Maggie's Farm

There are indications that over a 18,000 year period prior to 1492 that there were three major immigrations from Asia to North America and multiple small immigrations. Each of these immigrations upon coming to NA had to find a suitable homeland and in most cases did it by killing and absorbing all of the previous indigents/immigrants. That is how the various tribes existed at the time Columbus landed on the shores of the New World. In fact a few tribes committed genocide after 1492 to acquire their homeland. It is likely that who ever created those petroglyphs were killed and enslaved by the "noble warriors" who replaced them. NONE of them were indigent!! They were merely immigrants that arrived here before "you" and claim that circumstance made them better than "you".

"If you really believe that such things have no effect, what are your explanations for the radically different rates of death in different US states, or in various countries?"

Now that was a very bad choice to try to prove your point. I don't know you or generally read anything you write but I get the impression you consider yourself a person of science. And THAT was the most unscientific thing you could have said. The simple truth is that what explains the different rates of death in different countries and various states is random chance on a yet unfinished unthinking virus. Well that and other things you should know about, such as the U.S. has a fairly accurate reporting system as do many Western countries but 100% of the third world countries simply have no idea how many deaths they have had due to covid. AND many countries filter their information through government agencies whose job is to make the country and the leaders look good so the data is intentionally biased to favor them.

But to actually think and believe that the differences we see in infection and death is due to magic masks or 6 feet of distance is naive at best and childishly stupid at worse. I have to say that after two years of this that if you are paying attention you can no longer blame naivety and you need to question your ability to understand what is going on in the world. I would say that if you are over 65 you need to get tested for Alzheimer's because you seem to be really out of touch with reality.

What I would expect for most countries in the future is that over time there will be a regression to the mean. That is New Zealand and China will continue to have more cases and more deaths until they are pretty much like any other first world country with first world heath care. And that at some point they will realize that not only did the lockdowns not do any good but that they did tremendous harm. Now of course now two countries and no two states will be exactly or statistically equal, so you can search for the various outliers one either side to compare and continue to believe that you are right. But at that point what difference does it make?

"South Korea and New Zealand are not just statistical outliers. The differences are too great."

"fools and children shouldn't see things half done. Would you bet your life savings that South Korea and New Zealand never have a covid spike or eventually see rates similar to other countries. This isn't over yet. Some countries that are more open or not lightly populated islands bared the brunt early. Do you really think the virus will never go someplace just because they force everyone to stay home, wear masks and huddle under the bed? Time will tell. This virus is a weaponized virus and eventually everyone will be exposed to it and the susceptible will get ill and some will succumb. The vieus isn't going to say "I'm not going to New Zealand, they all wear masks and huddle in fear".