The whole World had 289,936 covid cases this past week, and South Korea alone was responsible for 229,668 of them, or 79%.   The USA was #2 with 21,309, or 7%. Interestingly enough, of the 576 world deaths this past week, S. Korea had only 52 of them, or 9%.   Brazil had 171 covid deaths, or 30%, while the USA had 139 deaths, or 24%. There remains a range of questions and unknowns about our past pandemic.  One of them is, where did this all start?  Well, no doubt about the location being China, and almost surely Wuhan.  But where and how exactly?  The  New York Times  this week summarized the current state of knowledge: Was China initially hiding the truth?  Yes. The country was concerned, and ordered the original coronavirus samples be destroyed.  Maybe this was smart, but was "coverup" the reason? This Wuhan lab was known to purposefully create dangerous viruses to learn how to combat them before they emerged in the wild.  But was this, then, a phase of biological warfare?

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.