(1) INTRODUCTION a few sketches of “national” identities as revealed in the data and stories that have emerged around the world. I have done some phrase-making, collected some comparative data, and put onto this page of this website several of the articles and images that I have found particularly revealing. I know much more about some places, the UK and USA, Japan and South Korea, and much less about others, China, the nations of Africa, contrasts between Uruguay and Argentina. 
Regardless of how much or how little I know, I find the differences set out here genuinely mysterious. The biology and medicine of the virus itself has befuddled and fascinated doctors and academics who work with disease. Yet another article today addressed one of its key mysteries: why do some people get so very much sicker than others?
The place of the virus in different cultures is at least as befuddling. For me, many politico/cultural differences still remain beyond the reach of satisfactory explanation. 
The segments begin with some images: comparative maps, comparative charts with sidebar comments and a set of related “mystery” questions after each series. Next comes an attempt at metaphorical language to accurately characterize differences among a few countries.Next, a segment with a few “Japan and the USA compared” remarks. Unlike my previous letters in these Virus Times, this one goes both to my US/UK world and to my friends and colleagues in Japan and Korea. Last the CODA. The most mysterious question of all.

To reopen the full letter in a new page check here.