Often times on this day, I usually post something about this being April Fool’s Day. But not today. Not this year, and the reasons for it should be obvious. There is so much widespread disinformation, so many conspiracy theories already with the still developing story of the global coronavirus pandemic, that it would feel hardly responsible to specifically get into a day that has been designated as the day to pull practical jokes and try to fool people. We have enough of that right now, and there is really nothing funny about it. So be assured, that everything I write here is the latest confirmed news cases, with absolutely nothing to do with trying to trick anyone, or writing anything about this serious matter in any kind of jest.
So now that we got that out of the way, let me proceed.
According to the latest news (and no, this is not an April Fool’s Day joke or hoax), there are now 860,000 people infected with the coronavirus around the world, and over 42,000 deaths, according to John Hopkins University. The United States has more confirmed cases than any other nation, with well over 185,000 people infected, according to CNN. To date, there have been more than 3,800 deaths here in the United States due to Covid-19.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres declared that the Covid-19 crisis presents the "greatest test" that the world has faced since the end of World War II. That sounds about right, too. The coronavirus pandemic has changed the lives of people in modern societies all around the world, of course. That pretty much goes without saying at this point.
In Italy, some politicians have taken to threatening citizens who still are not taking this whole thing seriously. Of course, given the dramatic situation there, how it still (for now) leads the world in deaths resulting from the coronavirus, and the images of military trucks carrying dead bodies to a cemetery. While the United States has passed Italy in terms of confirmed cases, Italy still has seen (again, for now) more deaths due to coronavirus than any other country in the world, with well over 12,000.
In Iran, the coronavirus continues to hit hard, and there are now mass graves of coronavirus victims. Iran has over 44,000 confirmed cases, and has seen a reported 2,898 deaths, as it has become the epicenter of the crisis in the Middle East. The same can be said of Spain, where like Italy and Iran, the threat from Covid-19 was not immediately taken seriously, and thus allowed the disease to spread. Spain now has one of the worst situations of the Covid-19 outbreak in the world. Confirmed cases in Spain have risen dramatically in recent days, as they have reported over 95,000 confirmed cases, and well over 8,000 dead, second only to Italy (for now). The situation in Spain is so grave, that it may soon overtake Italy as the European country with the highest number of both confirmed cases, and possibly deaths, as well.
In India, police have taken to beating violators, and in some cases, apparently, people who break the shutdown there are being forced to do crunches. The whole country is on lockdown, at least to the extent that they can be. The problem in India is that there are a lot of slums where people live in close quarters, and social distancing practices really are not very realistic. Also, the economic situation is in many respects more severe than here in the United States, because many people there do not merely face economic hardships, but outright starvation in the immediate future.
Other countries are now beginning to really get hit hard by it. That includes Israel and Iraq, , while some African countries, including Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia in the north, and Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, and Ethiopia in the central part of the continent. Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa are dealing with the growing severity of the crisis within their borders, as well.
Yet right now, the United States remains the country with the most confirmed cases, as mentioned earlier. Donald Trump, who inexplicably is receiving majority support by Americans for his handling of the coronavirus crisis, despite having done a hell of a lot that was demonstrably wrong, and continuing to do so, has now conceded that there may be up to 100,00 to 200,000 who dies from Covid-19. All of that did not prevent him from boasting about his ratings for the White House press briefings, even though these also have been widely criticized for spreading misinformation and lacking any kind of unifying message.
The situation is particularly bad where I live, here in the greater New York/ New Jersey metropolitan area. New York has over 75,000 confirmed cases, and over 1,500 deaths, while New Jersey ranks number two nation-wide (behind New York) with approach 19,000 confirmed cases, and 267 deaths reported.
Making matters worse is a now all too familiar battle raging between those here in the United States (and elsewhere) who believe that the coronavirus is indeed the crisis that the experts insist that it is, versus those who reject the advice of the experts and believe that this whole thing is completely overblown. To that end, there are stories coming out everywhere of people who are largely ignoring the crisis. Just days ago, there were still more people going onto beaches in Florida, even after much criticism over similar stories about a week ago from Florida. Some people are having parties together, clearly not maintaining social distancing rules. There are reports that hospitals are quiet, and Trump himself suggested that New York state does not need 30,000 to 40,000 ventilators.
However, there have also been video footage that shows a different reality, where here in the United States, in Brooklyn, bodies were being put into 18-wheel trucks, to be taken away to an as of yet unknown destination.
