Blue Fragility: Be It Resolved

Whereas the United States’s death toll per million citizens ranks as the eighth-highest among significant nations (forget about Andorra and San Marino), at 572 Covid fatalities per million…:

All graphs taken from Worldometers, September 2, 2020. Make sure you sort by the Deaths per Million column, or you won’t be any smarter or better informed than a Strib reporter.

And whereas every state with a death toll (in fatalities per million) higher than 572 per million (as of September 2, 2020) is a “blue”, Democrat-run state with the sole exception of Mississippi:

And whereas within even those states, the overwhelming concentration of the death toll in terms of fatalities per million is in those states’ “blue”, Democrat-run urban areas (Example: New York):

(Example. California):

And whereas the states about which the American left has been caterwaulilng about – Florida and Texas – have per-million fatality rates below the de factor national average of 572 per million

(and whereas even in those examples, the fatalilties are overwhelmingly concentrated in Democrat-run areas within those Republican-run states (Texas shown below),

and

Notwithstanding the fact that after months of insisting that “Red” states were going to get completely bludgeoned by the virus, any day now, every single state (with the exception of sparsely populated Vermont and Maine and isolated Hawaii) in the bottom 15 states in terms of fatalities per million is a Republican-run state, even after the resurgence of infections in July, and

Wheras the deaths among the most vulnerable, the elderly, are overwhelmingly concentrated in “Blue”, Democrat-run states from New York to Minnesota, as a result of policies that were systematically abjiured in “Red” States, and

Whereas terms like ‘Wuhan Flu” and “China Vinus” are, we are told, inaccurate not to mention racist,

Be it resolved that from now on, the Covid-19 virus shall be known as “The Blue City Democrat Plague“.

83 thoughts on “Blue Fragility: Be It Resolved

  1. Right on cue with a threadjack and a deflection exactly as predicted. Maybe I do have ESP after all.

  2. Wow, you guys are good.

    Hey, Mitch, since Emery is all in a panic over jobs lost, perhaps a future column could explore whether there’s any correlation between states that went into hard lock-down resulting in skyrocketing unemployment; and the party in power in those states. That is, did Democrat states lock down harder and suffer greater job loss than Republican states?

  3. The Blue City Democrat Plague

    Kind of a mouthful. I think you’ll need something a bit catchier. Howabout just The Blue Plague – or maybe, the The Blue Flu? That’s what I’m going with from now on.

  4. Ooooo. Nice work, Joe! You’ll have Emery scouring the internet the rest of the day looking for left wing biased articles that declare Republican run states have the biggest job losses.

  5. America’s Death Gap

    Here’s a jarring thought experiment: If the United States had done merely an average job of fighting the coronavirus — if the U.S. accounted for the same share of virus deaths as it did global population — how many fewer Americans would have died?

    The answer: about 145,000.

    That’s a large majority of the country’s 183,000 confirmed coronavirus-related deaths.

    No other country looks as bad by this measure. The U.S. accounts for 4 percent of the world’s population, and for 22 percent of confirmed Covid-19 deaths. It is one of the many signs that the Trump administration has done a poorer job of controlling the virus than dozens of other governments around the world.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/01/briefing/coronavirus-kenosha-massachusetts-your-tuesday-briefing.html

    We have kids that can’t go back to school, massive unemployment, millions of people about to default on debt/mortgages or get evicted from rentals. Plus 1,000 dead a day and no vaccine (yet).

    Biggest crisis of our lifetimes. Nothing else is close.

  6. Man, whatta dick. First, a threadjack. This is later followed by another comment that completely avoids the topic of the post itself to make still more cynically overwrought and supercilious claims. Claims that others have addressed and cast aside in the past.

  7. Only about 9000 people died… so far… from Wuhan Flu. As per CDC. Confirmed. Let the troll’s head explode in three… two… one…

  8. You gotta admire his ability to stay on message, though.

    Governor Walz ordered patients infected with Blue Flu sent into nursing homes to live among the most vulnerable, at-risk population. The results were entirely predictable, and entirely disasterous. Who’s at fault? Why, President Trump, of course.

