The US is becoming a lesson to us all. Don't do what they do.
With 50,000 dead now, and over a million known infections within about three days, we can only watch as their broken federal political system seems intent on increasing, rather than minimising, the death toll of Covid-19. What will happen then though? Will it die off in summer? Or become less lethal? If that's the case, in an election year there will be great pressure to open the US economy ASAP.
Then, as winter approaches, a second wave will probably hit. That's what Trump's CDC and other health bodies have warned. With the so-called Spanish flu, which lasted from early 1918 to late 1920, the second wave was the most dangerous. It infected as much as a third of the world and killed over 20 million.
But hey, it just kills the elderly and those with underlying health problems, doesn't it? Well... That's unclear. In these early mutations that's more likely. But Covid-19 can produce a cytokine storm, whereby the immune system of the body attacks the lungs. The Spanish flu did the same, and mutated to attack the young and fit. The stronger the immune system, the worse the disease, the more likelihood of death.
By the end of 2020 we should know how dangerous this thing is. Sadly, ordinary Americans are our lab rats. Will only 100,000 die? Or millions?
