Long time since I’ve referenced Thomas PM Barnett

I remain a fan. Good thinker. On 28 July he posted a pithy piece: How badly US performs on COVID compared to rest of G20, here’s a quote:

Now the underperformers ranked by severity (defined as the biggest gap in percentage shares):

1. EU: 27% COVID – 4% world pop = 23 percentage pt. gap
2. United States: 23% – 4% = 19 pt. gap
3. Brazil: 13% – 3% = 10 pt. gap
4. United Kingdom: 7% – 1% = 6 pt. gap
5. Mexico: 7% – 2% = 5 pt. gap
6. Italy: 5% – 1% = 4 pt. gap
7. France: 5% – 1% = 4 pt. gap.

If you translate that point gap into excess or preventable deaths, then it is expressed as follows:

1. EU = 156,000 excess deaths
2. United States = 126,000 excess deaths
3. Brazil = 69,000 excess deaths
4. United Kingdom = 39,000 excess deaths
5. Mexico = 32,000 excess deaths
6. Italy = 28,000 excess deaths
7. France = 23,000 excess deaths.

And now it’s a few days later. Those numbers will keep ticking until we get our act together. Presuming we do.