    Governor Walz issued a Stay Home order that put a million Minnesotans out of work. Who’s at fault? Why, President Trump, of course.

    Governor Walz refused to confront the teachers’ union, letting every local school board decide what to do, while simultaneously flaming the panic over cases of Blue Flu and masks and Sturgis. Kids are out of school and who’s at fault? Why, President Trump, of course.

    Joe Biden could use a little coaching from someone so completely dedicated to The Big Lie.

  9. More sophistry from Mitch.

    Once again, Mitch, whereas Mitch has been advised that FATALITIES were higher in the early days of the pandemic because treatments were evolving

    And Whereas idiots on the right buy this absolute BS that fatalities are the measure by which the impact should be evaluated without context of time.

    And Whereas idiots on the right don’t recognize that the states with the FAR highest per capita rates of infection NOW, months after we learned masks work, and distancing works, are ALL GOP States,

    and Whereas idiots on the right STILL resist wearing masks, mock distancing, take Hydroxychoroquine, and say that 80 year olds who die are just “the cost of doing business”

    and Whereas idiots on the right push to tamp down reporting, tamp down testing, and won’t pay to hire contact tracers, won’t support PEOPLE, states and municipalities who are trying to deal with this disease, making it so that they have to work and get exposed (the people), so the local and state governments don’t have the funds to deal with the disease given falling revenues,

    and Whereas, President Bonespurs feels US military veterans, especially wounded or POW veterans are suckers and losers and his ass-kissing, accept anything supporters STILL won’t leave him after such an ugly, vile comment, proven by his comments on John McCain if nothing else.

    Be it resolved, that the GOP has shown without question, that it is for sale, interested solely in what helps the rich (and mostly white) super-affluent, and have proven beyond doubt that they are either too stupid to take seriously or such morally bankrupt people that they do and happily engage in willful denial of obvious fact.

    PaddyBoy’s Axiom of immoral GOP conduct #27,947,577,322,311 (wait, I probably under-counted) ah, well, I’ll cut you guys a break and stop in the Trillions of violations/axioms. I’m generous like that.

  10. Slow Joe said.

    “Governor Walz ordered patients infected with Blue Flu sent into nursing homes to live among the most vulnerable, at-risk population. The results were entirely predictable, and entirely disasterous. Who’s at fault? Why, President Trump, of course.”

    I’m sorry, Joe, your tinfoil hat is showing. You may want to get that looked at. Also, your abject hatred for liberals is bleeding through again, I know you’d love to kill us, to shoot people like me or Emory, while claiming the reverse is true, but again, maybe a “I’m a stinking pile” stain remover will help with that too. When you chose to twist one comment into supposedly meaning something truly ugly, truly inhuman, then you aren’t going to be taken seriously as looking to do anything but twist truth into lies.

  11. Mitch, this post is a stinking pile and I’m growing increasingly convinced I’m wasting my time. I thought I’d try to engage in some sort of civil discussion but there is both no civility, there is no discussion. You’ve been told why fatalities aren’t the sole (or even important measure BETWEEN states). Our fatality rate PER capita is the 9th (per John’s Hopkins) worst in the world (excluding Andorra and San Marino) and NOT among industrialized nations, ALL nations. Chile, Brazil and Peru are all worse, and are all considered (under most measures) 2nd world nations, not first world. Among first world nations, Belgium is worse as are the UK, Italy and Spain. ALL of which were infected earlier and so suffered from higher death rates. So, we are ONLY better than a few 2nd world nations, one country (Sweden) which decided to pursue herd immunity, and a few European nations who were hit first. Outside that, we are the worst.

    That’s NOTHING to write home about. Nothing.

    But let’s talk about how bad we are SINCE May 1st compared to our peers. Our daily infection rates were above 40,000 per day, when the EU was below 2000, sometimes we were above 50,000 or 60,000 per day.

