Skip to content

109 thoughts on “Here’s the latest COVID-19 mortality rate

  1. veerkg_23

    This right here is why we haven't acheived Universal Healthcare Coverage, or gun regulation for that matter.

    In the USA too many people simply don't care about the lives of their fellow citizens.

    1. Special Newb

      People value things like independence or autonomy more highly than life. Country was founded on that idea, and there's a theory that people who came here from Europe were more predisposed to accept risk in the first place so there may be a genetic component as well to simply accepting a higher risk life.

      That said keep in mind that we are talking about less than a third of the population. Usually that's enough but thanks to India's failures our own pathologies are perfect for the coronavirus.

          1. Mitch Guthman

            But when you're talking about choices in a pandemic, it's totally different than a choice about individual risk taking like not wearing a seat belt. The risk the unvaccinated is to the larger society, not just to the individual who choses not to be vaccinated. His or her choice is, in effect, my choice.

            And that choice is also the choice of the society and the economy unless we choose to exclude individuals who are unvaccinated as a matter of personal choice.

            That's why I'm extremely unsympathetic towards these people.

        1. KawSunflower

          Whether genetic, cultural - or both - Albion's Seed, by David Hackett Fischer, explains much about the large part of the US where the Delta virus & irrational, deadly opposition to all forms of mitigation predominate. To be sure, there have been later migrations affecting that & other regions since the original European immigrants, but that first non-native strain has played a large part in the tribalist nature of US development.

        2. mudwall jackson

          it's nobel season!. absolutely love the logic of naming a "peace" prize after the man responsible for more battlefield deaths than any other human being in history.

          1. sturestahle

            ?????
            Dynamite wasn’t meant to and was rarely used on battlefields
            Dynamite saved lives , especially in mines .
            Pure nitroglycerin was used prior to dynamite and that was a very unpredictable and dangerous substance

            1. sturestahle

              “…. responsible for more battlefield deaths “
              That’s simply a stupid comment and it clearly proves he/she knows nothing about Nobel and that prize

          1. HokieAnnie

            Not quite a myth. It was typical in colonial America for England to ship off POMs to America as indentured servants. Additionally one motivation for the late 19th century wave of German immigration to the US was to avoid conscription. Also Scottish and Irish rebels against English rule often escaped to America.

            But most immigrants from Scandinavian countries came for land and opportunities - my grandfather came to work in America to save up funds to pay back a debt owed to his brother and to have a nest egg for his eventual marriage to the girl on the farm next door. But life happens -he fell in love with my grandmother so he made one last trip back home to pay his brother back and to break up with his fiance then went back to America for good.

            1. KawSunflower

              And the grandfather of whom trump is proud not only came to the US to avoid conscription, he returned for a visit, said to have wanted to return permanently, but was denied.

              Maybe those imaginary bone spurs were genetic...

      1. wvmcl2

        I don't go for those dweeby historical explanation of why Americans do stupid things. I think there is a more simple explanation. The power structure represented by the Republican party has conducted an all-out decades long campaign to cause large swaths of the country to distrust pretty much every benefit of modern society, thus leaving those benefits in the hands of the elite.

      2. Mitch Guthman

        I’m not clear on why India’s failures (like those of Brazil and Russia) somehow feed the Republicans embrace of Covid-19 or the quintessentially American choice to have our world revolve around coddling the thirty percent of the population that we’ve been taught are the only authentic Americans.

        1. Special Newb

          Because India gave us Delta. Prior to delta we were coming out of it because British Alpha spread less easily (though more than the Italian strain which was the one that infected the world) and vaccines prevented infections. That is, even with the crazed antis cases plunged.

          If Modi had not exported vaccines and instead vaccinated his own people and his party had avoided going full American Taliban stupid by saying god will protect you if you all bathe in the ganges, the delta variant may never have emerged.

          1. Mitch Guthman

            What you say is correct but inadequate. India gave everyone else Delta in the same way but, you’ll notice, that other countries and even American states are responding well instead of continuing to promote Covid-19. You’ll notice that Spain, Portugal, etc are completely reopened.

    2. Jasper_in_Boston

      Seems wrong. I'm always skeptical of explanations suggesting Americans are fundamentally different from other humans. A more likely explanation is our veto point-laden clusterfuck of a constitution. Other high income countries in the main are governed along parliamentary lines.

      (In other words, American exceptionalism is wrong, whether used by the right or the left. People are people.)

