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Coronavirus Growth in Western Countries: June 16 Update

Published on 5 Comments on Coronavirus Growth in Western Countries: June 16 Update

Here’s the officially reported coronavirus death toll through June 16. The raw data from Johns Hopkins is here.

5 thoughts on “Coronavirus Growth in Western Countries: June 16 Update”

  1. D_Ohrk_E1

    SCOTUS ruled 7-2 against Republican AGs and two individual plaintiffs who sued to eliminate the ACA, in part, because Republicans in Congress successfully repealed the mandate section, thus preventing the individual plaintiffs from gaining standing to sue. -- https://bityl.co/7O41

    Gotta appreciate the tremendous power of irony, here.

  2. Ken Rhodes

    I note that “ Republicans in Congress successfully repealed the mandate section” is not accurate, either as plain English or as a legal argument.

    In the landmark case regarding the issue of the constitionality of that section, what Chief Justice Roberts wrote is that the federal government has that power as part of its powers of taxation.

    So then what the Republican congress did is set the penalty to zero for violation of that section. OK, that’s certainly within their powers of taxation, i.e, set the rate. Then various suits have been filed claiming that without a penalty, that section is nullified, and under the contention of non-severability, therefore the whole ACA is nullified.

    There is a technical legal term for that line of reasoning. It’s BULLSHIT.

    The reason it’s bullshit is that there are thousands of precedents well established in jurisdictions—federal, state, and local—throughout the USA, where a tax rate for something has been set to zero but the tax code remains on the books, so that in the future it does not require new legislation to set the rate back to a non-zero amount.

  3. golack

    From the CDC: percent adults vaccinated (1st dose):
    overall: 64.7%
    Republic of Palau 99
    Vermont 83.9
    Hawaii 82.2
    Massachusetts 80.7
    Connecticut 77.6
    New Jersey 76.7
    Maine 76.3
    Rhode Island 74.2
    Pennsylvania 73.7
    New Mexico 73.3
    Maryland 72.7
    California 72.4
    New Hampshire 71.9
    Washington 71.9
    New York State 70.4
    District of Columbia 70.3
    Illinois 69.7
    Virginia 69.5
    Guam 69.4
    Minnesota 68.8
    Delaware 68.4
    Colorado 68.2
    Oregon 68.2
    Wisconsin 64.2
    Nebraska 63.2
    South Dakota 63.1
    Puerto Rico 62.9
    Iowa 62.8
    Utah 62.5
    Florida 62.3
    Michigan 61.3
    Kansas 61
    Kentucky 59.9
    Alaska 59.7
    Texas 59.5
    Arizona 59.4
    Nevada 59.4
    Northern Mariana Islands 58.8
    Ohio 58.3
    Montana 57.3
    Oklahoma 55.5
    North Dakota 54.7
    North Carolina 54.6
    Indiana 54.2
    Missouri 54
    American Samoa 53.8
    South Carolina 52.5
    Georgia 52.2
    Idaho 51.6
    Arkansas 51.4
    West Virginia 50.7
    Tennessee 50.5
    Wyoming 48.4
    Louisiana 47.3
    Virgin Islands 47.3
    Alabama 47
    Mississippi 45.1

  5. cld

    'Supertasters' may have some innate protection against COVID-19,

    https://www.livescience.com/covid-supertaster-genes.html

    One of the biggest mysteries of the novel coronavirus is why it affects some people more severely than others. Now, a group of scientists has found that people who experience a greater-than-average intensity of bitter taste — known as "supertasters" — were less likely to become infected with, or become severely ill from, COVID-19.

    This enhanced bitter taste is driven by a gene called T2R38; when a person inherits a copy of the gene from both parents, that person becomes a supertaster, according to The Washington Post.

    But this gene does more than enhance the taste of bitterness; it has also been linked to having a better innate immune response against pathogens.

    Those who inherit this gene from both parents tend to have more hair-like filaments, called cilia, in their nose and sinuses, and these filaments help to clear pathogens from the body. When activated, two copies of this gene also trigger the body to produce more mucus and nitric oxide to fight pathogens, according to the Post.

    Previous research that focused mainly on bacterial infections and inflammation found that the more intensely people experience bitter tastes, the stronger their innate immune responses are, according to the Post.
    . . . .
    Nontasters were "significantly more likely" than tasters and supertasters to test positive for SARS-CoV-2, to be hospitalized and to be symptomatic longer. Of the 55 patients with COVID-19 who were admitted to the hospital, 47 (85%) were nontasters. Of the 266 people who tested positive for COVID-19, only 15 (6%) were supertasters.

    Overall, the ability to taste bitterness could accurately predict who was going to develop severe COVID-19 about 94.2% of the time, according to the Post.
    . . . .

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