Trying to Solve a Covid Mystery: Africa’s Low Death Rates
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Re: Trying to Solve a Covid Mystery: Africa’s Low Death Rates
#2No mention of APOC vs. non-APOC countries:
Re: Trying to Solve a Covid Mystery: Africa’s Low Death Rates
#3I think this is the most relevant passage in the article:
>Some speculation has focused on the relative youth of Africans. Their median age is 19 years, compared with 43 in Europe and 38 in the United States. Nearly two-thirds of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is under 25, and only 3 percent is 65 or older. That means far fewer people, comparatively, have lived long enough to develop the health issues (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease and cancer) that can sharply increase the risk of severe disease and death from Covid. Young people infected by the coronavirus are often asymptomatic, which could account for the low number of reported cases.
A disease that overwhelming kills the elderly is not going to have a comparable impact on a society where only 3% of the population is over 65. This is especially true when you note that obesity rates in Sub-saharan Africa (with South Africa a notable outlier) are much lower than in "developed" countries that have been hit harder by Covid.
Re: Trying to Solve a Covid Mystery: Africa’s Low Death Rates
#4I think this is the most relevant passage in the article: >Some speculation has focused on the relative youth of Africans. Their median age is 19 years, compared with 43 in Europe and 38 in the United States. Nearly two-thirds of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is under 25, and only 3 percent is 65 or older. That means far fewer people, comparatively, have lived long enough to develop the health issues (cardiova…
Did you stop reading?
Two paragraphs later:
> Since Covid tore through South and Southeast Asia last year, it has become harder to accept these theories. After all, the population of India is young, too (with a median age of 28), and temperatures in the country are also relatively high. But researchers have found that the Delta variant caused millions of deaths in India, far more than the 400,000 officially reported. And rates of infection with malaria and other coronaviruses are high in places, including India, that have also seen high Covid fatality rates.
Re: Trying to Solve a Covid Mystery: Africa’s Low Death Rates
#5I suppose the first thing that might come to mind is the correlation between obesity and serious disease outcome. "Pooled analysis show individuals with obesity were more at risk for COVID-19, >46% higher for hospitalization. >113% higher for ICU, 48% increase in death... The underlying metabolic and inflammatory factors of individuals with obesity also play a considerable role in the manifestation of severe lung diseases. [0] Given that only about 20% of sub-Saharan Africa is overweight compared to nearly 70% of North America [1], I might consider this one factor.
[0] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/obr.13128
Re: Trying to Solve a Covid Mystery: Africa’s Low Death Rates
#6I think this is the most relevant passage in the article: >Some speculation has focused on the relative youth of Africans. Their median age is 19 years, compared with 43 in Europe and 38 in the United States. Nearly two-thirds of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is under 25, and only 3 percent is 65 or older. That means far fewer people, comparatively, have lived long enough to develop the health issues (cardiova…
Did you stop reading? Two paragraphs later: > Since Covid tore through South and Southeast Asia last year, it has become harder to accept these theories. After all, the population of India is young, too (with a median age of 28), and temperatures in the country are also relatively high. But researchers have found that the Delta variant caused millions of deaths in India, far more than the 400,000 officially reported.…
>India, with 41 million obese people, ranks third after the US and China in having the highest number of overweight people in the world, says a study.
Young, thin people have an extremely low covid mortality rate. Young, obese people have a much higher morality rate.
>In a study of COVID-19 cases in patients aged 18 years and younger, having obesity was associated with a 3.07 times higher risk of hospitalization and a 1.42 times higher risk of severe illness (intensive care unit admission, invasive mechanical ventilation, or death) when hospitalized.
https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/obesity-and-covid-19.html
Look at a map that shows age and obesity, then overlay that map with the severity of Covid outcomes and you will see a very close correlation.
Re: Trying to Solve a Covid Mystery: Africa’s Low Death Rates
#7No mention of APOC vs. non-APOC countries: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33795896
What is APOC?
Re: Trying to Solve a Covid Mystery: Africa’s Low Death Rates
#8Re: Trying to Solve a Covid Mystery: Africa’s Low Death Rates
#9I suppose the first thing that might come to mind is the correlation between obesity and serious disease outcome. "Pooled analysis show individuals with obesity were more at risk for COVID-19, >46% higher for hospitalization. >113% higher for ICU, 48% increase in death... The underlying metabolic and inflammatory factors of individuals with obesity also play a considerable role in the manifestation of severe lung dis…
Obesity is always been one of the main factors in COVID mortality. Really any mortality, for almost every illness being overweight complicates things.
However, it's taboo to outright say that. The Huffington Post runs a regular, "You can be morbidly obese and be perfectly healthy "article. I used to be well over 300 lb, and even now losing weight is one of my primary concerns ( I hover around 240, although when I slack off I'm at 250 again).
Re: Trying to Solve a Covid Mystery: Africa’s Low Death Rates
#10I think this is the most relevant passage in the article: >Some speculation has focused on the relative youth of Africans. Their median age is 19 years, compared with 43 in Europe and 38 in the United States. Nearly two-thirds of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is under 25, and only 3 percent is 65 or older. That means far fewer people, comparatively, have lived long enough to develop the health issues (cardiova…
Did you stop reading? Two paragraphs later: > Since Covid tore through South and Southeast Asia last year, it has become harder to accept these theories. After all, the population of India is young, too (with a median age of 28), and temperatures in the country are also relatively high. But researchers have found that the Delta variant caused millions of deaths in India, far more than the 400,000 officially reported.…
Median age of 28, so pretty much half-way between Africa and EU/US. The percentage of population >50 or 60 would be interesting, too, since that's the inspection point where the fatality really ramps up.