Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Admiral Yi]

Maybe it's because Asians have smaller noses and therefore suck in less bug.

[celedhring]

I've seen many theories... genetic differences between Asian and Europeans, the fact that we and Italians have closer relationships with our parents and grandparents, our culture of physical contact, the fact that East Asians got educated with SARS... I suppose once the dust settles we'll be able to get better answers.

[Sheilbh]

I've seen many theories... genetic differences between Asian and Europeans, the fact that we and Italians have closer relationships with our parents and grandparents, our culture of physical contact, the fact that East Asians got educated with SARS... I suppose once the dust settles we'll be able to get better answers.

Yeah. I feel like there's a value in working it out now because we're past that stage in Europe but this disease is still only getting started in Africa and parts of Latin America. Though I think there's definitely something about the experience of SARS so people know that when it's serious they need to change behavious.

I just think the masks one is curious because it's not just Asians and European countries. The North America, Western Europe, Turkey, India, Algeria, Egypt, Latin American countries all seem to be on a similar kind of track. And within that there's loads of different cultural and genetic stuff going on from Turkey to Italy to the UK to Peru. And this could just be a stereotype in my head but East Asian countries have embraced wearing masks if you're ill more than anywhere else - in my experience you almost never see it in the UK, Europe or the bits of Latin America I've been to.

As I say it may be nonsense and it could just be like the mums putting onions at each corner of the house but it seems possible and to me sort of common sense that maybe it has a bigger impact than we thought/were told.

Edit: God I give it two more months of this before I'm a full-blown masks truther

[The Larch]

There were also rumours about Japan fudging the numbers and/or limiting testing in order to ensure that the Olympics were not cancelled.

[alfred russel]

Japan is kind of unique as a country where people follow the rules.

[jimmy olsen]

Something concerning to me is that the fatality rate in S. Korea has grown from the initial 0.5% rate to 1.52%

I expected this to happen as time passed by, but it is still disappointing. Given how good the testing and tracing has been in South Korean, their fatality rate is likely to be closest to accurate for the disease as a whole. 1.5% is fucking high, and that's in a situation where the hospitals have not been overwhelmed.

Other countries with low fatality rates take note. Germany, you've recently gone from sub 0.5% to .74% Expect that to at least double.

[Sheilbh]

Other countries with low fatality rates take note. Germany, you've recently gone from sub 0.5% to .74% Expect that to at least double.

Yeah - I mean Germany still seems to be on the same track as Italy just several weeks behind.

[The Larch]

Other countries with low fatality rates take note. Germany, you've recently gone from sub 0.5% to .74% Expect that to at least double.

Germany has lots more dead than the official numbers show due to the way they gather the data. France as well.

[crazy canuck]

How does their data gathering method skew their totals?

[Josquius]

I have heard some muttering that antibodies useful during colds would help somewhat in keeping corona mild. Whether this even makes scientific sense I have not checked.

[Sheilbh]

There were also rumours about Japan fudging the numbers and/or limiting testing in order to ensure that the Olympics were not cancelled.

Yeah I saw lots of suspicion in the Japanese numbers given how much they were restricting testing. But, oddly, it seems to be reflected in the fatality figures that they have a lower rate.

[Fate]

Something concerning to me is that the fatality rate in S. Korea has grown from the initial 0.5% rate to 1.52%

I expected this to happen as time passed by, but it is still disappointing. Given how good the testing and tracing has been in South Korean, their fatality rate is likely to be closest to accurate for the disease as a whole. 1.5% is fucking high, and that's in a situation where the hospitals have not been overwhelmed.

Other countries with low fatality rates take note. Germany, you've recently gone from sub 0.5% to .74% Expect that to at least double.

The problem is when you put a sick 70-80 year old with COVID-19 on a venitlator, you can keep them alive, but they may never get strong enough to get off the venilator. Eventually they will succumb to ventilator associated pneumonia and deconditioning. This can take up to 20+ days to happen unless you extubate early to save/reallocate ventilator resources to the next patient. Won't be suprised if SK has a lot of sick people on vents indefinitely who die off over time. They're not having to triage based on limited resources like Italy.

[Josquius]

Japan has a lot of advantages.
The whole following rules and strong social pressure thing.
The elderly being heavily located in remote villages away from the young.
A culture of many people wearing masks every day whether sick or not and this being completely normal.
Past experience with near misses.
A far less touchy culture.
A less social culture.
Etc...


All said though I expect Japan has had a lot more deaths than reported. To be discovered as apartments start to stink.

[alfred russel]

The next wave of stupid in this whole thing is the permitting process to be an "essential business".

My brother's employer makes outdoor pillows for patios. One of the companies they sell through is lowe's, and lowe's is working with its suppliers to get them designated essential, which was successful for my brother's company. The basis was that pillows are important to keeping home life comfortable during a quarantine. They were very worried about a shutdown and were developing contingency plans to begin making hospital gowns.

The current status isn't perfect and there may still be a temporary shut down: the maker of the legal notices they put on the pillows is in Birmingham and Birmingham has shut them down as non essential. They are trying to figure out if they can get the legal notices some other way, or if they can get the maker of the legal notices classified as "essential" because they support an "essential" business.

[Sheilbh]

Big increase in fatalities in the UK of 260 in the last 24 hours, we're now over 1,000 deaths

The rate of change isn't geat either about 35% increase. Regional breakdown isn't necessarily done on a 24 hour basis, the national figure is. So the increase of 60 yesterday in London included fatalities dating back to 20 March and through the week as NHS Trusts are only releasing their figures once they've been able to notify families. I'd assume a good chunk of that 260 is in London

But we don't know.