Posted on 03/28/2020 7:28:32 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
When President Trump said this week that the United States had done more testing than South Korea, USA Today was quick to fact-check his claim by pointing out, "The United States population is more than six times the size of South Korea’s. On a per-capita basis, South Korea is testing far more of its citizens than the U.S." In this case, the media attempted to use a per capita comparison against Trump. CNN and MSNBC each made similar fact-checks.
On Thursday, the New York Times made a big fuss over the fact that more than 81,321 Americans have been infected with the coronavirus, which is "more cases than China, Italy or any other country has seen."
According to their report, the United States, following "a series of missteps," is now "the epicenter of the pandemic."
But, is it really?
China's confirmed cases topped out at around 80,000, but, as PJM's Victoria Taft noted, China reportedly stopped conducting tests in order to show the world they've contained the spread of the virus. So, comparing any country to China at this point is useless.
In a visual presentation titled "Where the U.S. Stands Now on Coronavirus Testing" the New York Times even used whole numbers for confirmed cases in one slide, and then in the next slide used per capita numbers for testing, in order to paint the United States in the worst light.
SLIDE 1: This week, the number of coronavirus tests in the United States surpassed those in South Korea and Italy — two countries that had been testing more aggressively.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Here are the top six countries by confirmed cases (based on the case numbers from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University as of 2:30 pm ET March 27) in descending order:
1. USA (94,238)
2. Italy (86,498)
3. Spain (64,059)
4. Germany (49,344)
5. Iran (32,332)
6. France (29,593)
Now, here are the top six countries by confirmed cases per million people (based on population numbers from the CIA World Fact Book) in descending order:
1. Italy (1386.13)
2. Spain (1280.78)
3. Germany (615.57)
4. France (436.17)
5. Iran (380.72)
6. USA (283.30)
Well, isn’t that interesting? The United States’ confirmed cases per capita are the lowest of the top six countries affected by the virus. Now, there are some who would argue that the United States testing lags behind that of other countries. If we want to assume that there is a discrepancy in testing between countries and that selection bias in testing undercounts the infection rate, then the number of coronavirus deaths is a more accurate way of measuring the impact of the pandemic in each country.
Germany looks pretty good compared to everyone else, doesn't it? But, let's look at confirmed deaths per million people in descending order, to see how that changes things:
Interesting indeed! Germany and the United States have significantly better coronavirus death rates per capita than Italy, Spain, Iran and France. A lot better. This is why the media avoids per capita measurements for confirmed cases, but conveniently remembered when it wanted to fact-check Trump's testing numbers.
The media wants you to believe that the coronavirus in the United States is spiraling out of control the way it did in Italy. Fact check: it isn't.
That was my beef....Not adding population to the stats...that’s just mind games...just like global warming.
The US has a larger population that the five largest European countries (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain) combined. Compare our number of cases and deaths with their combined totals. And I’m certain we are doing far more testing.
At Worldometer, the USA is about 30th per capita in cases.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
And near the bottom in deaths.
Well now, isn’t that interesting? The media will never give us the truth about this virus.
This is why I think Italy is doing far less testing per capita. Just look at their death numbers. And, I also think that Germany’s numbers are pretty accurate. I think our numbers are starting to reflect some accuracy. But, our curve looks just like that of Italy.
Our media is hyping this for all they’re worth(lessnes) since they no longer have the Russia thing and impeachment hysteria.
We have the most weeds, b-but we also have the biggest garden! Isn’t dumb statistical spin fun!
And near the bottom in deaths.
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What does Italy, Spain and France have in common?
LOTS of smokers!
Something we need to remember during this mess is the horrible number of deaths each year from hispital/related illness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital-acquired_infection
Oh no! This means we're all DENIERS!!! NeverTrumpers and other trolls hardest hit!
Thanks for the information!
Any data on which blood - type might be more susceptible ?
Wondering ~
Spent most of the fall in confined quarters, all over Europe with very sick roommates. I’ve never gotten even the sniffles...
Perhaps immunities from past illness ( rarely get sick ) ?
Type “O” blood
Genetics ???
I’m certain my son had WuFlu, and stayed at my house ~ before anyone knew to test for it ( all other tests were negative, the doctor was puzzled )
No one else got anything, except teen daughter had a few days of fever/ nausea, but never threw up...
Surely Bunches of folks hav already been exposed, and are fine now
I haven’t seen any decent breakdown of case data.
That is, even if the move to end it earlier does not come from Trump or Republicans.
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