Who cares about the comparison. We already know the US sucked. You claimed Germany did it right, but those numbers don't look like a success.
Let’s talk about when the pandemic will finally end https://bgr.com/2020/10/22/coronavi...ganization-official-predicts-end-of-pandemic/ In a coronavirus update shared with reporters this week, a World Health Organization official shared a depressing assessment of when life will finally go back to normal and the COVID-19 pandemic will end. Dr. Soumya Swaminathan of the WHO predicts that it will be 2022 before that happens, as a result of the amount of time needed to get a vaccine into a big enough swath of the population. The end of the pandemic will come when 60%-70% of the population is finally immune to the virus, Swaminathan adds. In a coronavirus update shared with reporters during a briefing on Tuesday in Geneva, the World Health Organization’s chief science officer threw cold water on the notion that we’ll go back to the way things used to be anytime soon or that an end to the pandemic is even remotely close at hand. Dr. Soumya Swaminathan told reporters “that’s not how it works” in response to the assumption that, come January, vaccines will have started to trickle out into the population and things will start going back to normal. “We’re looking at 2022, at least, before enough people start getting the vaccine to build immunity,” she continued. “So, for a long time to come, we have to maintain the same kind of measures that are currently being put in place with physical distancing, the masking and respiratory hygiene.” The reason why that’s the case, she said, is because once the vaccine starts getting rolled out, the world needs some 60%-70% of the population to have immunity before there gets to be a meaningful reduction in the transmission of the virus. Oh, and about that immunity — health experts still aren’t sure how long it will last, even off the back of a successful vaccine, so a determination of some kind regarding a vaccine booster shot might have to be made down the line, as well. As disheartening as that sounds, to have to content ourselves with a year or more before some of these extraordinary circumstances begin to dissipate, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates — whose foundation has been at the forefront of public health campaigns worldwide — agrees with this estimate. “In the very best case, two years from now, you would be, for some of the health things in particular, ideally back (to) where you were at the beginning of 2020,” he said in an interview with New York Magazine. “That is, if we’re lucky enough that several of these vaccines work, including the ones that are low-cost enough that we can scale the manufacturing. And if we get the factories going and we get the money to buy it for the entire world.” In that case — arguably a best-case scenario — the pandemic is slowing down throughout 2021. And, in 2022, officials finally declare it to be over. As a reminder, the timetable for a vaccine arrival (which is the key piece needed in order to hit those dates we just mentioned) is as follows: Some vaccine clinical trials have encountered safety issues that required a pause in the studies, but there are nevertheless about a dozen vaccine trials in Phase 3 testing. Because there’s so many, the hope is that at least one of those drugs will clear the final stage of trials. Once that happens, though, vaccine makers won’t be able to supply the vaccine in large enough quantities for everyone to take it. Immunizing the world’s entire population will be a massive undertaking, and since most of the vaccine candidates require two shots (spaced out over a few weeks) the world would need 15 billion doses for every living person to be inoculated against COVID-19.
'He has blood on his hands': Columbia University study shows that Trump could have avoided over 130,000 COVID-19 deaths with a more robust pandemic response https://www.businessinsider.com/col...ave-avoided-130000-coronavirus-deaths-2020-10 President Donald Trump could have avoided an estimated 130,000 COVID-19 deaths had his administration acted sooner, according to a new study from Columbia University. The report, which was published on Wednesday, compared the United States' coronavirus response to that of six other high-income countries that had better success in handling the pandemic. The authors found that if the White House had replicated its allies' public health strategies, the US death count could have been far lower. Already, more than 222,300-plus fatalities have been confirmed, and Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned that the US could surpass 300,000 deaths by the end of 2020 in the absence of stricter restrictions. Upwards of 130,000 coronavirus deaths were "avoidable" if President Donald Trump and his administration had acted sooner and implemented widespread public health precautions, according to a new Columbia University report released on Wednesday. "The U.S. should have – and could have – done better to protect the nation," the authors wrote in the study, titled "130,000–210,000 Avoidable COVID-19 Deaths—and Counting—in the U.S." "Particularly, it is the inability or unwillingness of U.S. officials to adapt or improve the federal response over the course of the pandemic that has strongly contributed to the nation's uniquely high Covid-19 fatality rate," they added. The report comes as the pandemic continues to rage across the country, with infection and death rates on the rise in at least two dozen states, based on data compiled by the New York Times. Grappling with the worst outbreak on earth, the US also has the most confirmed COVID-19 deaths — more than 222,300 as of October 22, according to Johns Hopkins University. The US' top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has warned that deaths can surpass 300,000 by the end of this year if greater steps aren't taken to prevent virus transmission. Other high-income countries, including South Korea, Japan, Australia, Germany, Canada, and France, have been more successful in handling the pandemic and have recorded far low death tolls. Columbia University researchers found that if the White House had replicated the public health interventions that such nations took, then the US could also have had a significantly lower mortality rate. If "the U.S. had followed Canadian policies and protocols, there might have only been 85,192 U.S. deaths – making more than 132,500 American deaths 'avoidable,'" the authors wrote. "If the U.S. response had mirrored that of Germany, the U.S. may have only had 38,457 deaths – leaving 179,260 avoidable deaths." Despite the US' existing social disparities and fractures in its health care system that have magnified the crisis, the government was well-positioned in terms of scientific knowledge, resources, and money to combat the outbreak more effectively, lead author Dr. Irwin Redlener told The Daily Beast. The country's disproportionate death toll stems from delayed federal action, an insufficient testing regimen, a lack of consistent mask-wearing guidance, and the failure of top officials, notably Trump, to model best practices, researchers wrote. The "Trump Administration has shown hostility to much of the critical guidance and recommendations put forth by its own health agencies, with the President at times misleading the public on the scope of the threat, attempting to 'downplay' the extent of the crisis, and advocating for unproven therapeutical or unsafe treatments," the authors wrote. Trump contracted the disease earlier this month, along with a slew of his White House officials and allies. After a three-day stay at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the president continued to dismiss the threat of the virus by telling Americans to not "be afraid." "The president himself became a superspreader," Redlener told The Daily Beast. "He has blood on his hands."
