Posted on 04/14/2020 12:27:23 PM PDT by Hojczyk
As everyone knows, New York City is the main center of COVID-19 infection and fatality in the U.S., with something like 40% of all American deaths. The reasons why shouldnt be a mystery.
When the Black Death struck Europe in the 14th Century, people had no idea what caused the disease, and all of their theories were wrong. But experience showed, as was the case in later plagues, that the countryside was safer than the city. Most people who could decamped from cities to the country.
And New York City, with more than 28,000 people per square mile, is by far the most densely populated major US city. San Francisco is second at around 18,500, and cities like Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington are in the 11,000 to 12,000 range.
There is a second factor that I suspect is also very important: New Yorks reliance on mass transit. New Yorks mass transit systemmostly its subwaysis, by a huge margin, the most relied-upon public transportation system in the U.S. It carries a remarkable 2,275,000,000 riders per year.
Another point is worth mentioning. Why dont we think of New York as a chronically sick place? Because people build up immunity to diseases that have been around for a while, and the more people you are exposed to, the more likely you are to be immune. But when a new disease like COVID-19 comes along, a virus to which no one has built up immunity, the population density and public transportation factors come to the fore and New York becomes a very sick city, compared to anywhere else.
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
High population density, High mobility
Extensive international travel,
High dependency on mass transit
Increased High risk behavior
Oh yes, in your face types
If it were just density, then Hong Kong and Singapore ought to have thousands of deaths each, instead of less than 100 combined.
It is impossible to see a news report on the virus without either the Mayor of New York or the Governor of N.Y. Sometimes both.
Are they the official spokesmen for America? The media treats them so.
Mass transit incubators
Cumo and DeBlasio acted late.
Can understand the high number of infected, but at some point, someone needs to shed light on why their mortality rate for those who test (or supposedly test) positive is more than twice most other states.
It certainly didn’t help that deBlasio and his staff were telling New Yorkers to go about their normal lives right up until March 12.
Not to mention Cuomo shut down like 19 hospitals few years ago and lost 20K beds. He shut them down due to mass losses from Medicaid as the hospitals in those areas were mostly uninsured or Medicaid patients.
Less hospitals, less beds= over whelmed current hospitals.
The NYC suburbs have a higher infection rate than NYC.
NYC has a higher fatality rate.
That was Health Commissioner too saying let’s all continue to party down.
Singapore is also quite dense, but seems to be faring much better. Maybe the difference is just NY’s greater reliance on public transportation, and its aversion to anything that Trump recommends.
Use of masks has been ongoing in these countries since before COVID-19.
US in general is a nation of overweight / obese people, which is a risk factor.
You described it perfectly.
And it’s a dirty place.
There is swarf all over the curbs and sidewalks, paper that has been discarded, bags of garbage seeping liquids, etc.
There is a big difference between HK, Singapore and NYC and it's this:
The people of HK and Singapore wear masks during a normal cold and flu season. It's what they do. They're also far more compliant to their Government's orders. (Well, HK is/was when it wasn't the CCP that is.)
There are other cities with high density like NYC.
There’s a $$$ reason. Each COVID-19 related procedure is an average $10,000.
There is a large financial inventive to twist any patient’s symptoms into some sort of SARS-COV-2 related illness. For example, a patient gets diagnosed for a flu virus, it becomes with a stroke of the pen a coronavirus.
Take all these things and add in that Mayor de Blasio laughed off the bug and told people to eat at restaurants, go to parades and mass gatherings, ride mass transit, and generally go on as if there were no threat. San Francisco, America’s sh*%iest city, has less than 1,000 cases and 15 dead. NYC was never going to match that, but it didn’t have to be half as bad as it is.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.