Dear Reader:

Worldometer (Aug 31): over 25.5 cases and almost 852.5 thousand deaths worldwide. Over 6 million cases and almost 187.5 thousand deaths in the U.S.

Yesterday (Aug 30), the following numbers were reported as new deaths in the following countries: 960 in India, 673 in Mexico, 398 in Brazil, 369 in the U.S., 300 in Columbia, 181 in Peru, 104 in Argentina, 103 in Iran, 82 in Indonesia, 68 in Russia, 63 in Chile, 47 in South Africa, 39 in Romania, 33 in  Morocco, 11 in Australia, 9 in Japan, 4 in Italy, 4 in Canada, 2 in South Korea, 2 in Hong Kong, 2 in Vietnam,  2 in Greece, 2 in Kenya, 2 in Nigeria, 1 in Germany, 1 in Poland, 1 in Jamaica, 0 in Zimbabwe, 0 in the U.K., 0 in Finland, 0 in Norway, 0 in Sweden, 0 in France, 0 in New Zealand, 0 in Taiwan, 0 in Thailand, 0 in Malaysia, and 0 in China,

Bloomberg: India is becoming the new world’s virus epicenter (Aug 31): “India is fast becoming the world’s new virus epicenter, setting a record for the biggest single-day rise in cases as experts predict that it’ll soon pass Brazil- and ultimately the U.S.- as the worst outbreak globally… At the current trajectory, India’s outbreak will eclipse Brazil’s in about a week, and the U.S. in about two.

“The pathogen has only just penetrated the vast rural hinterland where the bulk of its 1.3 billion population lives, after racing through its dense mega-cities… As the world’s second most-populous country, and one with a relatively poor public health system, it’s inevitable that India’s outbreak becomes the world’s biggest, said Naman Shah, an adjunct faculty member at the country’s National Institute of Epidemiology…

“From the Philippines to Peru, the novel coronavirus poses a unique problem to poor countries: the densely packed slums where millions of their citizens live present ideal conditions for the virus to spread, while their economic precariousness means that the shutdowns necessary to contain the pathogen are intolerable.. Across the developing world, economies have been forced to open up even with the virus still running rampant, , quickly overwhelming underfunded hospitals.

“The list of worst-affected countries globally has accordingly shirted from rich to poor as the pandemic races around the world. Where once countries like Italy, Spain and the U.K. had the biggest outbreaks and highest death tolls, now the U.S is the only advanced economy in the top ten, among other developing nations like Mexico, Peru and South Africa”.

My notes: the reason that the U.S. has been the epicenter of the pandemic for abut 6 months, longer than previous epicenters; the reason the virus is still raging in the U.S. while it is pretty calm in every other developed country is that the president of the U.S. cares only about one thing: to be re-elected as president of the U.S. in Nov 2020. He has been campaigning to be re-elected from day one of his presidency. He has no ethical or moral values. He has no respect for the law.

He did all he could to bring about less testing in the U.S. so that fewer cases are reported and that will make him look better and increase his chances to be re-elected. He did all he could to defund/ harm the U.S. Post Office so that votes not for him, will not be counted. He has been promoting therapeutics and vaccine development in the U.S. so to take credit for such and win re-elections.

He cares a lot about being liked and admired, but he has no empathy for anyone, including having no empathy for his fans. He initiates and promotes hostilities within the U.S., turning people against people, for the same reason- to create more and more angry people who will vote for him.

How he got to be president and how he got to remain president for 4 years, and maybe 4 more, if he gets re-elected (and more years,  if he manages to become the First Dictator of the U.S.) is a surprise to me. Obviously there are very significant defects and vulnerabilities in the political system and in the characters of many of the politicians who made it possible for a Trump to have this unbelievable amount of power.

anita