COVID-19 day 178: 📈 3,576,157 (78,310 new) cases and 138,358 (951 new) deaths: 16 July 2020
Read that case number again. And weep.
It’s day 178 since the first case of coronavirus disease was announced in the United States. On day 162, 30 June, Dr. Anthony Fauci publicly express concern that we could see 100,000 cases a day. We’ve almost doubled numbers in slightly more than two weeks, daily death reports are rising again, and the national positivity rate is almost 10%.
We have not turned around.
And I am tired.
Sections (no jump links, sorry!)
1, One big thing; 2, Key metrics; 3, Recommendations; 4, Politics, economics & COVID; 5, Case counts and resources
⓵ One big thing: propaganda and denial
Happy talk may be the official word, but a White House document dated 14 July outlines what anyone who has been tracking data know: COVID-19 is spreading rapidly based on number of new cases per 100,000 residents and a rising positivity rate.
[M]ore than a dozen states should revert to more stringent protective measures, limiting social gatherings to 10 people or fewer, closing bars and gyms and asking residents to wear masks at all times.
Yet President Trump continues to insist that case numbers are going up only because the country has more testing. In response to the question, “what are you going to do to stop the spread?” this is what he said:
Well, you know that we have one of the lowest mortality rates anywhere. If you know, Biden and Obama stopped their testing [during Ebola]; they just stopped it. You probably know that. I'm sure you don't want to report it. But they stopped testing. Right in the middle, they just went, “No more testing,” and on a much lesser problem than the problem that we have, obviously with respect to -- this is the worst thing that's happened since probably 1917. This is a very bad -- all over the world. It’s 188 countries right now…
… we have the lowest mortality or just about the lowest mortality in the world. We're doing a great job.
As with most of his lies, this one is easily disproven.
Many small and not so small countries, like Fiji and Vietnam, have had zero deaths.
The median death rate in the world is 1.36 per 100,000. Ours is 40.27.
Wrapping up this highlight of propaganda and denial, I give you the press secretary.
In response to a question about what President Donald Trump would say to parents who have kids in school districts that may be online-only, [White House Press Secretary Kayleigh] McEnany said: “The president has said unmistakably that he wants schools to open. And when he says open, he means open in full, kids been able to attend each and every day at their school.
"The science should not stand in the way of this,” she added, saying it is "perfectly safe" to fully reopen all classrooms.
What we are experiencing is self-inflected.
It’s irrational.
And I don’t see how we can reverse it.
⓶ Key metrics
🦠 Thursday, Johns Hopkins reported 3,576,157 (78,310 new) cases and 138,358 (951 new) deaths, an increase of 2.24% and 0.69%, respectively, since Wednesday. A week ago, the daily numbers increased by 2.07% and 0.75%, respectively.
Today
- seven-day average: 65,182 cases and 757 deaths
- 3.87% cases leading to death
- case rate, 1,080.4 per 100,000; death rate, 41.80 per 100,000One week ago
- seven-day average: 53,933 cases and 654 deaths
- 4.27% cases leading to death
- case rate, 941.97 per 100,000; death rate, 4.27 per 100,000
Note: the seven-day average is important because dailies vary due to factors other than actual case numbers, particularly over a weekend.
⓷ Recommendations
🤓 Recommended reading
The U.S. response to the Covid-19 pandemic is a raging dumpster fire… On Sunday, Florida [22M population] reported more than 15,000 cases — in a single day. South Korea [51M population] hasn’t registered 15,000 cases in the entire pandemic to date.
How to fix the Covid-19 dumpster fire in the U.S. STAT News, 14 July 2020.
🔬 Research and medical news
Peter Navarro, the Trump surrogate leading the offensive against Dr. Anthony Fauci, touted their disagreement about ydroxychloroquine (Navarro is its cheerleader) in his personal attack masquerading as a USA Today op-ed.
Hydroxychloroquine did not lead to faster symptom improvement among patients who had Covid-19 symptoms and were not hospitalized, according to a new study published Thursday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The study, a randomized controlled trial led by researchers at the University of Minnesota, adds to the evidence that the malaria drug, heralded as a treatment based on scant data early in the pandemic, has little utility in treating Covid-19.
New Covid-19 study, despite flaws, adds to case against hydroxychloroquine. STAT News, 16 July 2020.
🎦 Recommended viewing
⓸ Politics, economics and COVID-19
‼️ According to the UN, as many as 265 million people could starve this year due to the impact of COVID-19.
🍑 Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) issued an executive order asserting that cities and counties cannot implement their own public health measures such as mandating masks. He has sued the city of Atlanta. Georgia was the first state to open after a temporary closure.
☆ In response to the current crisis in Texas, US Army medics will be helping hospitals in to two counties along the Texas-Mexico border.
❌ And in media news, USA Today is backing off from the Navarro op-ed just like the New York Times shrank from the op-ed it published from Sen. Tom Cotton. In both cases, the mea culpa was a failure to adhere to fact-checking standards. To which I ask: WHO APPROVED IT, THEN?
CDC, Johns Hopkins, states, WHO
🇺🇸 16 July
CDC: 3,483,832 (67,404 new) cases and 136,938 (947 new) deaths
Johns Hopkins*: 3,576,157 (78,310 new) cases and 138,358 (951 new) deaths
State data*: 3,550,915 (71,478 new) cases and 130,578 (963 new) deaths
KS reports only M-W-F; CT and RI report only M-FWHO Situation report, 178
3 405 494 cases (60 711 new) with 135 807 deaths (754 new)
🌎 16 July
Johns Hopkins interactive dashboard (11.00 pm Pacific)
Global cases: 13,805,296 (250,819 new)
Total deaths: 589,911 (5,787 new)
Global: 13 378 853 cases (226 181 new) with 580 045 deaths (5 579 new)
The Americas: 7 016 851 cases (132 700 new) with 294 301 deaths (3 627 new)
* Johns Hopkins data, ~11.00 pm Pacific.
State data include DC, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands
The virus was not created in a lab and the weight of evidence is it was not released intentionally. Although early reports tied the outbreak to a market in Wuhan, China, analyses of genomic data in January suggested that the virus might have developed elsewhere.
Resources
👓 See COVID-19 resource collection at WiredPen.
📝 Subscribe to Kathy’s COVID-19 Memo :: COVID-19 Memo archives
🦠 COVID-19 @ WiredPen.com
📊 Visualizations: US, World
🌐 Global news (at WiredPen)