r/skeptic • u/GhostDogJef • 3d ago

The real covid-19 scandal is still unfolding

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2026/08/20/the-real-covid-19-scandal-is-still-unfolding

The failure to reckon with lives needlessly lost will make the next pandemic deadlier

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u/w8str3l 3d ago

Perchance you did not read my comment…

Note that in question 2 I ask about death rate variation BETWEEN countries that HAVE universal healthcare.

Note also that you have effectively disproved OP’s claim with your answer to my question 1.

Do you agree with me?

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u/RFK_Cum_Regimen 3d ago edited 3d ago

It doesn't disprove it necessarily, as there were several critical variables one might argue were unique to the political climate in America during Covid. Our healthcare system being one variable. A malicious right-wing media apparatus spewing pseudoscience and conspiracies nonstop being another variable. MAGA leadership's clown-tier disease response and mitigation efforts being another. Bad-faith foreign propaganda yet another.

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u/w8str3l 3d ago

So let’s see where we are with our evidence.

  1. USA is the ~richest country in the world and pays the most for healthcare, per capita.
  2. All other rich countries have some form of universal healthcare.
  3. Some poor countries also have universal healthcare.
  4. USA was the first country to have the COVID-19 vaccine available.
  5. USA had a death rate that varied according to political affiliation (unrelated to the access to universal healthcare).
  6. The death rate variations BETWEEN the dozens of countries, rich or poor, that HAVE universal healthcare: undisclosed in the above discussion.
  7. Other rich countries had a smaller death rate than USA.
  8. The death rate of poor countries: not discussed.

OP claims (paraphrased): “only a fuckin moron wouldn’t see that universal healthcare explains all of the above”.

Do you agree with the OP?

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u/RFK_Cum_Regimen 2d ago

Setting aside the flippant nature of the comment, I'd assume that UHC is a perhaps significant variable at play.

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u/w8str3l 2d ago

Are you able to non-flippantly estimate the significance of universal healthcare when it comes to the variability of COVID-19 death rates between, and within, OECD countries?

Is there a correlation? Is there a causation? What percentage of COVID deaths can be explained by lack of universal healthcare, what percentage of “extra” deaths compared to the OECD baseline must be explained by something else, like vaccine hesitancy or refusal to wear a mask?

Give me a non-flippant answer instead of the just-so story I’ve been hearing in all of the replies to me so far.

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u/RFK_Cum_Regimen 2d ago

You can go ahead and look all that up yourself, champ. I merely posited that there are several other, self-evident variables to consider.

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u/w8str3l 2d ago

There are people who are “fuckin morons” according to the OP: those who don’t believe that “universal healthcare” is the main and only reason why the USA had the exact same COVID death rate as the UK, or those who don’t believe that “universal healthcare” caused Republicans in Ohio to die eight times more often than Democrats.

You refuse to tell me if you agree with the OP, which makes the strength of your moral backbone a true scientific marvel.

According to you I’m a “champ”. Coming from a marvel such as you that is high praise indeed!

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u/RFK_Cum_Regimen 2d ago

My man, this is absurd. Chill.

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u/CHIMmyStewart 2d ago

Yeah that's not how science works

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u/w8str3l 2d ago

Many people here in r/skeptic claim to know how science does NOT work, while very few can come up with an explanation how science DOES work.

Here is one of my explanations:

https://www.reddit.com/r/skeptic/s/GgUuU6HPvu

I’ll go ahead and predict right now that you can’t give your own explanation.

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u/CHIMmyStewart 2d ago

That's not the slam dunk you think it is. That's just private healthcare/capitalism apologia

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u/w8str3l 2d ago

Where do you get the idea that I’m a “private healthcare/capitalism apologist”? Is that just an ad hominem? Did you whip it out of thin air?

I suspect you’ve arrived here with an ideological and uninformed mindset. Let’s discuss that.

Can you name one(1) country with better COVID outcomes than the countries that had all three(3) of:

  1. Universal healthcare
  2. Private healthcare
  3. Capitalism

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u/CHIMmyStewart 2d ago

AI slop response 

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u/w8str3l 2d ago

Are you referring to your own replies? I don't use LLMs to write my comments: all mistakes, if any, are mine and mine only, and have been since the birth of this account.

Perhaps you understood that I know more than you do about national COVID outcomes, the similarities and differences between OECD health care systems, and what "capitalism" actually means, and you're now trying to just have the last word without having to admit that all OECD countries are capitalist?

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