One of the questions that comes up is how many deaths for the coronavirus can we actually blame on President Trump. There is, of course, no actual answer to that question. But we can make some comparisons.
Now keep in mind that Trump has repeatedly given himself an “A+” for his handling of the coronavirus; that he keeps claiming that our numbers are higher because we test more; and that he keeps saying that the only thing he has not done well his handle the “public relations” around the coronavirus. And, of course, he keeps having massive “superspreader” rallies where no one wears masks.
So let’s compare the other country that I know best, the Federal Republic of Germany with the United States of America. Here are the statistics as of a few days ago:
| Country | Germany | USA | USA Adjusted |
| Fatalities | 10,032 | 225,084 | 39,998 |
| Infected | 429,181 | 8,680,811 | 1,711,155 |
| Population | 83,020,000 | 331,002,651 | 331,002,651 |
| Death rate | 0.0121% | 0.0680% | 0.0121% |
| Infection rate | 0.5170% | 2.6226% | 0.5170% |
| Death/infection | 2.34% | 2.59% | 2.34% |
So looking at these statistics, we see that Germany (with a population of 83 million) had 429,181 infections and 10,032 deaths, whereas the United States (with a population of 331 million) has had 8,680,811 infections and 225,084 deaths.
That means, that if the United States were the size of Germany (multiplying Germany’s statistics by 3.98) we would have a country with 1,711,155 infections and 39,998 deaths.
That is 185,056 deaths fewer than the United States actually has.
Or 17.77% of the deaths that the United States actually has.
Okay, but Germany’s response has been particularly good (although even the Germans have seen a sudden upswing in infections and are going into a partial lockdown for the month of November).
What if we compare the European continental “big four” of Germany, Italy, France and Spain with the United States. Again, here are the stats:
| Country | Italy | Spain | France | Germany |
| Fatalities | 37,700 | 34,752 | 34,761 | 10,032 |
| Infected | 564,778 | 1,046,132 | 1,138,507 | 429,181 |
| Population | 66,036,000 | 46,940,000 | 66,990,000 | 83,020,000 |
| Death rate | 0.0571% | 0.0740% | 0.0519% | 0.0121% |
| Infection rate | 0.8553% | 2.2287% | 1.6995% | 0.5170% |
| Death/infection | 6.68% | 3.32% | 3.05% | 2.34% |
Now, let’s look at the aggregate data:
| Country | USA | Europe Big 4 | USA Adjusted |
| Fatalities | 225,084 | 117,245 | 136,488 |
| Infected | 8,680,811 | 3,178,598 | 2,564,696 |
| Population | 331,002,651 | 262,986,000 | 331,002,651 |
| Death rate | 0.0680% | 0.0446% | 0.0412% |
| Infection rate | 2.6226% | 1.2087% | 0.7748% |
| Death/infection | 2.59% | 3.69% | 5.32% |
So, again, if the United States had done as well as Italy, Spain, France and Germany combined, we would have 88,596 fewer deaths (or 39.36% fewer) than we actually have.
“A+,” eh?
Last night, Donald Trump — who never tires of coming up with new lies — made the claim that doctors were inflating the number of covid deaths because they get “more money” if they characterize a death as covid related than if they don’t.
“Malarkey!,” as Joe Biden might say.
Hospitals and doctors have been struggling financially especially because they have not been able to perform the high-revenue procedures that they normally perform, as many of those have been crowded out by coronavirus care.
But facts have never disturbed Donald Trump.
The 225,084 that have perished under Trump’s watch is more than those who perished in World War I (116,516), the Korean War (36,516), the Vietnam War (58,209), September 11 (2,996) or the Benghazi incident (4). In fact, it’s more than all of those events combined (214,241). The only events that have killed more Americans — excluding for a moment all the Native Americans that were killed during our colonization of the country — are the Civil War (655,000), World War II (406,400) and the 1918 Flu Epidemic (675,000).
Why aren’t we more upset about the 225,084 dead? Probably because most of those killed were old. Instead of being virile young soldiers, most of them were old.
But hardly all of them.
Casualties of war are, of course, much more visual than old people expiring on a ventilator. But the same number of families is impacted, regardless of how you die.
So, Donald Trump, it’s not an “A+” that you deserve. It’s pretty much an “F”.