      1. Special Newb

        Surveys consistently show Americans are more tolerant of risk than most Europeans. The big exception is Russians who are much more tolerant. It could simply be that since American society is less socialized than Europe that the country had to be more toletant or despair. Since Russian society is even grimmer than ours that could explain why they are even more risk tolerany.

        1. Jasper_in_Boston

          Surveys consistently show Americans are more tolerant of risk than most Europeans

          Per my understanding, entrepreneurship and business formation statistics don't bear this out.

          I'm maximally skeptical of what the survey results mean in the real world, but, more to the point, even if valid, what's the cause of this supposed propensity for risk? It seems to me if a "risk variance" actually exists (again, it sounds like BS to me) it's probably more an artifact of US governance norms than anything else. IOW, Americans must accept more risk than Canadians, Australians or W. Europeans. So a national mythos has developed singing the praises of risk-taking. Ronnie Reagan's rugged individualism and so forth.

          In actuality Americans shoulder more risk because powerful, wealthy people want them to, and our madisonian constitution allows them go get their way. I'd recommend Yale political theorist Jacob Hacker on the topic:

          https://www.amazon.com/Great-Risk-Shift-Economic-Insecurity/dp/0195335341

      2. HokieAnnie

        I completely agree Jasper - the will of the people has been distorted time and time again via the design of the constitution. Thus our ability to fight stupidity was crippled.

      3. sturestahle

        The idea that the United States is uniquely exceptional may be comforting to Americans.
        … to bad it’s not true.
        Greetings from your Swedish friend

    3. KawSunflower

      And the only sacrifice they're willing to make is on behalf of & the result of tribalism. It's not quite the same as laying down one's life for one's country.

  2. golack

    The republicans as a death cult? Part 666?
    The rationalizations are fantastic--not in a good way---and sad.
    If vaccinations don't go up everywhere--we'll be having another large outbreak just in time for Christmas. States that did relatively ok with this latest surge, still had parts that did very poorly. And states that were hit hard, ended up being hit hard everywhere eventually.
    Schools reopening did not seem to lead to a large jump in cases. In grade schools, absenteeism is high relative to pre-covid--but I don't know where to get a good, concise, national overview. Though I haven't heard of it snowballing out of control anywhere, which is a good sign.

    1. realrobmac

      This is too negative I think. Nearly 70% of the country has gotten at least 1 shot and kids under 12 (nearly 16% of the population) can't even get the vaccine yet. Yes, more people need to get the vaccine, but at this point if you add up the number vaccinated with the number of unvaccinated who have actually gotten Covid, you are probably pretty close to herd immunity numbers. Once they open it up to kids 5 to 11, that will probably take us over the top pretty quickly.

      Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I think we're nearly done with this.

      1. Jasper_in_Boston

        We lag behind most other high income countries these days, but, on the whole, you're right: the vaccination situation is disappointing, but hardly disastrous, and by all accounts mandates are working. Combine this with America's high "natural" immunity rate (via infection) and we are indeed looking at a much better situation in the near future. 2022 will almost certainly see far fewer Americans dying of covid than 2021.

        1. Mitch Guthman

          I’m beginning to wonder about the relative contribution of “natural immunity” and it seems to be that it is possibly overrated. The virus has been raging out of control in places like Texas, Florida, and Tennessee for nearly two years (not simply unobstructed but with the active support of the government and ruling party). One would imagine that the virus would have run out of new hosts long ago.

          1. rick_jones

            Given that the virus as you put it has not run-out of new hosts long ago, doesn't that call into question just how actually out-of-control the virus has been raging? Note I am not trying to suggest that anything has been done "well" in the three states you mention. I am though questioning your assertion of "raging out of control."

          2. rational thought

            Mitch,

            Look at florida today . Their case rate is now in the bottom ten of states and just dropped below ny. And Florida has the LOWEST R reproduction rate now of any state. That is due largely to natural immunity, although would also note that Florida has a decent vaccination rate too.

            The virus has now " run out" of enough people with zero immunity to sustain itself spreading. As it already has done before across the nation twice before, in summer last year with original and early spring this year with alpha . But delta changed the game , or maybe waning immunity, or for southern states like fla especially weather as summer seems bad for covid there .

            Looking at the various states , striking how much weather plays a role and differently in different areas. Now that summer has passed , all southern states have falling cases and only place cases are rising are northern areas. And this is the case no matter red or blue states.

