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Follow the money

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Rarely bad advice when understanding baffling events.

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Aug 28, 2021Liked by Mathew Crawford

Paid for genocide. What happened to the expression “if it’s not broke don’t fix it”?

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Given that the median age in Uganda is in the mid teens, and less than 2% of their population is over age 65, they should never have a high case fatality rate, infection fatality rate, or per capita fatality rate, period. These numbers are surprising.

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Surprisingly, as of October, 2020 when I ran the numbers, there was little association between national median age and CFR. While CFR was slightly lower for nations with lower median ages, the difference was tiny. That shocked me at first, but it made me think that lower life expectancy conditions may have a relatively uniform effect throughout life, meaning there is a relative age compression to health. The health profile of an 80 year old Westerner might be like the health profile of a 55 year old in most poorer nations.

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Aug 28, 2021Liked by Mathew Crawford

Which is why I’ve always found it frustrating and disingenuous for health authorities to try to lump me in with similar aged cohorts that fair worse with Covid due to underlying health conditions.

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That is fascinating, and it skewers many arguments against international comparisons. Thanks for the education.

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