John Oliver mentioned that one major element of this great divide within the United States which threatens to make the crisis even more severe – and perhaps far more severe – is what he termed as “market worship” In short, those people who are saying that it is more important to get the nation back to work are willing to put the health and even lives of people at risk in order to get the country back to normal, which is something that just feels unlikely to begin with. This will change the country, and indeed, it will change the world. Yet, some of those advocating a quick as possible return to normalcy, such as Glenn Beck, seem basically unaffected and unconcerned with this whole Covid-19 crisis. It seems that they are urging us to forget the whole thing, and just get back to business as usual, even though this crisis is actually revealing that business as usual in this country may be part of the problem, and why this country has very quickly accelerated to the most confirmed cases of Covid-19 of any country in the world.
The conspiracy theories and outright falsehoods seem to be worse for this crisis than they have been at other times in history, and predictably, this is particularly pronounced here in the United States. There have long been rumors surrounding the Kennedy assassination, of course. But that singular event seemed to bring Americans together. The same can be said for September 11th, although again, there was a brief moment when it seemed like Americans might be able to come together after the attacks. But with Covid-19, it seemed like there was an instant, knee-jerk reaction among many Americans (mostly Trump supporters) who just went to extreme lengths to deny the seriousness of the situation. Obviously, that has not merely gone away, but continues, and even seems to be growing more severe.
Most of us have seen some strange theories floating around. Quack remedies are one of the most common. Strange tests that supposedly indicate that you've got it are also quite common. There are a huge number of conspiracy theories suggesting how it originated. Most Americans, and presumably westerners, believe that it originated somewhere in China. I posted a link to an article that blames Iran for spreading it and making it a global pandemic. Meanwhile, there are rumors in both of those countries that this whole thing actually originated in the United States. And there are any number of reasons for why it happened. Anything from consumption of bats that were the cause of it being transmitted to humans, to some top secret military experiment to try and depopulate the world. Most of these are just on the periphery of plausibility, if they even qualify.
Sigh. What that says about this country, about Americans, is very sobering and, frankly depressing beyond belief.
Yet, to me, the worst are those who deny that this either is happening at all, or happening on the scale that it is happening. As if some kind of virus were not possible, or that it is some kind of government conspiracy to gain more control. I think, like September 11th, that governments will gain more control, but that is a side effect, not the cause. It is hardly implausible to think that a virus like this could become a pandemic so quickly and easily as this one has. Frankly, what is perhaps more surprising is that it has not happened more frequently. We got lucky with an unusually long break from this kind of thing, and that is all. Well over one hundred years since the last one.
Somehow, I doubt that we will go another hundred years without seeing one again. And the next one might not be as easy for some to ignore, even conspiracy theorists, as this one apparently is.
Most of us have seen some strange theories floating around. Quack remedies are one of the most common. Strange tests that supposedly indicate that you've got it are also quite common. There are a huge number of conspiracy theories suggesting how it originated. Most Americans, and presumably westerners, believe that it originated somewhere in China. I posted a link to an article that blames Iran for spreading it and making it a global pandemic. Meanwhile, there are rumors in both of those countries that this whole thing actually originated in the United States. And there are any number of reasons for why it happened. Anything from consumption of bats that were the cause of it being transmitted to humans, to some top secret military experiment to try and depopulate the world. Most of these are just on the periphery of plausibility, if they even qualify.
Sigh. What that says about this country, about Americans, is very sobering and, frankly depressing beyond belief.
Yet, to me, the worst are those who deny that this either is happening at all, or happening on the scale that it is happening. As if some kind of virus were not possible, or that it is some kind of government conspiracy to gain more control. I think, like September 11th, that governments will gain more control, but that is a side effect, not the cause. It is hardly implausible to think that a virus like this could become a pandemic so quickly and easily as this one has. Frankly, what is perhaps more surprising is that it has not happened more frequently. We got lucky with an unusually long break from this kind of thing, and that is all. Well over one hundred years since the last one.
Somehow, I doubt that we will go another hundred years without seeing one again. And the next one might not be as easy for some to ignore, even conspiracy theorists, as this one apparently is.
Coronavirus cases top 860,000 globally by Ben Westcott, Helen Regan and Adam Renton, CNN, April 1, 2020:
Coronavirus deniers take aim at hospitals as pandemic grows by Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins, March 30, 2020:
Two videos illustrate the stark disparity in how the coronavirus outbreak is being portrayed on different parts of the internet.
How an Iranian Airline Tied to Terrorism Likely Spread the Virus (and Lied About It) by Kevin Lim, March 30, 2020:
Why is Iran the flaming epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East? One of the primary suspects is Mahan Air.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/30/mahan-air-iranian-airline-spread-coronavirus-and-lied-about-it/
Countries where COVID-19 has spread by worldometers.info, updated for April 1, 2020:
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