            A lot of the hyperventilating about how bad red states are doing was misguided as lot due to weather. And more red states just happen to be in south . Everyone forgets that , in the horrible winter wave , Florida had a relatively low case and death rate . Because of weather and more natural immunity from earlier.

            What will the discussion be in a few months if red states have a lower current death rate than blue ?

            1. Mitch Guthman

              I have no idea what the true situation in Florida might be except that it seems to be ablaze with people in ICU’s or receiving Covid-19 treatments in libraries or dying of Covid-19 but having some other cause of death mandated on the death certificate. From early days, there have been persistent reports from a variety of sources that the Republican Party has been manipulating the reporting data.

              For example:

              https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article253796898.html

              https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/florida-coronavirus-death-data-cases-election-b1774991.html

              https://climate.law.columbia.edu/content/covid-19-data-misrepresented-florida-governor

              https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/florida-is-ablaze-with-covid-19-and-its-case-data-reporting-is-a-hot-mess/

              It’s entirely possible that Floria has achieved herd immunity and that the virus is essentially gone from that place, except for fabricated or exaggerated reporting designed to damage the Republican Party.

              But, GW Bush once said:“There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”

            2. golack

              It's not there's not natural immunity--but it does seem to wane relatively quickly, and reinfections that lead to disease happen readily, and especially with different variants. Alas, I'm mainly aware of a single incidence that's been studied so far (Manaus, Brazil), e.g.:
              https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n394
              But still, that drives home the point.

          3. Vog46

            Natural immunity stinks
            Pfizers vaccine is almost as bad. Both start off strong but fade rapidly
            Population FLorida 21.5M
            Fully Vaccinated 12.5M

            9 Million supposedly UN vaccinated
            # of Covid cases totally? 3.6M

            That means there's MORE people NOT TOUCHED by Covid than have natural immunity.
            The problem is we don;t know how many possilby had asymptomatic cases in Florida because they rank about 29th out of 50 states

            WE DO know from the charts that MOST folks who are fully vaccinated in FLorida got vaccinated BEFORE Delta took off in June. Using June 1 as a simple date we see that before June 1 10.6M got vaccinated
            Since June 1 and additional 3.4M got vaccinated
            The problem is those 10.6M are now dealing with decreased or non existent protection
            You add 9M to 10.6M and you can see the problem
            But Florida is lousy at testing
            They are lousy at record keeping.
            And they have a state that is ranked #5 as having the oldest population.

            We've seen this before. #cases and #deaths goes down and the first thing we all want is "freedom" and look what happened. We don't know if that will happen again but with vaccine protection waning, natural protection being nowhere near as long lasting as it is with other viruses? I'd hate to see states start loosening restrictions.
            Not yet.

            1. Mitch Guthman

              I think the problem with the vaccines losing efficacy is a political one that’s created by the pro-Covid-19 forces in this country. In the absence of a new more virulent and dangerous variant, countries like Spain, Portugal, Denmark which are in the high-eighties as a percentage of the population which is vaccinated will continue to be in good shape even as the vaccines fade a bit because there’s so few hosts and they can jump on any small outbreaks. And the requirements of vaccination to enter those countries is vital in that regard.

              We’re basically screwed because we continue to coddle a relative handful of selfish, delusional nutters.

      2. golack

        Yeah, a little bit pessimistic.
        VT has had a high vaccination rate prior to the latest surge, yet still had a major outbreak. Granted, not nearly as bad as FL or most other places, but not a well as one would have expected.
        We're currently at 65% one shot, total population; 76% if only count those 12 and up; ca. 78% for those 18 and up. (via CDC). We still have 22 states with less than 60% of the population vaccinated (single dose) and three are below 50%. Those pockets of unvaccinated need to be tackled.

    2. HokieAnnie

      COVID cases among kids are now higher than cases among adults right now. It's very sad and mostly in states where schools reopened without mandating masks and other precautions along with low vaccine rates in the population.

  3. Loxley

    'In the United States, life is cheap.'

    Actually, during the past corrupt administration, the federal government stopped valuing human life at all- all financial value was removed from their "benefit-cost calculations" for the cost of human lives. Americans were considered- quite literally- worthless.

    Because financial value is all there is, and we aren't talking about yours.

