Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Wouldn’t It Be Nice ? … I Should Have Known Better


Rwanda is a place that has done quite well thus far with its stats on the Covid pandemic. In fact I would go so far as to say that the stats from this country are incredibly good. The population of this country is 13 million and has registered only a little over 4800 cases, and only 29 deaths. This translates into only 0.03% of the population that has had the disease, and of those with the virus only about a 6% mortality rate. (Compare this to Sweden where 9.1% of the population has had the disease, and of those with the virus a remarkably similar 6.3% have died. In the U.S. about 2.7% of the population has had the disease and 2.8% of those with the disease have died.)

If we look solely at the percent of the population that has had the disease, this country, Rwanda (0.03%), is doing dramatically better than Sweden (9.1%). Rwanda is also apparently doing much better than the US (2.7%). At this point perhaps you are wondering why the US can’t come close to Rwanda’s numbers  concerning how many people have come down with the disease. Should we in the US be doing something different, perhaps more in line with whatever they are doing. In other words, should the US be paying attention to The Beach Boys . . .”Help Me, Rwanda?”

The following is some data that tells the general approach to Covid in Rwanda (from the Wall Street Journal):

This tiny Central African country is implementing one of that continent’s most aggressive coronavirus strategy, which is based on a tightly enforced lockdown and other restrictions that have led to the arrests of more than 70,000 of its citizens for corona-virus related infractions. This has alarmed human rights activists. Most of those arrested have been detained in sport’s stadiums -spending nights listening to public health announcements over loud speakers under the watch of armed guards. Some have reported being beaten or raped while in custody. Failure to wear a mask carries a fine of $26, and violating the mask ordinance more than twice carries a penalty of up to a year in jail. As far as group gatherings of >5 people, drones are used to report infractions. Virus testing is done at random at city intersections, and there are 10,000 workers who trace contacts.

So, in general, it sounds like if you take away many of our assumed freedoms, our country too could achieve much better Covid stats, but in contrast to The Beach Boys, there would not be “Good Vibrations,” and “It Wouldn’t Be Nice!”

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