Covid, oddly, likes rich countries

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ARE YOU FEELING poor in this holiday season? Or perhaps you live in a poor country? Or maybe the pandemic has put financial pressure on your workplace. I want to give you three new data points to think about.

One: Which part of the world is suffering the highest number of covid cases? Answer: The world’s wealthiest country, the place that spends the most on medicine. 

Two: Which part of that rich country is the highest risk place for the virus? Answer: the capital, Washington DC, the place where that country’s leader lives.

Three: Now that 2021 is over, we can compare the total number of covid deaths in the world’s richest country, with, say, the total number of covid deaths in the developing country where I live.

The United States of America suffered 450,000 Covid deaths in 2021.

China suffered two deaths in 2021.

The difference is so big that none of the graph-making software I have can show it.

Now some people will react by saying that the Chinese always tell lies, and their figures should be doubled or tripled or multiplied 10-fold.

Okay. So that would mean we suffered four or six or 20 deaths. It doesn’t change the story.

What does all this mean, on a big picture basis?

The answer is that Covid is causing a global re-set in the way people think about a lot of things. Thinking is good. Let’s keep doing it.

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For a video report on this story, click here.