First Number is Total Cases, Second Number is New Cases
USA 82,150 +13,939
China 81,285 +67
Italy 80,589 +6,203
Spain 56,347 +6,832
Germany 43,646 +6,323
The United States is now number one in total COVID-19 cases and since it is adding substantially more cases each day than any other country is likely to stay there.
We have been adding at a crazy rate because the testing was catching up with reality.
Comparing countries by total count isn’t particularly meaningful. Our population is much larger than, for example, Italy. It’s also much smaller than China.
The West Coast seems to be doing a lot better than I would have expected by this point. I guess that we started to send people home, earlier.
That’ll show 'em!
Sure, we have a huge population, but India, with a 4x larger populace than ours, has done a masterpiece of keeping their numbers low (of course, they probably tested a lot less, but still.)
If only those Seattle local authorities had clamped down two months earlier…
India is about to explode. They didn’t do anything magical, they’re just very far from China, as far as human travel destinations go. Warm, humid air might also have helped. But if the number is still low, it’s because they’re not testing. Expect the death rate of the country to be much higher this year.
U-S-A! U-S-A!
We’re number 1! We’re number 1! MAGA!!!
Maybe, but do you think we’ve tested anywhere near everyone who should be?
At any rate, COVID-19 deaths are a measure that can’t be fudged. We’re way behind at the moment, but exponential growth is a bear. The way things are going, we’ll pass China in total deaths in five or six days, and then we can set our sights on Italy. 
I still have friends who insist it is all media hype.
(Never mind, forgot which forum I was in)
Did the mayor of NY really tweet in March 2 that people should get out in public and not worry about the virus?
" COVID-19 deaths are a measure that can’t be fudged"
Yes, it can be fudged. At the first nursing home in Seattle, there were 11 other people who died who were never tested for the virus.
And I read an article today that said, in a particular town in Italy, they typically have 35 deaths in a three month period. But in the most recent period there were 153 deaths, but only 34 were said to be related to Covid-19.
Sure they can, for at least a while.
As an extreme case, North Korea officially has zero cases and zero deaths to date. They have significant trade with China and have quietly been asking for help with the virus that they supposedly don’t have. Maybe they are just being proactive. Maybe they are directly lying and don’t have a free media to help catch them in the lie. North Korea is not the only authoritarian country with little to no freedom of the press.
Even correctly classifying a death as being caused coronavirus can be problematic. In periods when testing was low it can be hard to know for sure that a given death was caused by the virus. Someone with relatively severe underlying health problems might contract the virus and die before the virus symptoms became severe enough to separate from the noise of their other health problems. That doesn’t mean that the virus was not the last straw. While that is mostly an issue with knowing enough to accurately report, it presents an opening to actively fudge the data downward. Simply do not test as aggressively among the most vulnerable populations and then code the deaths as being from the existing conditions. Or use a test that is less sensitive, like Russia, giving more false negatives while not routinely testing those with pneumonia for coronavirus.
You can’t fudge the deaths. You certainly can fudge the reporting of the deaths. Eventually the deaths can build up to the point that the fudging becomes apparent but we are not there yet for good chunks of the world.
Coronavirus deaths, 25 March:
Spain 718
Italy 712
France 365
USA 268
Iran 157
UK 115
Netherlands 78
Germany 61
…
China 5
South Korea 5
Source
On March 2and, NYC already had an active case, and all de Blasio’s tweets from that day are about the case and what the city is doing to keep people safe.
So no.
You need to send this to any Democratic campaign staff whose emails you can find, and don’t stop until you’ve gotten one of them to agree to use it. It’s too good to go to waste.
They are tied with the “we are all going to die” people as my least favorite people right now. Unfortunately, that’s about 90% of everyone and most of the other 10% are silent due to fear or excessive politeness.