I stay on the numbers because this week, the USA has officially counted 200,000 COVID-19 deaths. Words like “terrible landmark” just don’t seem to be enough on that toll face.
Numbers are valuable. Case calculations help scientists detect the spread of infection. The death toll helps policymakers figure out where things are going right – or terribly wrong. They are useful.
They can also be like a derailed train.
Since I started this campaign two months ago, COVID-19 has killed more than 345,470 people worldwide. Of those, 57,993 are U.S. Were in
That’s 5,345,470 people, each with family and friends and co-workers and enemies and cats and dogs and people who saw them on the street while walking on the bus. They went. Their desks and armchairs and beds are empty. People who love them are red-eyed and sing through the stuff they leave behind. Every human being has cut into lost communities, and the USA has inflicted a wound on itself that is more devastating than any other covid-injury on Earth.
I’ve stopped looking at numbers every hour, like I’m doing this spring. But every Friday, when I look at the numbers on Johns Hopkins’ dashboard, it’s still a shock. I know I’m not alone.
“Shocked – that’s the word I’d say the response to my current death numbers comes from February’s Wavent Point,” said David Celentano, head of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology. Vox This week.
In February, the first U.S. death was frightening. Now, about 800 people are dying from the disease every day in the country, and sirens and alarm bells have faded in the background of a terrible year.
When it comes to death, a number like 200,000 is no more tragic than 145,763, or a number like 12 or one. But the roundness of the number helps to turn the volume on the incomprehensible din. Visuals that compare national deaths to our neighbors and cities, e.g. W. Washington PostThe ruthlessly new interactive map can help us understand the amount of death blocked by the body and obstruction by the body. Comparing other deaths, this can help calculate how unprecedented this is.
“The number of deaths // 11 days per day is equal to 67 days of attacks. It’s about the same as the population of Salt Lake City or Huntville, Alabama. ” Wrote for Johnson Associated Press.
Thinking outside the U.S. borders – more than 985,748 people have died from the disease. Worldwide, there are 74 different countries and territories with smaller populations.
Wrestling with the loss of the nation’s value is not something that any of us thought we would deal with this year. From an epidemic in public consciousness in January, every death, every single case, there are many.
These numbers are the subject of every science we talk about every week – providing the data that researchers use to study this disease. But the rise of these numbers is also an immediate motivation behind this research. Researchers are trying to find a vaccine, or a cure, or find out how the virus travels between us, or how it breaks down our bodies – the goal is the same. Anyone can make those numbers not come down – but it’s still possible to stop them going up.
Here’s what else happened this week.
Research
Infant mortality associated with Covid-19 remains significantly lower, according to U.S. Months in (epidemic)
While the Covid-19 mortality rate in the United States has been the highest in the world, the mortality rate for people under the age of 20 has been extraordinarily low. Experts are still trying to understand how the disease affects young people.
(Lenny Bernstein / Washington Washington Post)
The main lesson of the Covid-19 Heart Debate
Many attempts have been made to understand some of the damage that COVID-19 can do to the heart. Many studies have slipped out of the labs, as a flood of data has flooded into them – but many findings remain out of reach in a heart-to-heart discussion. Over at Atlantic, Ed Yong discusses why and discovers that “as the epidemic spreads, they find it boring.”
(Ed Yong /Atlantic)
What do two new studies really tell us about coronavirus transmission in planes?
This is a good breakdown of some of the limitations behind the two case studies looking at coronavirus transmission on planes.
(Jane Si Hu /Slate)
Development
Johnson and Johnson begin Phase 3 trials for single-dose coronavirus vaccine
This week, Johnson and Johnson began its massive trials for its vaccine in the US. Unlike many other candidates, this one is only made for one dose requirement – potentially easier to distribute. A separate company called Novavax launched three phased experiments in the UK this week.
(Elliott Hannon /Slate)
Here comes the tortoise: In the race for the Covid-19 vaccine, slow beginners can still win
At State There is a good update on some other vaccine candidates. Pharma companies Merck and Sanofi are both moving more slowly and methodically, but are still making great strides toward the vaccine.
(Helen Branswell /State)
Covid-19 vaccine for children, wicket order may not come before 21 2021
As vaccine development progresses, U.S. – One group is not significantly represented in any ongoing vaccine tests in children. “Vaccine developers are eagerly aware that children are not just miniature adults.” Writes Carl Zimmer The New York Times. Creating a safe and effective vaccine for children will probably take a lot more work, and will take more time.
(Carl Zimmer /The New York Times)
156 countries are joining for the Covid-19 vaccine. But not the US or China.
How will the vaccine be distributed when we have a good candidate? Aside from the issues of manufacturing and shipping, it will also become a large-scale political undertaking. To take a look at the international relationship of vaccine distribution, read on Covax, which aims to distribute millions of doses worldwide by the end of next year.
(Julia Belluz /Vox)
Careful approach will be taken to eliminate the risk of Covid-19 vaccination
For a vaccine to work, people must be prepared to take it. Edge ‘O Nicole Wetsman talked to the vaccine hesitation researcher This Vaccines, and the concerns of public health experts must be allayed. (For more expert opinions on the same topic, check out Maggie Korth’s How to Know When You Can Trust the COVID-19 Vaccine. Five thirty eight.)
(Nicole Wetsman /Edge)
Perspective
Code: How Genetics Helped Outbreak Secret Coronavirus
This is a great feature that sheds light on how researchers found the same disease at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa.
(Sarah Kaplan, Desmond Butler, Juliet Ailperin, Chris Mooney and Lewis Velarde /The Washington Post)
More than the number
For more than 32,397,479 people worldwide who have tested positive, your path to recovery becomes easier.
The families and friends of the 985,748 people who died worldwide – 203,549 in the U.S. – have not forgotten your loved ones.
Be safe, everyone.
