WHO warns we're still in first wave of COVID-19 pandemic, with second still to come

While impeached president Donald Trump was "celebrating" Memorial Day and his "transition to greatness" of ignoring the spread of the novel coronavirus while hanging out on the golf course and tweeting insults at powerful women, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a dire warning: This is still the first wave of the pandemic and there's more to come.

"Right now, we're not in the second wave. We're right in the middle of the first wave globally," warned WHO's executive director, Dr. Mike Ryan. "We're still very much in a phase where the disease is actually on the way up." That includes India, with a population of 1.3 billion and more than 145,000 infections, with 4,200 deaths. Each day of the last seven, it has reported record single-day increases in new cases. Brazil is No. 2 in the world after the U.S. with about 375,000 cases and a minimum of 23,000 deaths.

Then there's Russia, which may or may not have more than 360,000 cases and 3,800 deaths after a spike in one-day deaths on Tuesday of 174. Russia's mortality rate—and reporting—is highly suspect. Kind of like the states of Florida and Georgia, which have been pretty clearly fudging the numbers.

In what is undoubtedly a message to Trump and U.S. governors, WHO's Ryan warned Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and other government officials against moving too quickly on reopening the economy. He said that Brazil's "intense" transmission rates called for keeping stay-at-home orders in place. "You must continue to do everything you can," he said.

After a Memorial Day in which Trump nation went fucking nuts, it's entirely likely the transmission rates in the U.S. are going to become "intense" again.

from Daily Kos https://ift.tt/3gsk1eT