In this March 23, 2020, file photo, medical employees demonstrate testing, at a coronavirus test center for public service employees, during a media presentation in Munich, Germany.
Posted on 04/01/2020 4:56:17 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
BERLIN -- Late last year - long before most people had heard of the new coronavirus now sweeping the globe - scientists in Germany sprang into action to develop a test for the virus causing an unusual respiratory disease in central China.
They had one by mid-January - and labs around the country were ready to start using it just weeks later, around the same time that Europe’s most populous country registered its first case.
“It was clear that if the epidemic swept over here from China, then we had to start testing,” said Hendrik Borucki, a spokesman for Bioscientia Healthcare.
That quick work stands in stark contrast to delays and missteps in other countries. Coupled with Germany’s large number of intensive care beds and its early social distancing measures, it could explain one of the most interesting puzzles of the COVID-19 pandemic: Why people with the virus in Germany currently appear to be dying at much lower rates than in neighboring countries.
The numbers are remarkable: As confirmed cases in Germany passed 71,000 the death toll Wednesday was 775, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. In contrast, Italy has reported almost 106,000 infections and more than 12,400 deaths, while Spain has more than 96,000 cases, with more than 8,400 deaths.
France has four times as many virus deaths as Germany and Britain has twice as many, even though both countries have fewer reported infections.
There may be many factors at play, but experts said early on that fast and widespread testing gave Germany an edge.
Germany is now capable of conducting up to 500,000 tests a week.
Spain tests between 105,000 and 140,000 people each week, about 20% to 30% what Germany is capable of. Italy did around 200,000 tests over the past week.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
In this March 23, 2020, file photo, medical employees demonstrate testing, at a coronavirus test center for public service employees, during a media presentation in Munich, Germany.
Some things still do not compute? Or maybe they do.
With all that testing, Germany has far less total cases. And out of cases tested, only 1/10 the death rate.
I suppose testing could have resulted in quicker isolations and far fewer actual cases.
Then again Italy’s fatality reporting method seems to have “multiplied” virus deaths by almost 10 fold.
And Italy has an older population, etc.
It appears they are catching most of those that don’t have symptoms significant enough to be tested in other countries, such as the US. That drives the mortality rate down closer to reality.
possible Additional reasons why Italy has a death rate for COVID-19 that is 10X that of Germany.
Among them should be:
1) Most of Germany’s infected were actually young and athletic skiers.
2) Germany’s next round of infected are only just advancing enough to be dying.
3) Germany had weeks to get geared up to deal with the outbreak. Italy was on Feb 22nd about where Germany was on March 11th.
Note the week where people were pointing out that none of the Nordic countries or Germany had any fatalities...which has since drastically changed. They also at that time had only two recoveries between the several nations.
Germany had fewer than 30k cases on 3/23, but is now crossing 72k.
Germany’s fatality rate is low but climbing
This is the sort of thing Germans excel at when they put their mind to it. Now if our corrupt democrat governors would stop hoarding tests and actually start using them we would be in much better shape.
[Then again Italy’s fatality reporting method seems to have “multiplied” virus deaths by almost 10 fold.]
Germany hasn’t made the mistake of thinking government jobs are part of the “social safety net”. This enables them to have efficiency in a time such as this.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries Country Death_Per_Million
USA 12
Germany 9
China 2
France 54
Israel 2
So China is doing better than everybody?? Israel doing better than Germany, why didn't them mention that?
The article sounds like noise to me.
and the same headline for the USA would read===
“””WASHINGTON DC (AP) — Late last year — long before most people had heard of the new coronavirus now sweeping the globe — DEMOCRATS IN THE USA sprang into action to develop a SCHEME TO IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT WHILE IGNORING the virus that was causing an unusual respiratory disease in central China.”””
Germany is half the size of Texas. Logistics are easier
You can’t develop a test for a virus you don’t have a sample of. China refused to share sample’s, in fact burned samples and refused to admit the virus exist. Nobody had a same of this virus outside China until late January. This article is full of BS. Germany’s time in Thunderdome will start next week.
South Korea & Singapore the same - early jump on testing
“Germany is half the size of Texas. Logistics are easier”
And the population is far more obedient. Germans face very stiff fines if they walk off their property or show up somewhere in groups larger than 2.
“Experts have bemoaned that many countries took similar steps too late.”
This is the sort of thing Germans excel at when they put their mind to it.
Yes, other cultures will have varying rates of success (cigarette use and ...?)
Today at this location we only test if you have a 104 fever, 103.9F go home and come back tomorrow...
The testing uses different measures used in different ways to produce different metrics.
Notice that this product out of Utah was EU approved in February.
Was FDA approved about a month later, OVERNIGHT after Trump mentioned it.
February 24, 2020 Co-Diagnostics, Inc. Receives CE Mark for Novel Coronavirus Test
https://apnews.com/957025ba9de9469b95be4d0b2fad30ce
In a year or so we will start to see some solid numbers in seldom read geeky papers.
Until then it is cut and paste anti-America news chock full of bogus noncomparable numbers.
Stay healthy.
A diabetic covid-19 positive patient who dies in the ICU from pneumonia or multiple organ shutdown is presumably not deceased due to diabetes.
I believe you have your finger on the pulse of the problem.
And the population is far more dense, about 83 million people packed into a country with the same amount of square miles as Montana. The German people will bend over backwards to comply with what their goverment tells them to do. The “new” muslim population will not.
The article sounds like noise to me.
YES.
How about the median number of deaths/million listed for the last 10 years.
Is there a Wu-flu spike?? A hump?
A noticeable difference?
Surely all the many hundreds of thousands would stand out?
So that whats the Germans call it!
I hope they have plenty of toilet paper in the old Thunderdome.
What did Pelosi know, and when did Schiff (House Intel) inform her of the Chinese virus? Or did her investment husband learn it from his Chinese partners?
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