Covid 19 Pandemic By Country

"Demographic, underlying conditions, and social/environmental variables, as well as COVID-19 cases and deaths are reported in Table 1 by varying proportions of black residents (<13% black residents vs. ≥13% black residents). Counties with higher proportions of black residents experienced higher rates of COVID-19 cases and (in counties with >200 cases) deaths. Counties with higher proportions of black residents also had higher prevalence of comorbidities, proportions of individuals aged 65 years or older, proportions of uninsured individuals, proportions of unemployed persons, and higher air pollution."

"Of 3142 counties included in the analysis, 677 were disproportionately black. Ninety-seven percent (656/677) and 49% (330/677) of disproportionately black counties reported at least one COVID case and death, respectively. Eighty percent (1987/2465) and 28% (684/2465) of all other counties reported at least one COVID case and death, respectively. Ninety-one percent (616/677) of disproportionately black counties are located in the southern United States. The proportion of black residents across disproportionately black counties ranged from 13.0% to 87.4%. As of April 13, 2020, there were 283,750 diagnoses in disproportionately black counties and 12,748 deaths. By comparison, all other counties had 263,640 diagnoses and 8886 deaths. Collectively, 52% of COVID-19 cases and 58% of COVID-19 deaths occurred in disproportionally black counties."

"Emerging evidence suggests that black Americans are at increased risk for COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. Although it may be counterintuitive that a newly identified virus that can infect anyone would rapidly manifest pronounced racial disparities, a consistent pattern has been reported across multiple states, showing that black Americans comprise a disproportionately greater number of reported COVID-19 cases and deaths compared with other Americans. For instance, in New York City, the current epicenter of the U.S. epidemic, COVID-19 deaths disproportionately affect black Americans (22% of population and 28% of deaths) and the rest of the state (9% of the population and 18% of deaths). Such disparities are also evident within individual counties, such as in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, where black residents comprise 26% of the population yet account for 73% of COVID-19 deaths, and in Dougherty County, GA (69% black), where 81% of 38 deaths were black."

"Nearly 20% of U.S. counties are disproportionately black, and they accounted for 52% of COVID-19 diagnoses and 58% of COVID-19 deaths nationally. County-level comparisons can both inform COVID-19 responses and identify epidemic hot spots. Social conditions, structural racism, and other factors elevate risk for COVID-19 diagnoses and deaths in black communities."

"The observed differences in clinical presentation may also reflect differences in underlying chronic conditions on hospital presentation. For example, chronic renal insufficiency at baseline and acute renal failure during hospitalization were more common among black patients than white patients. Black patients were more likely to have fever on testing or elevated levels of procalcitonin, or C-reactive protein. These findings may suggest a different immune response to Covid-19 according to race. In a study examining population differences in the immune response to pathogens, Nédélec et al. found that African ancestry was associated with a stronger inflammatory response to pathogens than European ancestry. Our findings suggest that more studies are warranted to assess the immune response to this novel coronavirus with regard to racial and ethnic differences, other factors that may influence the difference in hospitalizations, and the effect on outcomes.."

"This study examined the characteristics and clinical outcomes of a large cohort of Covid-19–positive patients in Louisiana. Blacks and female patients represented the majority of all Covid-19–positive patients. Black patients had higher prevalences of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease at baseline than white patients. Although black patients represent 31% of the patients routinely cared for by Ochsner Health, they made up 76.9% of Covid-19–positive patients hospitalized within the health system. A higher percentage of blacks than whites presented with elevated levels of creatinine, AST, or inflammatory markers. Among the patients who received critical care or mechanical ventilation, approximately 80% were black. Black race, increasing age, a higher score on the Charlson Comorbidity Index, public insurance (Medicare or Medicaid), residence in a low-income area, and obesity were associated with increased odds of hospital admission. Blacks were overrepresented among all patients who died in the hospital (70.6%). However, black race was not associated with higher in-hospital mortality than white race, after adjustment for differences in sociodemographic and clinical characteristics on admission; this finding is similar to that of a recent study in the state of Georgia in which 80% of hospitalized patients with Covid-19 were black. The racial differences in the frequency of Covid-19 observed in the study population are probably multifactorial. They may reflect underlying racial differences in the types of jobs that may have an increased risk of community exposure (e.g., service occupations). In a 2015 report on the civilian labor force in Louisiana, most service workers in New Orleans and surrounding areas were members of minority groups. Approximately 40% of service occupations in New Orleans were jobs related to food preparation and serving. Racial differences in Covid-19 that were observed may also reflect differences in the prevalence of chronic conditions that appear to increase the risk of severe illness. According to a 2018 Health Report Card, Louisiana ranked 45th of 50 states for obesity, 46th for heart disease or strokes, and 47th for diabetes. The report further showed that the incidences of obesity and diabetes were higher in the black population than in the white population. The incidences of these conditions are also higher among persons with lower education and low-income levels across all race groups."

