February 8 According to real-time statistics from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, February 8, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide has exceeded 106 million, and more than 2.31 million deaths.
In the United States where the pandemic is most serious, experts in the country analyzed that the actual severity of the pandemic may be 10 times the official data; at the same time, the mutant novel coronavirus is spreading rapidly in the United States; the White House is trying to promote the rescue plan to ease the economic pressure caused by the pandemic.
U.S. expert: The pandemic may be 10 times more serious than the official report.
At present, there are nearly 27 million confirmed cases and more than 463,000 deaths in the United States. However, a research team at Columbia University in the United States recently released the numerical model it has established.
The conclusion shows that on any day, the actual active cases in the United States (new infections or still infectious people) may be 10 times the number of officially reported cases on that day.
Shaman, the lead researcher of the study and an infectious disease expert at Columbia University, said that the researchers first estimated how many people in the United States are truly infectious every day so far, and then compared them with the number of people tested and counted as confirmed cases.
The results show that there is a huge difference between the two. Sharman estimates that the number of infected people in the United States may be five times higher than the number of officially reported throughout the pandemic.
In response, Sharman sighed, “When we see confirmed cases, we really just see the tip of the iceberg.”
The situation would have been worse if we considered the current active cases.
Shaman stressed that infected people are infectious on average three to four days before symptoms appear.
Therefore, the study also counted the number of infected people who had previously been infected, as well as the number of infected people who were still spreading the virus.
On this basis, Shaman estimates that the number of actual active cases per day in the United States is about 10 times that of the actual reported data.
Mutant viruses are spreading rapidly in the United States.
At the same time, more pessimistic things are still happening.
A new study finds that the mutant coronavirus previously found in the UK is spreading rapidly in the United States, and even obvious community transmission has occurred.
The study estimates that the mutant virus is 35 to 45% more infectious than the virus that appeared earlier in the United States.
The study suggests that many patients infected with the mutant virus in the United States did not report recent international travel, indicating that the virus “has already had obvious community transmission across the United States”.
Researchers warned that without “decisive and immediate public health action”, new and more infectious variants “may have disastrous consequences for the death and morbidity of the novel coronavirus in the United States within a few months”.
Can the $1.9 trillion bailout bill pass smoothly?
The delay in the outbreak of the United States has caused the country’s economy to continue to bear heavy pressure.
The January employment report showed that the number of jobs in the United States has decreased by nearly 10 million since the outbreak.
In order to ease some of the economic pressure, the White House is trying to promote the $1.9 trillion rescue plan proposed by President Biden in Congress.
Treasury Secretary Yellen said on February 7 local time that she supported the plan, saying that it was the best way to return the U.S. economy to pre-pandemic levels.
As part of the rescue plan, the plan intends to distribute $1,400 in cash directly to eligible people, but the specific threshold has not yet been finalized.
Yellen said that the threshold should be set at an annual income of $60,000, “because the troubled middle class needs help.”
However, the prospect of whether the bill can be successfully implemented is not clear. At present, the White House is facing Republican opposition in Congress, especially the financial support required for the plan.
But Yellen warned that without the additional $1.9 trillion in federal support, the unemployment rate in the United States will remain high in the next few years.
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