    1. sturestahle

      Not just the past administration, things didn’t work that well before Trump&Co either
      … at least not in an international perspective
      When it’s no longer about surviving one day at a time in a society the citizens usually starts to implement routines to protect its most vulnerable citizens and those routines are more and more refined as times goes by
      ..... the United States of America seems to be the only exception.
      Life expectancy position 46 worldwide , maternal mortality position 56 , infant mortality position 47 . (One must remember that on healthcare is the statistics on average meaning lower income groups in US are having disastrous numbers)
      This problem didn’t start with the “former guy”

  4. S1AMER

    It's a pretty sad state of affairs when we can celebrate a bit 'cause the US of A ain't quite as bed as it was just a few weeks ago.

  5. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    Meanwhile, the Accelerators over at the Jacobin are crowing that the economically anxious are choosing Ivermectin over vaccination because of endstage kapitalist insurance industry illwill, & if only we had singlepayer we would have no vaccine denial.

    Never mind, of course, that antivaxxx is a thoroughgoing concern in Europe, where nationalized health care is the norm, & likewise that much of the current era of Antivaxxxia in this country started in the 1980s & 90s in the Waldorfia in which much of the Jacobin Fleft grew up in their gated chi-chi suburban enclaves.

    1. Special Newb

      Yes but it's still good that the antis are dying at a much higher rate and while a lot of the crunchy counter culture types ARE ensnared the vast majority of it is based on the right wing.

        1. jeff-fisher

          I think it used to be true that anti-vax was not very partisan.

          But now it's become a republican identity signifier, so it's very partisan.

          1. rational thought

            One thing that happens is those extremely anti Vax, where that is the single issue they care most about, will swing between party identity depending on which party seems more sympathetic to their anti Vax views.

            In the past , the left seemed a bit more sympathetic to anti Vax. The unjustifiable " vaccine causes autism " idea tended to be heard more in left wing circles than right . So many anti vaxxers identified as left more than right . Now many are identifying more as right just because of this issue and covid differences.

            While there are some on the right who have become more anti Vax as that has become somewhat of an identifier, there are others whose only issue is anti Vax who have shifted identity from left to right.

            And same is true re conspiracy nuts and those who feel elections are rigged. There is a subset of people who just always have to believe in some complicated conspiracy of powerful cabals to explain all bad things . And they will swing from left to right depending on the current conspiracy theory.

            A large number of QAnon types today were prior believers in the old 9/11 conspiracy theories that it was fake or planned by evil bush. They were " on the left " then and are " on the right " now . But really they are just nuts who have a psychological need to believe in conspiracies .

                1. veerkg_23

                  You made a bunch of assumptions and tried to spin a yarn from it. None of it is accurate or supported by facts.

                  Thus a simple No suffices.

        1. sfbay1949

          Not much you can do about stupid. Luckily stupid people are taking care of the problems themselves, dying off to own the libs. I say, follow your stupid leaders off the cliff.

  6. jte21

    Actually, I read recently we've spent something on the order of $25 billion since the beginning of the year treating unvaccinated Covid victims. So, not so cheap. Now *politically* speaking, yes, particularly in southern and red states, no-one gives a shit because these were all crisis actors paid by Fauci and Pfizer who, if they really are dead, must have died of some unrelated illness.

  7. bbleh

    In the US, empathy is in very short supply, especially among Republicans.

    They're mean as dirt, they don't care if other people die, and they're not gonna admit anyone else might know something they don't.

    About the only silver lining to their aggressive stupidity is, they cluster together, so they mostly infect and kill other people just like them.

    1. Jasper_in_Boston

      Considering mass deaths in the US didn't start until March of 2020, I'm not sure why this statistic is being touted by so many. In similar news, more Americans died of combat wounds in 1942 than 1941!

      1. HokieAnnie

        But on the other hand we're only in early October, three more months to go for 2021. So It's not as bad as WWII casualties 1941 v. 1942.

      2. rick_jones

        Speaking of interesting statistics (or perhaps showing my lack of recent breadth in following the news) we've had two days in the last few weeks with over 3000 recorded deaths. As high as any of the worst of the earlier surge(s). When the earlier ones were happening, we would see all sorts of stories and commentary about "More deaths in a day than -some bad event-" This time around I don't think there's been much of a peep. Or at least nothing that I've seen.

        1. golack

          Well, that's no longer "new", so no longer newsworthy.
          Becoming inured to the Covid crises makes it harder to deal with it.
          Besides--don't you know, that's a lagging indicator...