    We still are above 25,000 per DAY, due to the denialism of the far right and this festering, oozing pile of puss sitting in the WH. I’ve lost friends to COVID. They believed Trump and were less careful than they should have been. That you continue to point to ONLY fatalities, especially considering your “strongest” argument places us about 6th worst in the world and 2nd worst when you factor in time and health care sophistication, makes you nothing other than a sophist, someone seeking to pervert and deceive your audience. That you continue to do it after you were advised that fatality rates has to be considered in context of treatment and time – that you do so knowing the states with GOP leaders are faring FAR worse right now than those with Dem leaders, and do so while our death toll continues to climb by ~1000/day while MOST peers are seeing tens per day.. it’s despicable.

  12. Does Slow Joe Biden read this blog? I doubt it. Why are you writing love notes to him, P? Oh, wait – you think calling me by Trump’s name for Slow Joe Biden is an insult to me? Dude, seriously, get a grip. As insults go, that’s just pathetic.

    As for Minnesota having an official policy of sending Covid infected patients into nursing homes, that’s not something I dreamed up under a tinfoil hat. The Pioneer Press reported State Health Commissioner Malcolm approved the policy and Karen Ehresmann, Infectious Disease Division director, defended it.

    https://www.twincities.com/2020/06/19/some-coronavirus-patients-recover-in-nursing-homes-heres-why/

    Well, yeah, but maybe Walz didn’t know about it? Maybe those evil women were running around doing bad stuff behind his back?

    No. Governor Walz himself defended the policy. “This was not a mistake.”

    https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/newsmd/coronavirus/6508616-Walz-This-was-not-a-mistake-to-discharge-COVID-19-patients-into-homes

    The second-most inhuman act of this whole fiasco was sending plague carriers into the at-risk population until the vulnerable people died off, then claiming victory when the death rate dropped because the hosts had all perished.

    The most inhuman act is you lying about it, airbrushing those poor souls out of history, to claim it didn’t happen.
    .

  13. Funny- Paddyboy repeats Joe’s message of “Gov. Waltz ordered patients infected with blue flu into nursing homes….”, and rambles on for a while but never really refutes what Joe said. What was your point?

  14. Sorry, Paddyboy-U.S. and Sweden both at 577 deaths per million. And Sweden, of course, never went into lockdown.

  15. The Atlantic’s COVID-19 Tracker site has been my go-to since early April. It aggregates reporting from all state health departments four times a day on a national and state-by-state basis, recording total tests, positive tests, hospitalizations, deaths and more. They also just released a page tracking long-term care center deaths (see link below). From the page:

    “Less than 1% of America’s population lives in long-term care facilities, but as of August 27, 2020, this tiny fraction of the country accounts for 43% of US COVID-19 deaths.”

    Cumulative:
    Total cases – 431,029
    Total deaths – 75,398
    Total number of facilities affected – 19,822

    “To date, the Long-Term Care COVID Tracker is the most comprehensive dataset about COVID-19 in US long-term care facilities. It compiles crucial data about the effects of the pandemic on a population with extraordinary vulnerabilities to the virus due to age, underlying health conditions, or proximity to large outbreaks.

    The dataset compiles all currently available information of COVID-19 cases and related deaths in long-term care facilities—nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, and other care homes—and tracks both residents and staff.”

    https://covidtracking.com/data/longtermcare

  16. FWIW, a map of the US showing percentage of nursing home deaths doesn’t show a strictly Republican/Democrat divide, but there is a distinct North/South divide.

    The map shows states with more than 75% of deaths occurring in nursing homes in dark brown (Rhode Island and New Hampshire).

    States with 50 to 75% of total deaths coming from nursing homes are: ND, MN, IA, IL, IN, OH, KY, PA, VA, CT, ME, WA, OR, ID.

    States with 25-50% of total deaths coming from nursing homes are in light brown: WI, MI, NY, NJ, WV, NE, ND, OK, AR, TN, NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, LA, TX, NM, CA.

    A handful of states have less than 25% of deaths coming from nursing homes, are in tan: WY, NV, AZ, HI.

