2600 bro wrote:
You cannot just say things without any evidence.
Well you can on LRC.
Kosmin wrote:
I'm sceptical of the 500k figure. If the UK had the same population it would have had approximately 575k deaths. But the US has higher rates of obesity, much more variable access to healthcare, a much higher proportion of the population who were sceptical about whether covid 19 was serious and many areas with little or no restrictions and many more people refusing to abide by them anyway.
The obesity rate is 42% in the US and 28% in the UK.
Many people rely on their employer for healthcare in the US - some did not have this in the first place, and millions lost it during the course of the pandemic.
I don't have evidence about the proportion who were sceptical about covid, but it was a major part of the Republican platform. There was some scepticism and opposition to lockdowns by European politicians, but they were always in a very small minority.
Lots of red states had few restrictions.
So why did the US do so well considering these factors? Why weren't there very high death rates in areas which combine these factors? Why isn't the US death rate significantly higher than Europe? Why isn't the death rate particularly high in areas which are poor and heavily Republican (presumably they have a high proportion of people who believed the Republican/Trumpian propaganda that the virus isn't serious, so they behave as normal, leading to high infection rates, and are unhealthy (smokers, obese, other health conditions) are have poor access to healthcare, so are more likely to die)?