REPUBLICANS POUNCE! On: BatFlu Cases vs. Deaths

With all the COVID-19 cases, why is the number of deaths letting us down???

The real, actual, I'm-not-even-making-this-up subtitle of this piece:

The gap between soaring cases and falling deaths is being weaponized by the right to claim a hollow victory in the face of shameless failure. What’s really going on?

  I.e.: Republicans Pounce On Disappointing Death Numbers...But America Still Failed AGAIN Which Is The Really Important Thing ITS LIKE THAT 1619 THING ABOUT SLAVERY!!!

   But wait--don't panic, fellow right-thinking goodpeople!!!!!

   As we know, we are always right.

   So what gives????

   Well, first: deaths lag cases! So there's plenty of reason to hope we can get that death rate up in like a month! ...when those racist Neanderthals who are clinging to their religion and their guns and their pathetic, deplorable lives finally give up the ghost and, with their dying breaths, realize that progressives have always been right about everything, including the BatFlu! Oh frabjous day! If only we could be there for every inevitable deathbed realization of our complete and total rightness about everything...including phonics which has never worked...

   And there's this:

In the fog of pandemic, every statistic tells a story, but no one statistic tells the whole truth. Conservatives seeking refuge in today’s death counts may find, in a matter of days, that deaths are clearly resurging and their narrative is rapidly deteriorating. But liberals, too, should avoid the temptation to flatly reject any remotely positive finding, for fear that it will give succor to the president.

Um...if the left ever manages to avoid doing that last thing even once, I hope somebody will make sure to tell me about it...

   In conclusion:

   The case-death gap remains a bonfire of unknowns. And, as we’ve seen, uncertainty is a cavity where propaganda can breed. So let’s conclude with what we know for sure: The surge in cases represents a vast and tragic American failure—even if it doesn’t lead to a correspondingly dramatic spike in deaths.
   This virus is a cryptic devil. It can brutalize people’s bodies for weeks or months, even if it doesn’t kill them. It can savage the lungs of young people, even when it doesn’t produce other symptoms. Those who are infected can transmit it to more vulnerable people. Those who contract severe cases can be sent to the hospital for weeks and live for months—which may turn into years—with aftershocks from the illness. Outbreaks might make school openings implausible, sports improbable, and ordinary life impossible.
   When President Trump and others point exclusively to lagging death figures during a surge, they are trying to tell you that America is, secretly, winning the war on COVID-19. But we’re not. The summer surge is an exceptionally American failure, born of absent leadership and terrible public-health communication.
   After all the graphs, statistics, science, and interpretations, we’re left with a simple fact: Hundreds of Americans are dying every day of a disease that is infecting several hundred thousand of them every week. If that’s success, let’s pray we never see failure. [my emphases]

LOOOOL

"...uncertainty is a cavity where propaganda can breed"...SO LET'S GET TO IT!

The really important points:

1. America failed...again

2. Orange man bad.

   So chins up, libs! We still might get all those deaths we've been hoping for...but, even if we don't, we still don't have to give up our commitment to the proposition that America is generally deeply disappointing. Oh and, of course: Orange Man Bad. 

   Can you believe that republicans always pounce on stuff like this?

   As Scott Adams has pointed out: the MSM scrupulously avoids giving us information about all this in a way that would be informative. Here, for example, we're given no comparative information. So we can't tell from the information given whether we did well or badly. Instead, we're told that the "simple fact" we need to know is that "hundreds of Americans are dying every day of a disease that is infecting several hundred thousand of them every week." So...the fact that we can't magically just stop all this shows that America is a failure and Orange Man bad? Because that's not the way this sort of thing works...

   Progressives and the few remaining liberals would do well to try to read this sort of thing with an objective eye. It would help them immensely to see how their de facto spokespeople come across. To normal people.

   As should go without saying: hey, maybe a fair amount of this will end up being right. Maybe, in particular, America failed. And maybe the death rate will skyrocket. Neither of those things is exactly the point here, though.