Because Quebec is a province and not a country, the dire situation here is largely understated and unpublicized on the world scale, but there's no hiding the level of the disaster.
When Quebec's mortality rate is compared against other countries in the world, only Belgium is worse off.
That's right, if Quebec was a country, it would be the second worse off out of the 195 countries that make up the world.
If one was also to include New York state as a separate entity as well, Quebec would slide to third place, cold comfort indeed.
The table above compares Quebec to the rest of the world and includes the USA as a whole and the USA minus New York state, as well as Canada as a whole and Canada minus Quebec.
You might question whether making a comparison based on just one day is valid, but it does represent the here and now, and even comparing numbers over the last week or so hold up Quebec as a world-class disaster.
As the world bemoans the huge amount of virus deaths in the United States, it is largely based on the brute numbers because of America's size.
But the rate at which Quebecers are dying is actually twice as bad as that in the USA, 12.5 deaths per million in Quebec and 6.0 in the USA.
When Quebec is compared to Rest of Canada, the death rate due to the virus here is a shocking 5.7 times as large, which means that a Quebecer is almost six times more likely to die of the virus compared to someone living in the ROC!
And sadly, we are nowhere in sight of the end because the virus has implanted itself firmly in over 300 nursing homes and senior residences where seniors are being slaughtered at a rate of close to 100 a day.
Premier Legault has described the situation in Quebec as two solitudes, whereby the situation in the senior homes is ruinous, while the situation in the general population (where citizens have dutifully isolated themselves in their homes) quite manageable.
In his latest news briefings, the Premier's frustration and indeed panic was palpable, describing the uncontrollable out-of-control reality.
As the virus rips through the senior homes, the nursing staff is either out sick with the virus or have abandoned the job themselves in fear of getting sick.
The skeleton staff remaining are unable to properly tend to residents, who are in many cases left for days without food or water, something unimaginable in our modern age.
Hospitals have complained that many patients transferred are not virus-positive, but rather dangerously dehydrated and malnourished.
What is worse in all this that attempts to remediate the situation by calling for altruistic Quebecers to volunteer to go into the homes to lend a hand have failed miserably and considering Quebecers' reputation as Canadians who do the least amount of voluntary charity service, it's no surprise.
Incredibly, Quebec has actually shanghaied workers on the provincial payroll to work in these homes, forcing them against their will under threat of dismissal.
The situation is so desperate that the Premier has been forced to play his very last card, which is asking for help from Ottawa in the form of the Canadian army.
For a desperate Francois Legault and his government, begging Justin Trudeau for help is as Ayatollah Khomeini described signing a ceasefire with hated enemy Iraq, 'like drinking a cup of poison."
For Quebec, the end to the ongoing disaster is not yet in sight as the virus fire rages through our tinderbox senior homes unabated.
And so when you see the Quebec media doing sleight-of-hand and misdirection, emphasizing President Trump's virus disaster in America, remember that we are sadly in twice as bad shape.
