Mara Gay's superb essay on the virus!

FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2020

Though we also were struck by this:
We were sorry to see that Mara Gay has been very ill with Covid-19.

We were glad to see that she's on the road to recovery.

In this morning's New York Times, Gay writes a very instructive essay about her experience with the virus. Her essay starts like this:
GAY (5/15/20): The day before I got sick, I ran three miles, walked 10 more, then raced up the stairs to my fifth-floor apartment as always, slinging laundry with me as I went.

The next day, April 17, I became one of the thousands of New Yorkers to fall ill with Covid-19. I haven’t felt the same since.

[...]

The second day I was sick, I woke up to what felt like hot tar buried deep in my chest. I could not get a deep breath unless I was on all fours. I’m healthy. I’m a runner. I’m 33 years old.
"In the emergency room an hour later, I sat on a hospital bed, alone and terrified, my finger hooked to a pulse-oxygen machine," Gay says as she continues.

Again, we're happy to report that Gay is home and feeling better, but still not close to well. Below, you see her self-description. Also, you see what she wants you to know:
GAY: I am one of the lucky ones. I never needed a ventilator. I survived. But 27 days later, I still have lingering pneumonia. I use two inhalers, twice a day. I can’t walk more than a few blocks without stopping.

I want Americans to understand that this virus is making otherwise young, healthy people very, very sick. I want them to know, this is no flu.
Every word Gay writes is worth reading, though we'll also include the passage shown below. We're including it because we think it's also important, though Gay's improving health, and her wishes for others, take prominence today.

We strongly recommend Fay's essay. Late in the piece, we were brought up short by the passage show below. We were struck by this for two reasons:
GAY: Why are more people dying of this disease in the United States than in anywhere else in the world? Because we live in a broken country, with a broken health care system. Because even though people of all races and backgrounds are suffering, the disease in the United States has hit black and brown and Indigenous people the hardest, and we are seen as expendable.
We do live in a broken country. That point is very important.

But how about Gay's question? Why are more people dying here than anywhere else in the world?

Mainly, it's because we're the world's third largest nation by population! This is what deaths per million population look like this very day, as we type. We're omitting a few tiny nations, showing the highest death rates:
Deaths from coronavirus per million population, as of May 15:
Belgium: 773
Spain: 587
Italy: 523
United Kingdom: 501
France: 420
Sweden: 361
Netherlands: 329
Ireland: 305
United States: 265
Switzerland: 216
Are "more people dying here" than in Belgium or Spain? It never ceases to amaze, the way our brightest high-end journalists don't seem to grasp the importance of adjusting for inflation / population / demographics / whatever else may apply. Even at our highest end, the most elementary handling of statistics seems amazingly hard.

(Tara Westover calls that an education. We call it anthropology.)

For the record, here are some other numbers of interest. So far, Sweden is badly losing the Nordic states race. Meanwhile, South Korea:
Deaths from coronavirus per million population, as of May 15:
Canada: 146
Germany: 95
Denmark: 93
Austria: 70
Finland: 53
Norway: 43
Japan: 6
South Korea: 5
Australia: 4
New Zealand: 4
Singapore: 4
We make one other point. Gay is, at 33 years of age, a member of the New York Times editorial board. In our view, it's a sign of the possible confusion of the age that she seems to include herself with those who are said to be regarded or treated as expendable.

Does that really make sense? How does that seem to others?

Gay's essay is superb. We hope she's more healthy and hale every day. WE hope she offers more superb essays. That one passage did catch our eye.

28 comments:

  1. In addition to Bob's excellent point, there is the unreliability of death statistics from many countries.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. David, did you have a chance to catch Dr. Bright testify yesterday? You remember the guy you instantly and reflexively smeared when he was vindictively removed from the best job he was qualified for? Remember him, David? Remember how you just pulled out of your ass your decision that his performance reviews didn't mean a damn thing? Remember how you mimicked the party line by calling him a disgruntled employee? Remember, David? He struck me as kind of a serious boring scientist.

