Covid-19 Weekly Fatalities and Excess Fatalities as of 1/6

Weekly Covid-19 fatalities are falling according to CDC estimates, but those numbers are likely to be revised upward; going from last week’s release to this week’s, excess fatalities have been revised upward drastically. Unofficial estimates indicate a resumption of the upward movement in fatalities to a new peak (18690/week for week ending 1/2/2021, averaging 2670 deaths/day).

Figure 1:  Weekly fatalities due to Covid-19 as reported to CDC for weeks ending on indicated dates (black), excess fatalities calculated as actual minus expected (teal), fatalities as tabulated by Our World in Data (dark red). Note excess fatalities differ from CDC series which are bounded below at zero. Light green shading denotes CDC data that are likely to be revised. Source: CDC  1/6/2021 vintage, OurWorldinData version of 1/5 accessed 1/6/2021 and author’s calculations.

My experience with these series is that the CDC excess count series moves upward toward a line parallel to, and shifted upward from, the Our World in Data series (see this post). In other words, excess fatalities could be rising. Upward revision of excess deaths (calculated as actual minus expected) going from 12/30 vintage to 1/6 vintage for the week ending 12/19 is about 9500 (that’s a 7 day total).

As hospitalization rates continue to climb, and in the wake of the massive travel surrounding Christmas holidays, I expect another surge in deaths – although the latest CDC ensemble model projects constant level of fatalities (albeit at a high level).

 

 

70 thoughts on “Covid-19 Weekly Fatalities and Excess Fatalities as of 1/6

    1. pgl

      For some reason I woke up at 3:30am. At that point Texas was being tabulated so I watched til the end. When it came to Wisconsin, some House hick read some dishonest letter. Pence asked him if a Senator had signed it and then it was noted no Senator was going to continue to object, Pence shut them hick down.

      1. Moses Herzog

        I can’t swear to it, but as I recall the Pennsylvania “objection” was the only one that had a Senator’s signature. There may have been one other one, I was kinda letting it play in the background, but I do know there were very few that had a Senator’s signature, they could get the House Rep’s signature but rarely a Senator’s—whihc of course is good they couldn’t. They would have drug it out longer I think without that morning’s events. There was even one school ground playground type fight that almost started somewhere in the timeline, Desjardin’s noted it in her twitter feed and you coudl see the outskirts of it on the video feed. They were probably sleepy—mix sleepy and immaturity of a lot of those Republicans and you get that. Amazing how many women were still sticking up for trump. I have thoughts on that but…..

  1. Moses Herzog

    4 people now dead. And still we see who is the important person to donald trump:
    https://twitter.com/DanScavino/status/1347103015493361664

    Try to catch the BBC TV interviews with the mob that was outside the Capitol. The IQ level will remind you of Kopits, Peakloser, sammy, Bruce Hall, Ed Hansen, CoRev, et al. I mean, go down to your local rock quarry and pick out a stone or rock to converse with and the conversation is sure to be just as exhilarating.

    1. Bruce Hall

      Hey, glad to see that all is the same in the world of OneThink as approved by the Democratic Party Ministry of Truth.

      Virus bad; governors who shut down economy good.
      https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/900k-excess-deaths-15-years-pandemic-unemployment-rise

      Scaring people to stay home good; seeking medical attention for non-COVID reasons bad.
      https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/13/us/deaths-covid-other-causes.html

      Going to work when there is a virus out there bad; importing what isn’t being produced here good.
      https://www.wsj.com/articles/job-losses-in-2020-were-worst-since-1939-with-hispanics-blacks-teenagers-among-hardest-hit-11610133434
      https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/current/
      https://www.multistate.us/issues/covid-19-state-reopening-guide

      But the tech oligarchs seem to be doing well.

      1. Menzie Chinn Post author

        Bruce Hall: For the love of g.., read the dam* paper instead of reading the Washington Examiner (!) summary. The article doesn’t say if you’d had no shutdowns, you’d get those 890K lives back. That can’t be answered in the paper, since they don’t estimate the impact of lockdowns on unemployment. You’re *assuming* a tradeoff between lockdowns and economic activity when none might exist (as suggested by South Korea). You should read the paper, which I’ve uploaded at http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~mchinn/w28304.pdf

      2. Baffling

        Bruce, welcome to the new world order. If you dont like it, dont let the door hit ya on the way out.
        By the way, approve of twitter, facebook and others shutting down trump. You are welcome to create a conservative social media tool if you have the skill set.

