Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/March 22 to 28, 2020

| 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic

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| 7,865,205

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| Get this: The little spiky sphere on the left that you see is a computer illustration of something that sizes at around millionths of a centimetre. Okay, not a big deal--quite literally a tiny deal. But what if that same little spiky sphere manages to sicken nearly nine hundred thousand people and kill more than forty thousand (as well as send stocks reeling, sweep shop-shelves empty through panic-buying and literally lock countries down)? That's much worse. The 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic is caused by the Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, of which causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (yes, COVID-19) illness, of which is responsible for all the illnesses and dying and tragic things like that.

| 2020 coronavirus pandemic in India

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| 3,327,313

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| India is becoming increasingly affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic, numbering 1,998 cases at the time of writing. The country, which is home to over a sixth of the world population, is currently under a lockdown that Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared on the 24th March. 41 have sadly passed away from infection and 144 have recovered.

| Coronavirus

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| 2,692,771

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| For a while, the Latin word for crown could mean a star's surrounding fire, a Mexican beer, [https://hydra-corona.com.br/ a shower brand], the group that sung "The Rhythm of the Night"... but lately if you say "Corona", we know it's the virus type which has an instance spreading itself while locking us at home.

| Spanish flu

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| 2,403,781

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| The sheer scale of the current pandemic has earned it comparisons to the influenza-fuelled Spanish Flu, which lasted from the beginning of 1918 to the end of 1920 (Almost literally--January '18 to December '20 to be exact). A 2006 estimate of the number of victims of this pandemic presents itself with the grand number of 500 million--a quarter of the population of the entire world at the time, and a little higher than the combined populations of the US and Russia today. Gee, that's a lot of people.

| 2020 coronavirus pandemic in the United States

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| 2,178,259

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|rowspan=4|For some variety, let's borrow from [https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus/comments/fmp5vf/they_didnt_cancel_the_offspring_concert_in_chile/fl66ahc/?context=8&depth=9 Reddit learning] The Offspring might be to blame if Chile sees a sudden rise in COVID-19 cases:

Like the latest fashion.
It's a spreading disease.
The kids are coughing all the way to the classroom
Boomers infected with a breath and a wheeze.
Republicans say that it’s all overblown.
The Dems say it’s a crisis and you’ve gotta stay home.
If one guy cough up and the others just breathe.
They're gonna pass it on, pass it on, pass it on, pass it on...
Hey! Man you're talking close to me?
Take him out
YOU GOTTA KEEP’EM SEPARATED!
Hey! Man, you want to infect me?
Cover your mouth!
YOU GOTTA KEEP’EM SEPARATED!
Hey HEY hey, we paid no mind!
We're under thirty we'll be infected in no time!
We can't come out and play!

| 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Italy

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| 2,173,809

| File:COVID-19 Outbreak Cases in Italy (Density).svg

| Coronavirus disease 2019

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| 2,153,131

| File:Stop. Do you have a new continuous cough? (49686568657).jpg

| 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic by country and territory

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| 2,091,311

| File:COVID-19 Outbreak World Map.svg

| Madam C. J. Walker

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| 1,971,771

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| Madam C. J. Walker was the first female self-made millionaire in the United States. Born in the Deep South region that was once home to piles upon piles of slaves, Walker eventually launched the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company and propelled herself into the world of beauty and cosmetics. She died deep in former Union territory in Irvington, New York. Walker has recently been the subject of Netflix miniseries Self Made; her role is acted out by one of my favourite actors, Octavia Spencer. That's her on the left.

| Orthohantavirus

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| 1,762,835

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| As [https://nypost.com/2020/03/24/man-who-died-on-bus-in-china-tests-positive-for-hantavirus/ one guy dies on a bus], everyone goes crazy.

| Joseph Maldonado-Passage

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| 1,635,932

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| Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic (in fact, his page is under that name) is an American former zoo operator from Garden City, Kansas, was convicted of 17 charges of animal abuse and two more for hiring to kill in 2019; these charges landed him in prison for a painful twenty-two years. A lot happens in twenty-two years. I'll put that into perspective--take today and wind the clock back 22 years. We are not in 1955 or '85 for that matter, sadly, but rather in--no prizes for guessing--1998. At the time of writing, going back this amount of time would deliver us to Wednesday the first of April, 1998. Examples of life on Wednesday the first of April, 1998: Computers still run on Windows 95 as Windows 98 is still in development, PlayStation 2 is yet to be released (in 2000), Wikipedia doesn't exist (it was invented in 2001), Maldonado-Passage is eighteen years away from attempting to run for President ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3O01EfM5fU?t=121 seriously!]) and Netflix's documentary about him (#13) is waaaaay into the future. As a matter of fact, Netflix, then a DVD rental company, was only a year old. Weird times. As for that tiger on the left, Maldonado-Passage once claimed to be the best tiger breeder in the United States (what he did to them disagrees).

