Re:Army Corps of Engineers to Build Temporary Hospitals in NY
by adventured on Sunday March 22, 2020 @07:51PM
(#22659939)
> without the most populous nations (for instance, the USA) at the top of a list like this politicians can downplay the seriousness of the threat
That doesn't make any sense. First, it's not desirable in any way for the US to be near the top of that list. That's a per capita list (for obvious reasons it's better for small nations to dominate that list) and the US has a spread out and very low population density compared to most nations in eg Europe. Having a high population nation doesn't inherently correlate to being near the top of the per capita infection list.
Population density is not your friend when it comes to a highly infectious virus spreading in the population.
Countries in Europe vs the US on population density:
The Netherlands 12x, Belgium 11x, UK 9x, Germany 7x, Switzerland 6x, Italy 6x, France 4x, Poland 4x, Spain 3x.
The US also has no primate cities, whereas Europe has ~25 of them (hyper population concentration). Most nations in Europe have a primate city that dominates the nation in terms of population, acting as a massive potential infection supercenter.
It's entirely unsurprising that smaller European nations with high population densities vs the US would have higher infection rates per capita.
That doesn't make any sense. First, it's not desirable in any way for the US to be near the top of that list. That's a per capita list (for obvious reasons it's better for small nations to dominate that list) and the US has a spread out and very low population density compared to most nations in eg Europe. Having a high population nation doesn't inherently correlate to being near the top of the per capita infection list.
Population density is not your friend when it comes to a highly infectious virus spreading in the population.
Countries in Europe vs the US on population density:
The Netherlands 12x, Belgium 11x, UK 9x, Germany 7x, Switzerland 6x, Italy 6x, France 4x, Poland 4x, Spain 3x.
The US also has no primate cities, whereas Europe has ~25 of them (hyper population concentration). Most nations in Europe have a primate city that dominates the nation in terms of population, acting as a massive potential infection supercenter.
It's entirely unsurprising that smaller European nations with high population densities vs the US would have higher infection rates per capita.