  2. pgl

    The CDC figure and the Our World in Data figure closely tracked each other until recently and now the two significantly diverge. Any thoughts on this?

  3. ltr

    January 6, 2021

    Coronavirus

    US

    Cases   ( 21,857,616)
    Deaths   ( 369,990)

    India

    Cases   ( 10,395,938)
    Deaths   ( 150,372)

    UK

    Cases   ( 2,836,801)
    Deaths   ( 77,346)

    France

    Cases   ( 2,705,618)
    Deaths   ( 66,565)

    Germany

    Cases   ( 1,841,228)
    Deaths   ( 38,199)

    Mexico

    Cases   ( 1,466,490)
    Deaths   ( 128,822)

    Canada

    Cases   ( 626,800)
    Deaths   ( 16,369)

    China

    Cases   ( 87,215)
    Deaths   ( 4,634)

  4. ltr

    January 6, 2021

    Coronavirus   (Deaths per million)

    UK   ( 1,136)
    US   ( 1,114)
    France   ( 1,019)
    Mexico   ( 994)

    Germany   ( 455)
    Canada   ( 432)
    India   ( 108)
    China   ( 3)

    Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 8.8%, 2.7% and 2.5% for Mexico, the United Kingdom and France respectively.

  5. ltr

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-01-07/Chinese-mainland-reports-63-new-COVID-19-cases-WQGeEoFIsg/index.html

    January 7, 2021

    Chinese mainland reports 63 new COVID-19 cases

    The Chinese mainland on Wednesday reported 63 new COVID-19 cases – 52 cases of local transmission and 11 from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Thursday.

    The locally transmitted cases were reported in north and northeast China: 51 in Hebei Province and one in Liaoning Province.

    Moreover, 79 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were recorded, while 423 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No death related to COVID-19 was registered on Wednesday, while 21 patients were discharged from hospitals.

    The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China has reached 87,278, and the death toll stands at 4,634.

    Chinese mainland new imported cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-01-07/Chinese-mainland-reports-63-new-COVID-19-cases-WQGeEoFIsg/img/504cdac089e145fe9bb6bab670f1feb4/504cdac089e145fe9bb6bab670f1feb4.jpeg

    Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-01-07/Chinese-mainland-reports-63-new-COVID-19-cases-WQGeEoFIsg/img/db0725eaed2b402ebad2c8486b43f068/db0725eaed2b402ebad2c8486b43f068.jpeg

    [ There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since the beginning of last May.  Since the beginning of last June there have been only limited community clusters of infections, each of which was an immediate focus of mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, with each outbreak having been contained.  Symptomatic and asymptomatic cases are all contact traced and quarantined.

    Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine.  Cold-chain imported food products are all checked and tracked through distribution.  The flow of imported cases to China is low, but has been persistent.

    There are now 485 active coronavirus cases in all on the Chinese mainland, 13 of which cases are classed as serious or critical. ]

  6. Dr. Dysmalist

    I told the people I work with that they should expect cases to start rising, and at an accelerated rate, beginning around January 4th. I expect the increase to really kick in around Jan 10-14. As we all know, hospitalizions should follow cases with an approximately 2 week lag. Ditto for deaths following hospitalizations. The next couple of months will be ugly and depressing even if we avoid additional armed revolts. Very dark times.

    1. baffling

      i have built up anger at the vaccine rollout. much too slow, and is costing lives. we have a vaccine, but it is not getting into arms fast enough. my wife got her second dose, and no side effects. but it is criminal that we don’t have more available. operation warp speed will change from a success to failure if a working vaccine ends up not getting into the arms of the population until AFTER the virus peaks again.

      1. 2slugbaits

        baffling Here’s one reason why Operation Warp Speed has stalled to a crawl. Check out the org chart:

        https://trialsitenews.com/operation-warp-speed-organizational-chart-military-in-the-lead/

        Now, a labyrinthine chart dated July 30, gives the biggest public picture to date of OWS, “a highly structured organization in which military personnel vastly outnumber civilian scientists.” The Chart, as outlined by Stat News on September 28, “shows that roughly 60 military officials — including at least four generals — are involved in the leadership of Operation Warp Speed, many of whom have never worked in health care or vaccine development. Just 29 of the roughly 90 leaders on the chart aren’t employed by the Department of Defense; most of them work for the Department of Health and Human Services and its subagencies.”

