The coronavirus pandemic, about to enter its fifth month this week reached two grim milestones over the weekend: More than 10 million people have been infected with the virus and over 500,000 have died of it. As these numbers are taken from officially recorded cases, the actual figure is likely to be much higher.
Europe has seen the most deaths of any continent, although its overall caseload is declining. The situation in the Americas is more concerning: Two countries—the United States and Brazil—account for roughly 35 percent of all COVID-19 deaths worldwide and both countries are still seeing new cases in the tens of thousands daily.
Is the death rate slowing? In the United States, the death rate has yet to hit the highs of April, when over 2,000 deaths were recorded nearly every day. As Bloomberg reports that could be down to better treatments, a younger population being infected, or warmer weather. Ultimately, since deaths may take up to three weeks later to register in official tolls, it will be some time until it’s clear whether recent caseload spikes have increased the death rate.
“My biggest concern is what happens two weeks from now,” Jill Roberts, an associate professor at the University of South Florida College of Public Health, told Bloomberg. Those testing postive now “could infect other people. And if they infect other people, we’re going to see hospitalizations and deaths follow.”
Anthony Fauci, in remarks aired this week, gave a gloomy assessment of the chances for a vaccine to be taken up by enough of the US population to be effective. “There is a general anti-science, anti-authority, anti-vaccine feeling among some people in this country—an alarmingly large percentage of people, relatively speaking,” Fauci said, adding that a massive public health education campaign would be necessary should a vaccine prove viable.
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