Aug. 7 COVID - The US with its head in the sand

We are possibly the most selfish nation in the world. Riding my bicycle to work today, no one wants to give me any room on the road. How dare I slow them down. If I were a 10 ton piece of earth moving equipment, everyone slows down. Saw that yesterday. No one honked, no one tried to run him off the road. Because they would have torn their car apart.

A little bicycle? We can squish that guy without even having to file an insurance claim. All that matters is us in our own little lives. We have normalized greed to such an extent that we as a society don't even seem to care that we have one of the highest death rates to the global pandemic of Any country. Not just developed, rich nations (with hospitals and access to the internet... actually, wait, we are probably similar to Qatar in our access to hospitals and internet...), but of Any Other Nation on the Globe.

And we call ourselves the "Greatest Nation". Hubris. Pure and simple.

We are still top 10 in our inability to deal with COVID in all 8 categories the NY Times tracks: Cases, Case Rate, Recent Cases, Recent Case Rate; Deaths, Death Rate, Recent Deaths, Recent Death Rate. And it's mostly because of assholes (not everyone, but the assholes) in these states:

We are falling. Slowly. But are still worse now than we were in March when we started trying to care.

81 out of the 206 cases in my local community came in over July. That one month. That's almost half.  But fuck all if we'll actually DO anything about it.

Nope. Instead we're on the verge of letting our greedy, rich, 2nd home owners (immoral thing to have right off the bat. You should be ashamed.) have all the political control at a local level. Our "democracy" is a bloody joke. Wake up and fight for what little rights they've left you.

I realize I'm all doom-and-gloom. The good news, is that COVID is not as deadly as it once was. Not AS many people die. Still, The US has had over 7 thousand die in just the last week. Primarily because we're careless. Which is not what we want to hear, but it is what is true.

The rest of today's data:

COVID July 22 - guess what? We still suck.

Gunnison gained 19 cases over my weekend.

Meanwhile, a group of assholes from Texas and Arvada formed a Super PAC insisting that they have more rights to property than my community and I have to health and life. And by God they are going to come traipsing all over this county they don't ACTUALLY live in because they have money. Fuck everyone else. We're rich we have rights you don't.

It's time to close down again. Kick the assholes out.

We deserve to be 8th in the world in Cases. We deserve to be 9th in deaths. Don't worry, we'll get their soon. We are top 10 in every statistic the New York Times tracks. Our tendency to export pain and devastation to everyone else in the world, spread Pandemics around the globe despite easy to understand evidence, is hurting us right now. If not the most, than close.

As a bonus, Here's a map that shows what states should be exiled from the Union. They are in red.

July 18 COVID race

It has been a while since our last check in with the Great Race to the Bottom. While the New York Times gets better and better at creating The Best Source for Coronavirus Information, the US is holding "strong": 1st in total cases by a mile (though Brazil is catching up), 1st in cases in the last 7 days, back to 10th in the world for cases per person (my primary statistic), and 6th in the world for cases per person in the last 7 days. We are 1st place in most deaths, are 2nd behind Brazil for most deaths in the last 7 days, 10th for deaths per person in the world and tie for 9th for most deaths per person in the last 7 days.

Good work.

I guess the death rate has dropped considerably and no one is worried anymore.

If we go back to school, maybe we can be #1 in every statistic!

If you're wondering where our numbers are coming from, the statistics above are the states with the greatest caseload per person in the last 7 days. Florida is "winning". Making good on all the jokes the world tells about them.

Last time I reported (7/09), Gunnison was at 125. A few days ago, I checked Gunnison's statistic, it was 127. Now we're at 130, and have a lot of pending tests out. I think one of them was from my place of work. It's getting closer and closer to home again. Tourism! The Most dysfunctional of all dysfunctional economies. Even though we have mask laws in place in the state, the tourists are coming from Many of the states above: Texas, Arizona, Alabama... 

Don't be an asshole. Stay home.

July 9 COVID race

I have a friend who thinks this virus has been in the US since last August. The data doesn't support this claim very well, and the bump in overall deaths doesn't either. It is very difficult to tell when it first arrived, but we can easily read the effect. The requirement is that you have to believe the global medical community, and realize that it is impossible to run a conspiracy at this magnitude. "Plandemic" is dumb. And impossible. 

In the week since our last check in, the race has been heating up. Qatar has gained 0.2%, which used to seem like a lot. San Marino hasn't moved in weeks, so Bahrain is inches away from passing them as they shoot into the 2% club. Chile is thankfully slowing down, Kuwait is not. They have both gained about 0.1% in a week, it will take Kuwait a long time to catch up, if at all. They probably will not. I wish them the best. Andorra has figured this out. If they maintain the course, they are done. Nothing's happened for a long time.

