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The worldwide Coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic.
Part 2.
2020-MAR-23 until APR-15:
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This article is a continuation of Part 1
It is well known that the fatality rate among those who catch the virus increases with age and with underlying health conditions. But fewer people know that men are much more likely to die of the disease than are women. For example, in China, the virus had a fatality rate of 2.8% among men
and 1.7% among women. This pattern has also been noticed in France, Germany, Iran, Italy, South Korea, and Spain.
Hannah Devlin, writing for The Guardian, wrote:
"In Italy, men have accounted for 71% of deaths and, in Spain, data ... suggests twice as many men as women have died."
Some attribute the difference to the larger percentage of men who smoke. Others suspect that men may be simply more susceptible to dying from the this particular disease for some unknown reason. 1
Allegations that persons with some blood types are more unacceptable to contracting COVID-19:
A study in China concluded that persons with Type A blood may be more susceptible to contracting the virus that those with other blood types. It studied 2,173 patients who contracted the virus. Dana Devine, chief medical and scientific officer at Canadian Blood Services, said:
"I think the study is interesting, but it’s quite early days… and it’s not been through proper scientific peer review. I’m a bit skeptical. ... this study particularly really needs to be looked at in a larger population with a more critical analysis than what these folks have managed to do so far." 2
By 2020-MAR-26 to 28: More developments:
The United States now has the largest number of COVID-19 cases in the world:
The U.S. had more known cases than any other country: 81,378. New York City had the largest concentration of cases, although the total is also beginning to ramp up in Louisiana, Michigan, Texas, and elsewhere. The country with the next largest number is China. Applications for unemployment insurance in the U.S. reached a new all-time high of 3.3 million for the previous week.
On MAR-31, the number of confirmed Coronavirus cases worldwidereached 801,117!
China has closed its border to foreigners. 3
For many decades, he longest undefended border in the world has been that between the U.S. and Canada. The two countries closed the border to casual visitors because of the virus. President Trump is advocating sending U.S. troops near the border to prevent an influx from Canada of people with the virus. 4 Canada, with about 10% of the population of the U.S., has just over 4,000 confirmed cases -- about half the rate of the U.S.
President Trump predicted the end of the Coronavirus pandemic by APR-12. He hoped that Christians will be able to pack the churches on that date, which is Easter Sunday.
Webmaster's opinion:
Hopefully, most churches will remain either closed on that date, or be broadcasting services over the Internet. Otherwise, the pandemic would be given a massive boost, and the number of infected churchgoers would be greatly increased. 5
Information sources:
The Washington Post has a free U.S. Coronavirus newsletter, at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ CTV News has a similar free newsletter for Canada at: https://www.ctvnews.ca."
The Guardian maintains a continuing account on COVID-19 developments worldwide, at: https://www.theguardian.
Other developments:
Time Magazine published an article: "The Coronavirus Pandemic May be Causing an Anxiety Pandemic." Doctors are reporting both new anxieties among existing patients and relapses among former ones. Social distancing from family, friends, and previously pleasurable activities are contributing to their anxiety.
Spain's death toll passes 4,000. 6
President Trump suggested a quarantine for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, was surprised and later angry. He said that the dubious legality of such a move aside, it would lead to “chaos and mayhem” and amount to a “federal declaration of war” on the states involved. Trump later backed off from his threat with a tweet.
The Guardian stated that:
"Democratic states seem to be taking public measures to stop the spread of the virus more seriously than those run by Republicans. 7
By 2020-MAR-29, Spain and Italy experience the worst crisis since World War II:
The number of COVID-19 in Spain, added to those in Italy, make up more than half of the world’s Covid-19 death toll, Both countries were seeing over 800 deaths a day each. Neither country counts deaths in nursing homes or in homes, so the numbers of deaths are probably significantly greater than they reported.
