First, the covid pandemic.  China is undergoing a serious outbreak, and the   world is close to imposing a quarantine for the entire country .  However, there was   considerable New Year's Eve celebration in Wuhan , so maybe it's not so bad, at least at the site that caused this all.   Most wore masks, and feared getting infected.  Asked why they showed up into a packed crowd, the general conclusion is that after almost three years of confinement...people just wanted to have a nice time. Yet, in that  same article , the UK-based health data firm Airfinity reported that there are now 9000 DEATHS/day in China.  THE WHOLE WORLD HAD 9686 DEATHS FOR THE ENTIRE PAST WEEK, OR 1384 DEATHS/DAY.  MORE The World mortality rate for this 7-day period was 0.32%, based on 9686 deaths and 2,958,173 cases.  That is, just about 3 million cases for that week. If China's mortality rate was about the same, that would mean 2.8 million new cases/day or around 20 million new cases this past week.

    From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):            DAY    USA    WORLD      Brazil      India      South Africa 2020 June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82 July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572 Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130 Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82 Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85 Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118 Dec     30       3880    14748       1224       299      465 2021 Jan      14       4142    15512       1151        189     712 Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398 Mar      2       1989     9490        1726       110      194 April     6        906    11787         4211       631       37 May     4        853     13667        3025      3786     59   June    1        287    10637         2346      3205      95  July    7         251      8440        1595        817