One need only review Johns Hopkins University data to see how destructive the coronavirus pandemic was earlier this year in Europe, where the death counts on Tuesday afternoon ranged from 34,675 in Italy to 28,325 in Spain to 29,666 in France. But as staggering as those numbers are, the U.S. is now worse off: according to Hopkins, more than 120,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. — a larger death toll than Italy, Spain and France combined. And the New York Times‘ Matina Stevis-Gridneff is reporting that the European Union is considering a ban on travel from the U.S. this summer because it “has failed to control the scourge.”
The Times reviewed the EU’s “draft lists of acceptable travelers” from other parts of the world — and it is possible that the EU will “lump American visitors in with Russians and Brazilians as unwelcome.”
Brazil, according to Johns Hopkins figures, now has the second highest coronavirus death count in the world: more than 51,200. Continue reading.