April 23, 2020
Sometimes perspective is a hard thing to come by. Projected deaths from covid-19 are about at the level of the 2017–2018 flu but significantly larger than the Swine flu of 2009. Still projected, not actual.
Bearing in mind the concern about the number of hospital beds available to treat seriously ill patients, this graphic from “Our World in Data” shows some of the comparison around the world:
Note that vast swaths of Africa present no information at all. These countries are without a functioning health care system, for all practical purposes. Also note, the Americas, both North and South, have a low number compared to Europe and Russia.
For New York, the epicenter in the US, hospitalizations have fallen. The US Navy ships sent to New York were barely used. What about the daily count? From NYHealth:
As things change for the better, will the level of hysteria subside—especially with some of those wanna-be authoritarian governors in the US? People are accommodating to a different world, and that includes a world with a higher level of risk. Real risk initiates real caution. It wonderfully sharpens the mind. The general population seems to have got it, only the media, as usual, have not.
Rebel Yell