The Numbers Game

As I've mentioned before, I don't post about the pandemic because what can I say? While there are some basic things everyone can and should do, overall we're still quite ignorant.  I certainly claim no special expertise.  And while I follow the numbers, they're hard to interpret.

But that doesn't stop others from using the stats for their own ends.  A lot of people want very badly to show that America has mishandled the pandemic, or that a number of states are mishandling it.  So, as always in politics, they use whatever data are available to prove their side.  Maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong, but what they're doing isn't particularly helpful.

I bring this up because someone sent me a graph (sorry I can't figure out how to post it or even link it, but it's easy enough to look up these numbers) showing the United States has higher deaths per million than Europe or Canada.  Okay.  So what?

Shall we look at more numbers that don't necessarily prove anything, but that this graph conveniently leaves out? For instance, death per million by various countries (as of today--there is some slight disagreement on different charts, but they aren't that far apart):

United States:  391

France: 441

Sweden:  528

Italy: 550

Spain: 572

United Kingdom: 671.

While we're at it, let's look at the numbers for some individual states.

Texas:  86

California:  157

Florida:  181

Arizona:  245

Canada:  247

Illinois:  535

Michigan:  598

Massachusetts:  1224

New York:  1273

New Jersey:  1487

What do these numbers mean?  Don't ask me.  Or ask me in a few years.  Until then, let's try to figure out the best path forward without partisanship getting in the way.