India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates • Hacker News Board

Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates

#91

Post by saalweachter » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 11:51 AM UTC

patrickaljord wrote: post #66

nnq wrote: post #50

A better question from everyone outside the US: what the flying f is with the huuuuuge (accounting for estimated no. of infected and other factors) number of deaths in the USA??!!?! I mean, the US is (a) a developed country with modern health-care, (b) there is no common 'old parents living in same home with some of the adult children' situation you have in Italy + Eastern Europe, (c) there are no norms of common phy…

> A better question from everyone outside the US: what the flying f is with the huuuuuge (accounting for estimated no. of infected and other factors) number of deaths in the USA??!!? That's only true if you don't know what "per capita" means. So far the US has 172 death per 1M population. That's better than other countries with supposedly better healthcare including: - Belgium - France - Spain - Italy - UK - Netherla…

NYC is currently at 1462 deaths per million.

Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates

#92

Post by nromiun » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 11:55 AM UTC

No news channel is unbiased these days but I don't know of any other news source that has as much criticism as BBC. They have a long history[1] of spreading misinformation and hate aginst many countries (specially India).

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_BBC

Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates

#93

Post by unicornfinder » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 11:55 AM UTC

thaway757383884 wrote: post #32

i_have_to_speak wrote: post #2

Ah 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…

I flew from India to the US in early February (2nd week). Indian airports were doing thermal checks on passengers (using tech that had been installed during the Zika virus scare a few years back, I believe). The newspapers also had info about how anyone found with elevated temperatures were being asked to self quarantine, and the police was also following up. The US had, absolutely nothing. Nada. Before the flight I…

To be fair with the disinfectant that's been the case with India for years - I went in 2016 and they were doing it then as well.

Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates

#94

Post by rataata_jr » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 11:56 AM UTC

Hey, guys I'm from India. There is a very strict lock down here. It has been there for a long time now. My city (Bangalore) did the lockdown a bit early. Like one more comment down this thread, there will be really loud horns in front of houses. That has not been going on around here.

Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates

#95

Post by astatine » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 11:56 AM UTC

kumarvvr wrote: post #74

astatine wrote: post #3

It 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,…

Yup, there is a very large percentage of the population, even in rural areas, that are awareof the danger posed. Politicians, including the PM have clearly and multiple times explained their actions in a very clear and lucid language. Stateministers also have conveyed the same in a similar manner. There was no tolerance on stupid questions from the beginning, and a huge emphasis has been put on scientists amd healthc…

True. There has fortunately been no dithering or mixed messages. The clarity and consistency of the messaging has probably saved India.

Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates

#96

Post by kylehotchkiss » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 11:58 AM UTC

I’m a (foreign) American citizen staying in India and happened to arrive here a few days before lockdown started. I don’t understand how this is a mystery: India quickly locked down the entire country and going outdoors was consistently punishable by police hitting people with sticks (thankfully it seems like the brutality has eased up since the start and police are doing things like making people write sorry on the beach or do squats instead) People are taking the virus and situation seriously, without an unusual spike in fake news. You can’t even order anything outside a narrowly defined “essentials” category online. Thankfully food delivery is opened up.

To all the Indians here who are in the same situation, phew, I understand your pain. Hopefully this next extension is the last one and then it’ll be more limited to hotspots: and we will all be able to order from amazon again soon. I also hope the economy can open quickly and smoothly when the time comes.

Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates

#97

Post by misja111 » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 11:59 AM UTC

i_have_to_speak wrote: post #2

Ah 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…

This is something that has really struck me during the Corona crisis: the misplaced Western believe of superiority towards Asian countries. I am European and I feel embarrassed about how much arrogance is displayed by some people and governments.

It started already in the beginning, when the virus was spreading rapidly in China. Reports about the failing Chinese authority were all over the place, but nobody seemed to worry that when the virus would eventually reach Europe, we would be in trouble as well. After all how could we, with our superior health system and our governments that would react quickly and rationally on such a trivial threat as this.

When the virus had reached Europe, it had already reached South Korea and Taiwan as well. These countries had learned from the earlier SARS outbreak how to deal with it and thoroughly tested everyone that could possibly have the virus, symptoms or not. The reaction I saw in the media was mostly about the breach in privacy that these measures brought. Surely this was not something that we, as enlightened Western societies, would want. And anyway, what were we frightened of. This virus could never spread so fast in Europe as it did in China, because .. Well because of what actually.

Now that the pandemic has wrecked havoc in the entire Western world and most people are realising that a strategy of first constraining the virus (like in Wuhan) and then testing everybody to contain in (like in South Korea) is the only realistic way to deal with it, one might think that a bit of humbleness towards Asia would be in place. Think again. What we're seeing more and more instead is denial. Investigations are started if the Covid virus was manifactured in a laboratory in Wuhan for instance.

Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates

#98

Post by sseth » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 12:03 PM UTC

Cantbekhan wrote: post #7

Is 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...

ICMR doctor R Ganga Ketkar had made the statement on Apr 11 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP_ta25JcbU) that this is under study and at this point is not a recommended treatment.

Subsequently a recent study in the US has said that it has no positive effect. Seems to be a dead end at the moment.

Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates

#99

Post by callmeal » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 12:05 PM UTC

unicornfinder wrote: post #93

thaway757383884 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I flew from India to the US in early February (2nd week). Indian airports were doing thermal checks on passengers (using tech that had been installed during the Zika virus scare a few years back, I believe). The newspapers also had info about how anyone found with elevated temperatures were being asked to self quarantine, and the police was also following up. The US had, absolutely nothing. Nada. Before the flight I…

To be fair with the disinfectant that's been the case with India for years - I went in 2016 and they were doing it then as well.

They started doing it after SARS-COV-1 back in 2002. The rest of the world actually respects intelligence and science (so far) but unfortunately in India it looks like the Fox-News/AM-Radio playbook is starting to win.

Re: India coronavirus: The 'mystery' of low Covid-19 death rates

#100

Post by kolinko » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 12:08 PM UTC

ramraj07 wrote: post #18

I 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.…

570 official cases in the city would mean 5-20 deaths. You most lokely wouldn’t noce those deaths on your street unless the street has 20% of the popularion of the city.