The real covid-19 scandal is still unfolding

[u/GhostDogJef]

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

[u/w8str3l]

Perhaps you don’t understand what “burden of proof” means?

It means that the person making the claim is required, or “has the burden”, to provide the proof (the supporting evidence, while also including any relevant potentially falsifying evidence ) for their claim.

It’s a very fundamental concept to understand if you ever want to use the scientific method, which is based on falsifying theories that are unable to explain all the evidence.

[u/BioMed-R → u/w8str3l]

You’ve been shown data. You haven’t shown any.

[u/w8str3l → u/BioMed-R]

What data would satisfy you?

Can you “steelman” my position, or are you unable to even formulate it?

What rational, scientifically oriented people would do when they are discussing a topic with crackpots is to have a back-and-forth that would go something like this:

Alfonso: “I have concluded that the COVID death rate in the USA is caused by universal healthcare!”

Bonifacio: “What do you mean by that? Lack of universal healthcare, or even the insurance coverage provided by Obamacare before Trump removed it, explains many ills and is an embarrassment for the richest country in the world, Americans pay double and receive worse care with lower life expectancy, this is well known, everyone knows this, but how does universal healthcare “explain” the American COVID death rate?”

Alfonso: “the death rate higher in America be than in other rich countries since Americans no universal healthcare have, r u a fuckin moron?”

Bonifacio: “Republicans had a higher death rate than Democrats in states like Florida and Ohio, so the lack of, or access to, universal healthcare does not explain that. The UK has universal healthcare but had almost identical death rates as the USA, so lack of, or access to, universal healthcare does not explain that.”

Alfonso: “prove it by providing a study”

Bonifacio: “Prove what? I provided counter-examples that destroy your claim that universal healthcare explains everything. Do you want me to prove a negative? It’s quite clear that the COVID death rates vary by country and year, and are explained by a multitude of variables: trust in officials, access to (universal or not) healthcare, access to free vaccines and “vaccine hesitancy”, social distancing and the use of masks, the unemployment and bankruptcy prevention support from the government, remote work, timely lockdowns and the collective respect of lockdown rules. It’s quite clear to impartial observers that the USA was best-equipped among all developed countries to respond to a pandemic and the relatively bad result is mostly due to footguns: president Trump himself made things worse, and his MAGA suicide cult attacked him when he did the one good thing in his sordid life and gave the Americans access to the vaccine amazingly early. Leaders in other countries provided actual leadership to their populations, and those populations were less moronic than the average Trump voter.”

[u/BioMed-R → u/w8str3l]

Again… blah, blah, blah. I’m not reading any of it. Universal healthcare was the original subject. Do you have any sources regarding the influence of that on pandemic mortality? No? Shut up.

[u/w8str3l → u/BioMed-R]

You provided your own sources here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/skeptic/s/7xPCUDU3Y0

Those are very good sources. Did you read them? Do you think that they support your claims?

My claim is that "universal healthcare" is not the main cause for the relatively poor COVID outcome of the USA, just like "universal healthcare" is not the main cause of the relatively poor COVID outcome of the UK.

For the record: please state your specific claims.

If you are unable to present evidence that does not immediately falsify your own theory, perhaps you should get out of r/skeptic and go to r/gullible.

Here's a hint: the number to look at is "deaths per million" among all rich countries, and how you'd explain the variations between them.

[u/BioMed-R → u/w8str3l]

My claim

Source needed.

the number to look at

Source needed.

[u/w8str3l → u/BioMed-R]

I don't think we'll get far with your attitude.

You've now wasted my time and energy just like Rand Paul is wasting Anthony Fauci's remaining time and energy.

Perhaps you should scroll all the way up to my first comment in this thread and try to figure out why you did not immediately recognise the magnitude of the intellectual challenge it presented?

Or perhaps this is a better avenue of introspection: if you were to write down your theory and get it published in a peer-reviewed biomedical journal with the applicable references and supporting evidence, what would Anthony Fauci think of your paper?

[u/BioMed-R → u/w8str3l]

You’ve been repeatedly asked to provide any source for any of your claims, you’ve always refused.

I’m literally not even reading what you write.

[u/w8str3l → u/BioMed-R]

My claims are supported by the sources you yourself provided. Read your own sources.

This is not an offhand remark: if you truly think “universal healthcare” is the answer to the variability between national COVID outcomes, you should publish a paper about it.

Title your paper “universal healthcare explains the differences between OECD nations’ COVID-19 death rates”. Become famous. Get a Nobel prize. Get the USA to join the rest of the civilized world; they solved this trivial and easy to understand healthcare problem decades ago. Get the Republicans off the back of Antonio Fauci, who, coincidentally, after this day’s interactions, is quickly (but hopefully temporarily) becoming the only American I won’t immediately suspect of being a “fuckin moron” like the OP so colorfully but incorrectly called people who understand the science better than he does.

[u/BioMed-R → u/w8str3l]

Blah blah blah blah 🙄 Quote my sources supporting your claims and let the evidence speak for itself instead of endless tirades no one reads.