        And many of the DoD folks do not come from logistics/ORSA backgrounds. They come from the Army Acquisition Corps. In other words, The OWS team sees its mission as writing requirements documents and letting contracts in much the same way they would develop a weapon system. I’ve known one of the Acquisition Corps guys on GEN Perma’s staff and I can honestly say that in 20+ years he’s never had a successful project. He’s a true bungler.

        Here’s what should have happened. The OWS team should have run various discrete event simulation (DES) models (in my old office we used Arena software https://www.arenasimulation.com/ ) with various plausible parameters to identify bottlenecks in the queues. They should have worked with the states and counties to set up templates to identify in advance people and nursing homes that would get the vaccine first. They should have identified large staging areas (e.g., school gyms, shopping malls, sports arenas, etc.) where they could move people in-and-out quickly. Instead of just handing things off to FEDEX or UPS for wholesale distribution and calling it a day, they should have established supply echelons in depth. They should have trained people during the summer as to how to administer vaccines. They should have used math simulations to break down the specific tasks to mix the vaccine; e.g., should one pharmacist do all tasks or should those tasks be distributed? There’s a lot they should have done. And the states deserve some of the blame too for not taking the initiative themselves when they saw that OWS was falling down on the job. In my state the health department says it will be at least a couple of weeks before they even have a website up to assist in vaccinations. What a cluster****.

        1. baffling

          this is an example of trump self sabotage. even with a successful vaccine, its implementation only meant that trump was wrong about the dangers of the coronavirus. a successful rollout of vaccines only serves to show trump was wrong to begin with. he could not let that happen, so there was absolutely no focus on the deployment of the vaccine. which is a shame. this vaccine would have saved lives as the virus spiked this winter. but it is going to get into the patients arms too late.
          my wife got both doses, no problems. there are no lines for her to wait in. but only large medical centers have the vaccine, and most are limiting it to their folks. they will not continue to distribute the vaccine once their people are done. it is a shame. what happened to the “millions upon millions” of doses sitting ready to ship and inoculate as soon as the fda approved? what a failure. i agree with you 2slugs, this whole operation should have gone through multiple trials runs in the summer and fall, so it was ready this winter with no hiccups. in sports we call it training camp. this is costing people their lives.

  7. MV

    It’s curious why CDC even bothers to post data from the last 2 – 3 weeks when it always goes through drastic revisions.

    1. macroduck

      Alpha vs beta error.

      Alpha error is publishing incomplete data that people like Menzie can help lay readers of good intent understand. Beta error is giving Trump supporters an opportunity to claim that the CDC is an arm of antifa. I’d go for alpha.

      1. Moses Herzog

        I’ve been told throughout my life I have a strange sense of humor. Been tossing around in my head the idea that anything wrong I do around the house I will say “Antifa did it”. Even my own family misses large segments of my humor and I get this strange feeling the joke is going to fall on deaf ears.

    2. baffling

      i would argue transparency. i don’t think it hurts, other than allowing some with a nefarious agenda to twist the numbers in false arguments.

  8. ltr

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/world/middleeast/israel-coronavirus-vaccine-palestinians.html

    January 6, 2021

    After Quick Vaccine Success, Israel Faces New Virus Woes
    Israel imposed a tighter lockdown as coronavirus infections soared, the variant spread, vaccines were running out and a debate erupted over the country’s responsibility to the Palestinians.
    By Isabel Kershner and Adam Rasgon

    JERUSALEM — Just last week, Israel was seen as a model coronavirus country, outstripping the rest of the world in the pace of vaccinating its citizens by a hefty margin.

    But the virus had other ideas.

    This week, Israel faces a tightened lockdown as infections have spiraled to more than 8,000 new cases a day, officials fear the more transmissible variant of the virus first identified in Britain is spreading rapidly and Israel’s vaccine supplies are running low.

    The prospect that Israel would have the virus under control by spring, once promising, now seems uncertain. Health officials say that in the short term, at least, the vaccine campaign cannot compete with the soaring infection rates.

    And the Palestinian Authority, which runs its own health care system in the occupied West Bank, has asked Israel for vaccines, prompting a debate over Israel’s responsibility to the Palestinians at a time when Israel’s vaccine supplies are dwindling….

