Posted on 03/26/2020 3:13:16 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
President Donald Trump has been defending his handling of the coronavirus outbreak as the number of cases there continues to rise sharply.
We've fact-checked some of the president's recent claims.
Claim 1 "The United States has done far more 'testing' than any other nation, by far!"
The latest data shows that 418,810 people have been tested in the US. This is more than the amount of people tested in South Korea, who had conducted the most tests globally up until this point.
However, South Korea has a population of around 51 million, compared with the US which has about 328 million.
Therefore, the US has tested only slightly more than one in 1,000 people, compared with South Korea which has tested more than one out of every 150 people.
So that's far fewer per capita in the US than in South Korea.
Claim 2
When asked about WHO data on the virus's death rate: "I think the 3.4% is really a false number... Personally, I think the number is way under 1%."
At the moment we don't know how likely you are to die from coronavirus, mainly because of the lack of data on infections. However, scientists' current best guess is about 1%.
Claim 3
On 9 March: "Last year 37,000 Americans died from the common flu. Nothing is shut down, life and the economy go on... Think about that."
This statement from the president requires context. We don't know exactly how many American deaths there have been linked to flu. But estimates from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) give a range between 26,339 and 52,664 flu deaths last winter.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
twist the numbers until all folks are gay and want communism
More anti-Trump rhetoric, how original. /s
One percent of 328 million is 3.28 million. The death machine better start crankin to catch up on the statistic.
The President said we had test more PEOPLE,not more PER CAPITA. Media lying.
No the article mentions that. Then it goes on to State per capita. Just read what’s on the page
LOL! Nice Job BBC proving TRUMP is right!
If you see a “Fact Check” Tag you know it’s garbage.
And then wraps up that point with “So that’s far fewer per capita in the US than in South Korea.” Does presenting it that way show any bias in your mind?
“Not per capita”
Yep. Also note:
the amount of reagents available for test kits in a nation
—is not proportional to —
the amount of people in that nation
So, a per capita measure here is interesting, but should not be used as an indicator.
I think the 1% is 1% of the infected.
The average rate of death per million people, using the death rate per million for the seven nations with the most deaths, comes to about 524 per million, which is 0.00524%. Less than 1%. Trump is right.
0.0524%.
It’s always about the spin...
All of this “fact checking” exhibits the snark of a pack of middle school girls.
The president didn’t say per capita so his statement is absolutely correct.
Trump is “defending”?
Darn, and we thought he was doing a darned find job.
Guess we just aren’t as smart as those BBC dorks. They all live in the butt of the Guardian - the official location of the Communist Party of GB.
“The President said we had test more PEOPLE,not more PER CAPITA. Media lying.”
Umm, what you said is what the article said.
I won’t accuse you of lying, so I think you probably just didn’t bother to read or understand the article you were commenting on.
I just ran the US. 894/350,000,000 =.0000026
The CDC statistic is "P&I", that is, deaths from pneumonia and influenza. The CDC tracks "influenza-like-illness" during the winter (ILI), they presume all or most ILI is caused by influenza (which is known to be false) and the death figures presume (almost certainly wrongly) that every pneumonia death is, in some sense, "caused" by prior influenza.
Very few of those 26000 or 52000 actually are tested for influenza, which is why the range is so large.
I agree. This is a political hack piece.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.