When news of the Bataan Death March reached the shores of America the public was incensed. They heard how the Japanese forced the surrender of about 12, 000 American troops, the largest surrender in our history, and another 60,000 or so Filipino troops. After capturing them they marched them across the Luzon peninsula about 85 miles to the camp where they would be held. It is estimated that upwards of 700 American and 12,000 Filipino troops died under the brutality of the Japanese who executed those who could not keep up. In my mind I always though at least ten times that number had died in Bataan.
I’d also heard of the Black Hole of Calcutta. We were supposed to believe the Indian people incarcerated large numbers of British citizens. The publicity had me believing that many died because of the conditions under which they were kept. I imagined that there again there had to be hundreds and possibly thousands who died yet it turned out there were only about forty or so.
These historical reminders of how relatively small numbers of deaths can be heightened to excite a population came to mind when i looked at the death figures caused by the Trumpandemic. Here, I said to myself, there won’t be any need to exaggerate the figures.
A military historian Gavin Long wrote of General Douglas MacArthur’s involvement in the defense of the Philippines. He said he caused the defeat that was “the greatest in the history of American foreign wars.” I imagine historians, present and future, will describe Trumps inactions, denials, and abdication of responsibility, authority and leadership as “the greatest in the history of American presidents.”
Do your remember when the Trumpandemic first started how we said we were in a good position. We could look to Europe, particularly Italy and Spain who were two to four weeks ahead of us in cases and deaths, to see how they handle the situation. Watching them we could determine what works and does not work. We would follow what works and using what we learned from them minimize our deaths and cases.
Whatever happened to that? Like them we shot up two to three weeks later; like them we leveled off for a bit; unlike them we went up when they went down.
My grandson likes to sign the song of the Grand Old Duke of York. The song tells about the duke’s bafflement in handling the ten thousand men under him: “And when they were only half-way up They were neither up nor down” (By the way the present day Duke of York is Prince Andrew who is stonewalling in the Epstein case. He is also called, no joke, Royal Knight of the Garter. Will that be his defense?)
Unlike the Europeans who made solid decisions to go down off the plateau, which they did, like the duke Trump got to the plateau and froze washing his hands of the Trumpandemic. The lack of leadership caused the death march on which we find ourselves.
The first Covid-19 death was on February 29th Four and a half months later we are closing in on 130,000 deaths. Florida just had 15,000 new positive cases, a new U.S. record and more in one day that most other countries in the world have in total. In one week Florida had 70,000 new cases going from 200,000 positive cases to 270,000 positive cases. China has had a total of 85,000 cases.
If you don’t think something is wrong here I refer you to one doctor who moved to New Zealand. In explaining her move said she moved there from the United States because Trump is “an unmitigated disaster.”
Matt writes, “America is a disgrace . . .” 3 million cases, 135 thousand deaths. I have presented data putting those statistics into perspective. (infra) I write to inform, not to futilely argue. I write to correct falsehoods. I have some expertise in these matters.
I think America has done a tremendous job rebounding from New York as the World’s second leading Secondary Epicenter of Covid spread, Lombardy was first Secondary Epicenter, following the prime mover, Wuhan China, the primary epicenter.
USA is number 23 in the World out of 215 countries/political entities in Testing per Million = 131 thousand tests per million. Your Vaunted Vietnam has 2,824 tests per million. 131 thousand versus about 3 thousand.
I have pointed out that subtracting the New York epicenter, the morality rate in America is the same as Mexico and Canada.
I did not say “Mexicans” were the cause of increased rates of positive test results in Texas and California. I said that immigrants from Mexico (and we know illegals through Mexico come from all over the world, and even many legal immigrants from Mexico come from Central America or South America. South American and Central America are experiencing high rates of Covid cases and deaths, which have nothing to do with President Trump. Nor do the high rates in Mexico and Canada.
I simply pointed out two things. If you exclude the New York Epicenter (which includes its four contiguous states) the mortality rate, deaths per million, in the rest of the United States is the same as the mortality rate in Canada and Mexico.
Now, even Matt does not blame the mortality rates in Canada, Mexico and Europe, or in Central America or South America on the Trump Administration do you?
And I am sure Matt knows that there is a difference between an increase in cases (via antibody tests or viral tests) and an increase in deaths.
And what difference does it make Matt, that since July, New York’s and New Jersey’s and Massachusetts’ death rates have decreased? Let me tell you what it means. It means many of the elderly have already died, average age 81 of death, that medical intervention and treatment is improving, and that fewer people in those states are getting infected.
What does it mean that cases are increasing in some states with very low mortality rates . . .it may simply mean we are detecting folks who have been infected but have had zero or mild symptoms. It may also mean, on the negative side, that we will see an uptick in deaths per million in those states.
