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

bbc.com

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

#191

Post by kumarvvr »

standardUser wrote: post #171
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.

Sorry, for 330 Million people, USA has had 60k deaths from C19 so far, whereas India has had about 1000 deaths in about 1300 Million people.

The western Nations are doing abysmally.

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

#192

Post by kumarvvr »

manishsharan wrote: post #173

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.

BBC and a myriad of British mainstream publications are decisively Anti India in their general narrative.

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

#193

Post by SomeoneFromCA »

user_50123890 wrote: post #185
screye wrote: post #156

Rant Alert ! My response will come off as ranty, because I am a bit annoyed. India takes strong and well executed action on lockdown. People in the West continue to loiter in the streets. ( I see it here in Boston at least, one of US's hot spots). West be like, "India's low death number is a mystery" At this point, it almost sounds like the western media is mourning the lack of deaths in India. As though to say, "the…

Hahaha people on Scandinavian social media think _South Korea_ and _Hong Kong_ are faking their case numbers and refuse to believe the virus is actually easily possible to contain. Somehow lots of them believe their governments are acting competently and that herd immunity is "the only way to stop the epidemic". This virus is probably the first visible sign that Western countries have fallen from their grace, and tha…

Why? Norway and esp. Finland are doing very well. Australia (not Scandinavia, but very much West) is doing even better. There must be some difference in strains around the world.

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

#194

Post by mdani »

wasdfff wrote: post #179
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.

Goa was declared COVID-free when the last cases recovered and there were no new cases. That is probably the reason - the situation in other parts of India is quite different.

Source: https://m.timesofindia.com/india/goa-covid-free-but-risks-lo...

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

#195

Post by screye »

user_50123890 wrote: post #185
screye wrote: post #156

Rant Alert ! My response will come off as ranty, because I am a bit annoyed. India takes strong and well executed action on lockdown. People in the West continue to loiter in the streets. ( I see it here in Boston at least, one of US's hot spots). West be like, "India's low death number is a mystery" At this point, it almost sounds like the western media is mourning the lack of deaths in India. As though to say, "the…

Hahaha people on Scandinavian social media think _South Korea_ and _Hong Kong_ are faking their case numbers and refuse to believe the virus is actually easily possible to contain. Somehow lots of them believe their governments are acting competently and that herd immunity is "the only way to stop the epidemic". This virus is probably the first visible sign that Western countries have fallen from their grace, and tha…

I wouldn't go so far.

I see it more as "freedom even at the expense of lives". The west for the first time in a long time, is being asked what the value of a life is.

Is freedom to roam during a pandemic, worth the aggregated loss of life it causes ?

The question has been lingering around with ecological damage done by our lifestyles and the anti-intellectualism/ anti-vax movement, which is allowed free reign in many places. But, Covid has brought it into focus.

I have heard enough about India super-power 2040, to know that anyone who claims to know what the future holds is either lying, under informed, has an agenda or all 3.

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

#196

Post by TooKool4This »

misja111 wrote: post #97
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…

I agree with you and I’ve made the same observation but I don’t think it’s due to some misplaced sense of superiority.

I think it’s simply because it has been a while since disease and pestilence was a worry for the average Western country so the average citizen (and therefore the leaders) are complacent in a sort of “It can’t happen here” way. There have been outbreaks such as the AIDS epidemic or swine flu but nothing as impactful, infectious, and at the scale of COVID.

Whereas Asian countries have grappled with issues of SARS, Malaria, AIDS, Polio, and many more in the not so distant past and have learned the importance of taking public health seriously. The experience of the outcome of mismanaging a response to a previous epidemic is still “fresh” so to say in many of these countries. I think a good example of this is how South Korea dealt with SARS and evolved their response to COVID based on the learnings from that.

Lastly I wonder if the prevalence of more communal societies in Asian cultures make a difference. I can imagine it could make the problem worse but it could also be beneficial in the sense of providing strong societal pressures to quarantine/hand wash/social distance/etc.

Edit: And of course the misguided leaders in particular Western countries are not helping. Maybe the US this particular time is just a statistical outlier due to some mismanagement and there is nothing more to read into further than that?

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

#197

Post by malandrew »

sershe wrote: post #168
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…

What is the official end game? Are they hoping that it will be eliminated worldwide, will they continue in this mode indefinitely assuming it won't be, or do they plan to basically close the borders forever (i.e. anyone who enters has to be strictly quarantined so that the internal contact tracing regime could be relaxed)?

This is the main question I have too. We have a disease that is pretty much guaranteed to be endemic so there will always be the ever present threat of re-importing the disease.

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

#198

Post by toomanybeersies »

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…

I don't think that's disinfectant they were spraying, but rather insecticide for biosecurity. They do it on the way into Australia and New Zealand too prevent the spread of agricultural pests.

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

#199

Post by screye »

thbr99 wrote: post #136

BBC is a known for its India bashing. This article has no depth and is conjuring up some kind of conspiracy theory. HN quality is going down the drain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_BBC

The BBC is known to write about ex-colonies with a certain level of contempt.

There is a thinly veiled nostalgia about British superiority and to an extent still consider the subcontinent to be some sort of 'unfinished work' that still requires 'civilizing'.

I have noticed a similar sentiment among French and Belgian people about their colonies, but I haven't read enough of their media or politics to know how pervasive it is.

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

#200

Post by mikem170 »

gnusty_gnurc wrote: post #143
misja111 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

China’s first response to doctors reporting the virus was to send police to them and shut them up. I’ll gladly believe I live in a better country.

I had the impression, based on news articles at the time, that local officials were behind the initial coverup in Wuhan, lasting until national officials rectified the situation.
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