"Yeah. I tested positively toward negative, right? So, no, I tested perfectly this morning, meaning—meaning I tested negative... But that’s a way of saying it: positively toward the negative."

"I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it."

"When we have a lot of cases, I don’t look at that as a bad thing — I look at that in a certain respect as being a good thing because it means our testing is much better. ... So I view it as a badge of honour, really,"

"I would have told you that three or four days ago, but we never had a chance, because you never asked me the question."

"A lot of doctors take it. I take it."

"If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases"

"We need to unleash the voices of the scientists in our public health system in the United States so they can be heard and their guidances need to be listened to."

"Lives were endangered, and I believe lives were lost. Not only that, we were forced to procure the supplies from other countries without the right quality standards, so even our doctors and nurses in the hospitals today are wearing N95-marked masks from other countries that are not providing the sufficient protection that a US-standard N95 mask would provide them."

"Rep. Butterfield: How could we be struggling to get adequate supplies of simple supplies like swabs? What does this say about the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak? Bright: It says to me, sir, that there is no master coordinated plan on how to respond to this outbreak."

"There's no one company that can produce enough for our country or for the world. We need to have a strategy and plan in place now to make sure that we can not only fill that vaccine, make it, distribute it, administer it in a fair and equitable plan. We don't have that yet and it is a significant concern."

"I believe with proper leadership and collaboration across government, with the best science leading the way, we can devise a comprehensive strategy, we can devise a plan that includes all Americans and help them help us guide us through this pandemic. The window is closing to address this pandemic because we still do not have a standard centralized coordinated plan to take this nation through this response."

"We need to be truthful with the American people. Americans deserve the truth. The truth must be based on science. We have the world's greatest scientists. Let us lead. Let us speak without fear of retribution. We must listen. Each of us can and must do our part now."

"Our window of opportunity is closing. If we fail to improve our response now, based on science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged. There will be likely a resurgence of Covid-19 this fall that will be greatly compounded by the challenges of seasonal influenza. Without better planning, 2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history."

"To me it's not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools"

"Asian Americans are VERY angry at what China has done to our Country, and the World. Chinese Americans are the most angry of all. I don’t blame them!"

"This novel disease creates an unfortunate opportunity to conduct ecological experiments focused on the etiology and depth of health disparities in a manner unobserved since this area of science emerged, especially as states begin to relax risk-mitigation policies."

"The most common explanations for disproportionate burden involve 2 issues. First, racial/ethnic minority populations have a disproportionate burden of underlying comorbidities. This is true for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, HIV, morbid obesity, liver disease, and kidney disease, but not for chronic lower respiratory disease or COPD. Second, racial/ethnic minorities and poor people in urban settings live in more crowded conditions both by neighborhood and household assessments and are more likely to be employed in public-facing occupations (eg, services and transportation) that would prevent physical distancing. As stated by Yancy, “social distancing is a privilege” and the ability to isolate in a safe home, work remotely with full digital access, and sustain monthly income are components of this privilege. COVID-19–related exposures are also exacerbated by a greater propensity to be homeless and reside in neighborhoods with substandard air quality. The possibility that genetic or other biological factors may predispose individuals to more severe disease and higher mortality related to COVID-19 is an empirical question that needs to be addressed. These explanations must be considered in the full context of systemic factors such as historical and ongoing discrimination, and chronic stress and its effect on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and immunologic functioning. As more data emerge, there will likely be evidence of racial/ethnic health disparities due to differential loss of health insurance, poorer quality of care, inequitable distribution of scarce testing and hospital resources, the digital divide, food insecurity, housing insecurity, and work-related exposures. There is an obligation to address these predictable consequences with evidence-based interventions."

