Maybe it’s because Americans are fat. Especially poor Americans who subsist on fast food and other junk. My guess would be that Indians in poverty are more likely starving than diabetic. Starving has its own health risks obviously, but being fat enough to impede your breathing isn’t one of them.
India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
81–90 of 381 posts
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
The entire gist of the article isn't "it can't be true they're hiding something", it's "if statistics in the West are underreported which they likely are, why on earth would one believe they're not underreported in a country with far more limited access to medical care for much of the population where deaths from respiratory diseases are far more commonplace in normal times" India's lockdown started the day after the…
When New York went in to lockdown, it had ~7000 cases (20th March) [1] When UK went in to lockdown, it had 6700 cases. (23rd March) [2] When India went in to lockdown, it had 657 cases. (25th March) [2] [1] https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/20/politics/new-york-workfor... [2] https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
To top it, some states announced a lockdown a couple days before the country wide annoucnement. TN went into lockdown on 23rd Mar for ex. Overall, I think the local govt of some states (esply Kerala) did well by their people. However, we aren't out of risk by any measure. There are some interesting developments in the region as well. A friend in SG mentioned the 6000 odd cases of migrant workers who tested +ve in Singapore, but during the same period ICU occupancy reduced there, with only one case reaching critical condition .. and recovering. Most migrant workers in SG are from the Indian subcontinent and are generally young and healthy.
It sure feels like there are something not well understood about this virus from infection/death stats alone.
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#83While 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 consider…
People also forget that India has a lot of experience in handling epidemics. Nipha virus(2016?) was quickly reported and the spread was drastically reduced. However, I still am afraid that India might top the list of infections overtime. Its harder for a developing country to maintain a balance between economy and lockdown.
That experience was almost exclusively only one state - Kerala, and they have also handled this one in the best manner compared to the other states in the country.
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm guessing you live in Hyderabad. Clearly your street is not a hotspot, and you really shouldn't be extrapolating from it to the rest of India. As far as people having it while being asymptomatic, that is unfalsifiable until they are tested.
Don't think I mentioned anything to generalize. Just what I observed in my city (Chennai) in my street. What I was implying is that perhaps things did go okay in terms of slowing the spread in India: of course, there's probably more spread than is being reported, but that seems par for course everywhere. I'm only worried that the lockdown is going to significantly affect the poorer communities worse at the expense of…
Apologies, I read that as extrapolation. Also assumed Hyderabad as that is the fifth biggest city in size, and cases are around the same in number.
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#85India's median age is 28.1, US' is 38.1, Spain's is 42.7 and Italy's is 45.5.
the average life expectancy (especially for males) is relevant here. India's at 70 yo, while UK is 80
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#86I hope the reason is that Indians are intrinsically resistant to SARS-CoV-2, that would be a big relief.
Based on how many people of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent are dying in the UK there is no indication that people form the Indian subcontinent have some genetic resiliency or immunity to the virus.
Indian, living in India presently, who lived in the US for almost a decade. I can relate a strange experience: I was never severely bedridden by flu or viral fever in India. I caught the flu during my stay in the US one February. I was so weak I could not even sit up in a chair for more than 15 minutes, I would doze off. I was in my bed for practically 5 days, was weak for a couple of weeks afterwards.
I am back in India for a decade, never had such an experience again.
As you say, genetics is definitely not the reason for immunity or lower death rates. But I wonder whether human immunity is much lower coming out of the winter. India does not have severe subzero celsius winter except in the hills.
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#87I can give some ground level information. I live in a very densely populated street (total length is just two hundred meters, my guess is at least a thousand people live here). No one is dying here without others noticing. Further, there's a great amount of scrutiny into whether anyone's sick (see the reports of doctors getting beaten up even by the cops). As far as I know, no one has died in this street in a month.…
I'm guessing you live in Hyderabad. Clearly your street is not a hotspot, and you really shouldn't be extrapolating from it to the rest of India. As far as people having it while being asymptomatic, that is unfalsifiable until they are tested.
oh look whos talking. you seem to second guessing lots of things in the first place.
this article is a bunch of baloney to undermine India's amazing progress to contain the chinese virus.
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#88Unlike what this article tries to subtly hint, there is no massive conspiracy theory stuff going on here. There are too many people in India (with smartphones and cameras and 3G/4G internet) to pull off anything covert. No one here views this as mystery but as a result of country's discipline in lockdown till now.
The country imposed an early screening and tight lockdown and people followed it well till now.
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#89on 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.th…
Whoever wrote that article apparently has no idea what “rate” means, as they were comparing total case and death counts:
> India is among the four Asian countries with at least 25,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 800 related deaths as of April 26. China, Turkey and Iran are the other three.
India and China each has one fifth of world’s population ffs. The infection rate in each is tiny.
Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates
#90I can give some ground level information. I live in a very densely populated street (total length is just two hundred meters, my guess is at least a thousand people live here). No one is dying here without others noticing. Further, there's a great amount of scrutiny into whether anyone's sick (see the reports of doctors getting beaten up even by the cops). As far as I know, no one has died in this street in a month.…
My own personal experience : A close relative passed away in a large city early April (of pneumonia caused by COVID-19) complications. His entire family was interviewed for 2 hours and all contacts were screened - the family and some of the contacts were also put in quarantine and tested. The names of my relative and others who tested positive were put in the papers the next day (name, address etc) after the test, to help identify people who may be may have come in contact. This is obviously anecdotal - but i have so far seen the opposite of hiding data - some places are revealing too much rather than too little information.
But India has a federal structure, different states may have different policies. It is pointless to make one statement about the whole country, especially when the numbers are coming from states, not the center.