Why does India, a country with over a billion people, have so few Coronavirus/Covid-19 cases and deaths?

MSN ^ | 04/16/2020 | Anup Malani

[SeekAndFind]

India is four times more populous than the US, but has just 2% the number of cases and only 1.5% of the number of Covid-19 deaths. How has the country, whose per capita income is just tenth of the US, avoided being flattened by the pandemic?

There are four possible explanations:

1. The epidemic may have struck later than in other countries. Since epidemics have exponential growth at the start, a small delay can have massive effects on the number of cases.

2. India’s 21-day lockdown may have successfully suppressed the epidemic. Physical distancing is one of the best ways to slow the epidemic and, if anything, many have criticized the lockdown for being too draconian in that regard.

3. India has not been able to test enough to count all cases and deaths. Without sufficient testing, many deaths may not be labeled with Covid-19 for official statistics, leading to an underestimation of the severity of the crisis.

4. India may have protective characteristics against Covid-19. Researchers have proposed that the low share of elderly in the population, the high temperatures and humidity in India, widespread BCG vaccination for tuberculosis, or resistance to malaria have helped India escape the brunt of the pandemic.

First, we can rule out that India is in an early stage of the pandemic. The first infected travelers from Wuhan reached Kerala, southwest India, on January 29. While it is true that Kerala acted quickly and contained a potential outbreak, more carriers reached other states by early March.

While the lockdown will certainly have an effect on the pandemic in India in the long run, there has not been enough time for its impact to be felt. So the current low level of deaths is really telling us about what happened before the lockdown began.

[faucetman]

I’ve tasted Curry! I’ve been overcome with the smell of Curry in an Indian restaurant, so I can believe that the Coronavirus would want nothing to do with Indians (dot kind).

Social distancing in India? Post train photos from India.

https://www.google.com/search?q=crowded+trains+in+india&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=H37rbbL4aSouwM%253A%252CPcunQqzg-E7PJM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQIZ-fbNXYIz5X7KviNrgZB9zCa0A&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjeqvWmpe3oAhWina0KHS9TDGkQ9QEwA3oECAcQIg&biw=1440&bih=761#imgrc=H37rbbL4aSouwM:

[proxy_user]

They have rather primitive conditions for most people in India. They are mostly young, not obese, and their immune systems are highly developed. Everything is full of bacteria and viruses, and have immunity to a lot of things the West has never even seen.

[null and void]

Ahhh, but how many Indians and Bangladeshis are suffering side effects from taking these anti-malarial pills?

Chloroquine has some bad side effects.

HYDROXYchloroquine, not so much...

People who want the world depopulated and the Orange Man Bad out deliberately conflate the two drugs.

As do their unwitting dupes.

[null and void]

wretchedness
noun

1. the state of being unpleasant or of low quality:
• He couldn’t stand the wretchedness of life at home.
• They were doomed to a life of wretchedness and slavery.
2. the feeling of being ill or very unhappy:
• She woke early in a state of wretchedness.
• Mum’s wretchedness was the price Dad had chosen to pay for his happiness.

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[null and void]

Spell check is a cruel mistress and it is funded by George Soros.

Mistress? Otto Kor Wrecked is a female?

[j.argese]

It’s quite possibly the most underused buzz phrase ever.

[daniel1212]

Door #3. At only 199 test per 1M pop. India has one of the least tested population, being in the company of Boliiva and Honduras. See column to right in this chart by https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ (extra formatting by me)