        2. rational thought

          Rick,

          Don't think this is quite correct. I have not seen any day above 3000 on worldometers recently I think over 2600 or so was tops. But they are frustratingly not adjusting to show fla numbers the same way as others but fill it in later so maybe it will show over 3000 later? I assume you have a different source . One issue with some cites is that they just report as one day any backlog reporting ( while workdometers does distribute to prior dates). Which can cause distortions because of clumping. And that has gotten worse as more places take weekend off and those deaths get clumped in weekdays.

          But big issue is saying that it is as high as it ever had been. We had quite a few days over 4000 in early 2021 and that is with backlog reporting being redistributed.

    2. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      It has always been joebiden's pandemic.

      Just look at how the outgoing O'Biden Regime bollocked the playbook handoff in 2017!

      1. rick_jones

        Joking aside, it does make one wonder just how much different things would have really been even with someone competent in the White House.

        1. golack

          The Democrats helped Trump throw money at the problem--which is why Operation Warp Speed existed. Would Republicans done the same if Hillary was in office?
          Having a sane person in the White House is good, but a functioning legislature of working government are also needed.

          1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

            Given the response to Ebola in 2014, I think the Rona would have been handled considerably better by Hillary than it was by Trump.

    3. rational thought

      But clearly that is not even true - yet.

      REPORTED deaths in 2021 have just passed 2020. But we know, especially in NY and NJ in that first wave , there were more unrecorded covid deaths ( almost none now) . And , with more testing in 2021, the number of falsely reported covid deaths is higher. So actual covid deaths vs reported is higher in 2021 vs 2020 ( whether you think there are more or less than reported). Plus there is a delay in recording deaths so many of the deaths reported in early 2021 happened in late 2020 in reality .

      Put it all together and indisputable that still more actual covid deaths in 2020 than 2021. Although I would guess that will change sometime before eoy.

      But also could wonder whether more deaths from infections that happened in 2020 or 2021. The winter wave reported cases peaked just after boy so actual infections probably peaked around end of 2020 or just after new year. Plus the wave dropped off faster than it rose. So deaths from winter wave infections probably are somewhat more from 2020 than 2021.

      And first spring 2020 wave Plus mini summer wave in some places still worse than thus wave . My guess is that deaths from infections in 2020 will still be a bit higher than 2021 in final count . Although we will never know for sure.

  8. edutabacman

    You could add Argentina back: currently at a little below 1 (close to France... although the graph would start at 12 or 13, at the beginning of June!)

  9. Pingback: Spot the Outlier – Discourse.netDiscourse.net

  10. rick_jones

    I won't include as many spots as in posts past - here are the top fifty nations on deaths per day per million:

    Rank Population (Millions) Country Deaths/Day/Million 7-dav Avg
    1 2.13 Lesotho 16.60
    2 7.00 Bulgaria 12.14
    3 3.30 Bosnia and Herzegovina 10.00
    4 19.36 Romania 9.38
    5 2.76 Lithuania 8.80
    6 4.00 Georgia 8.08
    7 2.08 North Macedonia 7.54
    8 2.96 Armenia 6.86
    9 4.04 Moldova 5.97
    10 145.87 Russia 5.95
    11 5.05 Costa Rica 5.83
    12 8.77 Serbia 5.52
    13 329.06 US 5.33
    14 1.39 Trinidad and Tobago 5.12
    15 43.99 Ukraine 4.64
    16 3.23 Mongolia 4.61
    17 1.91 Latvia 4.27
    18 31.95 Malaysia 4.21
    19 11.33 Cuba 4.20
    20 2.95 Jamaica 3.73
    21 10.47 Greece 3.27
    22 4.13 Croatia 3.11
    23 4.98 West Bank and Gaza 3.07
    24 127.58 Mexico 3.06
    25 1.33 Estonia 3.02
    26 82.91 Iran 2.89
    27 2.88 Albania 2.83
    28 17.58 Guatemala 2.77
    29 8.52 Israel 2.73
    30 83.43 Turkey 2.61
    31 2.08 Slovenia 2.47
    32 18.55 Kazakhstan 2.39
    33 21.32 Sri Lanka 2.39
    34 9.75 Honduras 2.30
    35 211.05 Brazil 2.29
    36 6.45 El Salvador 2.24
    37 5.46 Slovakia 2.20
    38 11.69 Tunisia 2.10
    39 6.78 Libya 1.79
    40 10.05 Azerbaijan 1.75
    41 67.53 United Kingdom 1.69
    42 58.01 Tanzania 1.66
    43 108.12 Philippines 1.63
    44 96.46 Vietnam 1.54
    45 9.45 Belarus 1.48
    46 69.04 Thailand 1.46
    47 512.50 EU w/o Brexit 1.46
    48 444.97 EU 1.42
    49 1.81 Kosovo 1.34
    50 2.49 Namibia 1.32

