Update on corona 8.18.2022

It’s been a while since I did one of these. The biggest reason is that I suspect the data on cases are becoming unreliable. A lot of people may be self-testing at home and thus are not reporting the results, whether they have the virus or not. In addition, I read something today where a lot of people don’t know that they have the virus.

The virus is percolating out there and most people don’t know it, making it very dangerous for those who has underlying conditions to make them susceptible to adverse results.

World

Note: graphics for around the world comes from Wikipedia, as shown in the “Sources of Data” section at the end of the post.

Let’s start with the data for around the world. Lately, charts took a nosedive but I attribute the nosedive to a couple of days of reporting cessation. Europe had been undergoing a successive series of declines, especially Germany, France and Italy, but Asia had been showing steeply rising cases.

Again, I don’t know how diligent the rest of the world has been on the testing side. The U.S. has slacked off, mainly because the regulation population just no longer has the will to be diligent. Basically, the citizens just through up the hands and said, “we’re done with it”.

Here’s the continents:

Image 1: Cases for continents, 8/18/2022

The thing I find interesting for the continents is that the current surge/decline is almost just as high as last summer, if not higher, so the surges for June/July 2022 were not minor. The surges were significant, and yet the world seemed to have shrugged it off. The January/February period were particularly severe, hence the rather blasé attitude about the latest surge. The world just doesn’t seem to care: been there, done that kind of attitude.

You can see Europe undergoing a steep decline. Asia, especially driven by Japan and South Korea, had been surging rather dramatically. The U.S. just seems to meander up and down in place, with no direction.

Image 2: Top 10 in the World, 8/18/2022

Again, here, the interest is that July/August 2022 has shown a markedly higher level of surge than last summer for the top 10 countries by cases. Of course, January/February outdoes either the latest surge or last year. The case counts are so much higher this summer and yet the news is rather quiet. It is just an amazing change from last year.

We don’t really seem to care.

Image 3: China

China is interesting in that they are currently undergoing another surge. For a while the country had successfully tamped the infection, albeit in a rather draconian way. It will be interesting to see if the people can undergo another round of draconian measures. Being in total lockdown is rather hard.

USA

The U.S. seems to be leveling off and going into decline, although I don’t really trust the data for cases, simply because the testing may be done at home and thus not reported.

Here’s the cases and deaths (which by the way, I regard as more reliable):

Image 4: USA Cases and Deaths, 8/18/2022

We’ve actually have been sustaining a flat level of cases and death, going neither upward nor downward. It is just recently that the curves seem to bend down.

Image 5: USA Hospitalization

Even hospitalization is starting to level off, which is good news. It looks like the adverse effects of the virus has been tamped down.

Regions

I’m going to show you an example of a region’s cases and you will see how infrequently cases are being reported. In some states the numbers are being reported once a week.

Image 6: Example of Regional Count of Cases

So, yeah, those gaps are showing when the data are NOT being reported.

For the regions, I am only going to show the hospitalization, so we can see how hospitals are faring in the states. Again, to repeat, I no longer rely on cases, even though I still pull the graphs; I just don’t know what to do. Hospitalization and deaths are just kind of too late for me.

Image 7: Northeast Hospitalization, 8/18/2022

Northeast looks like hospitalization has leveled off. Some states look like the rates are still rising though.

Image 8: Midwest Hospitalization, 8/18/2022

Again, Midwest looks like a mixed bag: some are still rising and some has leveled off.

Image 9: West Hospitalization, 8/18/2022

Here, the West looks like its hospitalization is actually going down.

Image 10: South Hospitalization, 8/18/2022

And the South is probably mostly downward.

That’s it for today’s post. I probably won’t be doing too much more of these kind of posts until the fall, unless something significantly changes. Everything is just relatively calm, chartwise. I did read something today that said it is estimated that 50% of those infected with the virus don’t even know or show signs of being infected. So, there is lots of people out there walking around and those who are vulnerable are probably still not safe. The virus is still out there.

The fall is the next time period to watch, when everyone moves back indoors and gather together for parties.