US Tops 3 Million COVID-19 Cases

Another avoidable milestone.

CNN reports,

More than 3 million cases of coronavirus have been reported in the US, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.

The US has the most cases of coronavirus of any country in the world. Brazil — which has more than 1.6 million, according to Johns Hopkins’ tally — is the second most impacted country. India had the third most cases, with more than 700,000.

We actually topped the 3 million mark a bit ago according to the Worldometers data that I’ve been relying on for months.

The raw numbers are somewhat irrelevant, in that they’re subject to population size, testing, and truth in reporting. That the cases are spiking and that we’re taking re-opening so cavalierly is more problematic.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Daryl and his brother Darryl says:

    Almost 135,000 dead.
    At least one study has shown that well over half of those are directly attributable to Trump’s incompetence.
    IT DID NOT HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS.

    4
  2. Kathy says:

    Hang on. Given the Trump so-called administration’s very strong insistence on opening schools by the fall, America is about to find out first-hand the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on children.

    2
  3. Hal_10000 says:

    The actual number is more like 20 million, given the number of dead. We didn’t have testing early on, so that first wave was much worse than we think it was. This second surge is bad but not quite there. Yet.

    2
  4. Sleeping Dog says:

    @Hal_10000:

    Arguably in most of the country we’re still in the first wave, with only Cali, legitimately experiencing a second wave.

    Maybe I’m being pedantic.

    1
  5. Teve says:

    @Sleeping Dog:

    Maybe it’s pedantic, but I would say the same thing. If you look at the graphs near the bottom of this page, it’s hard to argue that this is a new wave.

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

  6. DrDaveT says:

    @Sleeping Dog:

    Maybe I’m being pedantic.

    No, you’re correct, and it’s an important distinction. If we were to see a rise in cases in NYC, that would be a second wave. But much of the country didn’t see any significant cases until June, and many places still haven’t seen it at all. If we do this right, those places will never even have a first wave. If we do it wrong…

    2
  7. Hal_10000 says:

    @Teve:

    The first wave was at least 2-3 times as high as the current one. Testing was very minimal back then and, projecting from the recorded deaths, we were only diagnosing about 5-10% of cases. Now, we’re getting about a third.

    1
  8. DrDaveT says:

    @Hal_10000:

    The first wave was at least 2-3 times as high as the current one. Testing was very minimal back then and, projecting from the recorded deaths, we were only diagnosing about 5-10% of cases. Now, we’re getting about a third.

    I think you’re confusing time and place. There isn’t anywhere that had a first wave, got it knocked down, and is now having a second (or third) wave. The US overall total stats look superficially like a “second wave” because it took so long for the first wave to reach a lot of places. (Which is to say, that restricting travel and public events worked to reduce transmission.) But there aren’t any places that are seeing a second local surge in active cases or death rate.

  9. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    We’re #1! We’re #1! We’re #1! We’re #1! We’re #1!

    MAGA! KAG! 🙁

    @Teve: Wa! And while I’m here, yikes!

    @DrDaveT: Certainly true where I live. We had 35 active cases when we opened back up and 157 today.

  10. grumpy realist says:

    @Kathy: Idiot Friend (TM) has been having a cow because of Virginia’s continued shutting of the schools and is now insisting that For The Children’s Sake (TM) they be reopened. The fact that older teachers may not want to take the risk and will retire early has totally flown over his head.

    1