Germany is #1!

[Shermann]

Last edited Sat Feb 26, 2022, 05:43 PM - Edit history (1)

Germany's 28-day COVID case count of 4,964,658 just surpassed the US count of 4,793,905 according to JHU. I don't recall a time since the start of the pandemic where the US wasn't #1.

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

[AlexSFCA]

1. the case count is completely irrelevant - only hospitalizations are

[Shermann]

3. Hospitalizations are a better singular metric for managing the pandemic

I wouldn't go so far as to say infections are completely irrelevant though.

[AlexSFCA]

5. in a highly vaccinated country, case count has exactly zero meaning

counting asymtomaptic case or even mildly symtomatic is only needed to generate “alarmist” headlines like this. It has no relevance to the pandemic and is likely a positive sign of more immunity being generated.

[Shermann]

6. That's true right up until the next variant of concern spawns out of all this

Which basically means it isn't true

[viva la]

2. What happened?

I hope that doesn't mean there's a new variant that hasn't hit the US yet.

[SergeStorms]

4. For the first time in a long time.....

COVID seems like a distraction. It's of secondary importance to the invasion of Ukraine, at least in my mind.

[progree]

7. Looking at new cases per 100K, U.S. is doing quite well compared to almost all European countries

I like the New York Times map (they also have a table)

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html
No paywall no quota

One can mouse over countries on the COLOR-CODED map and see the new cases per 100k pop up

New cases per 100K (7 day moving average):
U.S. is only 21, most of Europe is far higher than that:
UK 55, France 97, Germany 195, Spain 51, Italy 75, Denmark 478, Norway 262, Sweden 25, Finland 85

[Shermann]

8. You are right

I removed that part from the OP

[progree]

9. I rewrote my #7 😊

[Hav]

10. Interesting

Looks like other countries are past their Omicron peak while Germany is still right in it. Extremely high positivity rate for their tests (40+%).
But when you look at the negative outcomes, their death rate is still at half or even a quarter compared to what it was during the Delta peak. In fact, and maybe that will change in the coming weeks, using your link and sorting for new deaths per 1million instead of cases, the US is still number 1 for the selected countries and has a rate that is more than twice as high as Germany's.
So while the number of cases is alarming, I think I'd be more worried about how many people are dying and the hospitalization rate and I suppose that is affecting policy changes right now.