Disasters in Slow Motion (pt. 28) - January 9, 2021

January 09, 2021 (16:18 GMT) - Actual Numbers vs. December 07, 2020 (16:50 GMT)
Worldwide Cases: 89,667,152 (+22,024,242)
Worldwide Deaths: 1,927,386 (+381,658)
Worldwide Mortality Rate: 2.15% (-0.14%)
Worldwide Mortality Rate (without US): 2.31% (-0.09 %)
US Cases: 22,503,683 (+7,321,163)
US Deaths: 378,657 (+89,599)
US Mortality Rate: 1.68% (-0.22%)
US Total Recovered: 13,262,863 (+4,473,640)
Florida Cases: 1,449,252 (+391,178)
Florida Deaths: 22,675 (+3,498)
Florida Mortality Rate: 1.56% (-0.25%)
Florida Total Recovered: 761,113 (+88,738)

What a year it is already. Between not wanting to focus on this during the holidays and recent events as they've unfolded, I've not posted a great deal about this of late. With that in mind, I'm going to provide another batch of numbers to help put things in the US into perspective for the year to date by drawing on the numbers from my year end post.

January 09, 2021 (16:18 GMT) - Actual Numbers vs. December 31st, 2020 (23:38 GMT)
US Cases: 22,503,683 (+2,087,724)
US Deaths: 378,657 (+24,986)
US Mortality Rate: 1.68% (-0.05%)

In just nine days, another 2,000,000+ Americans have been diagnosed with Covid-19. Yesterday alone there were 306,449 new cases reported and nearly 4,000 new deaths. Yes, the mortality rate is slowly coming down, but as cases skyrocket, that slight reduction in number doesn't have a big impact on the death toll. Hell, just based on the current number of active cases (22,503,683 - 13,262,863 = 9,240,820) another 155,246 Americans are still to die - with no new cases added. CDC projections had us as 500k+ dead by April 1st (with the vaccine) and that number is certainly going to put us across that threshold.

Despite the mounting death toll, soon to be a half million dead Americans, people are still doing things like...

• Holding "Christmas Carol" protests
  
• Storming shopping malls without masks
• Masklessly attending political rallies (before committing acts of insurrection)

I just don't know how to express my frustration and sorrow as I watch all of this unfold. The fact is that the Americans carrying out these (and other) actions are responsible for so many deaths. Deaths that they don't even believe in. Anti-Maskers still tout a 99.9% survival rate, which is wrong and, while the mortality rate might SEEM low at 1.68% in the US? Look how many deaths that has led to.

1 in every 15 Americans has been infected so far...do we really want to take that to EVERY American and have 15x the deaths?! Is it going to take over 5 and a half million dead Americans to bring people to their sentences?

Meanwhile, here in Florida, wealthy people are buying access to the vaccine. This is so egregious that Senator Rick Scott, himself partially responsible for the largest medicare fraud ever carried out in the United States, is calling it "absolutely disgusting." Trust me, when Rick Scott calls something disgusting? It is foulness that is beyond comprehension (much like himself).

Nine days into 2021...nine days...and there are already over two million new cases. At our current rate we can expect another 7 million cases by the end of the month. That will add another 123k+ who will die before all this is over.

Stay healthy, stay safe, wear your mask, and stay home when you can. We all want to get back to a more normal life - but it appears not much will be done to accelerate that until President Biden takes office.