      Well, the funniest part of his testimony was when he said government scientists should not be afraid to speak honestly to the American people "without fear of retribution"!
      What?! Is he crazy or something?
      Vindictive spiteful asinine retribution from Dear Leader (Acting President) is the most funnest part of the show for deplorables like you, isn't that so? Why would he want to spoil all your fun?

      Delete
    2. David,
      Your supposed to take those statistics seriously, not literally.

      Delete
    3. mm - I was once removed from the job I was most qualified for. This was after our company was taken over. I was devastated to lose my nice position, but it wasn't a national scandal. This sort of thing happens every day.

      Delete
    4. Of course you were, David.

      Oh look, more vindictive firings from Der Fuhrer. Click your heels and salute, David.
      We can't have independent IGs, now can we?

      This firing is the outrageous act of a President trying to protect one of his most loyal supporters, the Secretary of State, from accountability. I have learned that the Office of the Inspector General had opened an investigation into Secretary Pompeo. Mr. Linick’s firing amid such a probe strongly suggests that this is an unlawful act of retaliation," Engel said in a statement. "In the days ahead, I will be looking into this matter in greater detail, and I will press the State Department for answers."

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    6. David, I'm both intrigued and amused by the curious parallel you drew between the punitive removal of Dr. Bright from his director position overseeing the US Government agency investing in drugs to treat coronavirus after he resisted political pressure from the White House to steer funds to potentially dangerous untested drugs being pushed by Trump or those with financial connections to administration officials, and yourself losing a job due to a company merger/downsizing. You said, "I was devastated to lose my nice position, but it wasn't a national scandal. This sort of thing happens every day."

      Your attempt to construct an equivalency between the 2 situations is where I'm bemused and stumped. Can you help clarify your thinking? Is the equivalency because:

      1) You were overseeing a department/project that had a high national profile regarding a public health emergency or something similarly important to the nation?

      2) You or your company had national political relationships or intrigue, or involved top level administration officials?

      3) You were a whistleblower, or victim of retaliatory firing after you resisted pressure to participate in corrupt behavior or steer funds to projects/people based on personal/financial connections rather than merit or valid qualifications?

      Inquiring minds want to know.

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  2. Why, indeed in the states of NY, NJ, and CT more people are dying than anywhere else in the world. 1,416 per million.
    Apparently these are broken states, with broken health care systems.

    While in some other states (Wyoming, Hawaii, Alaska) it's only 12-15 deaths per million.

    So, why wouldn't she concoct some dembottery about these statistics...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trump sucks.
      Couldn't even gaslight a pandemic.
      What a loser.
      No wonder everyone is saying he's the worst President in the history of the country.
      Just this morning, people were saying they couldn't believe they'd live to see the day that someone could be a worse President than Ronald Fucking Reagan, but Trump's criminal negligence, and the way a little flu kicked his and his economies ass, even they have to admit Trump is worse.

      I'm not surprised that the latest polls show overwhelmingly that most people say the commercials were the best part of "The Apprentice".

      Delete
    2. Red States are more federally dependent than Blue - taking in more federal help than they pay in taxes. It's the opposite for Blue States. Liberal Blue States help subsidize the Red State's dependence on big government.

      It's probably Hillary's fault.

      Delete
  3. What are the chances Bill Barr, who claims Flynn's lies are immaterial, due to new information not supported by any proof and, in fact, refuted by the public record sues Bill Barr who claimed Flynn's lies were material, for prosecutorial misconduct? And what are the chances Bill Barr countersues, asking for the new information not supported by any proof and, in fact, refuted by the public record?

    ReplyDelete
  4. “Why are more people dying here than anywhere else in the world?

    Mainly, it's because we're the world's third largest nation by population!”

    If that were true, then the death rates for the top ten most populous nations should be equally high. Let’s look:

    China, deaths/million: 3
    India, deaths/million: 2
    Indonesia, deaths/million: 4
    Pakistan, deaths/million: 4
    Brazil, deaths/million: 68
    Nigeria, deaths/million: 0.8
    Bangladesh, deaths/million: 2
    Russia, deaths/million: 17
    Mexico, deaths/million: 35
    USA, deaths/million: 267

    Obviously, there are other factors at work here.

