Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/March 8 to 14, 2020

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Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (March 8 to 14, 2020)

Prepared with commentary by Serendipodous, Soulbust and Igordebraga

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The official data is still down, so through other tools (and a helpful compiler made by Jtmorgan) we made a list brought to you by the letters "COVID" and the number "19".

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	Notes/about
1	2019–20 coronavirus outbreak / pandemic		6,408,766		"We are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic." It seems the only thing that matters in the world is not getting infected with the strong, heavily contagious virus that since its outbreak in China last year has now reached pandemic status. All the movies that could've brought us to the theater were postponed, just about every sport (American and association football, basketball, hockey) stopped being played, and everywhere you see the words "social distancing" and "quarantine".
2	Coronavirus		2,883,888
3	Coronavirus disease 2019		1,762,421
4	Spanish flu		1,582,872		In the last 100 years, humanity has had to confront two great plagues: one was AIDS, the other was this monster, which struck a weakened world still broken by the horror of World War I, and was almost certainly speeded by it. The death toll is still debated today, and may have been as high as 100 million, though was more likely comparable to AIDS's 30 million.
5	Pandemic		1,517,718		The precise definition of this loaded word is vague, and even the World Health Organization is cautious in applying it. Even so, they declared the COVID-19 disease a pandemic this week.
6	2019–20 coronavirus outbreak / pandemic by country and territory		1,480,438		This epidemic is global, but its effects are local, and everyone will confront their own story, largely dependent on their country's response.
7	2009 flu pandemic		1,272,019		This pandemic was essentially an encore for the 1918 flu. It was the same type, though a different strain, and infected about the same percentage of the world's population, but thankfully was far less virulent. Still many people were left with permanent damage to their lungs.
8	2020 coronavirus outbreak / pandemic in Italy		1,262,160‬		Italy has been hit the worst of any country by this pandemic, with nearly 50,000 cases in a population of barely 60 million. Recently its death toll has crossed that of China, though some have suggested the data may be inflated. This may be due to Italy's greater percentage of elderly.
9	2020 coronavirus outbreak / pandemic in the United States		1,164,003		The arrival and spread of the disease hit the US badly this week.
10	2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries		900,406		And now for something not related to diseases, but just as unhealthy (though more for the mind): politics!
11	The Eyes of Darkness		865,253		The Eyes of Darkness is a book written in 1981 by dirt-poor man's Stephen King Dean Koontz, which supposedly "predicted" the current COVID 19 outbreak because, in later editions, it changed the point of origin for its fictional pandemic from Russia to Wuhan, China. And, because xenophobic American newscasters have been drilling the name "Wuhan virus" into their viewers to hype up Chinese "responsibility" for the current crisis, people ponder if Koontz "predicted" the current outbreak. Nearly a million people looked this up. Seriously. Nearly a million.
12	Tom Hanks		816,348		Why in the world would you kill Tom Hanks? sang Weird Al, cuz nobody doesn't like Tom Hanks! He was speaking to Kim Jong-un, but right now many people are making similar pleas to COVID-19, after he reported that both he and his wife Rita Wilson had self-isolated after testing positive for the virus while filming in Australia.
13	2020 coronavirus outbreak / pandemic in India		810,370‬		All things considered, India has so far escaped the worst of this crisis, with just 236 confirmed cases, despite its proximity to China both geographically and demographically. But things can change, and the world's second largest English-speaking population is concerned enough to turn to Wikipedia for news.
14	Deaths in 2020		782,243		"O Death!", someone would pray, "Could you wait to call me another day?" The children prayed, the preacher preached; Time and mercy is out of your reach...
15	2020 coronavirus outbreak / pandemic in Spain		760,663		I'm willing to bet there are few users of the English Wikipedia of Spanish extraction, which just goes to show how horrific the outbreak so far has been in that country. With a population of just 47 million, Spain has already registered over 20,000 cases, a quarter of China's, of which over 1,000 have died, giving it a 5% fatality rate, comperable to the Spanish flu pandemic.
16	Jyotiraditya Scindia		732,442		If you can't beat'em, join'em. This onetime member of India's struggling Congress Party defected to the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP this week, to much acrimony.
17	Max von Sydow		726,995		At a time when we are all staring King Death in the eye, it is somewhat tragically fitting that the man who played chess with Death for his life finally died. Max von Sydow was one of the greatest screen actors who ever lived, gracing some of the finest films by one of the world's finest directors, Ingmar Bergman. Most non-Swedes probably know him best as the title role in William Friedkin's grueling nightmare The Exorcist, in which the then 44-year-old von Sydow masterfully aged himself with the aid of Dick Smith's stunning (and, it turned out, prophetic) old-age makeup. He could have fun too; check out his hillariously campy turn as Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon.
18	Harvey Weinstein		707,374		The serial rapist was sentenced to 23 years in prison this week. His lawyers cried he would die in prison if he got too high a punishment. As Bob Chipman eloquently responded on Twitter, "So?"
19	Elimination Chamber (2020)		643,661		Apparently, we still want to watch people pretend to hurt each other.
20	Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2		634,181		The true name of the monster stalking us. If only speaking it were enough.
21	Black Death		626,574		We live in a different world. The average person is not aqcuainted with plagues. But they were once a part of life as regular and inevitable as the weather. They came, they took their toll and they went. But none took the toll of the Black Death, which, by the time it left Europe in 1353, had killed, depending on when you start counting, between 75 and 200 million people, and upended the entire mediaeval social order. It is interesting to ponder how our current plague will upend our own dysfunctional order.
22	Rita Wilson		621,136		Tom Hanks's wife of over three decades, whom he met while filming the hokey comedy Volunteers in 1985, also tested positive for COVID-19.
23	2020 coronavirus outbreak / pandemic in Germany		600,658		Germany so far has weathered this virus like a champ, with just 52 deaths out of 18,000 cases. But, given Germany's linchpin position in the global economy, all anyone seems to want to talk about are the financial implications.
24	Contagion (2011 film)		597,849		Stephen Soderbergh's epidemic thriller has seen a massive surge in popularity as people shut in by the virus revel in worst-case scenarios.
25	UFC 248		585,784		Apparently, we still want to watch people actually hurt each other.

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (March 8 to 14, 2020)