    1. JohnH

      A pandemic is the perfect example of why the fortunate must be treated the same as the outcasts…because the virus is an equal opportunity killer. And walls do not prevent the fortunate from mingling with the outcasts.

      It’s incredible to me that Democrats fail to seize the opportunity to make a robust and compelling case for universal healthcare…because the uninsured will be spreaders if they can’t seek treatment, if they have little connection to healthcare for preventative care, and are most likely people who are miserably paid essential workers on whom the insured depend.

      1. pgl

        Universal healthcare may be a good idea but it does not have a damn thing with the vaccine rollout. First of all – we will not have to pay for the vaccine. And secondly the rollout is being phased in by type of job (medical professional) and age – not by economic class.

        Could you do us a wee favor – stop writing BS to shows you are as clueless as it gets. LORD!

        1. Barkley Rosser

          Now now now, pgl, the important point that JohnH is making as he regularly does is how awful the Dems are and how everything is their fault. They may even be worse than Trump and the GOP, although JohnH assures he does not like the GOP either, being a supporter of some unnamed Third Party that would certainly do everything right if only they were to come to power.

          1. rjs

            Barkley, pgl: i don’t think you realize how much the Overton window has shifted right during the Trump era…today’s Democrat’s are no longer the party of FDR; they’re now closer to the blue dogs than they’ve ever been, or even to the Rockefeller Republicans…and Biden’s energy / environment package is no Green New Deal; it’s more like something that might have been proposed under Eisenhower or Nixon…

        2. JohnH

          Give me a break!!! You have the greatest healthcare emergency in at least a hundred years, and Democrats can’t find a way to use it to make the case for universal healthcare???

          What makes Democrats so pathetic is that they are perfectly happy to let a disaster go to waste, just as Obama did in 2009.

          Big business uses disaster capitalism all the time, and they have exploited the pandemic to increase profits and exacerbate inequality. But suggest that Democrats seize the opportunity to promote the common good long term? Anathema to partisan hacks like pgl.

          1. pgl

            We have the greatest healthcare system of all time? WTF? You sound like some Republican bozo. Oh wait – you are a Republican bozo.

        3. JohnH

          pgl: sure, sure…the vaccine is free for everyone, because pgl says so!

          “Even with these protections, experts do see some weak spots. One has to do with the type of health coverage Americans carry. Millions are still covered by “grandfathered” health insurance plans, which existed before the Affordable Care Act and are exempt from its rules. So those plans are not required to fully cover the coronavirus vaccine, or any other preventive service.

          Experts also worry about uninsured Americans. The United States does not have a national program to cover vaccination costs for them. For coronavirus, it is instructing health providers to submit costs associated with vaccination to a $175 billion Provider Relief Fund created last spring.

          The fund had $30 billion remaining as of Nov. 10. There’s no backup source of funding for the uninsured to get covered if it’s depleted.
          “The question marks for me are the uninsured, and the folks that are in the unregulated plans,” Ms. Corlette said.

          Additional fees could accompany a vaccine. Some providers are accustomed to charging a visit fee for all in-person patients. Most emergency rooms charge “facility fees,”
          https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/17/upshot/vaccines-surprise-bills.html

          But, why should we ever ask Democrats to take a stand for the common good, clean up the mess, and guarantee access to affordable healthcare for all?

          1. Moses Herzog

            @JohnH
            For whatever it’s worth, I do NOT include you in what we sometimes refer to here on this blog as our “usual suspects” (semi-derogatory). I don’t always agree 100% with you, but sometimes I think you say things that very much need to be said, so…… Always be willing to listen as well and “re-think” things (as I am sure you do). I hope you keep posting here, this blog has much to learn from and your “take” on things is valued as well. Stick to ideas over personal barbs and the blog will serve you well.

          2. pgl

            In NY it will be free. Now if you people in Michigan are too stupid to get this right – maybe you should vote for someone other than the Green Party person who has no chance of winning.

      2. baffling

        “It’s incredible to me that Democrats fail to seize the opportunity to make a robust and compelling case for universal healthcare”
        depends on what you mean by universal. you will get support if you mean affordable access. you will not get support if you mean single payer. most of america does not want that at this time, including democrats.

        1. pgl

          Give him a little credit. He stopped saying Medicare for All going with the broader Universal.

