Later on they put in a window of 2 weeks but that still inflates the figures. In the meantime the USA inflates figures for another reason and that is to claim more subsidies for each Covid death.
In the good old days governments would try their best to look good but with politicians now working in unison with the drug companies the landscape has changed. The pandemic has been overhyped and populations have been kept in a state of fear in order for the drug companies to make money and for governments to increase their control over those they rule.
Just look at who has benefited from this ongoing state of emergency. It certainly isn't the average citizen. It's the tech companies, the drug companies, the huge supermarket chains, amazon, etc. Ask yourself why every country kept supermarkets open while shutting down the village grocer. Surely making everyone go to one huge building is a recipe for Covid spread. It would have been far better to allow all the smaller shops to trade while shutting the supermarkets instead.
yes while pharma will undoubtedly profit from this Covid misadventure, the amount isn't that large. maybe $100-200b in revenue. That's like a rounding error on the fed's combined monetary stimulus. so those profits don't seem like a main driver of the pandemic.
what's fascinating are the rapid social changes taking place. it's like the future got shoved down our throats overnight and we were compelled to embrace tech and all those companies you mentioned.
and this has been great for the environment too, undoubtedly one of the biggest beneficiaries of this rapid change.
in the past, it took wars to move society forward. 20m died in ww1, 75m in ww2. this time, for the price of 2m+ lives we get to remake society.
seems like a good deal so far....