| 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Turkey

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| 1,523,529

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| Turkey's first COVID-19 case was on the 11th March this year; it originated from a European tourist. Unfortunately, panic buying ensued, emptying shelves of pasta and toilet paper. Turkey now has about 15,000 cases of COVID-19, the closed cases being constituted by 333 recoveries (cool number!) and 277 deaths.

| Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness

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| 1,521,821

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| A rule of thumb in recent years of the Report is "if you click on a person's name and a mugshot appears, the person is probably featured on Netflix". And so, here's the documentary about #11's misadventures in animal abuse and attempted murder.

| Andrew Cuomo

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| 1,399,722

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| Bring it on.

Andrew Cuomo is the 56th and current Governor of New York. He assumed office on New Years' Day 2011--for me, that's quite a long time ago. Cuomo's stint as Governor of the Empire State has overseen the creation of a certain United States Climate Alliance, passage of apparently the strictest gun control in the country, and now, the emergence of New York as one of the epicentres of the pandemic. Now, that's a lot to go through as a Governor of any state in the US. But fear not, as Cuomo certainly knows his stuff when it comes to COVID-19 pandemics--apparently daily press conferences and a sharp 'You're not Superman, and you're not Superwoman' are just some of what he offers. Well, perhaps he said that latter quote just once, I don't know.

| Deaths in 2020

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| 986,785

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| 2020 was the fateful year for many victims of the pandemic as well as prominent figures Krzysztof Penderecki (a Polish composer), Kenny Rogers (an American country singer), Kirk Douglas (an American actor who died at 103), Kobe Bryant (one of the greatest basketball players of all time), Christopher Tolkien (son of John Ronald Reuel and the map illustrator in The Lord of the Rings), as well as Rocky Johnson (father of actor Dwayne and a wrestler in the then-called World Wrestling Federation, now the WWE).

| Kenny Rogers

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| 975,734

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| ...won't you believe in my song?

| 2009 flu pandemic

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| 929,035

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|

As the world experiences a major 2020 pandemic, people read about a 2009 major pandemic.

| Black Death

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| 925,734

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| The Yersinia pestis bacterium that caused the 14th-century Black Death is much bigger than the coronavirus that's causing the current pandemic--around 25 times larger, at that--but still quite small. Have a peek at the cover image of the article for micrometres. Notice that filament that's been put over the human hair; the length of a Y. pestis bacterium is about half the width of that filament (at around 3 micrometres). Anyway, the Black Death was certainly one of the most deadly pandemics in recorded human history; it did away with anywhere from 75 to 200 million people. If 200 million is correct, that's a two thirds of the current population of the United States gone. Holy cheese.

| A'Lelia Walker

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| 908,821

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| A'Leia Walker was the daughter of Madam C. J. (featured at #9 in this list), and Tiffany Haddish (pictured) plays her in Self Made.

| Contagion (2011 film)

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| 881,687

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| Ever since #1 was starting to spread in January, people have sought this thriller by Steven Soderbergh for its eerie resonance - a disease originated from China, caused by a virus of bat origin, which spreads to the point quarantines and curfews are enforced. Even the cautions (not touching the face) and conspiracy theorists are similar.

| Mark Blum

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| 808,756

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| Among the people who died because of #1 is this actor, who broke out in the 80s with movies such as Desperately Seeking Susan and Crocodile Dundee, and in recent years was mostly in television and streaming.

| Carole Baskin

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| 795,971

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| As documented in #13, the CEO of Big Cat Rescue had a feud with #11, and led him to bankruptcy once a lawsuit for libel (Joe Exotic claimed Baskin had a hand in her husband vanishing) would award her $1 million. So he hired a hitman to try to murder her, and this led to his arrest.

| The Platform (film)

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| 765,230

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| Netflix is being so used by quarantined people [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-25/netflix-reduces-video-quality-in-more-countries-to-handle-surge that the streaming quality has been reduced]. So no surprise people are seeking the latest sensation of the service, a Spanish sci-fi horror flick set in a tower-like prison.

| 2020 coronavirus pandemic in the United Kingdom

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| 741,389

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| On the 28th of March this year, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the UK of all people, fell to COVID-19. There really isn't much clearer proof that everyone can get infected from this than having your own leader get infected. Now, I'm not from the UK, but that doesn't matter. Have a look at [https://twitter.com/i/status/1243496858095411200 his Twitter video announcing his infection] for more details. Meanwhile, a get-well-soon also to the over 20,000 Britons currently infected with SARS-CoV2.

| 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Spain

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| 727,414

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| When has the 25th-ranked article ever been this high? This pandemic has a lot of worried eyeballs on it right now. But speaking of your eyes, no las toquen.