          I noted vaccines will be free to the patient. I should note the issue of testing which are free in NY. Now I hear other states are charging for tests which strikes me as incredibly stupid policy.

        2. JohnH

          OK. Let’s use your words…where is the Democratic proposal for affordable, universal access?? And please don’t recommend expanding Obamacare, which is basically an expensive version of catastrophic coverage, made unaffordable by high deductibles, high copays, and exorbitant premiums for those not highly subsidized.

          1. noneconomist

            What is your party”s solution to improving health care JohnH? Do you have the necessary votes to pass the Senate?
            There are 50 Republicans, and their plan has always been DGS (Don’t Get Sick). They’re trying to repeal Obamacare even in the middle of the pandemic, so that terrible plan may be gone soon. And we know how you regard the shortcomings of Obamacare and the brain dead Democrats who support it because there’s nothing else.
            Perhaps your third party, which has no congressional representation, can lead us out of the wilderness. Your candidate, the irrepressible Otto Schmidlap, will no no doubt lead us forward. With , of course, your considerable know how and leadership.

          2. pgl

            Lord – you are too stupid to read. Biden’s proposal were clear but you must have missed it given your lack of Google skills.

          3. JohnH

            No economist: why not start with a real proposal—Medicare for All? Bernie proposed a version. And some economists at the Congressional Budget Office found that it costs less.

            Part of the job of politicians is to sell policies. Presidents sell war all the time. But they simply won’t deign to sell affordable healthcare for all, something that is more of a human right than wars ever delivered.

          4. baffling

            “And please don’t recommend expanding Obamacare”
            this can most certainly be improved and expanded. you simply don’t won’t to accept this is the best you can get out there, today. you may get single payer in 50 years. what do you do in the mean time, just let people go without? its the all or nothing mentality that loses in the long run of political life.

          5. JohnH

            Baffling: nobody thought that LBJ could get the Voting Rights Act passed, what with Dixiecrat and Republican opposition. But LBJ leveraged the crisis of the moment to get it done.

            It’s called leadership.

            Real leadership could leverage the COVID fiasco to effect real change in the healthcare system. But leadership is exactly what is totally lacking among today’s craven and corrupt Democratic elites.

          6. noneconomist

            One more time thenOne Note JohnH: If Democrats won’t do it, who will? Certainly not Republicans. The Libertarian candidate just got 1.2%, the Green guy 0.3% , and all others 0.3%.
            You’ve claimed to be a third party guy in parties whose combined vote in the recent election was 1.9% with NO congressional representation. And certainly none on the horizon.
            BTW, the highest ranking Green officeholder in California is the MAYOR of a city of 22,000 in Monterrey Country. Then there are four members of city councils in Humboldt County. Hardly the reps who’ll lead the charge.
            So, who does that leave to attempt to improve the current system? You’re obviously naive enough to to believe that introducing a M4A bill will produce serious movement and will be worth the time spent on its defeat. But it’s hard to tell if you’re THAT naive or just THAT clueless. Or, to use your term, THAT brain dead.

          7. Barkley Rosser

            So, JohnH, just exactly how is Biden going to get 10 GOP votes in the Senate to invoke cloture to get universal coverage? Most observers think he will probably not be able even to get his public option passed, the dropping of which was certainly the biggest mistake Obama made when he managed to squeak ACA through by the skin of his teeth back when Dems had 60 in the Senate, not the 50 they will have now, plus, oh all those people from your third party, who might just sit out a public option vote because they are holding out for some universal plan.

          8. baffling

            “Real leadership could leverage the COVID fiasco to effect real change in the healthcare system. ”
            your desire for medicare for all is NOT shared by the majority, johnh. so no, you cannot leverage covid to achieve YOUR goals. there needs to be wider acceptance of the proposal, which you do NOT have.

  9. ltr

    January 6, 2021

    Coronavirus

    Israel

    Cases   ( 463,448)
    Deaths   ( 3,529)

    Deaths per million   ( 384)

    ———————————–

    July 4, 2020

    Coronavirus

    Israel

    Cases   ( 29,170)
    Deaths   ( 330)

    Deaths per million   ( 36)

    [ Having apparently approached a containment of the coronavirus in June, the Israeli government incautiously opened schools and businesses, and the result has been a persistent community infection spread contributing to what are now 463,448 cases in the small country as compared to 87,215 in all through all of mainland China.  Israel unfortunately has more than 5 times the number of coronavirus cases in mainland China.  Paul Krugman noticed the Israeli “disaster” on September 14 when there were 160,000 coronavirus cases. ]

    1. macroduck

      The Proud Boys are a domestic terror organization. It’s time Justice acknowledged that obvious fact.

