Five months in. Why are highest death tolls only in the west?

[Legoandloldolls]

Any thoughts?

No mass problems anywhere else. Even in countries that healthcare is only great if you are have private cover.

If it's really because we arent contact tracing them that still doesn't fully explain it. Not every country can afford to contact trace.

No out brakes anywhere else in China

You really think developing nations are recording deaths due to covid? Come on it’s not hard

I imagine we’ll never know the full details of what happened in China. It is perfectly possible there were many many deaths that we’ll never know about. In the west countries tend to be more open with data
It’s a puzzle why things have not been that bad (yet) in Middle East, Africa etc. Possibly warmer weather a factor as well as weaker healthcare systems much less able to detect it let alone help people with it. Millions might be dying undetected.

Lack of data recording?

I do think age profile/chronic disease profile has a huge impact. There was an amazing graph showing the age of the population in Rwanda vs I think Italy. Tiny numbers over 60 in Rwanda. Also it used to be in this country that people with diabetes or kidney problems just died young. Survival even to the 60s is relatively new and requires a big health infrastructure. As does accurate recording of deaths and causes of deaths.

So many reasons. Delay in lockdown. Herd immunity plan of washing hands. Cheltenham. Stereophonics concert. Liverpool vs Madrid. Lack of PPE. Care homes abandoned. Lack of testing. Etc etc.

So many reasons. Delay in lockdown. Herd immunity plan of washing hands. hmm Cheltenham. Stereophonics concert. Liverpool vs Madrid. Lack of PPE. Care homes abandoned. Lack of testing. Etc etc.

Which are all fair points compared to say Germany, but doesn't explain the high death rate compared to developing countries. I do agree that it's probably a younger population thing as well as a lack of decent stats.

The West has an much older average age. Westerners can afford to travel more. And so on.

Emerald those points are very UK specific. How about more generally, eg Europe compared to Africa?

Look at what is happening in Ecuador and Brazil.

I think lack of correctly recording cause of death is an issue. Eg see this article about Ecuador. Presumably applies to other countries too.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-52324218

Sorry, geography fail there!

Why does anything outside 'the West' = poor country with shit healthcare and unreliable testing?? What about countries like Japan, Singapore, Taiwan?? It's a very interesting question but there are also 'Western' countries like Canada who have not been hit nearly as hard. I'm sure we'll know more after this is over about why certain countries were so much harder hit but it's not as simple as 'well they're poor so they can't test as much as we can'

Older population. Higher levels of obesity.

People going skiing in Italy in February half term. It was obvious by then it wasn't just the flu. We shouldn't really have needed to be told to avoid mass gatherings. The fact that so many did must tell us something.

High levels of obesity.
Large numbers of elderly in care homes
Travel (the virus arrived in South Africa after the wealthy whites returned from skiing trips to Europe)
Not screening at airports
Population density
Ignoring calls for lockdown initially

Those are just a few off the top of my head.

And if you believe the Chinese figures .....

@EmeraldShamrock. Your post is incomprehensible and shows an utter lack of understanding of life outside your cosy first world bubble.

Of course cancelling Cheltenham wouldn’t have affected the difference in rates between Britain and the developing world. Jeez. Have you ever seen how people live in shanty towns in Africa? Zero social distancing.

Difference will be due to the fact we keep our poor, old and sick people artificially alive here much longer. The COVID victims would already have died from something else in many developing nations.

This is a UK site. Is really not ok to talk about why the UK is bring hard hit on a UK website FFS.

So much presumption that I am white, born in the UK and middle class.

If your not living in the UK please dont get in a flap about what people in the UK are pondering over. Thank your lucky stars your so rich and superior with your superior elite classes elsewhere

"Why does anything outside 'the West' = poor country with shit healthcare and unreliable testing??"

Exactly what I wanted to say. The UK is miles behind countries like South Korea when it comes to things like technology, healthcare, and infrastructure.

Each country is different. Of course poorer countries are not able to test as many people. Some had a fast response, others less so - Indonesia is a fucking disaster right now. On the other hand, SK/Taiwan/Singapore/Vietnam just actually dealt with the virus instead of fannying about.

6 deaths in the entire of Taiwan! Sorry but you can't just say "they got lucky" or "they're not fat". The government dealt with it. We could have had similar figures if we had dealt with it too. They've never even had a lockdown there.

The response of just about every western country was about 2 weeks too late and they're paying the price now.

"And if you believe the Chinese figures"

Why single out the Chinese? The British government barely tests anyone, so it's not like the British figures are any more reliable.

It seems like obesity might be the main factor.

I think it's worth nothing that the western countries that have been hit the hardest have high levels of frequent commuter international travel. Germany is the exception to this - they did much more contact tracing and testing early on.

I think the death toll in China has been massively under reported. Massively.

Again presumptions I have never lived abroad. Thailand for example. If you cant afford school uniform you dont go to school. Death numbers around or below 100.

Dont shoot me either but the west is you know..... just where the west is on the planet? Like Asia is in Asia?

Deaths are highest in the west. That is a fact geographically. Sorry about that. Should I call it the new age poor house?

I thought abandoned care homes turned out to be untrue anyway?

I expect it's all to do with lack of reporting both officially and from journalists. I'm really surprised we've heard nothing about conditions in refugee camps, for example.

Covid seems to particularly target those who are old or have underlying conditions. Improvements in medical care has enabled the west to have millions of people in these categories who would
not have done in developing countries. It follows that Covid is more deadly in the West.