(no subject)
Some simple stats:
The current death total from covid 19 in the US is estimated around 1.1 million.
The global death total from covid 19 is estimated around 7 million.
There are slews of articles out there detailing higher death and hospitalization rates in poorer countries, usually implying that lack of access to the vaccines and modern medicine leads to poorer outcomes.
Here's the problem with that.
The US only makes up about 4.5% of global population. But they have 14% of the global deaths from covid. If our high vaccination rate, and early access to it - as well as our healthcare model - was really providing us an edge, we should've seen far fewer deaths. I don't see any rational argument that could conclude otherwise.
There is definitely something about the numbers, or about the implications journalists have been making in recent years, that is extremely fishy.
I will grant that very poor countries probably lack the ability to readily confirm a death - excess or direct - from Covid 19. But estimations by the WHO and other interested organizations should be rather accurate, even when considering very poor countries. The death rate from Covid without intervention is rather well known at this point, after all.
So, the question to the void: What's going on here? Are the numbers wrong (underreporting or not reporting deaths in most of the world outside the major players); is the vaccine useless; is US healthcare objectively terrible; does the US have a large overly susceptible population compared to the rest of the world; what gives?