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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal>> <b>On Behalf Of </b>John Clark via extropy-chat<br><br><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>>…To half the world the USA is a laughing stock, the other half looks at the USA with pity as one would a sick helpless puppy.</span></span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>John, if you perceive that half the world is laughing at US death, does half the world laugh at Africa? They have plenty of death there. Is that half of the world laughing at UK, France, Italy and Belgium? Are you? Their covid death rates are higher there than here, depending on how we count those who eschew medical care because of fear (how should those be counted?)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=267360318012233"><span style='font-size:16.0pt'>Too much winning </span></a></span></span><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>John K Clark<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Which state is that guy in the video the governor of?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>In half the world, decisions on how to handle the pandemic (and how to report the numbers) are made at the national level. In the US, that policy is controlled at the state level. New Jersey moved into first place yesterday, ahead of New York. Connecticut is third now, followed by Massachusetts. If covid responds to government decisions, their governors are incompetent bastards. All four of those states exceed the covid death rates in even hard-hit France, UK, Italy and Belgium. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>The states which handled the pandemic most effectively are Alaska, Montana and Wyoming, with those three jurisdictions having the lowest covid death rates in the world. Perhaps we should draft the governors of those states to run New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>On the other hand… it could be that the pandemic is much more a function of transportation infrastructure, housing infrastructure, tourism and (most obviously) population density. If we misattribute the causes of the pandemic to the wrong factors, we risk driving the death rate even higher. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Attempting to leverage a crisis into an opportunity makes the crisis deeper. This one is a crisis which really should be let go to waste.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>