Well, its official. The COVID-19 coronavirus has now breached the 1 million infections worldwide mark, according to coronavirus data tracking site Worldometer. And deaths have now topped 10,000. What is most disturbing about this fact is that this number was probably in all actuality broken weeks ago; we just lack the testing penetration to know exactly where we stand with this Coronavirus outbreak.

The US remains the global hotspot with over 235,000 cases; that’s more than 1 in every 4 cases. And US deaths are over 5,000 making it a 1 in 5 death ratio.

It is also remarkable that the growth of infection rates seems to be highest in G7 nations.

That would be consistent with the high level of disregard G7 residents typically have toward minor laws like speed limits and health and safety. One could argue that the hallmark of a G7 country is its liberal approach to adherence to civil rules.

People routinely park where there’s no parking, water their lawns during sprinkler bans, and walk their dogs in places their not supposed to, off leash and on leash. We are essentially a national cohort of spoiled brat equivalents.

Peru, in contrast, is taking a much harder line approach. If you are caught out on the street doing anything except getting groceries or medicine, you immediately are cuffed and taken to jail for 24 hours, and given a 250 sole fine (about US$71). Kids have been caught on video getting smacked around (mostly mildly) by soldiers who are genuinely pissed off that kids aren’t adhering closely to the rules.

This brings us to an important point.

Among the things that will likely come to the fore as the Coronavirus nightmare recedes into the rear view mirror of time, we are going to begin to examine the fault lines along which failures in government fuelled the spread of COVID-19. In G7 countries, the 1 million case milestone is just the first stop on the still escalating situation. We don’t yet know where the ceiling is, or the apex point from which we finally begin to descend toward normalcy.

Depending on how badly C19 ravages our populations, our aftershock response will likely be to consider much stronger measures when it comes to getting the general population to hew more closely to the directives of government.

Likely to do otherwise will only cause further death and sickness where it might be preventable. The next virus to emerge from the invisible strate that viruses occupy will likely have some even more egregious characteristics that could start to take out larger swaths of our population. Chances are, C19 is just the vanguard of the natural world’s attempt to re-balance our representation among the world’s flora and fauna.