No it’s not in Denmark. Please forgive the bad Shakespearian reference.
But something is wrong (or right) in India, and Russia, and Pakistan and other countries in Asia.
The worldwide Covid-19 epidemic is not effecting any of these three countries, and others in Asia even remotely like it has impacted the United States and Europe — not even close.
Just by way of introduction, let’s look at some of today’s (4/13/20) numbers from the Johns Hopkins website (link below)
Covid 19
United States — 553,526 cases, 23,146 deaths
Russia – 18,288 cases, 148 deaths
India – 9,240 cases, 331 deaths
Pakistan – 5,374 cases, 93 deaths
We can immediately see the differences. And let’s point out, these are not small countries. Russia has about 145 million people, Pakistan has 221 million, and India 1.35 billion people, almost tied with China for the most populated countries on the planet.
How is it then, that these vast and densely packed countries have far fewer cases of Covid-19 than the United States?
But wait, it gets worse. It is somewhat vague comparing countries, but what if I told you that thirteen US states have more cases than India or Pakistan, and nine of those states also have more cases than Russia? Those states are California, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington state.
So why? Why the difference? The United States reported it’s first Corona Virus Case on January 20th. India and Russia were not far behind, on January 30 and 31st respectively. Pakistan did not report until February 26th. From the beginning, cases in the US spread like wildfire, but not in these other countries.
What is different? Could it be diets, climate, type of health care? Is there something genetic about the virus, something in the Asian genome that makes Asians less suseptable to the virus? Or is it something else?
I don’t know what it is, but I do know that the numbers are vastly different and no one seems to be paying much attention to that. Maybe I’ve been quaranteened too long, maybe I’m just nuts. But the numbers are still the numbers.
Don’t take my word for it. Links to the relevant websites are below, check them out for yourself and feel free to tell me I’ve gone off the deep end —or not.
Johns Hopkins Covid-19 Dashboard
World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 Main Page