My County, which did not have "draconian" lockdowns, has had 0 deaths per million.
My County, which did not have "draconian" lockdowns, has had 0 deaths per million.
We had such low incidence where we lived in Michigan, which was rural and by the lake, compared with the cities, that I think it has more to do with population density and air quality, particularly air quality. I also think there are genetic components as to who is more susceptible, and that maybe more enviromental things we don't yet know.
Definitely population density is a factor. My state's most rural county has fared best. I feel so lucky to have been working there since October and when case counts spike where I live I get groceries near work even though it is more expensive.
Population density ain’t the problem. The worst hit counties in Kansas are all sparsely populated rural counties.
I think it's increasingly random in terms of where it strikes the hardest. Vermont was extremely low in cases and deaths until the last few months. Even my rural county has spiked. Then you hear Florida and Texas bragging about how little they pay heed to safety measures and frankly, they're not dong all that bad--I think Florida is roughly in the middle of # of cases/deaths.
I'm not in favor of thumbing my nose at fate, however. I believe in masks and social distancing, but I think the patterns we've seen recently defy any "formula" for safety. Maybe these states with moderate numbers of cases despite no care in the world for masking are lying about their numbers, but I doubt it.
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Certainly aggressive counting brings rewards to some jurisdictions, so there’s that. Aggressive counting, creative counting, benefit-of-the-doubt counting is going on to some extent.
In the Biden funeral giveaway, that there might engender a bit of creativity with death certificates. In case anyone thinks I am just making this up, one of the experts on the NPR show yesterday talked about the pressure this new giveaway will put on physicians ro write the correct thing on the death certificate. He is an academic in the social sciences whose area of study is death culture. That is “the science” as we know it, apparently.
I agree that there are many factors at work, but when I see the President accuse Texas of “Neanderthal thinking” and the recent botched 60 Minutes hit piece directed at the Florida Governor, I have to wonder if some of our media culture warriors are pushing a narrative here. Compared to say, New York or California these states seemed to do better at preserving their economies while doing as well on infections. There doesn’t seem to me to be much objective evidence for the constant drumbeat of contempt aimed at “freedumb”.
In my opinion, they absolutely are. I think people forget that media news organizations are independent businesses or profit centers for their owners, and selling their product to their preferred demographic is their ultimate goal. Sometimes that means giving their customers what they want by crafting narratives designed to keep their audiences coming back. Unfortunately, carefully crafted narratives sell better than objective analysis.
That business model requires a fair amount of effort from people wanting to be truly informed to separate the wheat from the chaff.
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein
not density per se but overcrowding almost certainly played a roll. When you have 20 people or more living in a single family home or a single apartment unit, that's not your properly planned density, but it is overcrowding.Population density ain’t the problem. The worst hit counties in Kansas are all sparsely populated rural counties.
but honestly saying states with "draconian" shutdowns didn't fare better is like saying "I used to eat 2 whole chocolates cake every night and couldn't lose weight, now I'm only eating 1 whole chocolate cake every night and yet I'm still not! I don't think my cake consumption has any effect on my weight at all!" Draconian restrictions no more actually existed that eating a chocolate cake a day is calorie restriction. If no restrictions at all existed would the death toll be even higher, probably.
Trees don't grow on money
Back in the early days the anti-lockdown folks were pointing to them to 'prove' that lockdowns weren't effective. Lets see how that worked out for them.
As of today:
Finland 157 dead per million
Norway 128 dead per million
Sweden 1369 dead per million.
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