2/7/20: COVID19 Update: US vs EU27

A quick update of key charts for USA vs EU27 comparatives for COVID19:

First up: deaths per 1 million. U.S. continues to tear away from the EU27 already unenviable record:

The basket case of American 'public health' system is shining across the board: in numbers roaring above the past records:

And in deaths counts staying well above those in Europe:

At this stage, it is plain evident that the U.S. healthcare system is not fit for purpose.

Unless its purpose is to bankrupt those getting ill, in which it excels. U.S. delinquencies on all consumer credit and leases were up in 1Q 2020 some 11.28 percent year-on-year even before COVID19 pandemic hit. As the bills mount, and healthcare bills come poring for the unfortunate households caught up in the pandemic, things are going to get much worse.

No matter how you spin the data above, the problem is clearly not restricted to the lack of White House leadership alone. The U.S. has mismanaged response to the pandemic at

• The Federal level (lack of coherent policies and guidelines, delayed responses, delayed interventions and completely backward messaging/signalling by the President), but 
• Also at the states' level. Even in the states that stepped up to the plate earlier in the pandemic (e.g. California), a rush to relax restrictions, coupled with the lack of political will to impose stricter requirements on use of masks and the speed of opening up have resulted in a renewed surge in COVID19 cases.

As the result, the U.S. is now fully comparable to the less advanced, less wealthy countries, such as Brazil, than to the more advanced healthcare systems and economies of the EU27. As Noah Smith put it in his Bloomberg column last week, titled "Coronavirus Brings American Decline Out in the Open", if, on foot of collapsing U.S. institutions, exposed by the COVID19 crisis, international "capital begins to abandon the U.S. and the dollar in large amounts, the currency

will crash, ... large-scale unrest would undoubtedly result and -- in the worst-case scenario -- the U.S. could collapse like Venezuela. This is an outcome to be avoided at all costs. But it’s an outcome that is no longer out of the realm of possibility, thanks to the complacency, arrogance and misplaced priorities of U.S. leaders and the deep and bitter divisions among U.S. voters. If the U.S. goes from rich, world-straddling colossus to floundering dysfunctional developing nation in just a few decades, it will be one of the most spectacular instances of civilizational decline in world history."

Steep price to pay for decades of incompetence.