Our Failed State

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Every morning in the endless month of March, Americans woke up to find themselves citizens of a failed state. — George Packer, The Atlantic magazine (June 2020 issue)

Sometimes numbers speak for themselves. That’s especially true in a time of national self-delusion led from the top. But numbers don’t lie, and it’s hard to “spin” sickness and death. So here, without further ado, are the numbers from our national “performance” in the Covid-19 pandemic:

Table 1: Cases and Deaths* of Four Worst-Hit Nations, Plus Russia & Mainland China
Nation	Total Cases	Cases per 100,000 People	Total Deaths	Deaths per 100,000 People
United States	1,316,443	402	78,763	24
Spain	224,390	480	26,621	57
Italy	218,268	361	30,395	50
United Kingdom	215,260	324	31,587	48
Russia	209,688	145	1,915	1
Mainland China	89,082	6	4,633	less than 1

* As of 8:47 AM ET May 10, 2020

Table 2: Speed of Response
Nation	First Case	First National Lockdown	Time Lag to First National Lockdown (Days)	First National Lockdown Ends
United States	January 20	None*	N/A* CA 59	N/A
Spain	January 31	March 14	43	May 9
Italy	January 30	March 9	39	May 3
United Kingdom	January 31	March 23	52	Not Yet
Russia	January 31	March 28-30**	57-59**	April 30/May 12**
Mainland China***	December 1	None***	N/A*** Hubei 50	N/A

*No national lockdown; the first state to lock down was California, on March 19, for a time lag of 59 days. The first place to end a lockdown was Kansas City, on April 19.
** The dates are for the Moscow metropolitan area (the last to lock down and the last to open) and the rest of the nation.
***No national lockdown; a provincial lockdown for Hubei Province, including Wuhan City, began January 20, for a time lag of 50 days.

California, all on its own, was the slowest of the states shown in the table to respond with a lockdown, tied with the Moscow metropolitan area in Russia. The United States as a whole has never uniformly locked down, even 80 days after California’s index case. That’s nearly three months, an eternity in a spreading pandemic.

Table 3: Active-Virus Tests among the General Population Cumulative per Nation, per 100,000 People*
Nation	March 15, 2020	April 1, 2020	May 1, 2020
United States** CDC-reported Tests	17	71	219
United States** All Tests	12	363	1,997
France	56	344	1110 (April 28)
Spain	No Data	No Data	2,890 (April 30)
Italy	No Data	No Data	2313
United Kingdom	59	225	1123
Russia	72	279	2,552
South Korea	523	822	1215
Taiwan	72	142	267

*No data for Mainland China
**Testing data for the United States came from two sources. The smaller numbers in the first row represent testing officially reported—and probably done or validated—by the CDC. These are the tests with which our federal government was directly involved. The larger numbers in the second row were taken from the Covid Tracking Project, an ad-hoc, private news organization loosely affiliated with The Atlantic magazine. These data apparently include unregulated private, state and local testing reported and/or estimated unofficially.

Note that the official CDC number for May 1, representing the effort as of that date by our federal government, is smaller than the number for any other nation shown. Except for those in the second row for the United States, all numbers in the table represent national efforts, i.e., efforts of national government.

Our president is responsible for our government’s and our nation’s collective response to the pandemic. As Harry Truman once said, pointing to his desk in the Oval Office, “The buck stops here.”

The New York Times has diligently compiled and reviewed 260,000 words of self-praise (and self-pity) uttered by President Trump about his own performance in the pandemic. In light of the numbers shown in this post, you decide whether the self-praise and self-pity are warranted. As you reflect, consider all your co-workers, friends and loved ones who have suffered and/or died so far, and all those who are still at risk.

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