FLU far more deadly for most U.S. states than Covid-19

Remember when the governors closed nearly all the states for months to fight the Flu in 2018, when high estimates showed 95,000 deaths, and even the average guess was 61,000?

Remember how President Donald Trump reacted in 2019, when that prior year analysis came true, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) decided the almost final number was 61,000 deaths, plus or minus 20,000 to 30,000 deaths?

Remember when Trump demanded to know why the CDC had no clue to the actual flu death numbers, despite the agency’s 10,899 employees and budget of $11.1 billion?

You can’t remember what didn’t happen, but the disaster of home imprisonment for hundreds of millions of Americans will long be recalled as record fear-mongering, more suited to electioneering than providing our people the truth.

Unfortunately, the President usually listens to the wrong advisors, and rarely reviews the actual statistics that might refute their talking points.

For example, in a recent interview in the Lincoln Memorial, he mused that many other countries kept their businesses open and didn’t force everyone to stay at home. He said they did the wrong thing by not closing, or re-opening too soon.

He mentioned Sweden and Japan. Sweden has been repeatedly castigated by the American Press for putting its citizens in danger by not closing stores and factories, and allowing residents to go forth in the great outdoors.

The table we assembled at the end of this blog lists the Covid-19 deaths by million, total deaths and cases by million yesterday for the states and most nations. Flu cases are only those patients seen by a doctor or hospital. Actual cases were much higher and included those who self-medicated, worked through the illness, or ignored symptoms.

By contrast, Covid-19 cases in the U.S. are either those presumed to have the virus, or were tested positive for the virus, regardless of symptoms or recovery. While about 96% of Covid-19 cases require no hospitalization, they are still continually reported as active cases, and never removed from the CDC reports, boosting perception of a larger infection rate than actual.

Sorted by the death rate, our table allows comparison of how well the pandemic was contained, and it paints an ugly picture for many states, especially New York, where daily press briefings by its governor hid a disaster that could only be properly attributed to incompetence, primarily in New York City.

New York state has 1,268 deaths per million residents. Compare that to Trump-target Sweden with 274 deaths or Japan with four deaths per million citizens!

New Jersey has suffered 888 deaths per million, Connecticut – 697, Massachusetts – 586, Louisiana – 431, Michigan – 407, Rhode Island – 323. Each of those states has a higher rate than one of the CDC estimates of U.S. flu deaths in 2018, the last year of verified data.

Across the nation the death per million average was 211 as of yesterday. Excluding New York it would be 170.

The President also trumpeted the accomplishment of performing more virus tests than South Korea, ignoring reality – endless testing won’t stop deaths. Instead, he should have credited South Korea with its five deaths per million citizens, a stunning 1/234th of New York and 1/42d the U.S. average.

And Trump should confront those unmasked health bureaucrats that flank him on press briefings and ask questions like these:

Explain how a “communist/socialist/backward/dictatorship” like Russia has a Covid-19 death rate of just nine, versus the lowest for any U.S. state – Alaska – which has 12 deaths per million?

How does a collapsing dictatorship like Cuba manage only a virus death rate of six?

Are you surprised that densely populated Egypt, which gets billions in foreign aid from the U.S. has a rate of just four deaths, versus New York’s 1,268?

Finally, how can one of the poorest nations on earth and second most populous – India – manage just one death per million?

Examine the following table:

• Decide for yourself if hiding at home worked, and ponder why four states – New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Massachusetts – represent nearly 60% of all deaths in the 50 states.
• Is reporting both confirmed and probable deaths – as ordered by the CDC on April 15 without any certification – the correct way to compile data affecting hundreds of millions.
• Why has third-world Africa virtually escaped the pandemic with just 1,848 total deaths in a continent of 1.2 billion.
• Why is the death rate in Massachusetts higher than Spain or Italy, while both nations are portrayed as suffering the worst infections worldwide by the media?
• How can Texas have only 889 deaths, while New York – with 8 million less population – totals 24,874?