"Select underlying medical comorbidities, older age, diabetes, obesity, and male sex have been identified as biological vulnerabilities for more severe COVID-19 outcomes. Geographic locations that reported data by race/ethnicity indicate that African American individuals and, to a lesser extent, Latino individuals bear a disproportionate burden of COVID-19–related outcomes. The pandemic has shone a spotlight on health disparities and created an opportunity to address the causes underlying these inequities. The most pervasive disparities are observed among African American and Latino individuals, and where data exist, American Indian, Alaska Native, and Pacific Islander populations. In Chicago, Illinois, rates of COVID-19 cases per 100 000 (as of May 6, 2020) are greatest among Latino (1000), African American/black (925), “other” racial groups (865), and white (389) residents. Mortality rates are substantially higher among African American/black individuals (73 per 100 000) compared with Latino (36 per 100 000) and white (22 per 100 000) residents. New York City (as of May 7, 2020) reported greater age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality among Latino persons (187 per 100 000) and African American individuals (184 per 100 000), compared with white (93 per 100 000) residents."

"We have to close the country. And I said, say it again. They said, sir, you have to close the country. Nobody ever heard of a thing like this but they were right because if I didn't we would have lost two million, two and a half million, maybe more than that people."

"Coronavirus numbers are looking MUCH better, going down almost everywhere."

"If people want to get tested, they get tested."

"We are getting great marks for the handling of the CoronaVirus pandemic, especially the very early BAN of people from China, the infectious source, entering the USA. Compare that to the Obama/Sleepy Joe disaster known as H1N1 Swine Flu. Poor marks, bad polls - didn’t have a clue!"

"“Not all Latinos are created equal,” said Daniel López-Cevallos, professor of Latino and health equity studies at Oregon State University. More Latinos in states with established communities, he said, are likely to have middle-class jobs or the sort of wealth that could help tide them over through the pandemic without having to work outside the home. By contrast, those in places like Oregon and Washington “tend to be lower income, with lower educational levels, lower levels of health insurance and more employment in essential services,” López-Cevallos said. “They have fewer support systems in place.” According to a Pew Research Center survey in April, about half of the Latinos questioned said they or someone in their household had either lost a job or taken a pay cut, or both, because of the virus outbreak — compared with a third of all adults in the United States."

"“We realized that it must be how Latinos live and work that’s driving these disparities,” said Galvez, who works at the clinic in Hillsboro, outside Portland. The Hispanic patients, many of them immigrants, help produce some of the country’s premier Pinot Noir, maintain Nike’s sprawling headquarters and plant berries, hazelnuts and Christmas trees in the Willamette Valley. Others are seasonal workers who begin arriving by the thousands later this month for the harvest. They live in close quarters, often multiple families to a house or with several farmworkers crowded into a barrack-style room, where social distancing and self-isolation are impossible. They perform jobs that require interaction with the general public, in food service, transportation and delivery; and some also toil in meatpacking plants that have emerged as major hot spots. If they are undocumented, they cannot collect unemployment, which may compel them to work even when they feel unwell, facilitating the spread to their co-workers."

"Dr. Eva Galvez works as a family physician for a network of clinics in northwestern Oregon, where low-income patients have been streaming in for nasal swabs over the past several weeks to test for the coronavirus. Galvez was dumbfounded by the results. Latinos, about half of those screened, were 20 times as likely as other patients to be diagnosed with the virus. “The disparity really alarmed me,” said Galvez, who began trying to understand what could account for the difference. It is a question that epidemiologists around the country are examining as more and more evidence emerges that the coronavirus is striking Latinos, and some other groups, including African-Americans, with particular force."

"I can't tell you that. I'm not allowed to tell you that."

"Though some protections exist for people struggling financially during the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to the stimulus package signed into law on March 27, they largely ignore those who were already on the edge of financial ruin. The CARES Act has paused federal student loan debt payments and payments on federally-backed mortgages, and various cities and states have suspended evictions. But few states have stopped creditors from moving ahead with , repossessions, and attachments (one-time seizures of bank accounts). This means that in many cases, the pandemic will tip people [...] into an economic abyss from which it will be difficult or impossible to recover. Even the one-time $1,200 stimulus payments promised to millions in the U.S. can be garnished by financial institutions in many states. [...] About one-third of Americans have debts in collection, according to the . Total reached an all-time high in the last quarter of 2019, at $14.5 trillion, according to the . Unemployment checks are supposed to be protected from creditors, but even they are at risk of seizure once they are deposited into bank accounts. To protect their benefits, debtors must file a court motion, which is challenging in scores of jurisdictions where the coronavirus has closed most courts. People who do succeed in filing motions are being told they must wait weeks and sometimes months for their cases to be heard. In the meantime, the funds remain frozen."

