Covid, Covid, Covid is the unified chant of the Fake News Lamestream Media. They will talk about nothing else until November 4th, when the Election will be (hopefully!) over. Then the talk will be how low the death rate is, plenty of hospital rooms, & many tests of young people.
— tweet posted by President Donald Trump on Twitter, October 28, 2020
Actually, there appeared to be two key news stories on November 5. An undecided US Presidential election, and spiking cases of COVID-19 all across the North America, South America, Europe and central Asia.
President Trump appears to be suggesting, in his October 28 tweet, that the Lamestream Media has been exaggerating America’s COVID crisis for political purposes, to make the Trump administration appear incompetent, perhaps even noxious. But the President has predicted that, starting November 4, “the talk will be how low the death rate is, plenty of hospital rooms, & many tests of young people.”
Not quite sure how to interpret that comment. The President might be predicting that Joe Biden will indeed win the election, and as a result, the Lamestream Media will change their politically-driven tune, and start telling us that the future looks bright and sunny.
If only the world were so simple… If only the media were making it all up. As of November 5, the reports about the coronavirus in the American media — as well as in the global media — are anything but bright and sunny.
The pandemic set a new record, globally, on November 4 for a one-day total of COVID deaths, with approximately 9,060 new deaths reported on the Worldometers.info website, based on World Health Organization tracking. The previous record for numbers of COVID deaths in a single day, worldwide, came on April 17, 2020 with about 8,530 new fatalities reported.
The Worldometers website tracks the virus’ activities in 218 countries, and clearly shows that all nations are not created equal, when it comes to a global pandemic. The USA leads the world in total number of COVID deaths, with about 240,000 fatalities — followed by Brazil (161,000), India (125,000) and Mexico (93,000).
Vietnam and Taiwan continue to show extremely low death rates, of fewer than 1 death per million citizens. The vast majority of the world’s 218 countries have each reported fewer than 200 COID deaths.
We’ve posted a few articles here in the Daily Post about the unorthodox approach to the pandemic practiced in Sweden since the global lock-downs began last winter. Swedish public health officials and political leaders chose a different strategy from all other European countries, and allowed business and social activities to remain unregulated. In August, that strategy seemed to be working, with Sweden showing relatively low per capita infection and fatality rates.
From a Bloomberg.com article by Niclas Rolander dated November 3:
Swedes face a new wave of restrictions after daily coronavirus cases hit a record, with the government warning of a grim winter ahead. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said his country is now facing a “very serious situation” that requires tougher measures if the virus is to be fought back.
The resurgence of Covid-19 across Europe has caught the region off guard after a summer that left many countries assuming they’d brought the virus under control. But as citizens grew complacent and temperatures dropped, the pandemic has returned with a vengeance…
The article includes the following chart based on Swedish data:
The pink line — reported cases per 100,000 citizens, over the last 14 days, through the end of October — hits a high point of 258 cases on October 31. The previous low point was 24, on September 5. According to my pocket calculator, that’s a 1,075% increase in reported cases. The black line — number of cases in intensive care units — shows a less dramatic increase.
Things look similar here in Colorado… where, unlike Sweden, the state government has imposed mandated business limitations and mask-wearing in most public situations. Governor Jared Polis posted a Facebook video yesterday… and because the Daily Post has a policy of never linking to Facebook… I will transcribe a few of the Governor’s comments here:
“We now have 121,000 cases in Colorado. In the last day alone, 3,369 new coronavirus cases — an all-time daily high. We have 2,158 Coloradans who have passed away from this deadly virus, and each of those is a tragedy. And I want to express my condolences to the friends and family, of those who have suffered loss in this crisis.
“Hospitalizations are now at 894, the highest they have ever been from coronavirus in Colorado. More hospitalized Coloradans now than there were in March and April. I really hope, and trust, that that’s a wake-up call for Coloradans. Our attention might have been distracted by the election. We’re dealing with the horrific fires.”
“Now it’s time to re-focus on what we know we need to do to reduce this pandemic toll here in Colorado and to get our economy going. Thus far, frankly, I’ve been proud — proud of Coloradans, and how we’ve responded. It hasn’t been easy…
“We have been faring better than many of our neighboring states, But now, we are seeing a shift… Our October looked nothing like our August. We were doing [a good job] in August. October is far worse and more deadly.And we cannot afford a November that is like our October.
“Here’s the bottom line. We have now surpassed the hospitalization level we had in March and April, and we need to do better — getting back to what we know, works.
“You know it… I know it… We just need to do it…”
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.