you, when will you learn how to write Panic Porn and get more hits?
Chart Number one is factually inaccurate: 328,000,000/180,000 = 1,822.
The chart is correct. The measure is deaths per one million people. 183,000 deaths in the US works out to 563 deaths per million people. Here’s the source for the chart. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
The European Union has 446 million people. That’s not “significantly smaller” than the US population (about 330 million). If you didn’t want to count it as a “country,” you should not have included it in the chart.