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Country, Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths	New Deaths	Total Recovered	Active Cases	Serious, Critical	Tot Cases/ 1M pop	Deaths/ 1M pop	Total Tests	Tests/ 1M pop
World	2,117,309	+30,878	141,846	+3,227	535,218	1,440,245	51,113	272	18.2
China	82,341	+46	3,342		77,892	1,107	95	57	2
Kuwait	1,524	+119	3		225	1,296	32	357	0.7
Oman	1,019	+109	4		176	839	3	200	0.8
Cameroon	848		17		165	666		32	0.6
Afghanistan	840	+56	30	+5	54	756		22	0.8
Diamond Princess	712		12		644	56	7
Ivory Coast	654		6		146	502		25	0.2
Burkina Faso	542		32		226	284		26	2
Guinea	438	+34	1		49	388		33	0.08
Réunion	391				237	154	3	437
Senegal	335	+21	2		194	139	1	20	0.1
DRC	267	+13	22	+1	23	222		3	0.2
Martinique	158		8		73	77	17	421	21
Mali	148		13		34	101		7	0.6
Guadeloupe	145		8		67	70	13	362	20
Congo	117		5		11	101		21	0.9
Madagascar	111	+1			33	78	1	4
Tanzania	94	+6	4		11	79		2	0.07
Monaco	93		3		12	78	2	2,370	76
French Guiana	86				51	35	1	288
Somalia	80		5		2	73	2	5	0.3
Gabon	80		1		4	75		36	0.4
Liberia	59		6		4	49		12	1
Cabo Verde	56		1		1	54		101	2
Bahamas	53		8		6	39	1	135	20
Macao	45				16	29	1	69
Saint Martin	35		2		13	20	5	905	52
Benin	35		1		18	16		3	0.08
Eritrea	35					35		10
Syria	33		2		5	26		2	0.1
Sudan	32		5		4	23		0.7	0.1
Chad	27	+4			5	22		2
Angola	19		2		5	12		0.6	0.06
Timor-Leste	18	+10			1	17		14
Fiji	17	+1				17		19
Sierra Leone	15	+2				15		2
CAR	12				4	8		2
Seychelles	11					11		112
Suriname	10		1		6	3		17	2
MS Zaandam	9		2			7
Nicaragua	9		1		4	4		1	0.2
Vatican City	8				2	6		9,988
St. Barth	6				4	2		607
Western Sahara	6					6		10
Burundi	5		1			4		0.4	0.08
South Sudan	4					4		0.4
Anguilla	3				1	2		200
British Virgin Islands	3				2	1		99
Saint Pierre Miquelon	1					1		173
Yemen	1					1		0.03
Malawi	16		2			14	1	0.8	0.1	343	18
Papua New Guinea	7	+5				7		0.8		167	19
Nigeria	407		12		128	267	2	2	0.06	5,000	24
Mozambique	31	+2			2	29		1.0		855	27
Haiti	41		3			38		4	0.3	365	32
Ethiopia	92	+7	3		15	74	1	0.8	0.03	5,389	47
Zimbabwe	23		3		1	19		2	0.2	716	48
Myanmar	85	+11	4		2	79		2	0.07	3,236	59
Algeria	2,160		336		708	1,116	60	49	8	3,359	77
Sao Tome and Principe	4					4		18		19	87
Zambia	48		2		30	16	1	3	0.1	1,696	92
Libya	48		1		11	36		7	0.1	634	92
Bangladesh	1,572	+341	60	+10	49	1,463	1	10	0.4	17,003	103
Gambia	9		1		2	6		4	0.4	281	116
Indonesia	5,516	+380	496	+27	548	4,472		20	2	36,000	132
Namibia	16				4	12		6		362	142
Mauritania	7		1		2	4		2	0.2	713	153
Uganda	55				12	43		1		7,693	168
Laos	19				2	17		3		1,288	177
Kenya	234	+9	11	+1	53	170	2	4	0.2	9,630	179
Niger	584		14		90	480		24	0.6	4,427	183
Bolivia	441	+44	29	+1	14	398	3	38	2	2,185	187
India	12,759	+389	423	+1	1,514	10,822		9	0.3	274,599	199
Honduras	426	+7	35	+4	9	382	10	43	4	2,012	203
Sri Lanka	238		7		68	163	1	11	0.3	4,768	223
Egypt	2,505		183		589	1,733		24	2	25,000	244
Guyana	55		6		8	41	5	70	8	213	271
Brazil	29,165	+555	1,764	+7	14,026	13,375	296	137	8	62,985	296
Morocco	2,251	+227	128	+1	247	1,876	1	61	3	11,433	310
Mexico	5,847	+448	449	+43	2,125	3,273	207	45	3	40,091	311
Mongolia	31	+1			5	26		9		1,077	329
Cambodia	122				98	24	1	7		5,768	345
Pakistan	6,919	+536	128	+17	1,645	5,146	46	31	0.6	78,979	358
Caribbean Netherlands	3					3		114		10	381
Guatemala	196	+16	5		19	172	3	11	0.3	7,200	402
Togo	81		5	+2	45	31		10	0.6	3,618	437
