The one bit of relatively good news is that the world didn't quite make it to the 2 millionth confirmed Covid-19 case today as new cases remained under 75k, and many of Europe's most heavily impacted countries have generally fallen to a daily growth rate of 3% or less (Italy, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, and even Belgium) -- though the USA, Canada, France, and Sweden all remain in the 5% range, and the UK at 6%, Turkey at 7%, and Brazil at 8% continue to be the most problematic for the future. The USA still accounts for more than 35% of all new cases globally, which we've been doing since the end of March, and even though we were at less than 2% of the global total a mere month ago.
Fatalities jumped back up to nearly 7000 again, powered once more by another record 2400 in the USA, though this may have been due in part to a reclassification of some recent deaths in NY. Sweden also became the 14th country to have recorded at least 1000+ Covid-19 fatalities, and Canada looks to become the 15th member to join this unfortunate fraternity in the next day or two. Turkey, Sweden, and Canada all recorded their first 100+ death day, and Brazil had its first 200+ death day.
Canada usually gets much more favorable reviews in its response to the pandemic than the USA, but its current trajectory is not a very good one -- indeed its 7-day growth rate in fatalities of 137% is actually worse than any other member of the top 15.
Sweden looks to be starting to reap the fatal fruits of its procrastination and irresponsible attitudes, with a death toll now twice that of all its Scandinavian neighbors combined (Denmark, Norway, and Finland) and a fatality rate of 102 per 1M that is already 9th worst in the world and soon to be 7th when it leaps past Luxembourg and Switzerland this week (by contrast, the USA has still only reached 79 per 1M thus far).
Brazil also looks to be embarking on a period of truly exponential growth in its death toll, powered by a government that hasn't even tried to use testing to combat the virus (<300 tests per 1M, compared to the American average of 9200+ thus far), and seems even more wedded to wishful thinking than our current maladministration. Krotor has a diary today about a Brazilian "clinical trial" of Trump and Bolsonaro's miracle cure drug that ended up killing nearly 40% of the patients who received the higher dose! www.dailykos.com/...
In the USA, LA joined MI, NJ, and NY in the 1000+ fatality fraternity, which will also come to include MA tomorrow, IL perhaps the day after, and CA, PA, CT, FL, and GA in the coming week. 28 states have already recorded 100+ Covid-19 fatalities.