Donate to Remove ads

Got a credit card? use our Credit Card & Finance Calculators

Thanks to johnstevens77,Bhoddhisatva,scotia,Anonymous,Cornytiv34, for Donating to support the site

Coronavirus : USA Relative Performance

The home for all non-political Coronavirus (Covid-19) discussions on The Lemon Fool
Forum rules
This is the home for all non-political Coronavirus (Covid-19) discussions on The Lemon Fool
AWOL
Lemon Slice
Posts: 563
Joined: October 20th, 2020, 5:08 pm
Has thanked: 366 times
Been thanked: 277 times

Coronavirus : USA Relative Performance

#443927

Postby AWOL » September 20th, 2021, 8:08 pm

I heard an Economist for a US bank (didn't catch the name) being interviewed on Bloomberg today. The interviewers were being very deferential however I was surprised to hear her bullishly say that the USA was continuing to manage COVID better than any other developed country. I was very surprised by this and went looking for something to back this claim up but cannot find anything supportive. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-51235105 shows that are not the worst but their performance is hardly world beating. Does anyone got any idea how the USA are outperforming on COVID?

Lootman
The full Lemon
Posts: 18674
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 3:58 pm
Has thanked: 628 times
Been thanked: 6559 times

Re: Coronavirus : USA Relative Performance

#443934

Postby Lootman » September 20th, 2021, 8:45 pm

"Outperformance" was not defined so it hard to say. The one thing I would offer is that it is not merely a count of hospitalisation and deaths, but rather embraces a broader set of criteria.

The US, like the UK, is almost totally back to normal life now and so you have to regard that as success. Some other nations that were vaunted for "outperforming" a year ago are still struggling with infections and restrictions. Turns out they merely deferred things rather than fixed things.

Now that said, the UK and the US are the only two countries that I have spent time in during the last 18 months so I do not understand so well how things are elsewhere. But the over-riding outperformance factor might be that it was UK and US companies which developed the three leading vaccines for Covid and so, discounting the odd vaccine produced in communist nations with less rigorous tests and trials, it could reasonably be stated that the US and the UK are leading the world out of this, with the rest following.

Itsallaguess
Lemon Half
Posts: 9129
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 1:16 pm
Has thanked: 4140 times
Been thanked: 10023 times

Re: Coronavirus : USA Relative Performance

#443946

Postby Itsallaguess » September 20th, 2021, 9:22 pm

AWOL wrote:
The interviewers were being very deferential however I was surprised to hear her bullishly say that the USA was continuing to manage COVID better than any other developed country.


The interview wasn't being held in a car park outside a landscaping business was it?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

XFool
The full Lemon
Posts: 12636
Joined: November 8th, 2016, 7:21 pm
Been thanked: 2608 times

Re: Coronavirus : USA Relative Performance

#443956

Postby XFool » September 20th, 2021, 10:16 pm

Itsallaguess wrote:
AWOL wrote:The interviewers were being very deferential however I was surprised to hear her bullishly say that the USA was continuing to manage COVID better than any other developed country.

The interview wasn't being held in a car park outside a landscaping business was it?

The adjacent funeral directors might have come in handy. :)

9873210
Lemon Slice
Posts: 984
Joined: December 9th, 2016, 6:44 am
Has thanked: 226 times
Been thanked: 296 times

Re: Coronavirus : USA Relative Performance

#443964

Postby 9873210 » September 20th, 2021, 10:48 pm

Lootman wrote:"Outperformance" was not defined so it hard to say. The one thing I would offer is that it is not merely a count of hospitalisation and deaths, but rather embraces a broader set of criteria.

Or, since it is an economist, a narrow set of criteria that do not include hospitalisation and death.

Lootman
The full Lemon
Posts: 18674
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 3:58 pm
Has thanked: 628 times
Been thanked: 6559 times

Re: Coronavirus : USA Relative Performance

#443968

Postby Lootman » September 20th, 2021, 10:56 pm

9873210 wrote:
Lootman wrote:"Outperformance" was not defined so it hard to say. The one thing I would offer is that it is not merely a count of hospitalisation and deaths, but rather embraces a broader set of criteria.

Or, since it is an economist, a narrow set of criteria that do not include hospitalisation and death.