  11. rick_jones

    For the discussion about these states or those, some current figures from: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ymc191k5T37xgUlOuK3SBI9PQtZxm_aVwDnncICh85c/edit?usp=sharing where one can also find a "RedBlue" tab where Red vs Blue is defined by the party of the state's Governor. From Mk I eyeballing those included by Kevin in his chart and looking at this, very nearly every state of the Union is presently doing worse on 7-day trailing average in deaths per million per day. It is a little better if one looks only at the UK but not a great deal better. (I do not know what is up with that figure for Nebraska)

    Also noteworthy is that Mississippi and Louisiana have joined New Jersey in the MST3K club.

    Rank State Cumulative Deaths/million State Cumulative Deaths State 7-Day Trailing Deaths/Million/Day
    1 Mississippi 3276 California 69500 West Virginia 15.62
    2 New Jersey 3099 Texas 66318 South Carolina 13.04
    3 Louisiana 3026 Florida 55622 Idaho 12.95
    4 Alabama 2966 New York 55531 Georgia 11.67
    5 New York 2855 Pennsylvania 29611 Guam 11.31
    6 Arizona 2777 Illinois 27531 Alabama 11.28
    7 Massachusetts 2710 New Jersey 27525 Florida 10.34
    8 Rhode Island 2686 Georgia 26624 Mississippi 10.13
    9 Florida 2590 Michigan 22503 Texas 9.17
    10 Arkansas 2576 Ohio 22490 Kentucky 9.15
    11 Georgia 2508 Arizona 20211 Oklahoma 8.45
    12 South Carolina 2472 Massachusetts 18680 Tennessee 7.32
    13 South Dakota 2443 North Carolina 16764 Nevada 6.86
    14 Connecticut 2431 Indiana 15844 Louisiana 6.70
    15 Indiana 2353 Tennessee 15397 North Carolina 6.52
    16 Nevada 2344 Alabama 14542 Montana 6.28
    17 Pennsylvania 2313 Louisiana 14068 Indiana 6.01
    18 New Mexico 2303 Virginia 12955 Arkansas 5.87
    19 Texas 2287 South Carolina 12729 Arizona 5.71
    20 Oklahoma 2262 Missouri 12133 Wyoming 5.57
    21 Tennessee 2255 Maryland 10512 Hawaii 5.45
    22 Michigan 2253 Mississippi 9749 Virginia 5.15
    23 North Dakota 2173 Wisconsin 8958 Washington 5.05
    24 Illinois 2173 Oklahoma 8949 South Dakota 4.36
    25 West Virginia 2106 Kentucky 8921 Pennsylvania 4.30
    26 Kansas 2085 Connecticut 8666 Missouri 4.03
    27 Iowa 2080 Minnesota 8304 Oregon 3.96
    28 Delaware 2028 Washington 7860 Michigan 3.70
    29 Kentucky 1997 Arkansas 7775 New Mexico 3.68
    30 Ohio 1924 Colorado 7642 Delaware 3.67
    31 Montana 1905 Nevada 7221 Iowa 3.62
    32 Missouri 1831 Iowa 6563 Alaska 3.47
    33 California 1759 Kansas 6074 Colorado 2.98
    34 Wyoming 1743 New Mexico 4830 North Dakota 2.81
    35 Maryland 1739 Oregon 3867 Wisconsin 2.67
    36 Idaho 1674 West Virginia 3774 Ohio 2.65
    37 District of Columbia 1671 Puerto Rico 3172 Utah 2.54
    38 North Carolina 1598 Idaho 2992 California 2.40
    39 Wisconsin 1539 Utah 2962 Maryland 2.34
    40 Virginia 1518 Rhode Island 2845 New Jersey 2.33
    41 Minnesota 1472 Nebraska 2427 Minnesota 2.33
    42 Colorado 1327 South Dakota 2161 Illinois 2.32
    43 Guam 1267 Montana 2036 Vermont 2.29
    44 Nebraska 1255 Delaware 1975 Kansas 2.26
    45 New Hampshire 1096 North Dakota 1656 Massachusetts 2.13
    46 Washington 1032 New Hampshire 1490 New York 2.10
    47 Utah 924 District of Columbia 1179 Connecticut 1.60
    48 Oregon 917 Maine 1036 Maine 1.49
    49 Puerto Rico 845 Wyoming 983 Rhode Island 1.48
    50 Alaska 784 Hawaii 811 New Hampshire 1.37
    51 Maine 771 Alaska 581 Virgin Islands 1.33
    52 Virgin Islands 671 Vermont 323 Puerto Rico 1.14
    53 Hawaii 573 Guam 208 District of Columbia 1.01
    54 Vermont 518 Virgin Islands 72 American Samoa 0.00
    55 Northern Mariana Islands 36 Northern Mariana Islands 2 Nebraska 0.00
    56 American Samoa 0 American Samoa 0 Northern Mariana Islands 0.00

