Sally Cripps, Professor of Statistics at the University of Sydney, has said that the models used to panic Scotty et al were consistently inaccurate. Those in the modelling community "didn't know what they were doing", she said.

Cripps intimated that consideration should be given to whether of not the use of models should be continued.

Hi Joe,

We have a parallel in this country with Pauline
Hanson supporters. Hanson like Trump appeals to
those Australians who cannot relate to what
they see as the political "elite".

We live in a time of instability. We've seen
uncertainty, a change of PMs. A lack of leadership.
It's no wonder that people like Trump and Hanson
strike a chord with some in Australia.

The last thing though that we need to do is demonise
them both. We can criticize them - but not demonise
them.

We need to keep in mind that they both got
elected. They are part of the democratic process and
we do have to somehow address some of the concerns
and issues in our society.

In comparing deaths you need to consider the population size.

EU deaths 190 000
US deaths 124 000

'Just at a time when any country desperately needs an intelligent leader, such as we have here, the US is inflicted with a half-wit.'

you might have a point Joe however the fact that the lying liberal media in co-horts with the democrats spent years on a dummy spit making up and promoting lies about Russian and Ukraine collusion just proved want a deceitful lying bunch of hypocrites are. Even you are so stupid as to see that Trump did much better for America in regards to China than your poster boy Obama who really was a traitor to the US.

Ttbn,

And what do you know, they worked ! Australia under Morrison has had remarkably few Covid-19 deaths (103 compared to the US's 123,000 so far) and looks like coming out of the crisis much earlier, along with New Zealand, than the US or Europe, or perhaps even China - and with a lower budget deficit (per capita) than almost any other country.

Policy is always a fraught area, it's always easy for some ivory-tower academic to criticise after crucial events. The key to policy is, as Richard Elmore has written so wisely, the implementation stage - that's where the rubber meets the road, where wrinkles can get ironed out IF policy-makers are genuinely interested in following through.

I suppose we'll see, but I think that Australia under Morrison and New Zealand under Ardern are coming out of this crisis in far better economic positions than almost any other countries. If they made mistakes, thank god for that.

Joe

.

SM,

Population of Europe (Dr Google): 741 million

Population of the US: 328.2 million

So Europe has 2.26 times the population of the USA, but only 1.53 the number of deaths from the covid-19 virus - a differential of one and a half against the US.

Not that either one can crow about their competence in confronting the virus, compared to Australia's experience: if they had followed our example, instead of being smug and so damn superior, they would have had fewer than five thousand deaths, instead of 70 times - seventy times - as many. Does either one know what the hell they are doing, even yet ?

Joe