Some good news: China appears to be getting the upper hand

While the news around the globe surrounding the spread of the Covid-19 virus continues to be bleak, with outbreaks and deaths in new places almost every day, the tide seems to have turned in China where it all started.   According to an Associated Press dispatch , China reported just 119 new diagnoses on Tuesday, March 4. That number is significantly below the diagnosis rate just 10 days earlier and marks a major shift in the virus’s momentum within China.   In addition, China, which has both the bulk of the world’s infections (more than 80,000) and 95% of the reported deaths caused by the virus, announced that more than 50,000 people have fully recovered from illness associated with the virus and the city of Wuhan, ground zero for the spread of the virus, closed the last of its emergency hospitals and discharged its final patients.    While these early week reports of diminishing infection rates encouraged observers to believe that the virus had largely run its course in China, China’s infection rate ticked up in a real but statistically insignificant way by the end of the week.   Notwithstanding the minor variation in reported infections, experts still believe that the worst if over in China.

Meanwhile, the West is bracing for the epidemic with equal measures of panic and fear.   The U.S. reported more than 230 active cases by weeks’ end, with major universities including Stanford, NYU and three in the Seattle area , announcing that they would suspend classroom and other meetings for the foreseeable future to try to inhibit further infection.  As detailed in countless news and online reports and dramatically reflected in the U.S. and other stock markets, the impact of the virus’ spread—and even more so, the fear of the virus’ spread— on the world’s economies has been extraordinary.


~~ David M. Walsh

Hinnant, L. And Moritsugu, K., “Virus crisis ebbs in China, spreads fear across the West.”  Associated Press.  (Paris) March 3, 2020.  Republished in the Marin Journal, March 4, 2020.  https://www.marinij.com/2020/03/03/virus-crisis-ebbs-in-china-spreads-fear-across-the-west/