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Tony’s Coronavirus Notes – Donald Trump: Australia has Tremendous Problems

Friday, 31 July 2020

Trump, the world’s favourite president, announces that Australia has ‘tremendous problems,’ here’s the story in the Sydney Morning Herald.

“This resurgence in cases is occurring throughout large portions of our planet — in Japan, China, Australia, Belgium, Spain, France, Germany, Hong Kong — places where they thought they’d really done great,” he said. He’s absolutely right, I’m living in Melbourne, ground zero in Australia for a frightening second wave of Covid-19. We’re locked down – I can’t travel outside the city limits. And we have to wear masks anytime we venture outside the front door. They’re a pain in the neck on my bicycle, my glasses fog up no matter what I do.

Here’s today’s figures – seven day moving average (7DMA) – for the 8 countries he cites, new Covid-19 cases and Covid-19 deaths. All 8 countries (if you count Hong Kong as a country) are suffering scary second wave onslaughts:And then, for comparison three US states:

Florida and Arizona are worst case states although the numbers have been edging down in Arizona for several weeks. At one point New York State was the worst place in the world for Covid-19, but they got a handle on it three months ago and the numbers have steadily declined although they seem to have reached a plateau rather than really stopping. Nevertheless New York State this past week has been running rather worse than the whole country of Australia even though we have been having – according to Mr Trump – ‘tremendous problems.’ I’d agree with him, we are having tremendous problems, even if they are only about half as tremendous as what New York State is currently facing. And compared to Florida or Arizona?