  17. Once again, Paddywhacker, you show your blatant hypocrisy. If you are so concerned about Trump’s bone spurs, please share your favorite highlights of the brilliant military careers of both Obama and Clinton. Sorry, but I consider veterans like you, who took an oath to support and defend the constitution, that now support the party that has gone full socialist and want to destroy it, supports the murdering and trafficking of babies, to be dishonorable. How many names are on the black wall in DC, because they died waiting for orders to return fire, under the rules of engagement of the Johnson administration? At least 10 that I personally witnessed, but there are many more. How many died in the Middle East under the same rules of engagement under Obama? According to vets that served there that I’ve talked to, many. And that doesn’t include the four patriots that died mean iin the Embassy in Benghazi.

  18. Oh, one more thing, Paddy.

    How about a certain governor that bailed on his National Guard unit, when he found out it was being deployed to Iraq? I’m sure that you are outraged at that, right? Of course, not enough that you didn’t vote for him though, huh? Like I said, all of you socialist lefties are hypocrites.

  19. Pingback: In The Mailbox: 09.04.20 : The Other McCain

  20. ^^ The Sweden Model:
    1. healthy population
    2. strong healthcare system
    3. very low levels of multi-generational households
    4. high levels of single person households
    5. highest % of people in Europe working from home pre-covid
    6. major covid restrictions in travel and large gatherings
    7. high levels of trust in govt and compliance with voluntary guidelines
    8. Sweden has a stronger soci@l safety net and universal healthcare. America does not.

    If you want the Sweden Model, you need to replicate these factors. Also, public health officials are completely independent of politics. Nor do they have armed militia protesting their government’s response to Covid.

  21. Gee whiz, it was just a few months ago that the covid-panickers were telling us that the Swedish covid disaster was caused by the Swedes’ lack of a lockdown, mask-wearing, etc.
    They are flailing, Emery is flailing. There is no reason behind flailing, that is why it is called “flailing.”

  22. You would think that if there was a strong corelation between a regions lockdown & mask wearing & the containment of covid-1, a regression analysis would show it it, clearly, and in auditible form.
    Instead we get anecdotes & corelation confused with causation.

  23. Althouse: “I remember when people said Trump was insane because he thought everything is about him, but these days, it’s the anti-Trumpists who think everything is about him.”

  24. I feel like I am living in the twilight zone… not one scientist has confirmed that if you are indeed infected with Covid you will develop immunity…. so how does Pseudo Epidemiologist Dr Woolly think this will work? I keep hearing this herd immunity proposal but what is it based on?

    Let’s skip the ‘good strategy/bad strategy’ for a while.

    I know what’s happening in Sweden. It’s been decently explained. I know what’s happening in New Zealand as well — let’s exterminate the virus.

    To be honest, I also know what’s officially happening in Belarus — who cares about the virus, it’ll go away eventually.

    The thing is I have absolutely no clue what’s happening in the US regarding our Covid policies. There is no virus. The virus is a bad thing so we should protect ourselves. The virus can’t get in the way of the American way of living. The virus isn’t that bad after all. The virus is somebody elses problem.

    When I go to sleep I expect the official stance on the virus in Sweden, New Zealand, Germany, South Korea and other countries who have successful policies to be the same as when I wake up the next morning.

    When I go to sleep I’m quite curious about what the official stance on the virus will be in the US when I wake up, because I have no clue.

    You can like or dislike the Swedish strategy, the New Zealand strategy or any of the other successful countries — but at least you can feel fairly confident in having an idea about what it is.

    I fire up my browser every day and check up about US policies because I don’t have that confidence.

    Just a reminder that every wealthy nation is reopening and has the virus contained, except us.

  25. “so how does Pseudo Epidemiologist Dr Woolly think this will work?”
    I have no idea what you are talking about. I have never speculated about covid-19 immunity.
    You are delusional, Emery. You have a head full of busted wiring.
    Get the help that you need.

  26. The United States has no national policy to prevent the spread of a virus that so far, rounded to the nearest whole number, has killed ZERO percent of Americans? Wow, imagine that.