Let’s wait and see if Texas, California, Florida, Arizona, and the rest of the country ever have death rates approaching New York and its contiguous states, The Epicenter, whose mortality rates are The Highest in The World.
Matt, this is factual, not personal, You have no education in biology, medicine, public health, biostatistics, epidemiology, infectious diseases, nor have you worked in a public health agency nor an environmental agency and dealt with environmental toxins or public health threats, nor have you published in these fields, or presented papers in them or lead seminars in them.
Anyone can have opinions, yet few pretend expertise in areas they have no background, education, training, or work experience in. Except politicians and media types.
A little humility and caution is called for. Let us keep our powder dry. Let us look at the actual statistics. Let us not predict the end of the world, nor the death of millions of Americans, or even hundreds of thousands, like in World War II, until this battle . . .a world wide battle with Coronovirus is concluded.
Let us focus on things we can change, like the drug pandemic that takes 70,000 American lives annually, and has taken millions of American lives since the Vietnam War. The Covid Pandemic will end . . .even Swine Flu ended . . .the Drug Epidemic has continued virtually unabated and in fact it has worsened since the Vietnam War years.
Remember, too, men and women who have spent their lives studying these medical and public health isssues are ably advising the Trump Administration. No one is withholding data, as far as I know. Medical Schools, Public Health Schools, Private Sector Think Tanks and Laboratories, and scientists at the NIH, CDC, FDA, et alia, are all advising the President and publicly airing their views. Oftentimes scientists and public health authorities disagree on interpreting data or on the best course ahead, but none falsify or distort data, to my knowledge.
Many in the Media do falsify and distort. Many politicians do distort. Lawyers oftentimes think it is smart to distort, to argue against the facts, to argue for positions they know are false. Lawyers oftentimes think the ends justify the means. As long as they win, so what. Prosecute innocent people, to get a bigger target, put known perjurers on the witness stand, to win that case.
Matt, I presented the accurate picture and for months, perhaps since April, have presented the Two Secondary Epicenter Theory.
Funny, the five states I have mentioned have 50% of total deaths in the United States, and your response is, well, since July they have had only X percent of new deaths.
Yes, those five states are finally getting their act together. Still, those five states are still rife with body bags from De Blasio’s and Cuomo’s Negligence.
It is totally false to allege the Trump Administration did next to nothing. The Trump Administration acted honorably, nobly, heroically and early on.
National Geographic said the number one method of saving lives early on was restricting immigration . . .Trump was a star on this . . .
Early Testing by the Trump Administration was set back, all Scientists agree, because of human error in the CDC. They approved a chemical reagent which did not work.
However, the amount of testing done in the United States is amongst the highest in the world . . .
How can Trump stain a place of honor (Walter Reed) while doing nothing to ascertain the truth about the accusations that Putin was instrumental in the death of American soldiers. No outrage. No commitment to find out the truth. Where is the investigation?
President Trump did nothing to “stain” Walter Reed where I have worked.
I agree with Bill 100% on this one. With every repressed tendency a considerable sum of energy ultimately remains.
Still, you didn’t answer the question. I believe Trump that he didn’t know. I’ll give him that. He knows now and he doesn’t give a shit.
Did the person who didn’t pay attention in his college economic course not pay attention in his logic course? Remember 500 thousand died of overdoses under Obama. 4 million died of cancer under Obama and 4 million died of heart disease under Obama. Will the Obamaites blame him for those deaths? Probably not. It must have been Trump’s fault.
NC: None died in Vietnam although others died of the causes you mentioned. A president who took his responsibility seriously and was not concerned with writing tweets insulting people, telling people it will all disappear, playing gold, etc might well have brought together all the American forces and talents and measured up to what the leader of Vietnam did. Yes – Trump is at fault.
Ike played golf.
That was his handicap.
I do put the blame for the drug overdoses on Obama. And on any president as far as that goes. The buck stops where? People ask how the president can stop gun violence. Well, he can’t, but he can do something to start the ball rolling. Same with drugs. Why not start with a strong push in the direction on guns that just cannot bother the NRA. If you commit a crime and there is an unregistered gun involved, 10 years. No exceptions. That would be on top of any crime you were convicted of. If no crime conviction came from your arrest and trial, 5 years. No parole. No exceptions. Selling drugs in quantity for distribution, 20 years. Remember the mandatory year in jail for gun possession in Mass that was put on the books many years ago? What percentage of those caught with handguns spent a year in jail? I believe it was about 3%. Really effective law. No guts.
