India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
1–10 of 381 posts
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#2Ah yet another cant-be-true-they're-hiding-something article? Surely they can't be doing better than developed countries?
FWIW, India did implement a stronger lockdown much earlier on in the curve than other countries. State and federal authorities went lock-step in their actions, and with consistent messaging. Police enforced the lockdown at times even brutally, getting the point across to the general public. Indians watched UK and US struggle through a denial and late response in disbelief, like watching a car crash in slow motion.
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#3It is mainly with a sense of relief (rather than disbelief) that I watch the progression of numbers daily. The lockdown was early and quite stringent and has definitely made a difference. The most stringent lockdown has little chance of being executed effectively in India and there are innumerable cases of people cheerfully ignoring or doing so in desperation. Regardless, the awareness of COVID-19 is extremely high, probably more than any other single critical disease that afflicts us. This should have made a significant difference in influencing the behaviour of the majority. Tests are for the most part only for the symptomatic or with known contact, if asymptomatic. Almost certainly infection cases will be much, much higher. But fatalities are tough to ignore. In today's environment even a death unrelated to COVID causes consternation amongst neighbours and gets known widely. I take that to mean that the fatalities are probably close enough to reality. And that's unbelievably good and I can only hope that it doesn't get bad in the near future.
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#4While the reported deaths may be low, the 'they are hiding something' attitude is not helpful. India cannot do the level of testing that western countries do due to the humongous population. I can very well assure you in India you cannot hide mass deaths like China. A distant relative died of cardiac arrest and the measures were so strict that in a highly social society where paying respects to a deceased is considered a basic duty, only 5 close people were allowed. The body was directly cremated by specially appointed staff at the hospital.
While i am worried about the fact that social distancing is difficult to implement in India what has helped so far are the following measures:
1. Extremely strict lockdown - i have not gotten out of my home in more than a month, thankfully essential workers keep the essential supplies running. 2. I think BCG vaccination especially amongst young folks makes a difference and i think the immunity is higher amongst Indians (hypothesis) 3. Summer heat (hypothesis) 4. India had very early measures towards screening people coming from other countries since Jan which helped.
The cases and deaths will undoubtedly increase, however the question i have a reasonable answer to is : Do you think the best and timely measures were taken given the constraints ? Undoubtedly yes.
Ever since the outbreak happened the usual suspects have been churning out article after article about the low numbers and it seems like some of the vested interests were expecting us to lead the world in deaths instead of EU and US.
For a second the folks need to commend the work done and what was done correctly. The sacrifice of millions of Indians who are following the lockdown diligently.
As a country with limited infrastructure we cannot work without social distancing, yet somehow we have survived through this period, which is undoubtedly a miracle. This has flattened the curve and the overworked healthcare professionals have a difficult year or 2 ahead of them to ensure the no of actively infected remains manageable.
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#5Ah yet another cant-be-true-they're-hiding-something article? Surely they can't be doing better than developed countries? FWIW, India did implement a stronger lockdown much earlier on in the curve than other countries. State and federal authorities went lock-step in their actions, and with consistent messaging. Police enforced the lockdown at times even brutally, getting the point across to the general public. Indian…
It's not really about judging or comparing unfairly, it's more about india's population density in the case of a contagious disease.
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#6Ah yet another cant-be-true-they're-hiding-something article? Surely they can't be doing better than developed countries? FWIW, India did implement a stronger lockdown much earlier on in the curve than other countries. State and federal authorities went lock-step in their actions, and with consistent messaging. Police enforced the lockdown at times even brutally, getting the point across to the general public. Indian…
It seems countries are learning something from the those affected earlier which is good. But there are a huge number of under counts to be seen in the all-cause mortality data.
I have my fingers crossed for everyone going through this, but only after the fact are we going to get a good idea of what happened (and that goes for Western countries too).
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#7Is there any scientific/medical feedback on India's official approach to give prophylaxis hydroxychloroquine to medical personnel and contacts of infected people? Could it be that this policy had some positive impact?
https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/AdvisoryontheuseofHydroxychloro...
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3...
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#8Ah yet another cant-be-true-they're-hiding-something article? Surely they can't be doing better than developed countries? FWIW, India did implement a stronger lockdown much earlier on in the curve than other countries. State and federal authorities went lock-step in their actions, and with consistent messaging. Police enforced the lockdown at times even brutally, getting the point across to the general public. Indian…
It seems countries are learning something from the those affected earlier which is good. But there are a huge number of under counts to be seen in the all-cause mortality data. I have my fingers crossed for everyone going through this, but only after the fact are we going to get a good idea of what happened (and that goes for Western countries too).
"U.S. deaths soared in early weeks of pandemic, far exceeding number attributed to covid-19"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2020/04/27/cov...
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#9Unfortunately UK government and Boris Johnson failed to take the pandemic seriously. This include BBC too. While the world was watching the kingdom with fear and awe, the establishment had a wandering attention.
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#10on the other hand, at least one newspaper in India has an article [1] titled: "India's coronavirus infection rates are among the highest in Asia"
we are under lockdown for more than a month now, and in my state, there's even stricter lockdown for past few days (not even groceries/vegetable shops are open, supplies provided to some extent via government operated mobile vending, door deliveries, etc)
[1] https://www.thehindu.com/data/indias-coronavirus-infection-r...