SR,

Whenever you refer to an old post AND fail to offer a link, my initial assumption is that you're hiding something. Rarely wrong.

Here you ask "How did you get it so wrong and I get it so right?" about some claims about the US moving up the list of countries with the most infections.

BUT, I never commented on that post. Indeed no one commented on it. And most definitely neither I nor anyone else raised your TDS in regards to the post.

No one SR. No one. Yet in your derangement you see yourself assailed on all sides. Calling Dr Freud!

And why did no one comment? Because your claims were neither startling or even prescient. That the US would find more infections was obvious. Its as though you declare that the sun will rise in the east and then declare victory when it happens.

Oh dear SR.

The only time I referred to your diagnosed TDS was when you said the US was the highest source of infections coming to Australia when your own post showed that was false.

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

Simple or simplistic? But I've answered it over and over just not the way you want.

Thought I'd dive in here betweenn MH and SR. There are a few misconceptions.

One is that the mortality rate is anything but 100%. So what we are talking about here is not so much killing people, but shortening their lives. Given the average age at death, there is not a lot of shortening going on.

Another is that shutting down the economy comes without a cost in shortening of lives, and that is wrong too. So the question isn't "How many deaths are you comfortable with, but whose deaths, and at what stage of their life." Paul Fritjers does a very good job of laying this out at Club Troppo. http://clubtroppo.com.au/2020/04/08/how-many-wellbys-is-the-corona-panic-costing/

A further issue is that we are only part way through this epidemic. It is quite possible that places like Italy, the USA, and Sweden, are experiencing a higher rate of infection and death now, but later Australia will still be bumping along with new infections and deaths, and they will be back to work.

Can I suggest that for your argument to be easiest to follow for all of us, including yourselves,that you use the same data source. https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus is based at Oxford university and has the most comprehensive data, and the best visualisations that I am aware of. I'd recommend that.

Cui Bono - Who Benefits?

Big Pharma i.e. Vaccine Manufacturers, Patent Holders, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, US Government funded agencies and the people behind them.

This whole thing reminds me of a story I've heard before:
About an anti-virus company that was also writing computer viruses with a special team out in a private back room.

So peculiar it should seem that success may be the most frightening outcome.

Dear mhaze,

Your Trump derangement comment came a couple of posts after this comment from Aspley; “" 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.' is weird , extreme and downright silly.”

People can go to the thread if they can be bothered (which would be no one) and decide for themselves. http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=20781&page=0#366391

This is obviously a normal run of the mill mhaze diversion tactic when you don't want to answer questions. I will try again. What death figure per 1,000,000 of population below which we can assume a country has done a good job of lessening the impact of the virus?

Now you assert “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 the Trump government until recently has done an appalling job and it was only decisive action by the states, just like in Australia, that has managed to curb infections.

Dear GrahamY,

Yes http://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus is a good site which is where I directed mhaze in an earlier post.

It doesn't have the resources assessments that http://www.healthdata.org/covid has.

The one I have perhaps used as my default has been http://covid19info.live/ as it gives a quick snapshot and has a pretty solid updates section.

Anyway I'm wondering if you had formed an opinion on how we judge the effectiveness of government responses around the world? Granted continental Europe with fluid borders makes this a little more difficult to isolate them from the actions of neighbouring states but for countries like Australia, UK, USA, NZ it will be more straight forward.

Dear Armchair Critic,

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is not for profit rather is giving money away to combat this. How are they personally benefiting? Loopy stuff mate.

GrahamY,

"Given the average age at death, there is not a lot of shortening going on."

Yes, I understand that intellectually a disease that primarily targets the old and already sickened is less devastating than one that targeted the young. But we really can't rank effects on that basis. I have a 90 year old mother-in-law living with us. While her death would be less devastating than say the death of a 10yr old grandson, emotionally it would have the same distress.

My main point in this and other threads has been that the response was appropriate when information on the disease was so scant. But its not longer so and new responses are required. As you say, closing the economy isn't cost free and only seems so to those who don't really understand how the economy actually works. We as a society will be paying for the all this for a very long time, perhaps decades. The quicker we adopt more appropriate responses the better.

"...we are only part way through this epidemic. "

Yes, think of it like a marathon. Some runners have decided to go full bore from the start, others to pace themselves. There's no point in deciding the winner at the 11 mile mark. Even worse we don't even know how long the marathon is.

As to the statistics, I don't actually think there are any numbers useful enough to compare nations. For example we know that nations like China, Russia and Iran are outright lying about their virus status. Equally we don't know that the everyone's counting the same thing. Birx said recently that some US states are counting people who died WITH the virus rather than those who died OF the virus. Its been said that 80% of the north Italian deaths died from other conditions exacerbated by the virus or, worse, due to not being able to access needed health services.

And the real issue is that no nation has the faintest idea how many people actual have the infection.

So ask me in 2 years to compare nations.