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Comment by JanSt | Hacker News Reader

Was the US lockdown so hard? I thought Europe locked down much more and the contractions there were in the 6-13% range.

You're probably comparing Q2 numbers of 6-13% to the annualized rate from the headline (which is based on a 9.5% contraction in Q2)?

Yeah, as I understand it reporting quartaly economic changes in annualized terms is an Americanism that isn't generally done in Europe, so you have to be very careful when comparing figures.

There was barely any lockdown here in Finland. The Helsinki region was quarantined from the rest of the country, but that's about it. Barely anyone wears masks either. The USA seems to be taking this much more seriously.

Generally rural areas with low population density have found it a lot easier to control the spread of the virus. Helsinki would be the 29th largest city in the US, and Finland would be the 28th most populous state in the US, so it's not really comparable. Interconnectedness matters too, Finland is geographically pretty remote. It might be closer to compare Finland to say Alaska or one of the Canadian states.

In addition, it would be the 5th largest state in the Union while being tied for the 12th lowest in population density.

Oddly enough, when you compare them to the 12 other states with lower than or equal population density, they are fairing significantly better.

https://offloop.net/covid19/?default=New%20Mexico;Montana;Wy...

US drop was also in that range, around 9.5%. (The crucial "annual rate" is missing in the headline.)

the US is very large and very mobile. Everyone staying inside devastates pretty much everything. Only a tiny sliver of jobs are wfh possible.

We have millions more cases than them

You also test a lot more and your death rate is below most of Europe and especially the UK. Much of the media likes to suggest the opposite though - go figure?

It's an election year with a despised president.

The death rate in the US is now substantially higher than in Europe. The EU+UK have 355 deaths per million [1], while the US is at 465 [2]. Of course, those are the official figures - it's possible that the excess mortality shows a different picture.

[1] https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/cases-2019-ncov-eueea

[2] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

'The death rate in the US is now substantially higher than in Europe.'

I used the term most of Europe and especially the UK.

Let's, instead, say 'parts of Europe' and 'the UK' and these figures paint a different story.

Also most of Europe locked down hard enough that the death rate now is quite low, fairly steady at a few hundred deaths per day.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1102288/coronavirus-deat...

Meanwhile the deaths per day in the US are still on a strong upward trend with well over 1000 deaths per day and climbing.

https://shorturl.at/eprER

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