2020-APR-09, U.S individuals who have caught Covid-19 to date:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that there had been a total of 459,165 cases and 16,570 deaths (3.5%) in the United States from Covid-19. 8
Among this number were 9,292 U.S,Health Care Practitioners (HCP) who experienced infections during health care, household, and community exposure to individuals with the virus. Most were mild cases and did not require hospitalization. However, 27 died. 8
2020-APR-15, U.S. task force says that antibody testing for the virus in the U.S. is inadequate:
This test shows whether a person has been previously affected by the virus and may currently be immune to it.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, has called antibody testing "critical."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the task force. said:
"The antibody test says you were infected and if you're feeling well, you've very likely recovered. As we look forward, as we get to the point of at least considering opening up the country, ... it's very important to appreciate and to understand how much that virus has penetrated society."
Unfortunately, the Food and Drug Administration allows companies to sell antibody tests without first showing that the tests actually work. As a result:
The American Public Health Lab Association says that has resulted in "crappy" tests flooding the market.
Association CEO Scott Becker said:
"It's like the wild, wild West out there -- or wild East,"
He referred to the fact that at least half the companies fabricating these tests are located in China. 12
A few days later, the National Academy of Scientist wrote a letter to the White House, saying that results from antibody tests:
"should be viewed as suspect until rigorous controls are performed and performance characteristics described, as antibody detection methods can vary considerably, and most so far have not described well-standardized controls."
Also:
"There are good tests in the midst of the bad ones, but they're not yet widely and easily available throughout the country.
It's not entirely clear that having antibodies to Covid-19 means that you truly have immunity and won't get the disease again." 12
On 2019-APR-15, the World Health Organization reported that:
"... the U.S. had 578,268 confirmed cases of the virus and 23,476 deaths (4.11%).
Canada with 11% of the population of the U.S. had 26,146 confirmed cases and 823 deaths (3.15%)."
This topic is continued in the next article.
References used:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyper links are not necessarily still active today:
- "Novel Coronavirus (COVID) Situation, " World Health Organization, updated on 2020-MAR-23, at: /emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
- "Coronavirus Disease 2019," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, updated 2020-MAR-21, at: https:///
- "Disinfecting your home if someone is sick," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, updated 2020-MAR-17, at: https:///
- Jack DE Menes, "Olympics: Tokyo 2020 postponed until 2021 over coronavirus outbreak," Independent, 2020-MAR-24, at: https://nonindependent/
- "Men are much more likely to die from coronavirus - but why?," The Guardian, 2020-MAR-26, at: https://www.theguardian.com/
- Mercedes Stephenson, "Trump looking to put troops near Canadian border amid coronavirus fears," Global News, Canada, 2020-MAR-26, at: https://globalnews.ca/
- Coleen Long, "Coronavirus cases top 500,000 worldwide as China closes border to foreigners," Global News, Canada, 2020-MAR-26, at: https://globalnews.ca/
- Nichole Bogart, "Experts skeptical of study connecting blood type to COVID-19 risk," CTV News, 2020-MAR-26, at: https://www.ctvnews.ca/
- Bernard Starr, "If Trump wants to end the coronavirus shutdown by Easter, he should be the first one in the pews," New York Daily News, 2020-MAR-26, at: https://www.nydailynews.com/
- Elana Schor, "Many pastors follow coronavirus rules but some defy them," ABC News, 2020-MAR-18, at: https://abcnews.go.com/
- Cillian O'Brien, "Vaccine watch: These are the efforts being made around the world," CTV News, 2020-MAR-31, at: https://www.ctvnews.ca/
- Elizabeth Cohen, "Prominent scientists have bad news for the White House about coronavirus antibody tests." CNN.com, 2020-APR-15, at: https://www.cnn.com/
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This topic is continued in the next article.
Copyright © 2020 by Ontario
Consultants on Religious Tolerance.
All rights reserved for this and other articles on this website.
Latest update: 2020-JUL-10
Author: B.A. Robinson
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