    Has ANY nation, EVER, in ANY period of history, successfully prevented a virus from spreading throughout the population? Or has every virus continued to spread until it killed off all the vulnerable hosts, whereupon it lingered unnoticed until new vulnerable hosts were found?

    If this time it will be different because we’re so much smarter than everyone in all of history, enlighten us. Tell us what President Trump should do today, and under what authority, to prevent the spread of the virus?

    Close the borders? Stop all flights, ships, automobile and foot traffic into the country? Can we shoot illegal aliens now, as plague carriers?

    Ban interstate travel? Stop snowbirds, college breakers, professional athletes and long-haul truckers from crossing state lines? How much toilet paper do you have on hand?

    Put the entire nation under house arrest? Does that include Amazon drivers? Grocery store clerks? For how long?

    I suppose the President could do all that, if he declared martial law and shot any federal judges who tried to enjoin him. Is that what you want him to do?

    Lay out the steps and the President’s authority for them.

  27. I’m sorry to see Paddyboy go: “I thought I’d try to engage in some sort of civil discussion but there is both no civility, there is no discussion.”

    Yeah, that’s true. For a ‘discussion’ to take place, there must be back-and-forth, reason and rebuttal, analysis, intellect, not merely one-directional lecture and insult. Now that the P-dog has given up, who’s left? Emery? Pretty weak sauce.

    Place won’t be the same.

  28. “Sweden has a stronger soci@l safety net and universal healthcare. America does not.”

    80% of Covid patients die in long-term care settings. Every one of them, by definition, has access to health care. That’s what a “nursing home” is – a place where nurses give you health care. “Assisted living” is a euphemism to get around nursing home license restrictions – the assistance you get is health care.

    Not one of the Covid patients has died because she lived in an urban food desert; or lacked an Obama phone; or was denied food stamps.

    I can’t see how Liberals think their talking points would convince any thinking person that somehow the virus would dry up and blow away if only we had bigger government. Makes no sense to me.

  29. I can’t see how Liberals think their talking points would convince any thinking person

    JD, but libturd talking points are NOT directed towards ANY thinking person. Only to absentminded likeminded idiots like themselves.

  30. 80% of Covid patients die in long-term care settings. Every one of them, by definition, has access to health care

    Bruce Bawer, back in April, had some interesting things to report about Sweden. For example:
    Older people infected with COVID-19 won’t be given full-fledged hospital care but, upon presenting themselves at the offices of their primary-care physicians, will be sent back home or to retirement home-type facilities, where they’ll be given palliative care. In other words, they’ll basically be allowed to die.

    It’s interesting that Sweden, which basically gave up and acquiesced, now looks so brave and wise, as the Blue Flu continues to be revealed as more bark than bite.

  31. “So the key thing for the economic recovery and also just in general is to get the spread of the disease well and truly under control. And that was always going to be very important in supporting, as rapid as possible, a reopening, a sustainable reopening of the economy.” ~ Jerome Powell 9/4/20

    For the economy to work, the virus has to be under control. Missing that connection between public health and economic health, has been the fatal flaw of the Trump administration’s thinking.

  32. JD makes some excellent points. I’ll try to amplify. Pandemics of the past 65 years have come and gone leaving thousands dead. I had the misfortune of suffering through the Asian flu of 1956. I received a flu shot in 1968 during the Hong Kong outbreak and in 1976 for the infamous Swine flu. I worked in an urgent care clinic in 2009 during the H1N1 pandemic. We were issued N95 masks but never used them. In all of these outbreaks, millions died but governments across the world didn’t react like they have with Covid, which is mainly lethal to the elderly and people with health conditions like diabetes, hypertension and so forth. I’m stumped as to the reason for the hysteria. Even though it’s a political football in the USA, anti-Trump sentiment doesn’t explain why the rest of the world has lost its mind. I’ve concluded it’s a combination of ultra rapid world wide communication and the need of mass media to focus attention on disaster. I don’t have any respect for the intelligence of “news” reporters. They get many facts wrong, adjust scripts to fit a preconceived agenda and ignore evidence to the contrary. Science has been weaponized so that dissent is suppressed when in fact dissent and argument are the life blood of scientific progress. Just because a doctor has a high paying government job, it doesn’t give him greater credibility.

