We are technically still in the 2nd wave. I'd wager up until late winter early spring. History has taught us the second wave is the worst. Come late spring early summer will be in the third and final wave, where things start to improve.

My gut tells me we are going to have to ride this out for another year... and the vaccine even if released will have minimum influence.

Weekly update, setting new records again

Nearly 2.3 million new cases reported this week (2,279K up from 2,067K) to a grand total of 37.1 million.
Reported deaths were about the same, 39,476 this week (down from 39,763) to a total of 1,072K.


The continents

Asia still in the lead, 754.4K new cases last week (down from 812.3K) and 11,711 deaths (down from 12,251)
Europe now close behind, 645.5K new cases last week (up from 440.0K) and 5,503 deaths (up from 4,651)
North Amrica reported 446.7K new cases last week (up from 378.3) and 10,843 deaths (up from 8,449)
South America reported 372.4K new cases last week (down from 382.8K) and 10,009 deaths (down from 13,013)
Africa reported 58.8K new cases last week (up from 53.2K) and 1,401 deaths (up from 1,376)
Oceanis reported 935 new cases last week (up from 526) and 9 deaths (down from 23)

Corners of the world

India beat their first wave but still in the lead with 505.0K new cases (down from 570.4K) and 6,575 deaths (down from 7,465)
USA reported 345.1K new cases last week (up from 305.1K) and 5,124 deaths (up from 5,084)
Brazil reported 174.0K new cases last week (down from 189.7K) and 4,261 deaths (down from 4,722)
Iran reported 27.8K new cases last week (up from 24.7K) and 1,531 deaths (up from 1,345)
Canada reported 15.5K new cases last week (up from 12.2K) and 176 deaths (up from 54)

South Africa, Japan, South Korea are holding steady, Australia is almost back to no cases.

Europe in detail

While reported deaths isn't going up much yet, almost every country is now above their first wave peaks. Keep the old and those at risk out of the way since the virus is everywhere again.

WHO says that 10% or 780 million have been infected so far (compared to 36 million positive pcr tests and 1 million 'covid involved death')

1. Global CFR is 0.14% and thus comparable to the flu. Considering that CFR was probably higher at the beginning, it is now lower than 0.14% and will continue to drop.

2. Testing random people was completely useless, missing >95% of covid anyway.

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/10/05/world-health-organization-10-world-population-mightve-had-covid/3622678001/

You can't use a guesstimate for cases and compare it to confirmed deaths. You would also have to guesstimate deaths. We know about Bergamo at least, that only about one fourth of deaths reached official statistics. That may be similar in other regions. The real number of deaths is higher than 1M.

WHO says that 10% or 780 million have been infected so far? No they didn't say that.

According to your own source Dr. Ryan said that current best estimates tell us that about 10% of the global population may have been infected by this virus.

Global CFR is 0.14%? No, since the case fatality rate (CFR) is defined as the proportion of deaths among confirmed cases of the disease:

https://medium.com/microbial-instincts/clarifying-the-true-fatality-rate-of-covid-19-same-as-the-flu-8148e38b9ab5

Testing random people was completely useless? No. Of course it is much less effective than testing people with symptoms or who had contacts to infected people. But the infected people they found with random tests helped slowing down the spread, didn't it?

Comparable to the flu again?

CDC estimates about 56,000 Americans die from the flu each year. Covid-19 already claimed over 219,000 lives in the USA, that with maybe 10% infected.

The highest estimate for Flu world wide seems to be 650K
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6815659/
Worldwide over 1 million have already died from Covid-19 while only 10% (might) have had it.

i wish the Coronavirus would just go away now

Did early focus on hand washing and not masks aid spread of Covid-19?

From the moment coronavirus reached UK shores, public health advice stressed the importance of washing hands and deep-cleaning surfaces to reduce the risk of becoming infected. The advice was informed by mountains of research into the transmission of other respiratory viruses: it was the best scientists could do with such a new pathogen. But as the pandemic spread and data rolled in, some scientists began to question whether the focus on hand hygiene was as crucial as it seemed. Contaminated surfaces, such as doorknobs and light switches – “fomites”, to use the scientific terminology – may not be such a big deal, they claimed.

The issue has resurfaced after Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told the US science magazine Nautilus that the easiest way to catch the virus was through droplets and aerosols sprayed from an infected person’s mouth or nose. “It’s not through surfaces,” she said. “We now know the root of the spread is not from touching surfaces and touching your eye. It’s from being close to someone spewing virus from their nose and mouth, without in most cases knowing they are doing so.”

Gandhi’s is not a lone voice. Her comments follow a prominent paper in the Lancet from Emanuel Goldman, a professor of microbiology at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He was sceptical about the relevance of scientific studies that showed the virus could survive on surfaces for days at a time. “In my opinion,” he wrote, “the chance of transmission through inanimate surfaces is very small, and only in instances where an infected person coughs or sneezes on the surface, and someone else touches that surface soon after the cough or sneeze.” He defined soon as within one to two hours.

Dr Julian Tang, an honorary associate professor of respiratory sciences at the University of Leicester, thinks hand washing should stay but agrees the risk from fomites has been overplayed. He points to documents from the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) that estimate hand washing can reduce acute respiratory infections by only 16%. Meanwhile, he adds, the World Health Organization has warned about surfaces being a likely route of transmission while conceding there are no reports demonstrating infection this way.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/05/did-early-focus-on-hand-washing-and-not-masks-aid-spread-of-covid-19-coronavirus

I am not surprised really, don't give two shits about hand washing (I did initially until my hands got too dry), and I have managed to stay COVID19-free as a keyworker for the past few months by ONLY wearing a mask, yet, we still have more people care about hand washing than wearing a mask because of how overplayed the importance of handwashing and how underplayed the mask-wearing by Fauci and the gang, especially months ago when people actually paid attention and were more concerned about contracting the virus than they're concerned about their income.

Those wankers should be held accountable for the spread of the virus and spreading of misinformation. After all, those who stayed home for months could've also made their own masks, most people actually lent their ears to these wanna-be daddies. 

Sadly the air transmission route is still being downplayed or not taken seriously. Extra cleaning is what schools here got instead of air filters. Masks are required from grade 4 and up, but not during lunch breaks, in the same room packed together. It's all so inconsistent. The play ground nearby has 2 different covid-19 signs. One says max occupancy 4, the other 1, crossed out and a 2 taped underneath it. The playground is outside, at least 4 times the size of a classroom (for up to 30 packed together), and never 'used' that long.

They won't do anything about it until the ICUs are filled up again. My wife's best friend's grandmother just got covid-19. She's old, small chance at survival. My wife's friend is now waiting for the call whether she needs to get tested. She has been isolating anyway, last time she saw her gandmother was 7 days ago. Her grandmother has back luck, she likely got it in Hamilton while going there for a cancer treatment. We could have gotten rid of covid-19 yet the economy and especially fun was more important.

We must wear masks all the time until our lunchbreak as well, which we're supposed to have in the staff room, where there is usually, you know, staff? 

.... total lunacy. I just skip lunch. 

And yes, still too much time and money is being spent on "deep cleaning" surfaces and less resources are being spent on masks. Not only masks help protect you from the virus, but also help you develop immunity if you're expose to miniscule viral material. 

Oh well, at least vaccines seem to be on the horizon? and I am hoping those advances in COVID19 could be leveraged for HIV