Dear mhaze,

You write; “Well again I need to point out that deaths to infections is a useless ratio(at least for the time being) since we don't know how many infections there are.”

Which is exactly why I followed it up with figures of deaths due to CoVID19 per million head of population. Why isn't this a pretty definitive figure on how well a country did in combating the virus.

And we can do that with tests performed too.

Norway 22,097

Switzerland 20,625

Germany 15,730

Australia 12,964

New Zealand 11,548

Denmark 11,050

Canada 9,812

South Korea 9,310

The USA, largely because of their slow start are at 7,168. Hardly a ringing endorsement of the country you claimed was the best prepared in the world.

http://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

Now Birx, even the woman you have been touting in your arguments, said yesterday the drop in US death projection is due to Americans changing their behavior through social distancing.
http://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/08/politics/deborah-birx-social-distancing-models/index.html

No comment on you from the NSW and Victorian figures? Doesn't fit the narrative?

As to the Trump derangement syndrome there was this from you;

“SR wrote: "The USA is at the top of that list because they contributed more infected travellers to Australia than any of the rest."

...

I know in the land of Trump Derangement Syndrome, everything Trump does is, by default, wrong, but just for the fun of it....

The Countries Best And Worst Prepared For An Epidemic...."The United States was named as the country with the strongest measures in place and it came first with 83.5 out of 100."

Ultimately each country will be able to dissect via death figures just how effective the measures each implemented were in slowing the infection rate in order to not overwhelm their systems. It will be interesting reading. How did Boris's attempt at an initital herd immunity strategy to protect the economy ultimately cost in lives?

SR,

Well now you're just making stuff up, or muddying the water to hide error, or are just plain confused - its so hard to tell these days.

First you assert that " I said they would be a world leader in infections and I was accused of having Trump derangement syndrome?" Then when I say that no such prediction was made, you pivot to the claim that you did make about infection in Australia from the US - an entirely different issue.

Now I know that you'll now play your childish games to avoid admitting that error but I won't play. But both you and I know that you screwed up, stuffed up or just made it up there.

" the country you claimed was the best prepared in the world."
Well I was just passing on the the findings of the expert group.

But how is testing done related to that issue of preparedness. A country can hardly be prepared to test for a specific new virus or is that too logical for you to fathom?

"the drop in US death projection is due to Americans changing their behavior through social distancing."
So you agree that the Trump government has been an exemplary job then in implementing social distancing. Well it was hard work but we did get there.

"No comment on you from the NSW and Victorian figures? Doesn't fit the narrative?"

I'm not sure what you want a comment on. I don't know what you think you've found in the state figures. I also don't know what narrative you're talking about that is apparently negated by the state data.

So again, are we gunna close all road traffic in SR-land or not?

Interested to see if you can give us a figure.
SteeleRedux,
What an insipid question ! You don't seriously expect an answer to that !

Dear mhaze,

Just how many ways can you find not to answer simple questions?

Can I try and be as simple and specific as I can.

At what level of deaths per 1,000,000 due you think would allow us to claim we have done a good job of controlling the virus?

When looking at the graphs in the Guardian article which show a markedly different infection curve between Victoria and NSW can you give your reasons why they might have differed if it wasn't for Andrews taking a far more aggressive approach.

As to my claims about the US I said in the same thread in early March “The last three cases in Victoria all came from the US. It may well end up being the world's primary 'infector' if they don't shape up.'” Something one poster described as “weird , extreme and downright silly.”

Two posts later you are accusing me of having Trump derangement syndrome.

I then said;

“Right now http://covid19info.live/ has the US at 8th on the list of confirmed cases. If Trump is doing such a good job we would expect that to go down. My bet is it will instead hit 5th in a week. Reason, because Trump can't slow roll this forever. Freedom of the press in the US means Trump can't control the media like Chinese authorities. Limited test kits serves his purpose admirably. If cases aren't verified by testing they don't make the list. Keeping the numbers of confirmed cases low keep pressure off his precious stockmarket and helps in his election chances.”

A little later I said;

“Dear individual, I flagged to mhaze a little over a week ago that the US which was then 8th on the list of countries with infected citizens would hit 5th within a week. They are now third.”

Within another week they hit the top.

How did you get it so wrong and I get it so right?

Dear individual,

I'm happy to give a figure. Any country which manages to keep deaths less that 20 per million will have done a good job in my opinion.

One question! We have had two pandemics, in 1957 (Flu) and 1968 (Flu) both gave us in excess of one million deaths. Only now have we let ratbag medicos and uniformed major domos take charge and look concerned and close things down. No loss of money for any of those, in fact the fat fanny running the NSW RFS has been promoted to manager of wasting money and looking serious on TV. Some sort of natural disaster nonsense which will allow them to properly balls us all up.
I want any further "National Emergency" to include suspension of all public service benefits and pensions and wages reduced to jobstart level. Lets see how quick it is sorted then?

SR, the health system (including access to ventilators) in Oz , nor in NZ, has yet come anywhere near stressed capacity. Yet by your figures the death rate is 8x higher in NZ. Surely the lesson in that is not that Kiwis are hardier or that our medicine is poorer. Your rating system of various approaches to the virus doesn't hold water.

This is a highly infectious, novel virus. People will die over whatever period it's allowed to run in the various jurisdictions and then we'll get an idea of percentages, i.e. retrospectively. That's when we'll see who's right and what the gold standard approach should be. My guess is smashing the economy to bits will be seen to have been in vain, because the mortality stats will be same whatever was done, after correcting for demographics.