Over think Jonathan Swan interview q with me

[cilla4progress]

comparing stats for death as a proportion of cases v. population.

Deaths as a proportion of cases would be higher than as a proportion of population.

What is the salient point being made here in mocking drumpf?

[leftieNanner]

1. In the interview it was a comparison to other countries #s

Looking at Germany and South Korea specifically, our numbers per capita are terrible. IT couldn't understand the difference.

(I love the concept of referring to the squatter in the Oval Office as IT!)

[Johnny2X2X]

2. He's actually arguing against himself from one moment to the next

Arguing that we test a ton and then our death rate is low. Well, the death rate would be low because we test a lot, the 2 points don't support each other for us doing a good job.

And the US is 9th in deaths per capita, while we are 18th in tests per capita.

[genxlib]

6. Whenever posting a stat like that

I prefer to add "SO FAR".

Many of those Countries with worse outcomes ahead of us on the list are well over the hump. We are heading into a new peak. I suspect that we will catch up to a number of them.

[Johnny2X2X]

8. No doubt

The rate we're heading vs the rest of the world, only San Martino and Belgium will end up worse than the US in terms of deaths per capita.

[SharonClark]

3. That trump doesn't know the facts because

he will only accept information that is positive toward him. He became flustered when Swan corrected him using facts.

That and trump’s self promotion and general befuddlement during the interview.

[Roland99]

9. You have to cut him some clack. There are many "per capitas"

He wasn't sure which one was being discussed

Link to tweet

[underpants]

4. One take away is that this is the info Trump is given and it's all he knows.

As a proportion of cases shows how well treatment is going though.
This is all Trump knows. He’s not prepared if anything else is mentioned and he didn’t support the number he was using. The staff either didn’t spell that out to him or he just can’t retain it. He gets these graphs and it’s al Oooh Awww isn’t that the best? It’s really great! ....you see it has to be great because it’s associated with him.

[RockRaven]

5. Trump always claims we've got so many cases because we test so much (also not true)

And this line of questioning undercuts one of the insinuations of that talking point. Having lower deaths per case is either a sign that we're testing so much we are catching cases other countries miss, or that our health system is better at saving lives, both of which are things Trump would consider brag-worthy. That's why he wants to use that metric.

But Trump's big failure is how widespread the disease has gotten compared to other countries, and with it how widespread the suffering and death, and comparing deaths per population captures that in a decidedly un-brag-worthy fashion.

[cilla4progress]

7. I see.

Thanks, folks, Also reading some good opinion pieces on this - Greg Sargent in WaPo.