North Korea’s Covid explosion: a survivability test

Asia Times ^

[FarCenter]

After two years during which the Covid-19 pandemic had been held at bay, the deadly infection has exploded within North Korea with a speed and virulence that seems to have caught the regime by surprise.

Ground zero for the epidemic is the capital city Pyongyang, according to official North Korean reports. Authorities are struggling to contain its spread, ordering country-wide lockdowns.

The epidemic hit in late April and by May 14 had infected 820,620 people, causing 42 deaths. On one day alone, from the evening of May 13 to the following day, almost 300,000 people came down with symptoms, and 15 reportedly died. At least one death, and likely many more, can be attributed to the highly infectious BA.2 Omicron variant, which is now sweeping the globe.

International public health experts treat the data with some caution as the North Koreans have very limited ability to test for Covid-19. The official reports refer only to outbreaks of “fever,” which are suspected cases of the virus.

“We cannot say it is confirmed,” Dr Nagi Shafik, an Egyptian public health specialist who has worked extensively in North Korea for the last two decades for the World Health Organization and UNICEF, told Toyo Keizai in an interview from Cairo.

Still, the infection hits a country that experienced humanitarian aid specialists describe as being in a “very fragile” condition. The health care system suffers from outdated equipment, a lack of supplies – including drugs – and an intermittent supply of electricity. “The health services are not equipped to meet such an urgent situation,” said Dr Shafik.

All of this takes place in a country with serious food shortages and chronic malnutrition, compounded by international sanctions and by the decision of the government to close its borders for the last two years due to Covid.

[FarCenter]

If the mortality rate is that low, it may not be a problem.

Co-morbidities like obesity and diabetes are probably rare.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Co-morbidities like obesity and diabetes are probably rare.

But malnutrition is rife. Which, if the mortality numbers are anywhere near correct, goes to show just how non-life-threatening the virus is.

[OHPatriot]

Just noticed 42 Dead / 820620 Tested Positive is ONLY 0.00511808% mortality SO FAR.

Okay so the NORKs have the Coof. Damn near nobody is dying, yet the draconian regime is going full draconian on its people.

WHY?? Does anybody really believe the numbers 42 dead and 820620 infected? Commies LIE!

[FarCenter]

yet the draconian regime is going full draconian on its people

Full draconian is the way for a society to survive a biological attack that employs a pathogen for which you have no immunity nor therapeutics.

Consider this a drill.

[zeestephen]

820,620 infections.

42 deaths.

Fatality rate - 0.02%

Less than the USA death rate from influenza every year.

[Gay State Conservative]

I'll bet that the fact that the typical North Korean is very badly malnourished doesn't help them if they get the virus. Add to that that only the elite have access to such things as ventilators and the virus would typically be a death sentence there.

[airborne]

If they aren’t injecting everyone with the anti-vaxx then they have a good chance of establishing a national immune level unlike any other nation.

[Gay State Conservative]

I believe them. I also believe that Kim Jong Fat F**K gets 99.985% of the vote in elections.

[bert]

I seriously doubt the Nork government ability to collect meaningful Covid numbers. That assumes an an administrative ability that I doubt as being present

I would prefer to believe that any published numbers are fabricated in the hope of turning them into $$$

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

Maybe we could help their gov’t lock the people down, provide drones and heat seeking missiles. We could help them do all the same ridiculous nonsense the west did and MORE!

This way we coukd kill more than otherwise. Let’s offer to infect them with our vaccine that doesn’t really vaccinate but we pretend it does like a man can get pregnant and give birth.

Maybe we could just pretend we did and officially take credit for the new imagined utopia. That’s even easier and more completely successful!

[FarCenter]

“Most people just stay put even in normal times. We see the big rallies, but those are actually very abnormal. And the country is quite wired – electricity and phones and intranet. And extremely organized, with their community cells that report to each other on everything. So, if Pyongyang orders something, it is usually done, quickly.”

To collect data you need email, spreadsheets, bulletin board web sites, etcc. -- all early '90s stuff. Today this can be implemented quite cheaply with off the shelf open source stuff.

The West's preoccupation with podcasting, high-res pictures, and posting video clips is not needed in NK. In fact, they have proven generally disruptive to social harmony and mostly counterproductive. Text and data are the useful part of the internet, and don't require a lot of processing, storage or bandwidth by comparison with audio, pictures, and video.