  33. Just because a doctor has a high paying government job, it doesn’t give him greater credibility.

    Credibility, doc? Nay, it gives him the platform to spout lies and misinformation without any retribution or consequence for his actions. Because science™!

  34. In Hawaii, a prominent state legislator (Kai Kahele) was caught on tape attending a memorial service with numerous violations of social distancing and face covering decrees (I won’t call them laws).
    Kahele, who is running for US congress, competely supports the governor’s and mayor’s social distancing and face covering decrees.
    It is so easy to inflict cruelty and suffering on those you do not know, isn’t it?
    This is why we need a democratic review of governors’ rule by decree. Use the debate to shine a little light and science on the “reasoning” behind the decrees.
    Even the Romans limited rule by dictator for six months.

  35. Economic recovery depends on suppressing the virus but targeted interventions are what is needed. You can have a pro- business attitude if you recognize the problem and aggressively implement measures like testing and limited confinement. If you want to open the economy while ignoring the virus, you end up with a devastated health system and economy. I said it all along. All measures must be targeted. No country can afford frequent national lockdown. This is common sense.

  36. “Economic recovery depends on suppressing the virus but targeted interventions are what is needed.”
    Blather. Zero-content platitudes. “Relax, but remain ever-vigilant!”
    You cannot suppress the virus. Ordinary flu kills between 40,000 and 80,000 people each year (most with comordities & under medical care), and we don’t even talk about “suppressing” it, because the social and economic costs would be too high.
    If you want to open the economy while ignoring the virus
    Strawman. No one is suggesting this. “Take common sense precautions, protect at risk populations, and quarantine the sick” is not ignoring the virus. Days and weeks before the autocratic, economy-crushing, arbitrary decrees from dictators in governor’s mansions, individuals, groups, and businesses were already reacting to the virus by reducing travel & person-to-person contact.
    All of the dead in hospitals and long term care home would tell you that the government and “public health officials” cannot protect you from the virus, but you can.
    Q.E.D.

  37. Give me a break.

    A coordinated response determined by public health experts, free of political influence, would have saved countless more lives.

    If you’re going to compare the US to other nations, it’s not peers that matter, but the countries whose response has been most effective.

    Those countries are light-years ahead of the United States.

  38. “A coordinated response determined by public health experts, free of political influence, would have saved countless more lives.”
    Maybe they could ride unicorns & spray vaccine from the sky?
    This has never happened, it is impossible, like suggesting the solution to poverty is “a coordinated response by social scientists free of political influence.” To suggest this is to mark yourself as profoundly unserious.
    “If you’re going to compare the US to other nations, it’s not peers that matter”
    Poppycock. Byelorus has had virtually no deaths to covid-19.
    Might as well compare the response of the US to the response of me and the people I know, none of whom take more than token precautions and none of whom have contracted covid. We have suppressed the virus!

  39. Please define what a “coordinated response determined by public health experts, free of political influence” would entail. Especially what would’ve been done differently.

  40. They’ve been lying to everyone…again.

    “CDC: 94% of Covid-19 deaths had underlying medical conditions“

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/cdc-94percent-of-covid-19-deaths-had-underlying-medical-conditions/ar-BB18wrA7

    And now that the truth is known, leftist reprobates in the media, and their ignorant flying monkeys on social media are out in full force trying to put the genie back in the bottle.

    It’s not gonna happen.

    When Trump is re-elected and people realize that leftists destroyed our economy and trampled on our civil rights just to smear Trump heads will roll.

    Scumbags like Peevee and Dunning_Kruger will crawl back into their slime pits in defeat and fear.

  41. When Trump is re-elected and people realize that leftists destroyed our economy and trampled on our civil rights just to smear Trump heads will roll.

    Scumbags like Peevee and Dunning_Kruger will crawl back into their slime pits in defeat and fear.

    Oh, you sweet-talker you, but I doubt it. The electoral battle space is being prepared to disallow a Trump second term regardless of the vote counts.

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