      1. Vog46

        Exactly right
        But keep this in perspective. That rural farmer in Wyoming, with 1 person for every 6sq/mi has NO concept of how virus spreads in New York.
        To THEM cumulative deaths makes more sense.

    1. Salamander

      That's just because of the starting date chosen: once Biden had gotten the infection rate down through widespread vaccination, and then the backlash from MAGA anti-vaccers. The graph ought to start Jan 1, 2020.

      (hint, hint!!)

    1. Salamander

      Funny how every one of those red/blue charts look the same, whether it's COVID infections, poverty, racism, income, or who they voted for in the last election.

  12. Jerry O'Brien

    Over the entire time of the pandemic, the U.S.A. has about the same death rate as the United Kingdom, and only about a quarter higher rate than the European Union, so there is not an obvious cheapness to life in America. Vaccine take-up does seem to have been a problem in some areas of the U.S.

  13. Vog46

    Many thanks to Kevin Drum for finding the "adjustment" in WordPress that allows for MORE response BEFORE the reply arrow disappears - it IS adjustable, apparently

    Now about that orange typeface.............😁

  14. Vog46

    Maine is reporting more breakthrough cases now
    I am not surprised. It is almost 11 months since the vaccines rolled out in enough numbers to get people fully vaccinated Those that got the vaccine in Dec on 2020 have literally no protection.
    Those that had COVID in 2020 have literally no protection
    COVID showed up in late 2019 and the first wave - the original covid was widespread in 2020.
    Variants A & B then came along.
    To keep this simple:
    Original COVID had a danger factor of 1
    Variant A hand a danger factor of 2 - a little more transmission but not quite deadly
    Variant B had danger factor of 3 - a higher degree of contagiousness and slightly deadlier.
    Thats what all the vaccines were developed against. Thats what "natural" immunity was geared for fighting

    Delta comes along with a danger level of 7. 2.5 times more contagious, and much deadlier. Those who had COVID in 2019/2020 and those that got the early rounds of Pfizers vaccine are now w/o protection as that protection was designed for the first 3 rounds. Delta literally overwhelmed us all.
    Now we see delta tapering off and we are wearily eyeing different variants that have the same contagiousness as DELTA but also the ability to avoid the protections offered by recent vaccination and/or natural immunity.
    Our low vaccination rate along with the cries of freedom from COVID tyranny are going to lead us into more rounds of infections - each with a differing level of death or severity of sickness.
    Employers were wise to implement vaccine mandates. It's the ONLY way to insure protection is there. It can be measured, or timed.
    But if an employee gets sick they WILL be out of work which will be disruptive.
    We need a few more rounds of this to see where it's going. We need a vast majority to be at strong or peak protection at the same time in order to slow the mutations down. At that point it will be like the flu.
    Herd immunity IS a thing, but natural immunity cannot be measured unless we test test test - everyone. But even at that we need to understand that we are a long way from a yearly vaccine that will get us "down" to flu like disease
    From the CDC:
    CDC estimates that flu has resulted in 9 million – 41 million****illnesses****, 140,000 – 710,000***** hospitalizations***** and 12,000 – 52,000 *****deaths***** annually between 2010 and 2020.
    We are far from those low levels of metrics. And far fewer people get flu vaccines.

Comments are closed.