We are in month *stares at calendar* five of this viral plague of the Coronavirus. The United States is performing the worst in the world right now for Covid everything.

The day prior (July 8) was over 62,000 new cases in a day. Oh, and we are still in our first curve. Update: July 10th, the day this post came out, showed a record breaker of 66,786 new cases in a day

But, wow, do we try to paint a picture that other nations are suffering worse than us or just as bad.

Distraction at its finest

Here is what Sweden’s Covid numbers look like:

Jumpy but looks nothing like a horror tale of “How Not to Handle Covid”. That would be the graph above

 

Yeah, I wouldn’t start queuing Blindside’s “Bring Out Your Dead” or “We’re All Going to Die” just yet as Sweden’s farewell songs. The United States is doing far, far worse. And the worst part: we are not even testing everyone. For one, in the US, Covid tests cost money, between $100 and $400 dollars. And that’s the test, not the treatment, which is pretty much “Suicide is much cheaper” expensive.

And then you have the desire from the White House that they think “if we test more people, it could make us look really bad”. Basically, the “Hey, China did it, so should we” method. Speaking of China, let’s bring up the good ol’ middle kingdom.

Unfortunately, there is major reason to believe that China has been doctoring their Covid numbers and cooking the books to make the pandemic seem a lot less worse than it actually is. There are countless reasons to assume that millions upon millions are affected in China. For one, America’s Covid numbers and the stark fact we literally are making several of the same mistakes China did.

A) China did not fly to the presses, or anyone for that matter, about the fact Covid was spotted. Actually, how the Chinese govt found out about Covid was from reading private messages from a group of doctors, one of them being Dr. Li Wenliang. The Chinese government saw a conversation that basically went, “hey, something weird is floating about, stay away from this particular market in Wuhan, it could be from there.” Major human rights violation aside (inb4, “Man, the US is better” – Google “Project Prism”, “Patriot Act” and “Civil Rights Movement/BLM Activists tracked by the FBI”), instead of the Chinese government going “Wow, this is bad, we should hop on it”, they knocked on Dr. Li’s door four days later and made him sign a document of charges that stated he was making things up in attempt to cause social discord. He tried to point out to them, “Nope, not making things up, this is pretty serious-” but they weren’t trying to hear it. Instead, the Chinese government worked to discredit Dr. Li, and said nothing at all or “The US did it”. This severe mishandling – which I only glossed over, a lot more happened than that – bought the coronavirus priceless time to really settle its roots and make a worldwide bang.

B ) Though outfitted with technology that makes Big Brother in 1984 literally look like it came out of the actual year of 1984, China bumbled the virus badly with their own civilians because, just like the US, they wanted to save face. And thought the best ways were by censoring discussions of Covid on Chinese internet such as WeChat, Weibo, QQ and Baidu, wielding doors to family homes shut and tying individuals spotted without masks to pillars … still without a mask on. They tried to show that their harsh, human-rights-violation-multipliers methods work well but … they don’t. Consider this: if you only had 83,000 people infected with Covid in a nation filled with 1.4 billion people (thus holding 1/5th of the world’s population), isn’t tying people to pillars and wielding homes shut a bit much? Unless the numbers are far, far worse. Which is more like what is actually happening. Modern China has a long, well marked history of cooking numbers and editing history to spin whatever story that benefits the Chinese government – not necessarily the people of China – to either look like they are doing the best job in the world or to present itself as a feeble nation ill-equipped to defend itself from the evil, imperialist West. Though the West has definitely put a wallop on China out of White supremacist-filled imperialism, this does not change the fact that China is currently a superpower nation with the 2nd strongest economy in the world. And one that is fumbling the virus like mad. Just like their geo-political, superpower nation rival, the United States of America.

C) Chinese social media doesn’t bounce the same party lines of the Chinese government, especially in the Wuhan area. I know Chinese, I have access to Chinese social media and friends in China (Wuhan, included). They’re not exactly bubbling with joy over the cover up and doctored stories. When Dr. Li died of the Coronavirus, there was quite the uproar from the Chinese citizens at their government because that was a boiling point. You can’t tell people “We care about what is best for you” and silence anyone who goes “No they don’t and I can prove it” and expect that to hold up forever. They have had protests (both violent and peaceful) in the Hubei province, where Wuhan is, over this and the draconian methods that, frankly, are not working to help stem the virus. The only “China is Amazing And That Is All” I have heard from Chinese social media comes from state media and their nationalists. Just like White Nationalists, Chinese nationalists are just as idiotic and insidiously allergic to actual facts. Everything is “fake news” unless it is bullsh*t they like – then it is somehow very real.

China has the same faults and failings as the USA. Both countries suck at dealing with Covid – the only nation that has been doing an outstanding job is literally South Korea. North Korea has unfortunately been struggle-busing because of a multiplex of problems but North Korean news is quite the humdinger right around now about Covid. I also know Korean so I have been glimpsing at North and South Korean news livestreams. If there is one thing that Covid is revealing, it is how nations handle their social problems. Some actually try to handle the issue, and others go for spin because actual hard work is, well, hard.

Let’s bring up South Korea, actually.

S. Korea is presently going through their second wave, which is also their second curve. This is what the curve is supposed to look like when actual efforts are made. Testing (with no price tag), contact tracing, not wielding family houses shut, closing potential hot spot businesses like karaoke cafes, wearing masks, these are what kept the numbers comparatively low. Granted, Korean news and some civilians feel that not enough is being done. Still some people ignore masks and forgo social distancing, which is indeed a problem, but they still have some glorious numbers. If the US or China had these numbers, then those nations would be justified in playing “Look at [random nation], they are one wrong turn away from turning into World War Z” stories … but they don’t.

Korea is trying to open up as slowly as they can. Just like other people in the world, the civilians are anxious to return back to normal life. But we still do not have a vaccine anywhere (and if politics nonsense continues, it could tack on more time than anyone would like to admit). However, they are still trying to open up. It’s been an experience, with its own wacktacular moments. Such as allowing students to go to school physically and then find they cause cluster infections. And so do beaches and houses of worship. And this is in the nation that has been performing best with Covid. If anything, it shows how anxious the world is as a whole to get back to normal. And how pervasive the coronavirus is when even given a sliver of a chance.

So, what now? As this is a US blog and the US is the hardest hit nation by Covid, it is remarkably obvious that something viciously needs to be done to help with the issues of dealing with Covid. People are out trying to enjoy the summer and that is causing major spikes in the Covid numbers – and, remember this about the numbers: these are the people who can afford to be tested, millions of Americans lost their jobs and thus their health insurance. These party people need to wear a mask. There are people out there forced to protest because White supremacy is far deadlier and with a bigger death toll than what Corona could aspire to accomplish. However, these people also need to wear a mask (I will always say this – if you don’t like tear gas, wear a mask. Please be smart in how you protest. Covid is not the only danger out here). Long story short, there are people are out here, giving Covid countless opportunities to spread. Please participate in social distancing, please wear a mask, and don’t murder Black people because you’re a homicidal racist. (I mean, if you are racist, please catch Covid. Dead racists do tend to equal alive Black people and improved quality of life for Black people. Even if your racism is of the lighter “I’m not racist, I vote blue/listen to Jay Z/etc” variety. Still a walking problem.) Covid is definitely something to worry about, no matter your age. It isn’t just an “old person disease”.

To sum it up, there is still a nasty plague out here. Spin and propaganda does not help stifle the virus. Murdering minorities out of bias does not limit the virus – actually, due to the murderer’s behavior and, in extension, a justice system that hardly works, it puts more people at risk because they have to go out an protest this just to get anything cohesive to happen. If there were less racist murders, that would mean less protests and more people home, which would halt the spread. People need to distance themselves socially, wash their hands, and take the impact of plague seriously. Both viral plagues and plagues of racism.