Five million Covid dead, 250 million infected in less than two years
At least five million people have died, and 250 million have been infected with Sars-Cov-2 in less than two years. That, at least, is the official estimate. It could be twice that.
Many online pundits, including formerly respected virologists, have been busy recently, proclaiming that victory against the virus is near. The virus will soon become ‘endemic’ thanks to vaccines and herd immunity.
It’s the same message they have been pushing for two years.
Based on our understanding of the source code of the virus however, we think its expiry date is still some time away.
Sorry if you were looking for better news. Perhaps try CNN or the BBC next time?
Map and figures courtesy of John Hopkins University
The Economist journalists updated their a model of the true death toll of the pandemic, corrected for underreporting.
They come to the conclusion that 15.2 million have died, more than 3-times the official toll of 4.6m.
This map shows the distribution of the death rate. pic.twitter.com/8ZMdm7LmzY
— Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) September 4, 2021
Photo by Sacre Bleu on Unsplash