Funny thing, Umair... I've been reading your daily pieces for months and have been in agreement with most points you've made about US "leaders" and the idiots here who don't wear masks or do anything else requiring common sense and have predictably suffered the worst global numbers. Yet at the same time, you've seemed to take virtual delight in contrasting American stupidity (which I don't disagree with) with the seeming perfection of the educated, civilized, responsible, sane, non-racist (I wonder if all of those in the UK who share your ethnic heritage would agree with that assessment?) country like Britain, as well as most other first world and European countries and after awhile it's become a little too smug and classist. So even though I've shared tons of your articles on Twitter and LinkedIn and recommended you to tens of thousands of people, at the same time, I assume you noticed your perfect Britain was starting to look kind of bad with its own numbers awhile ago while recalling that Italy and Spain were well ahead of the US to start early on and Sweden got crucified for their idiotic non-response which backfired on them. So when I saw this CNN article today - https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/12/health/britain-masks-intl-gbr/index.html (Britain is the worst-hit country outside of the US and Brazil. But it STILL won't wear masks) - showing it's the BRITISH and not the Americans who are more stupid now in refusing to wear masks and in my having followed the numbers daily for many months and noticed the UK enter the top 10 in number of cases and have been entrenched at the #3 position in number of deaths for quite some time, I assumed if you wanted to be consistent with your valid criticisms and not seem like a total hypocrite with an obsessive bias against the country you came from, you'd be writing about Britain by now, as well as possibly other European countries, and Brazil too for that matter.
In point of fact, my wife sent me an email I sent to her alerting her of this new coronavirus in China with the potential to escape and do terrible global damage on JANUARY 15th and I’ve been running the numbers daily since late February. And while America’s numbers have been terrible, and as you’ve pointed out, largely avoidable, over the past few months, surprisingly the US fatality-per-case rate has dropped by nearly half, by around .08% to a current .04%+. And with a large population, that represents a lot of fatalities. However, I don’t know if you’ve run the numbers on other countries and areas – such as the UK. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center global map (https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html), the US has suffered 134,830 acknowledged “official” deaths out of 3,269,531 cases, for about an .04% (4%+) fatality rate. You mention the US mortality rate in your article today but conveniently ignore the UK’s own. However, consider that the UK, at #8 overall with 291,154 cases – but a much smaller population – is third in deaths with a reported 44,883. Yes, far fewer than the US, but a simple calculation shows that the UK has a fatality-per-case (mortality) rate with those numbers that’s at a shocking .154% rate (nearly 16%) or roughly four (4X) WORSE than the US! I assume someone as smart as you is aware of this.
So now I wonder about your agenda. If you cared so much about national responses to the pandemic, the stupidity of various people (a valid point) etc., you'd be focusing on Britain by now, at least about as much as the US but because it doesn't appear you have or will. I assume someone who cares so deeply about this pandemic, what it’s doing to countries and the world, etc., would naturally be very concerned about the UK and its staggeringly bad numbers, especially considering your frequent well-made assertions about its superiority in nearly every way to the US. Again, while the criticisms about the US are valid, turns out the US is far from the only “stupid” country and while many know Brazil is in disaster mode, not as many people have known the UK’s numbers haven’t looked very good for well over a month now. Going to start writing about that?
If not, one might wonder if you've simply been using this disaster as an excuse to America-bash out of a personal hatred for the country or some other reason, because again, while I've agreed with nearly everything you've said about things here for months, and I’ve written and said similar things of my own dating back to January, there's that little saying about looking at and taking the log out of your own eye -- which would be Britain’s virtual duplication of American stupidity in refusing to take common sense and necessary measures as people choose to play Russian Roulette with their lives and those around them. I've supported you and given you the benefit of the doubt all this time because you've been right about the US but unless and until you start applying the same brutal analysis to Britain and other countries, you'll be leaving yourself wide open for critics (and I've defended you against many!) to make apparently justifiable comments about the “actual” agenda behind your articles and statements and the convenient factor that you're ignoring the same trends in your own country. Umair, be a responsible journalist, analyst, intellectual, etc., and start applying your superior analytical skills across the board when called for because as long as you continue to bash one country when others like yours are trying hard to emulate it, you show possible proof of subjective bias based on many negativities and a lack of willingness to be objective and apply the same standards to all. Which calls into question your total credibility… I hope to see you do the right thing in your continuing analysis of this tragic pandemic. Thank you. – Scott H
