As more and more testing is available, the number of cases of COVID-19 in the US continues to rise at a dramatic rate. By later today the US will have over 100,000 cases of the virus.
Curiously, Maryland seems to be harder hit than Virginia although it is a much smaller state. Maryland now has 774 cases of the virus but fortunately only 4 deaths. Virginia has 604 cases with 83 hospitalizations and 14 deaths.
Even more curious is the number of cases of the virus in Maryland’s Montgomery and Prince George’s county compared to the Virginia counties that border the district and Maryland. Montgomery County has 208 cases and Prince George’s has 148 for a combined total of 356. In the Virginia suburbs, Arlington has 63, Fairfax 123, and Loudoun 43 for a total of 230. I would have expected the numbers to be closer on both sides of the river. Is Maryland testing more? That seems unlikely because Virginia has now tested 7,337 people. And it’s not population because Fairfax is larger than Montgomery. So why are Montgomery and Prince George’s counties numbers so high? (Please share your thoughts and speculations on these differences in the comments.)
Meanwhile in the UK there has been no banning of large gatherings although some sporting events have been canceled. They have a completely different approach to the virus, one where people are living as they always have. Their philosophy, from the nationalreview.com:
On Friday, Britain’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, said that 40 million people would need to catch the coronavirus to build up “herd immunity.” He said that the government’s approach could help “reduce the peak of the epidemic, pull it down, and broaden it” while protecting the elderly and vulnerable. “If you suppress something very, very hard, when you release those measures it bounces back, and it bounces back at the wrong time,” he told the BBC. This suggested that the government considered mass infection to be inevitable.……
On Saturday, Britons over 70 were told to stay in strict isolation in their homes until July, in a “wartime-style” mobilization effort that will also see the requisitioning of hotels and other buildings as temporary hospitals and the emergency manufacturing of respirators for the critically ill.
“Strict Isolation” until July? I can’t imagine any Americans doing that.
How’s it working in the United Kingdom compared to the US? So far they have 14,735 cases of the virus among a population 66 million. The US has 94,285 cases among a population of 320 million. So, the US has about 5 times the population of the UK with about 7 times the number of COVID cases. Perhaps we are testing more? Or has our quarantine not been effective for much other than wiping out all supplies of toilet paper?
Unlike the US, leaders in the UK have contracted the disease. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has what is being called ‘a mild case’ of the virus, his secretary of state for health, Matt Hancock, has also tested positive and chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, has self quarantined after showing symptoms of COVID-19. Heir to the throne, Prince Charles, has also been diagnosed with the virus.
What happens now in the US? My prediction when the current 15 days of quarantine end on Tuesday, all the rules will remain in effect for at least another two weeks. We have not yet begun to fight peak.