"Donald Trump: And you have to understand: When we took over, the cupboards were bare. And the thing that — frankly, it’s not as tough as the ventilator situation. We’re the king of ventilators. But what we have done is — on testing, we’re doing numbers the likes of which nobody has ever seen before. And I told you, the President of South Korea, President Moon, called me to congratulate me on testing. And we did more tests than any other country anywhere in the world. And I think they told me yesterday a number — if you add up the rest of the world, we’ve done more testing. And it’s a higher quality test. So I think we’ve done a — I think the whole team, federal government — we built hospitals for you and others."

"The only reason the U.S. has reported one million cases of CoronaVirus is that our Testing is sooo much better than any other country in the World."

"My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed. I have instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups. This is about stopping this disease and saving lives. Period."

"States with large cities have taken the pandemic straight in the teeth, and are hurting badly. Many of these states did not support Trump in 2016, particularly New York and California. The leaders in these states will likely be willing to swallow any number of compromises to get the aid money flowing. [...] The blue states need that aid, and McConnell knows he has their congressional representatives over a barrel. The utter cruelty of these tactics, the nihilistic self-destruction of it in the face of more than 55,000 dead and thousands more to follow, has scarce precedent in the annals of U.S. politics. Instead of helping the entire country in this time of grievous crisis, Trump and McConnell are putting their boots to the neck of every state they deem ideologically unfit. It will be a damn miracle if the nation survives this, and them."

"Illinois, New York, California … all big-city blue states hit hard by COVID, all states that have felt the failures of the Trump administration acutely, now singled out as states that do not deserve federal aid. COVID does not care who you voted for, but Trump does, and he seems happily willing to increase the nation's suffering while helping to expand the reach of the pandemic in order to settle some grudges and score points with his weirdly death-seeking base."

"Donald Trump and his top Republican allies in Congress are fighting a war, and the battle lines have begun to clarify themselves. Their war is not being waged against COVID-19, the pandemic that has killed tens of thousands in this nation alone. Their war is being waged against the nation itself, and specifically against areas of the nation that are heavy on population but light on Trump supporters. In other words, the big-city blue states, whose governors have refused to fawn over Trump's gibberish-flecked "leadership" during this crisis."

"I can't imagine why."

"What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately. They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!"

"Was just informed that the Fake News from the Thursday White House Press Conference had me speaking & asking questions of Dr. . Wrong, I was speaking to our Laboratory expert, not Deborah, about sunlight etc. & the CoronaVirus. The Lamestream Media is corrupt & sick!"

"And we’re — really, I’m very happy the governors have been — the governors, really, have been doing a really good job working with us, and it’s — it’s, really, pretty impressive to see. I’ve spoken to numerous leaders of countries over the last 48 hours, and they are saying we’re leading the way. We’re really leading the way in so many different ways."

"So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light and I think you said that hasn't been checked but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way."

"And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because, you see, it gets on the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it'd be interesting to check that. So that you're going to have to use medical doctors, but it sounds — it sounds interesting to me."

"I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit. I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science – not politics or cronyism – has to lead the way."

"We’ve tested more than every other country in the world even put together."

"Disproportionately black counties were more urban than all other counties, were more likely to have >1 person per room, which might reflect multigenerational and multifamily households, and marginally lower social distancing scores. Counties with more households having >1 person per room experienced greater rates of COVID-19 cases, but counties reporting less social distancing had paradoxically fewer COVID-19 cases."

"Leading public health experts have called for the rapid adoption of compulsory COVID-19 testing and surveillance reporting to include race/ethnicity, sex/gender, age, and educational level at the national, state, county, and zip code levels. Such reporting will be an important step to more rapidly and completely describe health inequities and inform programs. Deliberate attention to race and socioeconomic barriers is needed when determining the locations of testing sites, yet an analysis in Philadelphia, where black people are a plurality of the population, found a 6:1 differential between testing in high-income versus low-income zip codes."

"The risk of COVID-19 diagnoses for counties with more black residents is consistent across levels of urbanicity. The risk of COVID-19–related death for disproportionately black counties is significantly higher only in small metro and rural areas. Furthermore, where rural transmission has been significant, it has been in disproportionately black counties. Counties like Dougherty County, Georgia, experienced intense outbreaks among black Georgians a month later than the early wave of infections in large urban areas. In sum, the alignment of individual-level and neighborhood data within urban centers and the county-level data presented here documenting disproportionate burden among black people suggests that the results of the ecologic analyses presented here are not entirely attributable to structural confounding and may hold true at the individual level in at least some cases."