Most have witnessed the tremendous amount of problems stemming from Covid-19. This year has been plagued with rising infection rates, economic decline, and general fear and anxiety in the public.

Case count

Rising infection rates are the largest problem the world faces. According to the New York times, 67.9 million people around the world are currently infected with the virus. The U.S alone has over 15 million cases. Europe has 13.9 million cases, Mexico has 1.1 million cases, Latin America has at the very least 6.6 million cases, Africa has over 2 million cases, Canada has 415,000 cases, China reports 86.6 thousand cases, and Australia has 27,000 cases. Closer to home, as of Tuesday, Alameda county had over 32,000 cases and 522 deaths.

With Thanksgiving having rolled around in the U.S., people are curious to see if the celebration influenced infection rates. However, according to most health professionals, one must wait and see if Thanksgiving had any effect on cases, as it takes a couple weeks to gather and analyze statistics. 

“Probably what this means is three or four weeks after Thanksgiving, we will see more people die than otherwise would have,” said Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. 

If people contracted Covid-19 during a celebration, they’d likely travel back and infect people around them before showing any symptoms.

“We’ll see more people get infected over Thanksgiving. And unfortunately, it will probably be a lot of older people who are gathering together with their families,” said Mina.

Economic impact

Covid-19’s impact extends to the economy. According to Brookings.edu, U.S. retail sales declined 8.7 percent from February to March 2020, the largest month-to-month decrease since the Census Bureau started tracking the data. 

On the other hand, areas such as grocery stores or pharmacies, actually saw increases in demand as lockdown measures began. Many people reacted to the lockdowns by hoarding supplies for cleaning, such as disinfectant wipes, as well as clothing, food, medicine, and toiletries.

To keep up with this increased demand, companies manufacturing essentials have ramped-up production, evident at P&G’s largest U.S. facility, their Pennsylvania paper division plant.

“[We’re] making record amounts of Charmin and Bounty, more than we’ve ever made in the history of P&G,” said the site’s environmental leader Jose de los Rios.

Glimmer of hope

On a less bleak note, a Covid-19 vaccine is in distribution in the UK, and is awaiting approval in the US. Hopefully, it’s distribution worldwide can help bring an end to this pandemic.