Amidst all of the shenanigans between Rand Paul and Dr. Fauci, more statistics seem to be bandied about. Some of them are actually thought provoking and deserve some exploration. Paul has taken it upon himself to be the fly in Fauci’s ointment. At every step of the way he has been there to question his findings and disagree with his conclusions. After all, he’s a doctor. Despite popular belief, he is still licensed to practice as an ophthalmologist. I guess he has that going for him.

This is where we get bogged down into the small details of pitting one expert against another. See, Rand Paul did go to medical school. I’m sure he did take classes in immunology. He probably knows more than the average bear. Yet, when compared with a medical doctor that has spent the past four plus decades studying immunology exclusively there can be no real comparison.

The numbers I saw last night would allow you to question all of this. In 2018, the world death rate was 0.76 percent. That was the same death rate as 2019 and the same as 2020. That nugget of information would lead one to believe that COVID hasn’t impacted the world population at all. I suppose if we looked at this through a vacuum we’d close the book and move on.

Sadly though, we don’t live in the world. We live in the United States. In the United States, death rates have not been level. When one looks at the world rates for just COVID we see something else entirely. Sure, there are disputes about how deaths should be counted, but these deaths are counted the same way around the world and they have yielded very clear results.

So, two things are clear based on the data we do see. First, the overall mortality rate IN THE UNITED STATES has gone up since COVID has been a thing. So, releasing world data is nice, but that demonstrates that most of the world has gotten this thing under control. That’s because when health experts in those countries have proposed ways to get the virus under control, the people in those countries actually listened.

There are nearly eight billion people in the world. The U.S. population represents around four percent of that total. Basic math tells us that the mortality rate would really need to spike in the U.S. for it to have a dent in the overall world mortality rate. This is especially true when we consider that things like masking and heightened hygiene have decreased the amount of flu deaths we normally have and probably improved health on the other end.

Fauci already has earned his keep and faith in his expertise. In addition to all of the potential disasters he has helped prevent in the intervening decades, he had to listen to Trump prattle on with his nonsense for over a year. One can forgive him if he loses his cool even this one time.

So, we can debate whether we should count people who die because of COVID or whether people die with COVID. We can argue as if those verbs, pronouns, and adjectives even matter. The point is that an expert that has been doing this for going on 50 years tells us it matters. Sure, he could be wrong I guess. Science continually improves itself throughout time. If you are prepared to take the word of an eye doctor over him then you take your life into your own hands. Good luck.

This morning on Fox Business, Rand Paul blurted out his concern about more people voting:

Rand Paul rails on how Georgia was supposedly stolen — “but probably most importantly” absentee ballot applications being sent out for the Senate runoffs.

“I’m very, very concerned that if you solicit votes from typically non-voters, that you will affect and change the outcome.” pic.twitter.com/J1TPaN02Us

— Eric Kleefeld (@EricKleefeld) December 17, 2020

Heaven forbid we have more people voting – right?

By now you’ve heard that Rand Paul has tested positive for the Coronavirus and is quarantined.  He says that he suspected he might be infected because of all of his exposure in recent days from those who are also testing positive.  Even though he suspected he had it, he did not self-quarantine, and was indeed continuing close proximity meetings with other senators.  He also went swimming yesterday morning in the Senate pool at their gym (which, BTW, had been closed).  That’s right, DR. Rand Paul has exposed God knows how many people AFTER he thought he was exposed, and AFTER he was tested.  Senators Mitt Romney and Mike Lee have both now self-quarantined due to their prolonged and close exposure to Paul.  What an asshole.

Jesus.

Remember when Rand Paul’s neighbor beat the crap out of him over landscaping?  Well, Sen. Paul, Mr. Libertarian Socialized Medicine is Slavery is going to…wait for it…Canada for surgery to repair a hernia suffered in the melee.  His spokesman stated that the hospital he’s going to is a private one, but the fact is that said hospital, Shouldice Hernia Hospital, receives the bulk of it’s funding from the Province of Ontario, and accepts funding from Canada’s Provincial Ministry of Health.  In other words, the hospital exists primarily from single payer funding, but will accept actual dollars from those who don’t have insurance, just like in the states.

It must be nice to be rich enough to fly to Canada to pay cash for surgery instead of staying in the States where you would be nickeled and dimed to death by private insurance.