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THE USA IS A FLAWED DEMOCRACY

I normally don't show this table on Saturdays, but had to today because that drop in new deaths for the United States for Thursday (shown yesterday) was clearly wrong.

                                 From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

        DAY   USA    WORLD   Brazil   India      South Africa

June     9    1093     4732         1185           246            82
July    22     1205     7128         1293         1120          572
Aug    12     1504     6556        1242           835          130
Sept     9     1208      6222       1136          1168            82
Oct     21     1225      6849         571           703            85
Nov    25      2304    12025        620           518           118
Dec    30      3880    14748       1224          299           465
Jan     14       4142     15512        1151           189           712              
Feb      3       4005    14265       1209          107           398
Mar     2        1989      9490        1726          110           194
April   6          906     11787         4211          631            37
May    4         853     13667         3025        3786           59 
June   1         287    10637         2346         3205            95
 July   7          251      8440        1595           817            411
Aug    4          656    10120        1118            532           423 
Sept   1        1480    10470          703           505           235
        22       2228      9326          839           279           124
        29        2190      8859         643           309           108
Oct    5        1811       7495          686           285          103
          6        2102       8255         543           315            59
        12        1819       7544         201           249             37 
        19        2005      7528         401           160             80 
        27       1594       8671         433           734              62 
Nov   3        1436       7830        186           458             23
        10        1493      8366         264           362             48
        17        1416       8440         374           470              11
Dec    1        1633      8475         266           477             28 
          8        1324       7894         231           159             36
        15         1690      8233         227           343            54
        16           997       7115          173            391            36
        17          1653      7359         126            289           35

Summary:
  • The USA had 163,707 (490/million) new cases, while the UK #2 was at 92,597 (1354/million).
  • New York was #1 in new cases with 21,444 (1105/million).
    • Nearby, Massachusetts was at 1040 new cases/million.
    • New Jersey was at 831 new cases/million.
    • Vermont was at 764 new cases/million.
  • Hawaii had a scary (maybe our highest ever) 797 (569/million) new cases yesterday.
  • Government officials and the administration where I live have not shown any sign of invoking new protective measures, but I suspect that some clamping down will occur if our numbers continue for a few more days.  On the other hand, as bad as things are in Hawaii today, mostly in Honolulu, we remain a factor of two to three lower in new cases/million than most European countries.  And most of them also don't seem to want to hurt the economy.
  • A big positive is South Africa:
    • Only 1.7% of identified Covid-19 cases were admitted to hospital in the second week of infections in the fourth wave, compared with 19% in the same week of the third delta-driven wave, South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla said at a press conference. 
    • Their new cases/million yesterday was 335, less than half that of Hawaii.
    • More than 90% of COVID-19 deaths were to the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
    • About hospitalizations:
Currently there are about 7,600 people with Covid-19 in South African hospitals, about 40% of the peak in the second and third waves. Excess deaths, a measure of the number of deaths against a historical average, are just below 2,000 a week, an eighth of their previous peak.
    • Their new deaths/million yesterday was 0.6/million, as compared to (in new deaths/million):
      • USA  5.0 
      • Russia  7.4 
      • Poland  15.0
      • Hungary  16.0
      • Slovakia  20.9
      • New York  3.2
      • Hawaii  1.4
      • South Africa 0.6
      • Japan  0.02
      • China had no deaths.
      • It has been three weeks since the Omicron variant was detected in South Africa.
      • What this means is that Omicron is much, much more transmissible than Delta (20,000 new cases/day for Omicron to 4,400 new cases/day for Delta), but much, much less virulent.  The sickness seems closer to the flu than COVID.  Ah, don't quote me on that...yet.
      • So far, 8.7 billion vaccine doses in 184 countries.  The world population is 7.8 billion

Who remembers that Germany in 1932 was a democracy, when Adolf Hitler won two elections:

Two elections within five months paved the way for the “democratic” rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis to power. Their provocative and violent methods — including brutal street clashes with Communists — had brought them prominence in the previous decade. But it was the Great Depression of 1929 that truly fueled their popularity. In the July elections of 1932, the Nazis emerged as the single largest party, but they were far from a majority. A November rerun saw them retain the dominant position — but with fewer seats. Using a combination of street violence, political blackmail and support from big German businesses, Hitler convinced President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint him chancellor. Under Nazi rule, Germany would never again hold genuinely free and fair elections.

A second presidential victory for Donald Trump in 2024 will lead the country into a scary unknown that can't be good.  As it is, we are already not much of a democracy today.   

See that map?  We are a flawed democracy.

Interesting that in 2015 we were a full democracy with an 8.05 score.  Since then we have not reached 8.0.  We are now #25:

  • #1      Norway  9.81
  • #2      Iceland  9.37
  • #3      Sweden  9.26
  • #4      New Zealand  9.25
  • #5      Canada  9.24
  • #11    Taiwan  8.94
  • #20    Mauritius  8.14
  • #21    Japan  8.13
  • #22    Spain  8.12
  • #23    South Korea  8.01
  • #24    France    7.99
  • #25    U.S.  7.92
  • #27    Israel  7.84
  • #45    South Africa  7.05
  • #74    Singapore  6.03
  • #124  Russia  3.31
  • #151  China  2.27
  • #167  North Korea  1.08

Here is one point of view about Trump in 2024:

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Typhoon Rai now seems headed for Taiwan:

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