Why have certain countries not suffered?

[Wilsonwilson]

There is a streamer I watch who has been trapped in Vietnam. They had a short lock down in march but have been fine since. Why? It doesn't make sense.

[quote turnitonagain]@Em777 Japan and South Korea have four seasons like Europe and cold snowy winters. Both are regional ski holiday destinations. So I doubt vitamin D explains it.[/quote]
But vitamin D levels are generally much higher due to diet: there is a lot of fish consumption. I have wondered if this is why Norway has done well too.

@Yohoheaveho

Outcomes arise because of multiple factors interacting in complex ways, not all of which we can account for

Boring but true.

Not everything in life is 'someone's fault'

far less dense population than many countries
Other than that, I wonder if eating locally produced, homegrown foods also has anything to do with it, we cannot even buy ready meals, or very very rarely are they available. All food is local and organic
I feel that the low population density and the general inclination to keep things local is a significant factor in Bulgaria?
The UK by contrast is a global hub, it's like everyone in the world passes through us to get to somewhere else ... Or in other words all the germs in the world pass through us on the way to somewhere else, and once the worlds germs arrived on our shores they speedily infiltrate the whole country because we are densely packed in and we also move around a lot and spread it around

I wonder that too @ineedaholidaynow

@Yohoheaveho

far less dense population than many countries Other than that, I wonder if eating locally produced, homegrown foods also has anything to do with it, we cannot even buy ready meals, or very very rarely are they available. All food is local and organic I feel that the low population density and the general inclination to keep things local is a significant factor in Bulgaria? The UK by contrast is a global hub, it's like everyone in the world passes through us to get to somewhere else ... Or in other words all the germs in the world pass through us on the way to somewhere else, and once the worlds germs arrived on our shores they speedily infiltrate the whole country because we are densely packed in and we also move around a lot and spread it around

HK is also a global hub and more densely populated than the UK, but unlike us they introduced quarantine measures back in Feb.

Boring but true
I would further add that seemingly insignificant factors can combine with other seemingly insignificant factors and multiply to create large and widespread effects
and these effects are things that could not have been foreseen from looking at the original seemingly insignificant factors.
(TL:DR complex/chaotic systems etc)

HK is also a global hub and more densely populated than the UK, but unlike us they introduced quarantine measures back in Feb
Had we introduced similar measures we could be in a similar position now, but could we realistically have introduced those measures?
would it have been possible for the UK to implement and obtain compliance for the measures that Hong Kong introduced?

A friend of mine who lived here for a few years went to live in her home country - S Korea, Seoul.

She says the mask wearing people are compliant, she's also a psychiatrist with her own clinic but has recently moved to video calls with her clients as safer.

She bought a puppy in December so walks him but even though we swap different countries views on lockdown etc she doesn't seem to think they've been any different to UK. Though I know we have been different etc!

@Yohoheaveho

HK is also a global hub and more densely populated than the UK, but unlike us they introduced quarantine measures back in Feb Had we introduced similar measures we could be in a similar position now, but could we realistically have introduced those measures? would it have been possible for the UK to implement and obtain compliance for the measures that Hong Kong introduced?

The measures HK introduced in Feb were Anyone who had been in mainland China in the 14 days before their arrival in HK had to be quarantined for 14 days. Would this have been difficult to implement?

I don't think SARS was widespread enough to confer any immunity at a population level. That's not to say that there might not have been other previous viruses which may have had a similar effect.

The vitamin d point is an interesting one. I'm convinced that this is a factor in the high number of BAME deaths in the UK. I don't know much about the vitamin d levels in the population of, say, Japan or South Korea, but it would be interesting to look into this.

I really doubt SARS has anything to do with it. It barely spread compared to this.

@DownWhichOfLate

Think the OP may be sleeping off a hangover. Very aggressive and illogical behaviour.

Or just discovered they have Covid and feeling belligerent....

I have never had flu (ordinary flu not covid) as far as I am aware - I smoked for many years. I would love to know if there is a link - I'm late 60s so that's a lot of flu viruses that haven't affected me.

@FunkBus

I really doubt SARS has anything to do with it. It barely spread compared to this.

I think it did have an impact in terms of how some countries reacted. Taiwan has experience of SARS, reacted quickly and stopped entry from China.

