In America, the distribution of deaths has an (at least) equally significant effect as the number of deaths, at least up to a point where the number gets partic

In America, the distribution of deaths has an (at least) equally significant effect as the number of deaths, at least up to a point where the number gets particularly huge. The distribution effect is often ignored by non-US reporting about various "social maladies" (stupid term, but gets the idea across) in the country: the US is surprisingly internally divided not just in politics, but in empathy. There's often a nation-tribalist effect of "people are dying not in my (city|town|state|area|demographic|politcal party); I consider those deaths sad, but no sadder than someone dying in another country", which I think is important and often overlooked.