Philippines	5,660	+207	362	+13	435	4,863	1	52	3	48,171	440
Jamaica	125		5		21	99		42	2	1,391	470
Rwanda	136				54	82		11		6,237	482
Nepal	16				2	14		0.5		15,800	542
Argentina	2,571		115	+3	631	1,825	121	57	3	26,457	585
Paraguay	174	+13	8		30	136	1	24	1	4,267	598
Equatorial Guinea	51				4	47		36		854	609
Eswatini	16	+1	1	+1	8	7		14	0.9	714	615
Japan	8,626		178		901	7,547	168	68	1	94,236	745
Antigua and Barbuda	23		3	+1	3	17	1	235	31	73	745
Guinea-Bissau	43					43		22		1,500	762
St. Vincent Grenadines	12				1	11		108		87	784
Grenada	14					14	2	124		92	818
Trinidad and Tobago	114		8		20	86		81	6	1,282	916
Colombia	3,105		131		452	2,522	106	61	3	48,628	956
Ukraine	4,161	+397	116	+8	186	3,859	45	95	3	42,823	979
Tunisia	780		35		43	702	89	66	3	13,137	1,112
Dominican Republic	3,755	+141	196	+7	215	3,344	143	346	18	12,229	1,127
Iraq	1,434	+19	80	+1	856	498		36	2	49,260	1,225
Georgia	340	+34	3		74	263	6	85	0.8	5,027	1,260
El Salvador	164	+5	6		33	125	2	25	0.9	8,333	1,285
Vietnam	268				177	91	8	3		135,938	1,397
Curaçao	14		1		10	3		85	6	230	1,402
Belize	18		2			16	1	45	5	567	1,426
Thailand	2,672	+29	46	+3	1,593	1,033	61	38	0.7	100,498	1,440
Botswana	15	+2	1			14		6	0.4	3,441	1,463
Ecuador	7,858		388		780	6,690	135	445	22	26,093	1,479
Bhutan	5				2	3		6		1,166	1,511
South Africa	2,506		34		410	2,062	7	42	0.6	90,515	1,526
Ghana	641		8		83	550	2	21	0.3	50,719	1,632
Albania	518	+24	26	+1	277	215	5	180	9	4,827	1,677
Saint Lucia	15				11	4		82		319	1,737
Costa Rica	626		4		67	555	11	123	0.8	9,089	1,784
Turks and Caicos	10		1			9		258	26	71	1,834
Cuba	862	+48	27	+3	171	664	16	76	2	21,837	1,928
Jordan	401		7		250	144	5	39	0.7	20,500	2,009
Taiwan	395		6		155	234		17	0.3	50,703	2,129
Moldova	2,154	+105	53	+7	235	1,866	80	534	13	9,208	2,283
Lebanon	663	+5	21		85	557	30	97	3	18,115	2,654
Bulgaria	800	+53	38	+2	122	640	37	115	5	18,502	2,663
Malaysia	5,182	+110	84	+1	2,766	2,332	56	160	3	87,183	2,694
Uzbekistan	1,349	+47	4		129	1,216	8	40	0.1	100,000	2,988
Uruguay	493		9		272	212	13	142	3	10,448	3,008
Barbados	75	+2	5		15	55	4	261	17	900	3,132
Armenia	1,159	+48	18	+1	358	783	30	391	6	9,632	3,250
French Polynesia	55					55	1	196		920	3,275
Peru	11,475		254		3,108	8,113	146	348	8	109,385	3,318
Serbia	5,318	+445	103	+4	443	4,772	120	609	12	29,472	3,373
Palestine	374		2		63	309		73	0.4	17,329	3,397
Iran	77,995	+1,606	4,869	+92	52,229	20,897	3,594	929	58	310,340	3,695
Sint Maarten	57	+4	9		12	36	6	1,329	210	163	3,802
Panama	3,751		103		75	3,573	106	869	24	16,854	3,906
Hungary	1,652	+73	142	+8	199	1,311	60	171	15	38,489	3,984
Kyrgyzstan	466	+17	5		91	370	5	71	0.8	26,147	4,008
Romania	7,707	+491	392	+20	1,357	5,958	243	401	20	79,629	4,139
Saudi Arabia	6,380	+518	83	+4	990	5,307	71	183	2	150,000	4,309
Saint Kitts and Nevis	14					14		263		234	4,399
Poland	7,918	+336	314	+28	774	6,830	160	209	8	169,071	4,467
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1,167	+57	43	+2	277	847	4	356	13	14,743	4,494
Kazakhstan	1,362	+67	17	+1	277	1,068	22	73	0.9	85,735	4,566
Dominica	16				8	8		222		345	4,793
Greece	2,207	+15	105	+3	269	1,833	69	212	10	50,771	4,871
Croatia	1,791	+50	35	+2	529	1,227	31	436	9	20,158	4,910
North Macedonia	1,081	+107	46	+1	121	914	15	519	22	10,422	5,002
France	147,863		17,167		30,955	99,741	6,457	2,265	263	333,807	5,114
Chile	8,807	+534	105	+11	3,299	5,403	384	461	5	98,424	5,149
Mayotte	233	+16	3		69	161	3	854	11	1,500	5,498
