Posted on 04/16/2020 8:08:00 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
As a traveler with numerous trips to India, and seeing the abject poverty displayed everywhere throughout my travels, a child does not survive without developing an incredible immune system. The filth that is EVERY WHERE is mind numbing. Every morning I soaked a t-shirt to make a mask so I could breath. Mumbai has no birds; the ones who fly in drop out of sky dead from the wretched air control. I’ve been to every major city spread across the country and found a clean area.
There's a lot to that. Whereas in this country, people are so germ-phobic, they don't let their kids play in dirt and they are obsessed with keeping their house clean. The immune system is like a muscle, use it or lose it.
You nailed it! I’m a firm believer in “use it or lose it!”
Keep in mind that a million people per year die of diarrhea in Indian each year. Corona is one of several deadly illnesses circulating at any given time. One of many, nothin’ special. My guess is that they’re not testing very heavily either for the reasons mentioned above.
My bet it’s #3
Yuck! My former supervisor’s description hinted of stuff like this. He didn’t say what hotel the company had him in, but when I worked for the same outfit (Mitsubishi) and went abroad on business, they tended to put you in a fairly nice class for safety reasons. Within Japan, it was a standard business hotel.
Major companies did the same. In Puni, there we a few top motels and the best one at the time was”The Blue Diamond” with a good chief....very very important.
Why is India the major manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine and other anti-malarial drugs?
Could it be that malaria is a big problem in India and many people regularly take hydroxychloroquine as a prophylaxis?
Gee, MSM I wonder why you didn’t think of that being the reason for so few cases of covid in a country where people are literally sleeping next to each other.
Dunno.
If they had side effects they would probably quit taking them.
The theoretical concern is side-effects specifically combined with this particular disease, both generally and at certain stages - like Rye Syndrome’s relationship with Aspirin. Both the broad concept of side-effects, as well as development of specific dosages need to be performed.
Before universally giving out a treatment, one should always keep in mind at least the possibility of a universal screwup.
Even so why isn’t it affecting immigrant communities? Why aren’t we seeing high numbers of Chinese in Americas who travel back and forth to China disproportionately affected?
It is the hot Indian Curry... : )
It isn’t as if research with covid viruses with chloroquine hadn’t already been done.
I don’t see the problem you suggest remaining unknown up to this point as a worth worrying about.
https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-422X-2-69
They researched the matter fifteen years ago when we didn’t have a worldwide pandemic and they could go about it in a leisurely fashion.
“It’s because they hate the Chinese.”
Yes. India and China have been bitter enemies for many years. Don’t know for sure, but I bet that India has stiff restrictions on Chinese travel into the country.
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.