Sorry that I capitalized NRA. I don’t know how else to do it. 🙂
Honest:
Not only did you capitalize NRA but you also started each sentence with a capital letter. Don’t think I did not recognize that you were doing it. Mandatory sentences were only good when you had a judge who felt bad for every defendant who came before her and was a real sucker for a sob story. I used them to hold a judge’s hands to the fire; but I never was a slave to them. I had cases where the mandatory gun one year sentence just seemed to harsh – a truck driver in his fifties with no record coming from Maine where he worked with a load of lumber to deliver who had a .22 under his seat. No way I was going to give him a year in the can. The trooper really was pushing the case so I explained to him an exception to the law was a person could keep a weapon at his place of work and the truck driver’s work location was his truck. It made no sense but carried the day. The reasons mandatory sentences exist is because judges and prosecutors don’t do their jobs properly. If they did there would be no need for them.
Excellent post, Matt. Spot on.
Obviously an unbiased doctor who thought objectively who panicked and fled to New Zealand.
Allow me to cite some statistical facts about the Global Pandemic.
As previously stated Covid-19 (hereinafter “Covid”) originated in Wuhan, China, and hit hard two secondary Epicenters (1) Lombardy, Italy and (2) New York City. In terms of Deaths per Million (“dpm”), Western Europe leads the world followed by New York and four states contiguous with New York (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts). These five states have 50% of the deaths from Covid in the USA. The deaths per million in the rest of the USA are comparable to those of Canada and Mexico.
Let’s look at the USA numbers: FIRST, New York and its four contiguous states in the USA: New Jersey 1,757; New York 1,666; Connecticut 1,220; Massachusetts 1,208 . . (Compare the only European Political Entity with over 1,000 dpm is San Marino; see below)…and Pennsylvania 544 deaths per million. Six other states with high numbers, three of which are also along that so-called Acela Corridor: Rhode Island 921, District of Columbia 801 , Maryland 550. Then consider that Illinois 583 is contiguous to Pennsylvania and Michigan (632) is contiguous to Illinois. Louisiana is the only outlier in the top eleven states with 736 deaths per million.
About 25 states have less than 200 deaths per million (24 Western European and South American countries have more than 200 deaths per million.) 18 U.S. states have less than 150 and 12 states have 100 or less. The World Average is 74 deaths per million, so 18 states are less than or no more than double the world average. Forty-five (45) World Countries have more than 74 deaths per million, and these are mostly Western European and South-Central American, with a few exceptions like Armenia, Bermuda, Romania and Kuwait.
Thirteen other states have between 200 and 360 dpm; seven of those are in Western Europe, five in South America, and two in North America: Canada has 233 deaths per million and Mexico has 271.
Now lest us look at the World’s leading countries: San Marino 1,238 , Belgium 844 Andorra 673, U.K. 660, Spain, 607, Italy 547, Sweden 460, France 416, USA 416, Chile 357, Peru 360, Netherlands 358 , Ireland 353, Saint Maarten 350, Brazil 339, Ecuador 286, Isle of Man, Mexico 271, Channel Islands, and Canada 233. Conclusion: Western Europe got hit the hardest with eleven countries over 300 deaths per million but four New York contiguous states got hit harder than all countries in Western Europe, and as said by subtracting the New York Epicenter, or even the Acela Corridor Epicenter . . .we know that high speed rail centers on NYC then south to Philly, Baltimore and D.C. and north to Conn, R.I. Boston . . subtracting these states, the rest of the U.S. has the same mortality rates as Canada and Mexico. Incidentally, some experts are attributing increases in cases in Texas and California to Mexican immigrants, and Remember Especially, increase cases do not mean increase deaths. Many new cases are positive antibody tests attributable to folks with mild or symptomless infections which may have occurred back in March or April.
So, knowing these numbers, it is fairer to blame Di Masio and Cuomo for not stopping the spread from the second Secondary Epicenter (NYC and NY state, combined) and perhaps it is also fitting to blame public health authorities in Lombardy (the First Secondary Epicenter) for not nipping the spread in the bud there, in Western Europe.
No rational person can blame President Trump who acted decisively early on in limiting immigration, declaring a National Public Health Emergency, and establishing a Task Force under Vice President Mike Pence which included such luminaries as Doctor Fauci and Doctor Birx.
Matt cites one doctor who fled to New Zealand fearful of Covid. What about the other million doctors, nurses and health professionals who stayed in the United States.?
Matt seems to blame the Bataan Death March on General Douglas MacArthur rather than the Japanese and seems to blame the Covid Pandemic (the Trumpandemic? really) on President Trump rather than the Chinese.
William:
The basic question is do we have a president or not? Vietnam stopped it. Trump did nothing on a national level other than stopping some flights from China. No national lockdowns, no national testing. Look at how Vietnam handed the crises. The Task Force was a joke. Look at America today. You are now comparing America to Mexico while blaming the Mexicans for the rise in infections on the Mexicans.
Don’t you understand the country needs a leader and Trump is a con man. Look at our figures. America is a disgrace – 3,340,000 cases and 135,400 deaths and rising in record numbers. Deal with the present. The five states you mention have only 16% of the deaths since July 1; the other states 84%.