U.S. lags in coronavirus testing after slow response to outbreak

Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases and daily testing in the U.S., Italy, and South Korea, 17 March 2020. Delays in testing in the United States set back the nation’s response to the pandemic, even though its first case was discovered around the same time that South Korea’s was. Graphic: The New York Times

March 18, 2020

U.S. lags in coronavirus testing after slow response to outbreak

By Larry Buchanan, K.K. Rebecca Lai, and Allison McCann 17 March 2020 (The New York Times) – Coronavirus testing data has been spotty and not easily available, especially in the United States. Based on official government sources, here’s how testing efforts in the United States compare with those in Italy and South Korea. Delays in […]

Modeled deaths per day and total deaths in the U.S. and Great Britain from unmitigated COVID-19 epidemic. Model published on 16 March 2020. Graphic: Ferguson, et al., 2020 / Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team

March 17, 2020

A chilling scientific paper helped upend U.S. and U.K. coronavirus strategies – “Even if all patients were able to be treated, there would still be in the order of 250,000 deaths in Great Britain, and 1.2 million in the U.S.”

By William Booth 17 March 2020 LONDON (The Washington Post) – Immediately after Boris Johnson completed his Monday evening news conference, which saw a somber prime minister encourage his fellow citizens to avoid “all nonessential contact with others,” his aides hustled reporters into a second, off-camera briefing. That session presented jaw-dropping numbers from some of […]

COVID-19 cases in mainland China (orange) and worldwide (yellow), 20 January 2020 - 15 March 2020. Graphic: Johns Hopkins University

March 15, 2020

Graph of the Day: Worldwide COVID-19 cases surpass China cases

15 March 2020 (Desdemona Despair) – Des follows the Johns Hopkins University dashboard for COVID-19 on a daily basis. Today, the total number of cases outside of China (81.7k) exceeded the total number of cases in mainland China (81k). The exponential rise in global cases shows no sign of abating. Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by […]

A man and a girl on a scooter are backdropped by a Lombardy region campaign advertising, reading in Italian, “Coronavirus: let’s stop it together”, at the Porta Nuova business district in Milan, Wednesday, 11 March 2020. Italy is mulling even tighter restrictions on daily life and has announced billions in financial relief to cushion economic shocks from the coronavirus. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. Photo: Luca Bruno / AP Photo

March 11, 2020

WHO declares virus crisis a pandemic, urges global fight – “We are deeply concerned by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction”

By Maria Cheng, John Leicester, and Jamey Keaten 11 March 2020 GENEVA (AP) – Expressing alarm both about mounting infections and inadequate government responses, the World Health Organization declared Wednesday that the global coronavirus crisis is now a pandemic but added that it’s not too late for countries to act. By reversing course and using […]

Aerial view of a house in the East Yorkshire town of Snaith that been devastated by flooding in February 2020. Photo: Getty Images

March 6, 2020

Big freeze to grip Britain before weekend downpour hits – 178 flood alerts still in effect

By Dan Keane 6 March 2020 (The Sun) – Temperatures are set to drop by another -6C before another weekend of rain hits the country after weeks of heavy rainfall. Flooding alerts are still in place, and this weekend could bring more wet weather with heavy wind also expected. This will be the fifth weekend in a […]

Aerial view of flooding in Snaith, Yorkshire, UK, 1 March 2020. Video: Sky News

March 2, 2020

Wettest February on record in UK – 77 flood warnings issued with hours until water levels hit peak – 15 rivers hit their highest levels on record

By Kate Ng 2 March 2020 (The Independent) – Seventy-seven flood warnings remain in place across England and Wales as the UK prepares for river levels to peak in the aftermath of Storm Jorge. The Environment Agency (EA) has 74 flood warnings in place for England, with many concentrated in the southwest and along the […]

A rainbow appears over flooded fields in the Wye Valley, near the hamlet of Wellesley, in Hereford, England following Storm Dennis on 17 February 2020. Storm Dennis is the second named storm to bring extreme weather in a week, following Storm Ciara. Photo: Christopher Furlong / Getty Images

February 26, 2020

“Immediate evacuation” ordered in English town as flood barriers overwhelmed – River Severn may surpass record level set in November 2000

26 February 2020 (Sky News) – An “immediate evacuation” has been ordered in a town in Shropshire after rising water levels from the River Severn breached flood barriers. West Mercia Police said it is “currently carrying out an immediate evacuation in Ironbridge due to the temporary barriers becoming overwhelmed”. Chief Superintendent Tom Harding said the […]

A 929 millibar beast followed by another meteorological bomb as the pressure of Storm Dennis dropped to 920, one of the lowest on record in this part of the world, and then the two combined into a massive cyclone while doing a Fujiwhara dance, 16 February 2020. Video: Stu Ostro / The Weather Channel / Twitter

February 19, 2020

Two-fisted storm system pummels Iceland, British Isles – “This is not normal flooding, we are in uncharted territory”

By Bob Henson 17 February 2020 (Weather Underground) – A rapid-fire pair of winter storms swept across the North Atlantic from late last week into the weekend, bringing the most widespread flood alerts on record for the United Kingdom and one of the lowest surface pressures ever recorded in this part of the world. The […]

Flood water surrounds tomb stones at a graveyard in Tenbury Wells, after the River Teme burst its banks in western England, 16 February 2020. Photo: Oli Scarff

February 17, 2020

Storm Dennis, 2nd-strongest bomb cyclone on record in North Atlantic, wreaks havoc across UK, parts of France – Record 594 flood warnings and alerts issued in UK

17 February 2020 (AFP) – Britain on Monday began to clear up after Storm Dennis battered the country over the weekend, leading the government’s weather agency to issue a rare “danger to life” warning amid widespread flooding and high winds. Hundreds of flood warnings remained in place, including five “severe” warnings around the River Teme […]

Breakdown of total fossil fuel support in PIDG, 2002-2018, by sub-sector ($USD). Data: Source: Private Infrastructure Development Group Annual Report 2018. Graphic: Global Witness

February 6, 2020

Obscure investment fund uses UK aid money to finance fossil fuel projects – “A farcical situation where the Government, on one hand, spends aid money to mitigate climate change, and on the other hand finances fossil fuels all over the world”

6 February 2020 (Global Witness) – We are at the beginning of a year of climate spin by the British Government. This year, the UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow. While the Government claims to be a ‘climate leader’, we reveal how a little-known investment group funded by the […]