6% of Confirmed Coronavirus-19 Cases End in Death.

Another important dispatch from The Greanville Post. Be sure to share it widely.

This article is part of an ongoing series of dispatches by historian Eric Zuesse

If nothing else, Covid-19 shows libertarianism is a crock.

China's triumph: Medical assistance teams leave hard-hit Hubei province as epidemic wanes. Comrades show their gratitude.

As of the end of the day on May 28th (start of May 29th), there had been a global total of 5,900,880 confirmed cases of Covid-19 (or coronavirus-19), and 361,776 total deaths confirmed from that disease. That’s a 6.1% death-rate.

However, it varies considerably by country. Here are the ten countries having the most coronavirus cases, and, for each of these countries, the number of cases and of deaths which have resulted from its cases, and then the percentage-ratio of those deaths to its total number of cases:

1: USA, 1,768,461 / 103,330 / 5.8%
2: Brazil, 438,812 / 26,991 / 6.2%
3: Russia, 379,051 / 4,142 / 1.1%
4: Spain, 284,986 / 37,119 / 13.0%
5: UK, 269,127 / 37,837 / 14.1%
6: Italy, 231,732 / 33,142 / 14.3%
7: France, 186,238 / 28,662 / 15.3%
8: Germany, 182,452 / 8,570 / 4.7%
9: India, 165,386 / 4,711 / 2.8%
10: Turkey, 160,979 / 4,461 / 2.8%

Some other countries (which I have previously discussed and analyzed here):

25: Sweden, 35,727 / 4,266 / 11.9%

47: Denmark, 11,512 / 568 / 4.9%

15: China, 82,995 / 4,634 / 5.6%

48: S. Korea, 11,344 / 269 / 2.4%

101: Venezuela, 1,325 / 11 / 0.1%

139: Taiwan, 441 / 7 / 0.2%

147: Vietnam, 327 / 0 / 0.0%

And here, that will be repeated, but at the end of each line now will be added, first, the nation’s infection-rate (number of cases per million of population); and, second, the percentage that the number of cases there increased on May 28th (this latter being an indication as to how rapidly Covid-19 is now spreading in that country); and, third, that nation’s overall death-rate (deaths per million population) from the epidemic:

1: USA, 1,768,461 / 103,330 / 5.8% / 5,346 / 1.3% / 312

2: Brazil, 438,812 / 26,991 / 6.2% / 2,066 / 5.5% / 127

3: Russia, 379,051 / 4,142 / 1.1% / 2,598 / 2.2% / 28

4: Spain, 284,986 / 37,119 / 13.0% / 6,096 / 0.4% / 580

5: UK, 269,127 / 37,837 / 14.1% / 3,966 / 0.7% / 558

6: Italy, 231,732 / 33,142 / 14.3% / 3,832 / 0.3% / 548

7: France, 186,238 / 28,662 / 15.3% / 2,854 / 1.8% / 439

8: Germany, 182,452 / 8,570 / 4.7% / 2,178 / 0.3% / 102

9: India, 165,386 / 4,711 / 2.8% / 120 / 4.4% / 3

10: Turkey, 160,979 / 4,461 / 2.8% / 1,911 / 0.7% / 53

Some other countries:

25: Sweden, 35,727 / 4,266 / 11.9% / 3,540 / 1.8% / 423

47: Denmark, 11,512 / 568 / 4.9% / 1,988 / 0.3% / 98

15: China, 82,995 / 4,634 / 5.6% / 58 / 0.0% / 3

48: S. Korea, 11,344 / 269 / 2.4% / 221 / 0.7% / 5

101: Venezuela, 1,325 / 11 / 0.1% / 47 / 6.0% / 0.4

139: Taiwan, 441 / 7 / 0.2% / 19 / 1.6% / 0.3

147: Vietnam, 327 / 0 / 0.0% / 3 / 0.0% / 0.0

Verbal explanations for the above variations between countries can be found in my May 24th “Ideology and Coronavirus”, and in my May 11th "America’s Percentage of World’s Coronavirus Cases Is Now Declining”.

Obviously, the best-governed countries would be those that have the lowest infection-rate, the slowest (if any) increase-rate, and the lowest overall Covid-19 death-rate. Those are the three bottom-line measures, and, for each one of these countries, they are the last three numbers that are being shown here.

The biggest public-policy finding that is proven in the existing data is (as I stated it in each of those prior two articles):

In order to minimize the economic damage, controlling the epidemic is basic — whatever is sound policy for the public’s health is also sound economic policy.
The supposed either-or choice (trade-off) that exists between those two objectives does not exist.

I discussed Sweden and Denmark on May 11th because in almost all international rankings they are extremely similar, but their policies diverged strikingly on Covid-19 and have since produced as close as can be to a controlled experiment, Sweden taking a very libertarian policy-approach, and Denmark doing the opposite a democratic socialist approach.

Prior to May 11th, many commentators were arguing that Denmark’s measures were unnecessary because up till around May 1st both countries differed ONLY in their policy-approaches (and so those commentators were saying that Denmark would suffer economic harms for nothing, no health-gain). But the result turned out to be the exact opposite: Sweden’s placing the economy above the public’s health turned out to hurt both their public’s health and their economy. It was clear.

Furthermore, all of the countries (China etc.) that have the best bottomline numbers on coronavirus took extremely socialist approaches, totally obsessing on protection of public health, and willing to pay any price (including severe risk of losing public support) to do so.

The finding is consistent throughout all of the bottom-line results that I have analyzed in the data, and the same conclusion has been shown for as long a time as I have been analyzing the bottom-line data.

That’s always the way I approach any analytical problem, but usually there aren’t enough bottom-line data that start to be showing themselves so quickly as has happened in regard to Covid-19. As soon as enough reliable data appeared in order for me to begin to form conclusions, I started publishing articles on them. And, by now, the conclusions are pretty clear, in my opinion. I’m always seeking to change my mind on everything, but I rarely do change my mind, because I don’t even begin to form a conclusion until there’s already lots of solid and trustworthy data, and then I start to consider them. I don’t speculate, on anything. I avoid speculation, as much as is possible. I have no opinion unless I have examined enough data and have verified enough of the data on my own (so that when I do start to theorize I am ignoring all of it that’s fake) and am finally able to understand what the key variables actually are, which have been shaping those numbers. Only at that point do I even start to theorize. Then I constantly refine my theory, as a larger amount of reliable data have become available.

Anyway: libertarianism is a crock. That’s clear.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

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