= new reply since forum marked as read
And since Canada is declining, its really the U.S. the only region with growing cases.
I might be over-simplifying a bit, but as far as regions that have high case counts and sizable populations to move the world total needle, the U.S. is it. Most of the world is moving downward with the exception of a few countries like Taiwan, and to some extent, Japan and Australia..
South America may be moving up but its at a very low level presently.
In particular, Europe, which was the world's hot spot for a long time, is declining.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html
See especially "Cases by region" where the only line moving up is the red line which is "U.S. and Canada", and like I said before, Canada is declining, so that line's upward movement is all due to the U.S..
Late Edit to add the referred to graph --
Last edited Sat May 14, 2022, 01:30 PM - Edit history (1)
and I specified INCREASING. I'm also well aware that the U.S. has lower rates than many countries. I wasn't enumerating hot spots, I can see the colors on the map.
I was pointing out the lines in the "Cases by Region" graph.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html
I think the U.S. + Canada is quite the anomaly in that graph as they define regions. I still do. (And I should mention again that cases in Canada are decreasing, so the strong upward trend of the red line is all due to the U.S.)
Again, I realize that there are countries here and there in other parts of the world that are also rising, and I mentioned some.
I had hoped to spur a discussion of the graph, as opposed to getting into a game of looking for individual countries and sub-regions that are bucking the overall trend.
For well over a month, I have been daily watching the world total new cases falling, as well as all those regions in the graph above, with the exception that the U.S.+Canada (really the U.S.) has been rising.
I should have included, as far as REGIONS with rising counts, Australia and New Zealand as they are slightly rising and certainly deserve the designation of region geographically. But their combined population is 31 million -- less than 1/10 of the U.S or Europe, and I also specified rising enough to move the world total needle, and their level of increase barely changes that.
As for "much of Western Europe (e.g. Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Ireland) where rates are also increasing." I'd say most of Western Europe is decreasing. Of the 5 countries mentioned, Italy, France, and Germany are decreasing. It is true that Portugal and Ireland are increasing.
or low.
Have a good and safe time in Europe. 
Doesn't it know how much we long to get back to "normal"--you know, our usual posture of ignoring the needs of anyone other than ourselves?
After all, this is 'Merica! To defeat fascism our forebears put up with gas and food rationing, blackout curtains, curfews, a universal draft. All so we wouldn't have to bear the unbearable: wearing a piece of cloth on our faces, keeping a reasonable distance. And then, two years into the war, everyone decided they were tired with all that nonsense, declared victory, and moved on! Isn't that how it worked? So why can't we do that now?
Think of the children who can't see each other's faces during active shooter drills! Think of the mega-corporations and their millionaire and billionaire owners! How can they be expected to thrive without packed malls and subservient workers?
O the humanity!
it's making a comeback
who could have seen that coming? 
...this late date. Maybe everyone has just given up. In the first days of his term, Biden did come out strong about how serious the pandemic was and the need for the country to pull together in an emergency. But then the will to follow through just never materialized. I'm sure that seeing so many MAGA chuds willing to believe the most insane conspiracy theories, attending super-spreader rallies, acting like mask mandates were the sufferings of Job--that would demoralize anyone. The problem is that even if we do get new vaccines that are better tuned to the new variants, we are still going to be a petri dish for Covid mutation for the foreseeable future if half the country refuses those vaccines.
At the very least, more vaccine mandates will be needed, and a lot more mRNA vaccines have to get shipped to the rest of the world that don't have working vaccines (or any vaccines). Good luck with that. 
