American Politics Discussion Thread

[ipecac]

That would make more sense if the virus wasn't contemporaneously spreading in other nations with similar climates.

A better explanation is that Singapore has a small, easily monitored territory, advanced medical capabilities (including universal healthcare), and a government which tightly regulates and controls civil society at the expense of individual liberties.

Missed this one. All true except for universal healthcare, there is no universal healthcare here.

On the other hand, I maintain the principle of trusting no government figures on this virus from any government. Eg. in Japan they downplayed the threat for a long time to avoid postponing the Olympics. Do I trust Japanese numbers?

[ipecac]

[If we had universal healthcare though we'd very likely be better equipped to implement the "let it spread quickly to acquire herd immunity ASAP" strategy without mass shortages of medical equipment

Universal healthcare implies maximal demand and not adequate supply.

[Charriu]

The modern world is not prepared for emergencies. Many households don't have savings to tide them over a rainy period, neither do many of the biggest business or corporations have sufficient funds (since they spend it all on buybacks), neither do healthcare systems (whether universal or otherwise) have enough of the medical equipment or medical staff to deal with devastating pandemics that we know happen every century or so.

Big Daddy government to the rescue!

Well at which point in the known human history was humanity ever prepared for an emergency like this? And yes no healthcare system has enough equipment and staff for something like this, because in normal times you don't need that much.

[Elkad]

In normal times the US healthcare system is excessively lazy. To the tune of 2 million lifethreatening infections transmitted to patients accidentally (negligently) per year.

When they suddenly need 100x the PPE, it's because they weren't using it when they should have been.

[darrelljs]

In normal times the US healthcare system is excessively lazy.  To the tune of 2 million lifethreatening infections transmitted to patients accidentally (negligently) per year.

I couldn't believe it, but Google says 1.7M infections and 99,000 deaths last year.  That's insane and worse than COVID-19.  Europe surprisingly is  even worse.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reports an average prevalence of 7.1% in European countries. The Centre estimates that 4 131 000 patients are affected by approximately 4 544 100 episodes of health care-associated infection every year in Europe.  The estimated incidence rate in the United States of America (USA) was 4.5% in 2002, corresponding to 9.3 infections per 1 000 patient-days and 1.7 million affected patients.

Darrell

[ipecac]

It's not that bad. It amounts to a doctor bumping off less than one patient on average per year.

[Commodore]

It's not that bad. It amounts to a doctor bumping off less than one patient on average per year.

I think the decade where doctors and medicine became a net positive (saved more than they killed) was 1920. This is definitely better.

[darrelljs]

I'm going to set the over/under on Fauci losing his job at May 27th.

Darrell

[ipecac]

I'm going to set the over/under on Fauci losing his job at May 27th.

Darrell

Just bear in mind the previous posts, that iatrogenics remains one of the top causes of death and disease, that doctors only started being a net good around 1920, that a hundred years later they still inflict quite a bit of harm.

[DaveV]

Donald Trump's "leadership" in one chart: