Two hundred and sixty days after January 11, when China recorded its first official death due to the unknown SARS-Cov-2, a transformed world reaches today (or yesterday, depending on the source of the count) the terrible share of a million dead. In 8 and a half months, the victims of the coronavirus are already many more than the 690 thousand of AIDS in 2019, and over double the 400 thousand of malaria in the same period; within a few months – speculated Michael Ryan, WHO executive – this number could grow to double, exceeding the 1.5 million deaths from tuberculosis last year.
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Such a massacre was not imaginable. Yet there are still those who, from London to Madrid, shout conspiracy theories in the square which they consider more credible than such a harsh reality. But the acute phase of the pandemic is far from over. Between August and September, the lives lost on the planet continued to increase, settling on an average of 5,000 every 24 hours in the last week. With India with 7,700 victims every 7 days, and starts at the beginning of October to exceed 100,000 deaths. Not even half of those of the United States, the country most affected both in terms of cases (7.1 million out of 33 global) and victims, with 205,000 Americans losing their lives since March, and continuing to die at 5,000 per week, with a fatality rate (deaths among the positives) dropped from 5 to 3%. The effects are still severe in Brazil – second with 141 thousand victims, of which about 4,800 in the last week – and in Mexico, where 3,000 people have died since 20 September (76,000 in total). These four countries together account for more than half of all deaths worldwide.
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With nearly 300,000 new positives on the planet every day, a second wave that has now spread across half of Europe and autumn is upon us in the northern hemisphere, the restrictive measures are multiplying to avoid returning to the most critical point. But still South America is the area where the virus is causing the worst disasters in recent weeks: in Argentina, Colombia and the number of daily deaths remains high.
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The lethality rate of the virus in the world is difficult to indicate with certainty, because scientists do not really know how many have caught the virus without having symptoms: in the first months of the pandemic, tests were scarce, today they are increasing and the data are becoming more reliable (the United Kingdom in April he made 15,000 a day, now over 200,000). Comparing countries with different demographics (and varying levels of data transparency) is complicated. They range from 100 deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants of Peru to 59 in Italy, up to 7 in India. In many European countries there has been an excess of mortality that exceeds the official data on deaths from Covid: in our country between March and April about 44,000 people died, more than the average of the previous five years, 12,000 more than the official number. of coronavirus deaths. But science – also thanks to those who participated in experimental programs, and not always survived – has improved treatments: it has discovered that the steroid Dexamethasone increases the chances of survival of patients in oxygen deficiency, and that the use of a drug antiviral speeds recovery for those who have had a severe course of the disease. Together with hygiene, distances and masks, these are the weapons of man waiting for the vaccine.
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September 27, 2020 (change September 27, 2020 | 22:53)
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