[82 Card]

Heartbreaking. If we'd dealt as a nation as well as the average European nation, our death toll would have been at least 100K lives lower so far. And we'd be looking to an end to the lockdowns. If only. No president in my lifetime (I'm 72) would have handled this crisis so bizarrely. And it goes on and on. He and his handlers could turn it around in a day ... it would improve their election standing ... but no. The all-about-me world of Donald Trump.

I don't think that's right; the European average is brought up by Italy, Spain, and France (who were hit early in the pandemic before anyone could prepare), and the UK, which delayed going into a lockdown thinking it could do a Sweden-like herd immunity play.  I think the death rate in the EU as a whole is about the same as the UK, though their trajectory is better.


BC

Corrected version: I originally posted computations using woldometers.info data for europe showing that US had about 84K more deaths that if would have at the European rate. On further reflection, I withdraw the original computations. The worldometers.info numbers for Europe include non-EU countries such as Russia and Belarus with what I would consider highly suspect data.

Using the official EU COVID death toll of 179,660 and EU population of 446 million gives a death rate of 403/million. At that rate, US would have 132,304 deaths. The actual US death toll is 173,716, which is 41,412 higher. That only looks half as bad so far. However, US numbers are still growing at a faster clip than EU.

[82 Card]

Heartbreaking. If we'd dealt as a nation as well as the average European nation, our death toll would have been at least 100K lives lower so far. And we'd be looking to an end to the lockdowns. If only. No president in my lifetime (I'm 72) would have handled this crisis so bizarrely. And it goes on and on. He and his handlers could turn it around in a day ... it would improve their election standing ... but no. The all-about-me world of Donald Trump.

I don't think that's right; the European average is brought up by Italy, Spain, and France (who were hit early in the pandemic before anyone could prepare), and the UK, which delayed going into a lockdown thinking it could do a Sweden-like herd immunity play.  I think the death rate in the EU as a whole is about the same as the UK, though their trajectory is better.


BC

Corrected version: I originally posted computations using woldometers.info data for europe showing that US had about 84K more deaths that if would have at the European rate. On further reflection, I withdraw the original computations. The worldometers.info numbers for Europe include non-EU countries such as Russia and Belarus with what I would consider highly suspect data.

Using the official EU COVID death toll of 179,660 and EU population of 446 million gives a death rate of 403/million. At that rate, US would have 132,304 deaths. The actual US death toll is 173,716, which is 41,412 higher. That only looks half as bad so far. However, US numbers are still growing at a faster clip than EU.