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| Does this look like a “surge”? (Added 25/9/20) |
The above headline is alarmist. There is no “surge” and no need for further “political pressure”.
I have been tracking figures daily since January on Worldometer which is more up-to-rhe-minute than WHO figures. [My comment at the site].
Global daily cases increase, averaged by month, increase over previous month:
- February 38%
- March 768%
- April: 260%
- May: 17%
- June: 49%
- July: 61%
- August : 12%
- September (to 22nd): 8%
This is NOT a "surge". The surge is long past. It is more of a peaking and easing. (vastly increased testing around the world likely accounts for the July spike). Yet media have "surging" headlines, which are “pressuring” (read: “panicking”) governments.
Meantime, daily deaths are easing to 5,408 worldwide, down 4% on August.
In short, daily worldwide cases are rising at a declining rate and daily deaths are declining.
In short, daily worldwide cases are rising at a declining rate and daily deaths are declining.
This ought to be good news. But the media ("Agencies") spin it as "surge", which is “accelerating worldwide”. When the opposite is happening.
ADDED: I still take note of a figure that few or no others in our government do, at least publicly: pneumonia and lower respiratory deaths in Hong Kong. Every year 11,500 Hongkongers die of these diseases. They happen every year and are preventable by the very same measures that we use to fight Covid. Yet we don't tie ourselves in knots to try and do so.
Hong Kong Covid-19 deaths? 103 so far this year. Less than one one hundredth of pneumonia and related disease deaths. Average age at death: 82. How can we say we're not in a delusional panic?
ADDED: The first sentence at the article says “The pandemic appears to be accelerating worldwide…”. No it does not, not if you actually look at the numbers, instead of simply reproducing “Agencies” fear-mongering. Which begs the question, why? Why would the media do this? And the answer is as old as media: “if it bleeds it leads”. Bad news sells better than good. In today’s parlance: click bait.
And so, of course we get “growing Political pressure”. Which people like dear old bumbling Boris cannot resist, with his new lockdown measures set to last at least six months. Oh dear. And the media is complicit.
