Quote:
Originally Posted by Spoiler
I guess we have American freedom to thank for the American infection rate being the highest in the world, 'cause it sure ain't the mass transit. Thanks, American freedom, which is more preferable than anything else!
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The American "infection rate" referenced is NOT the highest in the world. First of all the rate of infection per capita as of Sat. March 28 stands at approximately 0.04%, which is far lower than Italy, Spain or even Germany. The more testing that is done the more cases there will be confirmed which will invariably raise the "infection rate". If the leading epidemiologists are correct, they now estimate the final rate of 0.1% or 1 in 1000, the peak number in the US could be 340,000. China's number would be off the charts but they stopped testing three weeks ago to make sure the number stayed where it is once deaths started to decline. The US is the third largest country by population in the world behind China and India, which has no program for testing on a mass scale.
The "mortality" rate is the more important number, that is, number of deaths as a percentage of the number of confirmed cases. Right now the the US is about 1.5%, Italy is over 10% and China, even with their flawed numbers, is reporting about 4%.
As for the original point regarding urban congestion the highest number of both cases and fatalities, by far, are in NYC, which, I believe is the most densely populated metro in the US.
Yes, I'll take freedom and liberty over anything else. Benjamin Franklin is often quoted to have said: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."