Oman jumped from 9th to 7th (Armenia and Peru) gaining a little more than 0.1%. Panama jumped Peru and the US. We aren't slowing down our newest climb, but we have so many people it'll take us a while to move. And to slow down. And Brazil, our most tenacious new competitor jumped into 12th place, right behind the US, also gaining about 0.1%, but a little heaver 0.1% than ours in the US. If they pass us up, they will be hard to catch. Our wildcard is Arizona and Florida, which are both aiming to have more disastrous curves than Qatar itself.

Will Brazil win the title from Darth Drumph of Worst Government Ever?

Not really, I suppose. Our Darth has so many other impressively terrible qualities. So does theirs. We'll both overtake Peru by this time next week, leaping into the 1% club. We'll pass Andorra by the end of the month, as will many others.

Meanwhile in Tourist central Gunnison, we gained 2 cases in the last week. I checked yesterday, so we haven't grown since the 7th. That we know of yet.

July 2 COVID

Kuwait overtook Andorra, Armenia overtook Peru, and Brazil overtook Sweden. The US is 1/4 of the way to shooting through the 0.8% club and into the 0.9% club. With no signs of slowing the outbreak, we'll join the 1% club in a few short days. With Peru's new cases dropping, we're likely to overtake them soon, though it'll take us a little while to overtake Andorra. Oman and Armenia are out of our reach at the moment, until we manage to turn our rate red... which I hope we can't quite do.

Wear a mask.

June 30 COVID

I'm moving my data source to the NY Times. They have the best data dashboard I've found for the CoronaVirus, and it is improving, or I'm noticing more about it. Not as much a fan of their rate graph (I like the simple line more) and they don't calculate "French Guinea" (like Wikipedia and Google), or Mayotte. Both of which are really old French imperial colonies / regions in Africa. I would guess that the count for "French Guinea" is included in "Guinea" for the NY Times, which has only 0.043% case-rate at the moment. I am not sure where Mayotte is counted. If you include them, the US is still in 12th place in the world. Without them, we're in the top 10.

At NY Times, you can compare death rate too! Which is morbidly exciting. We're in 9th place, with 39/100,000. 

The NY Times estimates numbers differently. They have us at 0.796%, where Wiki has us in the 0.8% club, but it is a small difference. Most countries, except Latin America, seem to have a smaller percent at NY Times.

A test came back positive in Gunnison on Sunday, Monday, or today. And I have friends worried they have contracted it despite their very best efforts. Tourism continues to spike here, as people make the less ethical, more selfish decision to travel around during our most boring Armageddon.

It is a time of great stress without healing. 

Stay strong.

Louisiana and Arizona are our 2 states with growing caseloads that are now in the "top" 10 for case rate. From someone in your destination playground: if you live there, please stay home.

COVID June 25: It's getting a whole lot worse. Thanks for that.

Many upsets over the last 4 days, though none in the top 7. Little French Guiana has shot into 8th place with the small caseload of 2.5 thousand. Despite major surges in the US -- putting us back into the NYTimes list of countries where cases are rising, and posting our new record of about 38k new cases yesterday, and having about a quarter of all known deaths -- we have fallen to 13th place.

That isn't good news, globally, or even locally. It means that in addition to French Guiana and Oman have surged into the runnings, and Armenia has passed us again. Despite the reality that cases are only getting worse here in the US. The Pandemic is becoming more Pan as Latin America and even Africa are experiencing surges in cases.

And still we have a great deal of deniers in our country... which is a constant source of amazement to myself, as well as depression.

You can see on these standing for the 1st time Brazil, which is set to be our real competitor for most shit-headed country with many, many people relying on them to make wise decisions. Along with the US, they have 1-2 orders of magnitude more cases, and still have a high case rate. Which is pretty unique in the world. And along with the US, they have a pretty ridiculous government. Still, they are only in the 0.5% club, which we left about 2 weeks ago.

6 countries in the 1% club. The top 13 are all in the 0.7% club.

The states which should have restricted travel, since cases are rising and shouldn't go out infecting the rest of us (in a general order of importance, sorted by case rate, and steepness of the recent spike): California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, S. Carolia, Oklahoma, Utah, Arkansas, Oregon, Georgia... Louisiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, Hawaii, and Montana. Colorado is doing alright at the moment, but expect that trend to begin changing in a week or two: We are open for tourism, which is a great way to keep this thing going and get back to shutting down the country. 

