Sherlock Holmes notoriously used a 7% solution of cocaine, ostensibly to stimulate his mind. Morning Joe used a somewhat smaller dose, a 4% solution, to trash President Trump today regarding the coronavirus.

No fewer than seven times in the opening segment, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski mentioned that whereas the US has about 4% of the world’s population, it has 29% of the world’s coronavirus cases and deaths. 

The purpose of Morning Joe‘s exercise was obvious: to trash President Trump, or as Scarborough put it:

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“His leadership is so unimaginably bad . . . a dismal, dismal, sorry, pathetic track record.”

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: The United States has roughly 4.3% of the world’s population; it has roughly 29% of the world’s coronavirus deaths. 

. . . 

JOE SCARBOROUGH: The United States has about 4.25% of the world’s population. Very soon, more than 1-in-3 deaths from COVID-19 will come from the United States. The United States has 4.25% of the world’s population. Very soon, even as we move towards opening up, very soon, 1-in-3 infections in the world will come from the United States of America. 

. . . 

The United States of America: little over 4% of the population, very soon will be responsible for 1-out-of-3 deaths in the world for the coronavirus.

The United States only has 4.25, 4.3% of the world’s population, but will soon have 1-out-of-3 deaths across the world here in the United States. 1-out-of-3 deaths! And 1-out-of-3 infections in the world, despite only 4.3% of the worlds’ population. It is a dismal, dismal, sorry, pathetic, track record that the United States has had in handling this crisis.   

. . . 

And here we are, with 4.3% of the world’s population, and about to be responsible for 1-in-3 deaths in the world from the coronavirus. And responsible for 1-in-3 infections at the same time. Those numbers are staggering!  

What the show failed to mention is that the US ranks only sixth in deaths per 100,0000 population, a rate much lower than that of five European countries.  And when it comes to deaths-per-observed-cases, the US ranks only seventh.

Nor, of course, did Scarborough cite the sorry record of New York State under Governor Andrew Cuomo. New York has 5.9% of the population of the United States, yet accounts for 31% of the deaths from coronavirus.

But then again, Scarborough has not exactly been a scholar with the New York City death numbers.