Turkey	69,392		1,518		5,674	62,200	1,820	823	18	477,716	5,664
UK	103,093	+4,617	13,729	+861	N/A	89,020	1,559	1,519	202	417,649	6,152
Montenegro	294	+6	4		55	235	7	468	6	3,874	6,168
Slovakia	977	+114	8	+2	167	802	5	179	1	34,458	6,311
Maldives	23	+1			16	7		43		3,432	6,349
Djibouti	591	+156	2		73	516		598	2	6,430	6,508
Mauritius	324		9		81	234	3	255	7	8,279	6,510
Montserrat	11				1	10	1	2,204		36	7,212
Sweden	12,540	+613	1,333	+130	550	10,657	996	1,242	132	74,600	7,387
Azerbaijan	1,283	+30	15	+2	460	808	28	127	1	75,397	7,436
Venezuela	197		9		111	77	6	7	0.3	225,009	7,913
Bermuda	81		5		33	43	3	1,301	80	527	8,462
Belarus	4,204	+476	40	+4	203	3,961	65	445	4	81,246	8,598
Netherlands	29,214	+1,061	3,315	+181	250	25,649	1,279	1,705	193	147,948	8,634
Finland	3,369	+132	75	+3	1,700	1,594	76	608	14	49,700	8,970
Cayman Islands	60		1		6	53	3	913	15	636	9,677
USA	652,292	+4,144	33,332	+744	56,489	562,471	13,487	1,971	101	3,288,457	9,935
S. Korea	10,613	+22	229	+4	7,757	2,627	55	207	4	538,775	10,509
New Caledonia	18				1	17	1	63		3,002	10,515
Russia	27,938	+3,448	232	+34	2,304	25,402	8	191	2	1,613,413	11,056
Aruba	93		1		39	53	1	871	9	1,198	11,221
Belgium	34,809	+1,236	4,857	+417	7,562	22,390	1,182	3,003	419	134,303	11,588
Canada	28,893	+514	1,048	+38	9,271	18,574	557	766	28	467,736	12,393
Singapore	3,699		10		652	3,037	29	632	2	72,680	12,423
Czechia	6,359	+58	169	+3	972	5,218	75	594	16	146,004	13,634
Denmark	6,879	+198	321	+12	3,023	3,535	92	1,188	55	82,380	14,223
New Zealand	1,401	+15	9		770	622	3	291	2	70,160	14,549
Cyprus	735	+20	12		65	658	8	609	10	17,923	14,845
Australia	6,468	+21	63		3,747	2,658	66	254	2	380,003	14,902
Hong Kong	1,018	+1	4		485	529	9	136	0.5	116,273	15,509
Greenland	11				11	0		194		912	16,065
Latvia	675	+9	5		57	613	3	358	3	31,302	16,595
Austria	14,453	+103	393		8,986	5,074	232	1,605	44	156,801	17,410
Lithuania	1,128	+37	31	+1	178	919	14	414	11	48,537	17,829
Slovenia	1,268	+20	61		174	1,033	31	610	29	38,137	18,344
Ireland	12,547		444		77	12,026	158	2,541	90	90,646	18,358
Italy	165,155		21,645		38,092	105,418	3,079	2,732	358	1,117,404	18,481
Channel Islands	447		15		69	363		2,571	86	3,320	19,095
Qatar	4,103	+392	7		415	3,681	37	1,424	2	56,381	19,570
Spain	182,816	+2,157	19,130	+318	74,797	88,889	7,371	3,910	409	930,230	19,896
Portugal	18,841	+750	629	+30	493	17,719	229	1,848	62	208,314	20,430
Germany	135,633	+880	3,856	+52	77,000	54,777	4,288	1,619	46	1,728,357	20,629
Israel	12,591	+90	140	+10	2,624	9,827	174	1,455	16	187,250	21,634
Andorra	673		33		169	471	17	8,710	427	1,673	21,653
Liechtenstein	79		1		55	23		2,072	26	900	23,605
Switzerland	26,732	+396	1,269	+30	15,400	10,063	386	3,089	147	206,400	23,849
Norway	6,798	+1	150		32	6,616	64	1,254	28	130,216	24,020
Brunei	136		1		108	27	2	311	2	10,826	24,746
San Marino	426	+33	38	+2	55	333	15	12,555	1,120	846	24,933
Isle of Man	283	+27	4		153	126	13	3,328	47	2,261	26,590
Estonia	1,434	+34	36	+1	133	1,265	10	1,081	27	36,024	27,156
Falkland Islands	11				1	10		3,161		137	39,368
Bahrain	1,698	+27	7		703	988	3	998	4	76,630	45,035
Malta	412	+13	3		82	327	4	933	7	21,164	47,932
Gibraltar	131				104	27	1	3,888		1,649	48,945
Luxembourg	3,373		69		526	2,778	33	5,388	110	30,723	49,080
UAE	5,365		33		1,034	4,298	1	542	3	767,000	77,550
Iceland	1,727		8		1,077	642	8	5,061	23	37,386	109,558
Faeroe Islands	184				169	15		3,766		5,765	117,983

