Covid by Country — America Leads the Pack

The US case curve (logarithmic scale) shows a steady 20,000 cases per day for more than 65 days straight, compared with the five worst-hit countries in Europe. France, for example, which peaked at 5,000 cases per day, now sees a tenth of that (source).

by Thomas Neuburger

While most of the nations of the world are seeing a dramatic drop in new Covid-19 cases (see chart above), the U.S. has remained, stubbornly, at roughly 20,000 new cases per day for the last 65 days.

Another way to see that is here (source):

So, while much of the rest of the civilized world is returning to café life, Paris for example...

(Note the social-distancing tables in on-street parking spaces)

or Copenhagen...

...the U.S. is stuck in place, treading water and going nowhere for the foreseeable future.

Unless we do something different, nothing different will happen, and we'll continue to see 20,000 new cases per day — and 1,000 new deaths as well — every day the pandemic rages on, until something in us breaks.

It's almost certain that something will break if we don't open the social and commercial economies soon. How can it not? Yet without a break in new U.S. cases to justify opening up, relaxing the current shutdown also opens us up to the next upsurge in infections.

And then what will we do? What will we break if the next thing that breaks is us?