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	Deaths/	Total	Cases/
	Million	Deaths	Million
New York	1,268	24,874	16,509
New Jersey	888	7,886	14,348
Connecticut	697	2,495	8,177
Belgium	684	7,924	4,337
Massachusetts	586	4,004	9,969
Spain	544	25,428	5,311
Italy	481	29,079	3,505
Louisiana	431	2,012	6,291
UK	423	28,734	2,807
Michigan	407	4,049	4,394
France	381	24,895	2,584
Rhode Island	323	341	9,135
Netherlands	297	5,082	2,379
Flu USA (high)	290	95,000	83,105
Sweden	274	2,769	2,250
Ireland	267	1,319	4,409
Pennsylvania	221	2,832	4,069
Maryland	219	1,317	4,399
Switzerland	206	1,784	3,464
Illinois	204	2,618	4,797
Indiana	188	1,246	3,003
Delaware	186	177	5,485
Flu USA (avg.)	186	61,000	63,205
Luxembourg	153	96	6,115
Colorado	152	842	3,008
Flu USA (low)	140	46,000	54,812
Georgia	117	1,204	2,826
Washington	115	837	2,163
Portugal	104	1,063	2,503
Canada	102	3,842	1,606
Mississippi	101	303	2,526
Nevada	90	262	1,879
Ohio	89	1,040	1,711
Ecuador	89	1,569	1,807
Denmark	85	493	1,669
Vermont	83	52	1,443
Germany	82	6,866	1,978
Virginia	81	684	2,317
Minnesota	76	419	1,205
Iran	75	6,277	1,174
New Mexico	72	151	1,840
Florida	68	1,399	1,791
Austria	67	600	1,734
N. Hampshire	64	86	1,874
Missouri	62	377	1,385
Oklahoma	61	238	1,014
Iowa	60	188	3,098
Alabama	60	292	1,624
Wisconsin	59	339	1,378
California	57	2,215	1,403
Kentucky	57	253	1,155
South Carolina	55	275	1,337
Arizona	52	362	1,244
Kansas	51	147	1,785
Slovenia	47	97	692
Panama	46	200	1,668
North Carolina	43	439	1,167
Maine	43	57	889
Romania	43	818	702
Finland	43	240	961
Nebraska	41	78	3,103
Turkey	41	3,461	1,514
N. Macedonia	41	85	729
Estonia	41	55	1,284
Peru	39	1,286	1,393
Norway	39	214	1,454
Idaho	38	64	1,221
Hungary	36	351	314
North Dakota	33	25	1,583
Brazil	33	7,106	483
Texas	32	889	1,156
Tennessee	32	210	1,981
Dominican Rep.	32	346	759
Iceland	29	10	5,272
Oregon	27	109	657
West Virginia	27	50	659
Israel	27	234	1,876
Liechtenstein	26	1	2,151
Arkansas	25	76	1,147
South Dakota	24	21	3,044
Bosnia and Herzegovina	24	78	587
Serbia	23	197	1,094
Czechia	23	251	728
Mayotte	22	6	2,515
Croatia	19	80	512
Aruba	19	2	937
Poland	18	698	370
Mexico	17	2,154	182
Lithuania	17	46	521
Utah	16	50	1,699
Montana	15	16	437
Cayman Islands	15	1	1,126
UAE	14	137	1,489
Greece	14	146	253
Chile	14	270	1,080
Montenegro	13	8	514
Armenia	13	39	846
Hawaii	12	17	436
Wyoming	12	7	1,007
Alaska	12	9	498
Bulgaria	11	78	238
Belarus	11	103	1,851
Algeria	11	465	106
Albania	11	31	279
Russia	9	1,356	995
Kuwait	9	40	1,236
Ukraine	7	303	282
Colombia	7	340	151
Bolivia	7	76	137
Philippines	6	623	87
Cuba	6	69	147
Argentina	6	249	106
Uruguay	5	17	189
Slovakia	5	25	259
Saudi Arabia	5	191	823
S. Korea	5	252	211
Morocco	5	179	137
Tunisia	4	42	86
Qatar	4	12	5,620
New Zealand	4	20	308
Liberia	4	18	33
Lebanon	4	25	108
Japan	4	487	118
Egypt	4	436	67
Australia	4	95	268
Singapore	3	18	3,210
Malaysia	3	105	196
Indonesia	3	864	42
French Guiana	3	1	445
China	3	4,633	58
Azerbaijan	3	26	196
Suriname	2	1	17
South Africa	2	131	114
Somalia	2	35	48
Pakistan	2	476	95
Oman	2	12	516
Maldives	2	1	1,001
Kyrgyzstan	2	10	127
Kazakhstan	2	29	216
Iraq	2	98	58
Georgia	2	9	149
Gabon	2	5	151
El Salvador	2	12	86
Djibouti	2	2	1,130
Congo	2	10	43
Cameroon	2	64	78
Brunei	2	1	315
Afghanistan	2	90	74
Togo	1	9	15
Sierra Leone	1	9	22
Paraguay	1	10	56
Niger	1	36	31
Mali	1	29	29
India	1	1,452	33
Costa Rica	1	6	146
Bangladesh	1	182	62
Sudan	1	41	15
Jordan	1	9	46
Guatemala	1	17	39
Eswatini	1	1	100
Thailand	1	54	43
Nicaragua	1	5	2
Haiti	1	9	8
Guinea	1	9	130
Equatorial Guinea	1	1	225
Senegal	1	10	76
Ivory Coast	1	17	53
Ghana	1	18	88
Chad	1	10	7
Hong Kong	1	4	139
Guinea-Bissau	1	1	131
Venezuela	0	10	13
Nigeria	0	87	12
Libya	0	3	9
Kenya	0	24	9
Gambia	0	1	7
DRC	0	34	8
Botswana	0	1	10
Zimbabwe	0	4	2
Uzbekistan	0	10	65
Tanzania	0	16	8
Tajikistan	0	3	24
Taiwan	0	6	18
Zambia	0	3	7
Syria	0	3	3
Mauritania	0	1	2
Malawi	0	3	2
Myanmar	0	6	3
Burundi	0	1	1
Yemen	0	2	0
Angola	0	2	1
Ethiopia	0	3	1

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Full report of the 2017-2018 season burden and influenza illness and burden of influenza illness prevented by vaccination in the United States

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