[bagster]

wretchedness noun

Fake news.

p.s. I was being ironical, which is also a word.

[Thommas]

Did they shut down the railroads to achive socal distancing?

Those folk must have tough hands, shoulders and legs to hang onto those trains for any appreciable distance.

[bagster]

Mistress? Otto Kor Wrecked is a female?

Everything bad is female.

Science.

[null and void]

*forehead slap*

[setter]

“They are now about 12,000. They are growing about 10% per day.”

Africa #’s are also skyrocketing in the last week or so. I cannot believe India has social distancing. They live 50 to a house.

I just think it’s early for both countries.

[Chauncey Gardiner]

Their immune systems toughest on earth?

[mylife]

Glad some one got it :)

[CJ Wolf]

just got back from my BCG treatment. I think I will pop a zinc.

[Churchillspirit]

Vindaloo curry ?

[ScottfromNJ]

Simply, it’s impossible to test everyone in India. Having visited the remote villages about 10 years ago I can tell you there are hundreds of millions of people who live in rural areas like the Himalayas north of Delhi who can’t even be reached. In the big cities like Delhi a large number of people live in home made shacks on the streets, who monitors them? If they’re sick they deal with it, it’s not like they’re calling Coronavirus Central to report every case. So the government through testing is very likely only catching a small fraction of those infected.

[Boomer]

And turmeric, ginger, and all those other spices?

That's what I was thinking. Turmeric in particular.

[Sans-Culotte]

You name it, they did it. Cabbie kept the windows rolled up and the A/C on and the view from there alone was sickening.

I once spoke to a guy who was a buyer who needed to go to India in an attempt to source some products cheaply. He said that when his cab pulled up to the hotel, as he was about to step out of the cab, he would have stepped right into a pile of human excrement. He said he pulled his foot back in before he could make contact and told the driver to take him back to the airport and he canceled his plans.

Another guy told me about using a urinal in China. I don't remember if he said it was a public one like they have in London, or if it was in a business. He said the floor was quite wet, like half an inch deep in liquid. As he and another guy were standing at urinals peeing, they could hear water start dripping. They decided to look to see where the "water" was coming from and discovered that the pipes from the urinals emptied out onto the floor. They were basically standing in their own (and others') waste.

Counties like that are not reporting COVID statistics because they are literally 3rd world shitholes.