    2. JohnH

      When the oligarchy’s security forces start picking sides, or even tolerating violence by one side, you know you’re in real trouble. The Russian Revolution succeeded because the Tsar’s soldiers refused to protect him. The police allowed heavily armed protestors to occupy the Michigan statehouse. Where I live Trump supporters stopped traffic on the interstate one day, ostensibly looking for antifa. Calls to various police agencies were ignored.

      Police may be cowed by heavily armed right wing extremists. Or they may sympathize with them. Probably both.

      I protested the Iraq War in DC, and I can assure you that DC security forces know how to make an overwhelming show of force…if they want to. IMO DC security forces basically went AWOL, something that would never have happened had the protestors been Black or anti-war.
      https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/07/capitol-police-failure-trump-mob

    3. Dr. Dysmalist

      So they made themselves easily identifiable while participating in an armed insurrection?! What truly amazes me is that the MAGA-morons and Q-kooks are really, actually “sending their best.”

      Donald John Trump should be very, very proud. In 4 short years (though all the winning has made it feel like 4 decades), he has remade the US in his image, into a “s**thole country.”

      1. pgl

        If these terrorists can escape prosecution, then being blasted all over social media is only going to make them feel important emboldening them to do more of this treasonous crap. A real prosecutor would have no trouble putting these a$$holes in jail but where are the real prosecutors.

    4. Barkley Rosser

      Now now now, pgl, there you go again not getting it. These people were all secretly Antifa, just pretending to be Proud Boys, etc. I mean, Rep. Gaetz has assured us of this, and he always tells the truth. Just see Fox News, please. I mean, there was a whole busload of these Antifa people, a whole busload!!!

      1. noneconomist

        The newly elected Republican member of the WV House of Delegates who—helmeted—filmed himself storming the Capitol and noted (as reported by USA Today) that he was called to DC by Donald Trump. Why? Because he”s done so much for us.
        He said he was involved with organizing busses of Tump supporters from WV, Kentucky, and Ohio. Going out on a limb here, but those areas are hardly hotbeds of Antifa sentiment.

    1. pgl

      Ever wondered why McConnell married Chou? Her daddy is a very rich shipping mogul. With Mitch, it is all about money and the power that comes with it. They rode the Trump train for as long as it paid off.

      1. Moses Herzog

        @ pgl
        The better part of my nature (what little I have) feels this oddball urge to applaud Pence and McConnell after yesterday. Because somehow it feels so special that they made that 1 in 10,000 correct move morally. But your last sentence in that comment hits the nail on the head. It has nothing to do with morals or doing the right thing for Pence and McConnell, they are just exiting the gravy train at the exact correct moment (or perhaps the politically obvious moment). This was my one nit-pick with the James Bennett editorial in Politico’s Playbook (which I otherwise found to be a great read). He says (I’m paraphrasing) “What if McConnell didn’t end up being less cynical than his biggest detractors believed him to be??”~~But was he?? Leaving the bank-robbery right when the police show up doesn’t mean the robber “has found God” and doesn’t mean McConnell is “less cynically inclined than we believed him”. It only means McConnell and Pence are smart enough to know when the political winds have shifted. That’s a major difference James Bennett appears to be missing (at least as far as that Politico PLaybook editorial reads).

      2. Moses Herzog

        I’ll add one more thing here~~As much guff as I have given Mitt Romney in the past, I found Romney’s speech yesterday to be the most moving and the most accurate (and that includes Democrats’ speeches). I think I have shown clearly here I am not a Mitt Romney fan. But what he said was the most appropriate and stirring in that moment. I tell yeh, the Mormon nutjob nearly won me over on that one. Not quite, but close.

        I leave it to Menzie’s better judgement if he wants to delete this part of my comment—Romney’s 4 minute speech, Menzie has my “permission” and can even leave out his personal notation of editing it if he chooses.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFj2Br8nxoc

        1. baffling

          romney has been one of the few republicans to act honorably over the past 4 years. i am not sure if i can still call him a republican, although he is not a democrat. if he ran again (he won’t), he would probably beat most democrats. i disagree with many of his policies, but i do not see him as the same type of rotten individual as trump or McConnell.

