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

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

#171

Post by standardUser » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 2:48 PM UTC

rramadass wrote: post #121

The article while making some valid points is full of insinuations. This is disingenuous. The main reason for the low death rates is the lock-down/quarantine in place. India did this very quickly and very comprehensively. I would never have believed that such a lock-down would be followed and enforced in India if i were not living through it. It would be interesting to see how quickly the slope changes once the lock-…

Most Western nations are doing fine. There's really just a dozen or so countries that have been hit hard, and even then the impact has been uneven within the hardest hit countries.

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

#172

Post by known » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 2:48 PM UTC

Prior to Corona crisis One in four Indians were practising untouchability aka social distancing https://archive.vn/bEMTt

In Western countries people will lose Privacy in crisis. In India people lose human rights in crisis; Police will assault you for trivial reasons; https://twitter.com/search?q=%23PoliceViolence&src=typed_que...

Distrust between Patients and Doctors due to Racism https://archive.vn/QkTja and Diversity aka Castes in India https://archive.vn/YXDP8

1st Corona virus case in India was detected on 30th January; Lock down was declared after 54 days i.e. on 24th March Check the impact https://nextstrain.org/ncov/global?f_country=India&l=clock

While people are fighting Corona virus Modi regime quietly/covertly written off debt of Corrupt people https://archive.vn/N8GSh Caste-wise list https://archive.vn/1X1Un

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

#173

Post by manishsharan » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 2:50 PM UTC

Minor nitpick on reporting : literally every person they quoted with Indian sounding names live and work outside of India. And the lone Indian source they quoted, Prof Reddy, was the only one who lived in India and he was the only one who was not skeptical of the numbers. Not one expert from India was used in the article,besides Prof. Reddy, which is a relatively open society.

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

#174

Post by whoisjuan » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 2:50 PM UTC

arihant wrote: post #150

This should not be a mystery at all. India locked down entire country (no state rights in Epidemics laws), despite federal structure. Very few things can be bought, even Amazon is only delivering "essentials." But more importantly, India has been contact tracing like a greedy algorithm on steroids since case #1. There was a positive case in a condo nearby mine. The entire condominium building and adjacent locality is…

I'm in Austin. There was a confirmed case in my building and the best we got was a vague email from the management saying that someone had it and that the person had used the mailroom the Saturday before (we got the email on a Wednesday).

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

#175

Post by j0hnM1st » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 2:55 PM UTC

mesaframe wrote: post #153

arihant wrote: post #150

This should not be a mystery at all. India locked down entire country (no state rights in Epidemics laws), despite federal structure. Very few things can be bought, even Amazon is only delivering "essentials." But more importantly, India has been contact tracing like a greedy algorithm on steroids since case #1. There was a positive case in a condo nearby mine. The entire condominium building and adjacent locality is…

>India has been contact tracing like a greedy algorithm on steroids since case #1. Care to provide source? >People are self policing mainly to avoid police, but they are self policing each other because nobody wants their buildings sealed. I have seen videos of people violating lockdown without fear. >There are only 85 active infections 85 infections which were caught.

>India has been contact tracing like a greedy algorithm on steroids since case #1.

Some states like Kerala is doing active contact tracing. Also the first case was reported 3 months ago and not 2 months ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/21/kerala...

> >There are only 85 active infections

I am not sure which area the original author is talking about but less than 150 is the real active cases in some states https://dashboard.kerala.gov.in/

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

#176

Post by j0hnM1st » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 2:58 PM UTC

There are mistakes in the article. To begin with the first case was reported 3 months ago and to be precise on Jan 30th. While its difficult to findout the strain of the virus, the first patient was a medical student returned Wuahn.

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

#177

Post by naravara » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 2:59 PM UTC

eric_b wrote: post #107

unicornfinder wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yep, since 2014 at least. I always assumed it was some kind of insecticide/pesticide? Is it just a disinfectant?

Insecticide. It's mainly to kill mosquitos. IIRC they introduced it when Zika and Chikungunya were spreading.

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

#178

Post by dharmach » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 3:00 PM UTC

ramraj07 wrote: post #76

kranner wrote: post #53

Earlier 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…

>>the lockdown is going to significantly affect the poorer communities worse at the expense of richer folks.

In such situations that is always the case. If there is a lockdown, poor will suffer financially. If no lockdown, poor will be exposed to the infection more than others since they have to be out working.

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

#179

Post by wasdfff » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 3:02 PM UTC

arihant wrote: post #150

This should not be a mystery at all. India locked down entire country (no state rights in Epidemics laws), despite federal structure. Very few things can be bought, even Amazon is only delivering "essentials." But more importantly, India has been contact tracing like a greedy algorithm on steroids since case #1. There was a positive case in a condo nearby mine. The entire condominium building and adjacent locality is…

Clips from my friend in Goa show the street scene hasn't changed. People still loitering and buying things in the open air and forming dense crowds. From the clip maybe less than half had masks. Super disappointing and concerning.

These numbers seem far to low given the flippant nature most city dwellers are appearing to have to this disease and taking necessary precautions. To me, this is the calm before the storm.

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

#180

Post by Syzygies » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 3:04 PM UTC

As I write the word "immune" appears only twice in 161 comments.

In "Gandhi's Truth" by Erik Erikson, he wrote fifty years ago of adapting one's immune system to India as a rite of passage. Even today, one arrives with caution and does not live like an Indian. My friends born in India but raised elsewhere share this necessary caution with me.

This is more complex than the Indian immune system going "That's the best you got?" My friends have been following web seminars by medical specialists. The popular "binary" impression of developed immunity is hopelessly naive. The virus hacks an existing immune system; it depends on a functioning immune system to propagate. It does not strain credibility to suppose that the typical Indian immune system is different, and this affects virus propagation.

Here's a good specialist introduction to the virus, describing the complexity of the relationship with immune responses: https://youtu.be/wh-u2GDrmDA