On this site the error I notice the most from the self-styled armchair experts and amateur scientists is the exact opposite, i.e. an undue obsession with the body count and an ignoring of all the other things that affect the 99.8% of people who don't die from this.

gryffron
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3605
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 10:00 am
Has thanked: 550 times
Been thanked: 1584 times

Re: Coronavirus : USA Relative Performance

#443971

Postby gryffron » September 20th, 2021, 11:00 pm

AIUI the USA still has a very large proportion of vaccine refuseniks. Much higher than other rich countries. Which does suggest it will take them a very long time to get over this completely.

OTOH It may well be that these refuseniks are not unduly affecting the economy. Indeed, they might still be out spending more than people with a more sensible attitude to the pandemic.

Gryff

Lootman
The full Lemon
Posts: 18674
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 3:58 pm
Has thanked: 628 times
Been thanked: 6559 times

Re: Coronavirus : USA Relative Performance

#443972

Postby Lootman » September 20th, 2021, 11:04 pm

gryffron wrote:AIUI the USA still has a very large proportion of vaccine refuseniks. Much higher than other rich countries. Which does suggest it will take them a very long time to get over this completely.

It may well be that these refuseniks are not unduly affecting the economy. Indeed, they might still be out spending more than people with a more sensible attitude to the pandemic.

That is true but the anti-vaxxers tend to be in the southern, prairie, desert and mountain states. The folks on the coasts are mostly a lot more sensible. The US is so huge that you can areas with real problems whilst other areas are mostly post-Covid.

Right now the state with highest infection rate is Idaho, a state popular with Mormons, cowboys and folks who prefer to be off the grid. New York City and LA are doing fine.

9873210
Lemon Slice
Posts: 984
Joined: December 9th, 2016, 6:44 am
Has thanked: 226 times
Been thanked: 296 times

Re: Coronavirus : USA Relative Performance

#443987

Postby 9873210 » September 21st, 2021, 12:35 am

Lootman wrote:
Right now the state with highest infection rate is Idaho, a state popular with Mormons, cowboys and folks who prefer to be off the grid. New York City and LA are doing fine.


Right now the state with the highest infection rate is Tennessee, where they like to sing about Jesus, sing about cowboys and sing about folk who prefer to be be off the grid. Kentucky and West Virginia are not far behind. Alaska is also up there, just to make it harder to construct a convincing narrative.

A time lapse map of cases in the US over the pass few months will show a wave of red (bad) and deep red (worse) sweeping north from the Gulf coast. It is premature to say this has stopped at the Mason-Dixon line.

New York State and New York City are currently in their third wave. There was nice minimum about July 1 when President Biden declared victory, but cases and deaths are up substantially since then. Where in the third wave is not apparent. It may be past the peak, pausing on the way up or plateauing at the current level.

Lootman
The full Lemon
Posts: 18674
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 3:58 pm
Has thanked: 628 times
Been thanked: 6559 times

Re: Coronavirus : USA Relative Performance

#443988

Postby Lootman » September 21st, 2021, 12:37 am

9873210 wrote:
Lootman wrote:Right now the state with highest infection rate is Idaho, a state popular with Mormons, cowboys and folks who prefer to be off the grid. New York City and LA are doing fine.

Right now the state with the highest infection rate is Tennessee, where they like to sing about Jesus, sing about cowboys and sing about folk who prefer to be be off the grid.

According to the source I read, Idaho has now overtaken Tennessee. Not that it changes my thesis.

AWOL
Lemon Slice
Posts: 563
Joined: October 20th, 2020, 5:08 pm
Has thanked: 366 times
Been thanked: 277 times

Re: Coronavirus : USA Relative Performance

#444071

Postby AWOL » September 21st, 2021, 10:34 am

The geographic dimension is important in international comparisons and often features in my considerations of the US. There have been many reasons to expect COVID to have hit the US worse than it did but I think the amount of space in the USA has had a big effect in countering the spread outside urban areas. I have assumed, correct me if I am wrong, that the very areas with the lowest vaccination rates have the lowest population densities.

I must say that this thread has proven considerably more fertile ground for comedy than I had imagined given the topic contains disease, death, and economists. It must be the economist that is the joker in the pack.


Return to “Coronavirus Discussions”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests