>Perhaps one outcome when dust settles will be a single agreed reporting model for future pandemic, rather than wildly varying definitions and reporting styles making it near impossible to make rational judgments, or sometimes even to compare this week to last.

If they collectively learned to count, and agreed on what to count and how, that would be a start. They could even have simple statistics with some accuracy.

Presently, just pick six random countries and you'd find at least eight counting methods, as many have changed them over time. Over here, some methods used to last just a few weeks, depending on the momentary, political, perceived needs.

p.s. the only thing that can compete with the virus, in terms of the spread, is the number of graphs on the web.