Sweden’s population adjusted deaths from the Coronavirus is worse than 45 states and the District of Columbia. It is 4 times worse than Florida’s.
Drug cartels are hurting because of coronavirus. Turns out that Wuhan was a major production zone for methamphetamine and fentanyl. Kind of surprising considering China has the death penalty for illegal drug usage (more frequently used for illegal drug distribution, however). Maybe China looks the other way when all of the drugs are headed overseas. ‘Cartels are scrambling’: Virus snarls global drug trade
More interesting news: The UK is trying to find out if medical detection dogs can be trained to detect coronavirus. Medical detection dogs able to sniff 750 people an hour could help identify coronavirus cases, researchers say
Thought this was interesting. Gives a breakdown of "underlying conditions" in some of Italy's deaths. Surprised more efforts haven't been made to release this sort of data for cases in the US. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
Brazil’s president cheers a protest that called for military rule. World News Updates: Germany Begins Reopening Shops as Coronavirus Limits Ease
Does he know that most military coups start with bumping off the president? Or did he skip that day in history class?
German province gets scammed out of 34-109 million euros in coronavirus aid. They're probably not the only one. COVID-19 scammers may have stolen millions from the German government
He's taking a fairly serious risk, especially for someone who is already in charge. He'll have a new boss, once he's dictator, and he might not like being their puppet. Also, it's likely that the economy of Brazil will suffer under a dictatorship, and he'll be blamed for it.
Oil prices take another nosedive to a new low of $10.77/bbl. Low oil prices are dragging down the currencies of countries that get a large percentage of their income from oil exports. Stock market news: Live updates on the Dow, S&P 500, companies and more - CNN At some point, Russia will not be able to continue funding maintenance of their fighter jets, much less flying them recklessly around U.S. military jets.
if course we don’t know the median, but rough math if you add up the percentages suggests that the average person had 2.5 of those things going on. Really unhealthy people. Also surprised obesity wasn’t higher, everyone here is saying that’s a key factor if not the key one.
Turkey is heating up with little social distancing control. Closed schools and universities, the rest is still open Turkey has world's second highest number of new COVID-19 infections – live blog | Ahval Turkey has world's second highest number of new COVID-19 infections – live blog Apr 16 2020 10:04 Gmt+3 Last Updated On: Apr 17 2020 11:03 Gmt+3 Thursday's figures from the Turkish Health Ministry show that Turkey has the second-highest number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world. The country has diagnosed 4,801 new cases in the last 24 hours, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said at his daily briefing, a figure surpassed only by the United States' 5,603 new cases. The minister reported 125 new deaths after contracting coronavirus, bringing the toll to 1,643. A total of 1,415 patients have recovered since Koca’s last announcement. Koca had said on Wednesday that Turkey’s infection rate was stabilising, suggesting that the outbreak could be under control. But Sinan Adıyaman, head of the Turkish Medical Association (TBB), warned that, in contrast to the ministry’s claims, the scale of the outbreak remained unclear because diagnostic tests only had 55-60 percent accuracy rates and many patients had died with COVID-19 symptoms, but had been excluded from the death toll. Mayors, scientists call for lockdown as COVID-19 cases pass 74,000 in Turkey ISTANBUL — A growing number of politicians and scientists are calling on the Turkish government to impose a full lockdown on urban areas to stem the spread of COVID-19 as the nation recorded 74,193 confirmed cases with 1,643 virus-linked deaths Thursday. Eleven mayors with the opposition Republican People’s Party issued a joint statement today requesting a long-term “curfew or full isolation” be imposed on urban residents to avoid the exponential growth of new infections. “We again draw attention to the need for this application before losing more time,” stated the co-signers, among whom were Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas. To date, Turkish officials have issued a pair of consecutive 48-hour weekend curfews on urban areas, while imposing full curfews for all senior citizens and most people under 20 years of age. Shops, cafes and restaurants have also been closed for weeks as international and domestic travel remains highly restricted, but some experts say the interventions don’t go far enough. Dr. Ozlem Azap, an infectious disease researcher at Baskent University in Ankara, said the fact many workers continue traveling to job sites on weekdays poses a hazard to the wider population, as they can transmit the disease both on the job and at home. Read more: Mayors, scientists call for lockdown as COVID-19 cases pass 74,000 in Turkey
Southeast Asia could be the next coronavirus hot spot — these charts show why The number of coronavirus infections in Southeast Asia has risen quickly in recent weeks, with mounting worries among experts that the region could turn into a hot spot for the fast-spreading disease. The region as a whole has reported more than 28,000 cases as of Sunday, according to data by Johns Hopkins University. Collectively, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore account for 87.9% of total cases reported in Southeast Asia, the data showed. While the region’s tally is still far off the hundreds of thousands seen in the U.S. and some European nations, several studies suggest that tens of thousands more infections could be undetected due to the low testing rate in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines.
It's been mentioned, but I'm still dumfounded by Taiwan's limited numbers. They are 80 miles from mainland China, but currently show 422 cases/6 deaths. They are less than: Cuba Honduras Lebanon Diamond Princess Latvia Tunisia Estonia Iceland They sure as hell did many things right.
Italy has fallen out of love with the EU, after getting no help from other member nations during the coronavirus. Over half of the Italians polled think of China as "a friend", and nearly half think of Germany as "the enemy". Something Has Snapped in Italy’s Stormy Relationship With Europe
For many decades, Taiwan limited Chinese tourism. A few years ago, though, they "opened the gates." I don't know what the numbers are like, but I think Chinese citizens have access to Taiwan to a greater extent than before. Not sure what Taiwan's ability to shut that down is now. Maybe they did?