  10. ltr

    Latin American countries have recorded 4 of the 13 highest and 6 of the 24 highest number of coronavirus cases among all countries.  Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Chile.

    Mexico, with more than 1.45 million cases recorded, has the 4th highest number of cases among Latin American countries and the 13th highest number of cases among all countries.  Peru, with more than 1 million cases, has the 5th highest number of cases among Latin American countries and the 18th highest number among all countries.  Mexico was the 4th among all countries to have recorded more than 100,000 and 125,000 coronavirus deaths.

    January 6, 2021

    Coronavirus   (Deaths per million)

    US   ( 1,114) *

    Brazil   ( 933)
    Argentina   ( 968)
    Colombia   ( 874)

    Mexico   ( 994)
    Peru   ( 1,144)
    Chile   ( 876)

    Ecuador   ( 796)
    Bolivia   ( 786)

    * Descending number of cases

  11. ltr

    http://www.oecd.org/health/health-systems/Table-of-Content-Metadata-OECD-Health-Statistics-2020.pdf

    June, 2020

    Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Health Data

    Total health care spending per person, 2019 *

    United States   ( 11,072)
    OCED average   ( 4,224)

    France   ( 5,376)

    Total health care spending as a share of GDP, 2019

    United States   ( 17.0)
    OCED average   ( 8.8)

    France   ( 11.2)

    Pharmaceutical expenditure per person, 2018 *

    United States   ( 1,229)
    OECD average   ( 586)

    France   ( 671)

    Practising physicians per 1,000 population, 2018

    United States   ( 2.6)
    OECD average   ( 3.5)

    France   ( 3.2)

    Practising nurses per 1,000 population, 2018

    United States   ( 11.9)
    OECD average   ( 8.8)

    France   ( 10.8)

    Hospital beds per 1,000 population, 2018

    United States   ( 2.9)
    OECD average   ( 4.5)

    France   ( 5.9)

    Physician consultations per person, 2018

    United States   ( 4.0)
    OECD average   ( 6.6)

    France   ( 5.9)

    Medical graduates per 100,000 population, 2018

    United States   ( 8.0)
    OECD average   ( 13.5)

    France   ( 10.9)

    * Data are expressed in US dollars adjusted for purchasing power parities (PPPs), which provide a means of comparing spending between countries on a common base. PPPs are the rates of currency conversion that equalise the cost of a given “basket” of goods and services in different countries.

    1. pgl

      Do you expect Princeton Steve to stand up to Trump? If he did – they would not invite him back to Fox and Friends.

    2. pgl

      “We have all these other countries around the world … expressing concern about what has happened in America,” former U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke told CNBC.
      Locke said China is “laughing” at America after the Capitol Hill riots.
      Political scientist Larry Sabato added that the damage to the U.S. reputation is a “tragedy.”

      Putin’s investment in Trump is paying off BIG TIME.

  12. ltr

    January 6, 2021

    Coronavirus

    Massachusetts

    Cases   ( 404,053)
    Deaths   ( 12,836)

    Deaths per million   ( 1,862)

    ————————————

    January 6, 2021

    Coronavirus

    New York

    Cases   ( 1,098,899)
    Deaths   ( 38,888)

    Deaths per million   ( 1,999)

  13. pgl

    So those neonazis that attacked the Capitol were Biden supporters? My Lord – you are one annoying idiot.

  14. Not Trampis

    Just saying we have not one but FOUR security doors in our parliament house.

    Not for the first time we clearly outperform you down under

  15. Baffling

    The cynic in me sees the cabinet members resigning not because they are disturbed by trumps rhetoric leading to the assault on the capital, but because they do not have the courage to follow through with the 25th amendment.

  16. joseph

    Ha, ha. After 47 1/2 months, Elaine Chou suddenly decides Donald Trump might not be a very nice person. But even after Trump sends a mob to kill her husband, she’s unwilling to invoke the 25th Amendment.

    Republicans are sick.

  17. oee

    Paging Dr Death Redfield of the C D (lack of Control) . He claimed last autumn that the deaths would drop any minute. now , yesterday , there were 4000 deaths.
    where is the improvements ? why does he still have a job?

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