    Gay’s statement is technically true, in absolute terms. If you want to claim that that number is mainly a function of our population, then you have effectively argued against the notion that our system is broken.

    The proper way to view it is “are people in the US needlessly dying?”, or, “is the number of deaths too high?”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Does Somerby think that Gay is writing about statistics? She is writing about her personal experience being seriously ill, something most young people have not encountered. She wants young people to take the virus seriously.

      Beyond that, Somerby questions whether a member of the NY Times editorial board can consider herself also a member of a racial or ethnic minority group. When Gay walks into an emergency room, no one knows what she does for a living or how important she might be outside of her physical symptoms. They don't ask. They start treating her illness (or injury as the case may be). They do notice skin color and accents and obvious markers of race and culture because these are visible. The problem with racism and differential treatment occurs when such markers cause health care providers to make assumptions and treat her differently than they would someone who is white. That happens regardless of her actual position with the NY Times, so yes, it is proper for her to claim membership in whatever group will be visible to those in the ER. Despite having education and higher social status, she will be treated as a minority group member during each of her casual encounters in life.

      That Somerby doesn't understand this speaks volumes about Somerby's cluelessness about identity issues.

      Delete
    2. I'm not an expert but... mh raised a point that demolishes The Daily Howler's argument.

      Delete
    3. This is a deceptive nitpick on Somerby's part. In cases per million the USA is fourth on the list he posted and moving up rapidity. We were well behind Italy a few weeks ago and have left them in the dust. We soon will pass all but Spain in cases per million. Higher cases per million mean eventual higher suffering and death rates. We may not end up having the highest death rate because we don't have the oldest population demographic. But we should question how the US so easily ended up with 33% of the world’s cases despite having only 4.3% of the world’s population. We should ask why we could not have done as well as the countries near China, like Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. We’re 6000 miles from China! No country in the Western Hemisphere or in all of Asia and Africa has does as poorly as the US. This how we MAGA?

      Cases per million:

      Spain: 5860
      Ireland: 4859
      Belgium: 4718
      United States: 4480
      Italy: 3720
      Switzerland: 3529
      United Kingdom: 3489
      Sweden: 2894
      France: 2750
      Netherlands: 2550
      Canada: 1979
      Iran: 1391
      New Zealand: 311
      Australia: 276
      South Korea: 215
      Japan: 128
      China: 58
      Thailand: 43
      Taiwan: 14
      Vietnam: 3


      Delete
    4. Andrew Cuomo sent sick people back to nursing homes. That's how.

      Delete
    5. "In cases per million the USA is fourth on the list"

      Cases per million is well correlated with the number of tests, dembot.

      If the US has high number of cases per million, all it means is that the US has done a lot of testing.

      Which is a great thing in your zombie bible, right dembot?

      Delete
  5. "(Tara Westover calls that an education. We call it anthropology.)"

    Tara Westover, whose book is titled Educated, wrote a memoir about her transition from an isolated, homeschooled childhood to a member of the broader society, explaining how she not only educated herself but came to understand what was normal about her family and what was deviant and harmful to her. Her college education was the least important aspect of that journey.

    So, Somerby's reference to her book suggests he hasn't actually read it. If he had, he would know that using her book to refer to statistics training is a gross misunderstanding of what she meant by becoming educated.

    But Somerby doesn't care what Westover meant or what she experienced or what she wrote about. He just likes to throw these random references into his text to sound "educated?" Misappropriating literary references is akin to misappropriating culture or plagiarism or any other kind of literary "borrowing" and it isn't cute or funny or acceptable to do among literate writers. He needs to cut this out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Corby, it’s always the same. It’s you defining what someone really means via a book, a movie, an article, and that it’s some sort of appalling moral lapse to draw different or varied conclusions from yours.

      Delete
    2. If you had read the book, you would understand how far off Somerby is with this reference to it.

      Delete
    3. 7:26,
      Cecelia is right. You don't know what Republicans really believe.

      It may be odd to you that Republicans can't understand basic math or economics, but that doesn't mean they're just pretending they can't grasp it.

      Delete
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  9. This is no flu?

    I was hospitalized with flu in early March and my symptoms were exactly as those she describes with a cough that lasted 8 weeks.

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