Australia is doing well because every person arriving internationally has had to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks whilst awaiting a negative test. Security guards on the floors. Police checking if you're quarantining at a house. If the virus escapes (and it has) they're right onto tracking community spread. Internal borders in Australia shut down also, stopping cross-border spread. It's not perfect but it has seemed to work.

In Queensland, our Chief Medical Officer had been planning for a pandemic for over a decade. When Covid19 hit, she was ready and with our Premier we were locked down in February for a few weeks. After that we've had locked borders, mandatory quarantine, mandatory masks and a recent lockdown when Covid 19 was detected in a quarantine hotel that had spread to a worker.

Qlders are not sheep, it's not a communist regime, but we had strong leadership doing what needed to be done from the start like NZ. NZ has one community case this week and we have locked our borders to NZ for 72 hours and the Kiwis who are here have been asked to socially isolate.

Humidity not temperature has a significant impact on viral contagion.

'At humidity levels of 23 percent, 70 to 77 percent of the flu virus particles were still able to cause an infection an hour after the coughing simulation. But when humidity levels were raised to 43 percent, just 14 percent of the virus particles had the ability to infect. Most of the flu particles became inactive 15 minutes after they were released into the humid air. "The virus just falls apart," at high humidity levels, said study researcher John Noti, of the CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.'

weather.com/health/cold-flu/news/humidity-flu-20130228#:~:text=At%20humidity%20levels%20of%2023%20percent%2C%2070%20to,the%20virus%20particles%20had%20the%20ability%20to%20infect.

The average annual relative humidity in Vietnam is 71.1%. The virus finds it much harder to survive there.

The OP is apparently batshit but has inadvertently started an interesting informative thread. Thanks OP 😀

@ShanghaiDiva the response sure, but not the virus itself.

Of course it is easier for Taiwan to shut their borders to China as they have no interest in a relationship with them so no need to keep the peace

South Korea has an average annual relative humidity of 67%
Japan 64%
Hong Kong 83%

Etc, etc.

Lack of care homes in Bulgaria sounds important to me.

South Korea was scarred by their experience with MERS.

Brazil has high humidity, no special problems with vitamin D deficiency, and Manaus is having a dreadful time with covid right now.

I'm in Finland and we have not been affected as badly as some other European countries. 42k cases, 550 deaths so far..

I put it down to early response. Lockdown happened mid-march and I couldn't believe UK was carrying on as usual when we were aready wfh and homeschooling our kids.

Compliance. No one wants to catch it. We trust the government and mostly do what we're told. I don't know any anti-vaxxers or covid-deniers.

Population density and lots to do outdoors. Life is carrying on quite normal compared to many other countries.

@Kakfor

I have been wondering this about where I live. So can I throw my own experience here in Bulgaria into the mix? I have no answers just to relay to you my experience in a Bulgarian city. We have a predominately old population. There are very few care homes, hygiene generally is not high. Smoking and drinking are a national hobby. Yet we have very few cases, up until the schools went back virtually zero. Infections have risen, but deaths are usually in single figures each day and new cases make headlines. There are plenty being tested every day and many who recover. People do obey all the restrictions to the letter, they risk heavy instant fines if not, although that is not why they do it. Family and community are incredibly important and nobody would want to put others at risk. And of course, we have a far less dense population than many countries. Other than that, I wonder if eating locally produced, homegrown foods also has anything to do with it, we cannot even buy ready meals, or very very rarely are they available. All food is local and organic. Alcohol is locally produced with no chemicals. And I read somewhere that France was experimenting with nicotine patches, so maybe the fact that nearly everyone smokes has some bearing on the low numbers. I have no idea why it is not rife here, makes no sense, but we are blessed that we have been virtually untouched other than economically. Many shops and restaurants will never reopen but in terms of infections, we have been so so lucky.

It's interesting that you say it's not rife in Bulgaria and you're blessed to have been virtually untouched, because according to the worldometers website Bulgaria is 12th for deaths per million of population. So it has a higher death rate than Spain and nobody would consider Spain untouched. I wonder how that disortion came about, what messaging is being put out?

I get you. I'm in rural Sweden and it feels like it hasn't touched us at all. DS goes to school and his after school sports clubs like normal, DH goes to work every day, and I lurk on MN to avoid doing chores. I don't know anyone who's even had covid, but I know Sweden has been hit hard.