In Gunnison, we have gone from 118 positive tests to 122. 4 new cases in 4 days. Which is alarming because we prior to my weekend, we had about 4 cases in 4 weeks. That is a alarming trend. Tourism is set to hit us hard for a second time in this one little year.

Think we'll shut down again? Or continue to compete for this sad championship?

June 20 COVID

After a break for Juneteenth, Gunnison has somehow lost a case... Makes me question that data just a bit. The top 10 keep their standings for the last 2 days, the US making subtle gains on Singapore. Our caseload is more and more on the rise.

June 18 COVID

The US has battled it's way back into 10th place! Passing Luxembourg with 0.669%! What a major upset. With the 7 day average of new cases is higher than it has been since the 11th of May in the US, they are unlikely to pass us back. Our growth trend is becoming more clear. Even considering better testing, the US may be in for another shutdown due to the virus unless our treatment can improve mightily and we can get our death-rate to continue to drop. Four our sake, I hope our caseload doesn't get back up to 30k cases per day, but I'm not optimistic. There is a treatment which has been successful in Europe... But here in America, most of us can't go to the doctor to try. Yay for the "Land of the Free (to get sick and die)". That's your most protected right here. Enjoy it.

Sadly, Chile has its own upset: jumping two places to find itself in 4th place. There are now 6 countries in the 1% (or more) Club. Worse, Peru's death rate is double Chile's. 

June 17 COVID

The trend is finally looking clear. About 4 weeks after Memorial Day (which seems understandable: it takes up to 2 weeks for symptoms to show, and then it'll be a few weeks before those symptoms travel around a little) and as the US opens up, the caseload is starting to rise.

The global standings haven't changed among the top ten, but poor Qatar has breached the 3% club.

The plague continues. In the US, where there's little consistency, we are having a lot harder time dealing with this virus than Europe. Or cultural father and nations with democracy and capitalism. They are figuring it out, the US cannot. I wold love to see this graph again in 2 weeks to see if our death toll begins to trend back up as well.

I hope not. But I suspect so. It is beyond time to start asking if we can do better.

The good news, is that there is a treatment that seems to be working. Perhaps we won't rebound. Thanks to... Europe.

June 16 COVID

Over my weekend, my town of Gunnison added a case. The last time I caught an added case was on the 10th (Gunnison reported it on the 9th or earlier), so it's been about a week since our last positive test.

Since last weekend, Qatar has jumped 0.2%, and is now one to two days away from busting into the 3% club. A club of one. For now. However, their curve is flattening, which is more than can be said for the US, which has been dealing with this since March and seems to be getting worse at it every day.

Peru has passed Singapore, probably for good, into 8th place, but that has been the only upset in the last 3 days.

The US is still sitting comfortably in 11th place, at 0.65%. Belarus, behind us, gained about 0.03% over that time and we gained about 0.02%. We both seem to be holding fairly flat, though Belarus seems to be improving, somewhat, while the US appears to be on the verge of its next spike. Which makes sense in the overall picture. When you drill down, we still have a large number of states reporting spikes, and everyone's starting to travel around for fun.

Thanks for that.

Expect "great" things from this behemoth competitor: Even with 2.1 MILLION cases (a full ORDER OF MAGNITUDE more than its closes competitor and about 1/4 of all global cases) It may be on the verge of shooting up past the 0.7% club and into the 0.8% club and seems to have the goal of reporting a full 1% of it's people affected by the virus.

I'm feeling particularly cynical today. What with Texas, California, Alabama, Utah, Arkansas, the Carolinas, Florida, and our own Costilla and Montezuma counties growing... and especially Arizona, where the Governor insists: 'if I close my eyes, it doesn't exist! if I plug my ears it ceases to exist... how come only 3 month-olds seem to know about this? It's great!'

If you want to open up: be strict on masks. It's that damn simple.

Check in tomorrow, it will probably be much the same.

June 13 COVID

Bahrain skips ahead of Andorra, finally displacing them from their long-held 3rd place spot. Soon, Mayotte will make it to the 1% club. Cases are slowly coming back up in the US, though we are still hovering around 20k cases per day, never having dropped, our worse-case states are doing alright... and several of our warm-weather states seem to be getting complacent. The Carolinas, Utah, Arizona, and California are seeing rising trends, preventing the country from coming down. Wait for this time next week to see what the change is.

Gunnison remains fine... Still holding steady at 117 positive tests. Protect yourself against tourists who may carry this disease from less careful places to areas which have kicked the virus out.