Fauci says it might be time to mandate masks as Covid-19 surges across US By Andrea Kane and Maggie Fox, CNN Updated 10:11 PM ET, Fri October 23, 2020 (CNN) Dr. Anthony Fauci has been reluctant to support a federal mask mandate. "A national mandate probably would not work," he said on Sept 15 during a news conference with Vermont Gov. Phil Scott. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been urging Americans to use masks for months. "I have trust in the American people that if we put a strong emphasis on the importance of wearing masks, that we will come around and do that and get that percentage up above the relatively low percentage of people that are using masks," Fauci said on July 21 on NPR's Morning Edition. A 'building distrust' in public health agencies is 'the elephant in the room,' Fauci says But he has said before that he doesn't think a federal law would be the way to go. "I don't like to be authoritarian from the federal government, but at the local level, if governors and others essentially mandate the use of masks when you have an outbreak, I think that would be very important," Fauci told Alabama Sen. Doug Jones during a Facebook live event in July. Until now. "Well, if people are not wearing masks, then maybe we should be mandating it," Fauci told CNN's Erin Burnett Friday. Christie urges Americans to wear a mask and says they are not a 'partisan or cultural symbol' Covid-19 has been worsening across the United States, with cases rising in 32 states Friday and holding steady in 17 more. The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said the country was entering a winter surge as new infections passed 75,000 in a single day on Friday and more than 800 deaths were reported. Mask mandates may be tricky to enforce, but it might be time to call for them, Fauci said. "There's going to be a difficulty enforcing it, but if everyone agrees that this is something that's important and they mandate it and everybody pulls together and says, you know, we're going to mandate it but let's just do it, I think that would be a great idea to have everybody do it uniformly," he said. As cooler weather comes, people need to "double down" on measures that work, Fauci said. "Universal mask wearing" is one, he said, as is keeping a distance from others and frequent hand washing. "They sound very simple. But we're not uniformly doing that and that's one of the reasons we're seeing these surges," Fauci said. https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/23/health/fauci-covid-mask-mandate-bn/index.html wrbtrader
Alarming... Hospitalization increasing in 39 states !!! 14 states hitting record hospitalization !!! The scary aspect of the above numbers from the Covid-19 video...this is only the beginning of the worst because the cold weather hasn't set in yet that typically drives young people indoors that is the rock for the seasonal Flu season. wrbtrader
Here’s what we learned on Friday October 23rd: The EU’s disease control agency joined health workers across Europe in sounding the alarm about the surge in coronavirus infections as the World Health Organization warned of an “exponential” rise in cases. Several countries in Europe are reporting infection rates higher than during the first wave of the pandemic in March and April, with Spain saying it has now more than 3 million cases. Denmark is lowering the limit on public gatherings to 10 people from 50 and banning the sale of alcohol after 10pm to curb the spread of coronavirus, prime minister Mette Frederiksen said. AstraZeneca has resumed the US trial of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine after approval by US regulators, the company said. It was paused on 6 September after a report of a serious neurological illness, believed to be transverse myelitis, in a participant in the company’s UK trial. Dr Anthony Fauci, the US infectious disease expert, said the White House coronavirus task force’s meetings have become less frequent, even as infections rise in dozens of US states. Covid-19 was the main cause of death for 543 people in Moscow in September, up 21% from August, the Russian capital’s healthcare department said, as the spread of the coronavirus widened. Iran is planning new restrictions, including state employees working every other day in the capital Tehran, after a record surge in coronavirus cases on Friday, a senior official said. Iran’s health ministry reported 6,134 new cases for the previous 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 556,891 in the Middle East’s hardest-hit country. Turkey will evaluate possible new measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus as the outbreak flares nationwide, president Tayyip Erdoğan said. France’s second wave of coronavirus could be worse than the first, the boss of Paris public hospital group AP-HP said on Friday as the country registered a record number of daily cases. With pressure on hospitals rising fast, France has expanded a 9pm to 6am curfew to cover 46 million people, more than two-thirds of its population. Italy registered 19,143 new coronavirus infections, a jump of more than 3,000 within the last 24 hours. The northern Lombardy region, the worst hit region during the first wave of the pandemic, recorded almost 5,000 new cases while in Campania, in the south, there were 2,280. More than half a million people in the US could die from Covid-19 by the end of February next year, but about 130,000 of those lives could be saved if everybody were to wear masks, according to estimates from a modelling study. In Portugal, face masks will have to be worn in crowded outdoor areas, the country’s parliament decided on Friday, to contain the surge in coronavirus cases. The measure will be in place for at least 70 days and covers all residents aged 10 and over, who must wear masks outside when they cannot keep a physical distance from people. Brazil recorded 30,026 new confirmed cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 571 deaths, the Health Ministry said on Friday.Brazil has registered more than 5.3 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 156,471. wrbtrader
Yeah, Trump has that mentality that if he goes down (loses the re-election)... He's going to blame his followers for not supporting him enough. Thus, he's going to use the super-spreader rally events to bring down as many people as possible with him too. Simply, he will not blame himself...he'll blame his base and hoping that as many of them as possible will show up for the rallies without face masks, without social distancing...shaking hands, eating and yelling (cheering). He'll then try very hard to contest the election results while continuing to resurrect the reform party (trojan horse to the republicans). Trying to punish everyone (including republicans) after he's kicked out of office. wrbtrader