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The republican stronghold of Texas has one of the lowest covid deaths per capita in the United States, better than even California (which is doing relatively we

The republican stronghold of Texas has one of the lowest covid deaths per capita in the United States, better than even California (which is doing relatively well). Deaths per capita at 16/million is lower than almost anywhere in Western Europe. It's not obvious to me at all you can make a political judgement from covid19.

parthdesai 7y ago
Are you conveniently going to ignore the density of Germany compared to Texas and usage of public transport in Germany compared to Texas?
camgunz 7y ago
It's a little more obvious if you compare places with equal exposure (numbers of European and Asian travelers) and density.
- usaar333 7y ago
  Once you drop the exceptional case of the NY metro area, not really. What makes Washington, Illinois, and Michigan so bad compared to Texas, Virginia or California?
  - camgunz 7y ago
    California was hit early but acted very quickly and effectively. They're also pretty wealthy so they could get equipment and supplies before there was really a rush. Texas and Virginia had the benefit of getting hit when most people were taking this seriously (i.e. they didn't want to become NYC). You also have to consider public transportation use which is way higher in places like Seattle and Chicago than it is in Dallas, Houston, etc. So again it's mostly about exposure: density, travelers, being in contact with travelers, being in contact with people who've been in contact with travelers, etc. How quickly shelter in place was ordered (getting a testing system set up would also have worked but you have to act even faster and spend upfront money, which of course we were never going to do) has a direct effect in exposure. And then it's all about how well you get supplies to treat the infected.
ianleeclark 7y ago
Texas hasn't even broken 200k tests, but Germany can do that in a week. Texas has bad data.
- usaar333 7y ago
  1. Germany has nearly 3x the population so that difference is less stark than you are implying. 2. Maybe they haven't broken 200k tests because there isn't an obvious population to test when you've had an order of magnitude fewer covid deaths?
  - ianleeclark 7y ago
    > 1. Germany has nearly 3x the population so that difference is less stark than you are implying. Germany is capable of doing 123k tests per day currently (https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/N/Neuartiges_Coronavirus/Situationsberichte/2020-04-15-de.pdf?__blob=publicationFile https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/N/Neuartiges_Coronavirus...) So, if we were to to scale Texas' to Germany's "3x population", Germany could still handle that in a week. The implication stands. > 2. Maybe they haven't broken 200k tests because there isn't an obvious population to test when you've had an order of magnitude fewer covid deaths? No, it's that they're willing to die for Whataburger. There's nothing else that would tangibly explain a complete refusal by the 9th largest economy in the world to attempt to protect itself.

parthdesai 7y ago

Are you conveniently going to ignore the density of Germany compared to Texas and usage of public transport in Germany compared to Texas?

camgunz 7y ago

It's a little more obvious if you compare places with equal exposure (numbers of European and Asian travelers) and density.

usaar333 7y ago
Once you drop the exceptional case of the NY metro area, not really. What makes Washington, Illinois, and Michigan so bad compared to Texas, Virginia or California?
- camgunz 7y ago
  California was hit early but acted very quickly and effectively. They're also pretty wealthy so they could get equipment and supplies before there was really a rush. Texas and Virginia had the benefit of getting hit when most people were taking this seriously (i.e. they didn't want to become NYC). You also have to consider public transportation use which is way higher in places like Seattle and Chicago than it is in Dallas, Houston, etc. So again it's mostly about exposure: density, travelers, being in contact with travelers, being in contact with people who've been in contact with travelers, etc. How quickly shelter in place was ordered (getting a testing system set up would also have worked but you have to act even faster and spend upfront money, which of course we were never going to do) has a direct effect in exposure. And then it's all about how well you get supplies to treat the infected.

ianleeclark 7y ago

Texas hasn't even broken 200k tests, but Germany can do that in a week. Texas has bad data.

usaar333 7y ago
1. Germany has nearly 3x the population so that difference is less stark than you are implying. 2. Maybe they haven't broken 200k tests because there isn't an obvious population to test when you've had an order of magnitude fewer covid deaths?
- ianleeclark 7y ago
  > 1. Germany has nearly 3x the population so that difference is less stark than you are implying. Germany is capable of doing 123k tests per day currently (https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/N/Neuartiges_Coronavirus/Situationsberichte/2020-04-15-de.pdf?__blob=publicationFile https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/N/Neuartiges_Coronavirus...) So, if we were to to scale Texas' to Germany's "3x population", Germany could still handle that in a week. The implication stands. > 2. Maybe they haven't broken 200k tests because there isn't an obvious population to test when you've had an order of magnitude fewer covid deaths? No, it's that they're willing to die for Whataburger. There's nothing else that would tangibly explain a complete refusal by the 9th largest economy in the world to attempt to protect itself.