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In the UK non white ethnic groups and especially Bangladeshis have had the highest mortality rate from Covid 19 and yet the countries they come from are faring
by stormdennis 6y ago
In the UK non white ethnic groups and especially Bangladeshis have had the highest mortality rate from Covid 19 and yet the countries they come from are faring better than the UK is against the disease. The explanation for this when it's found will be interesting, one factor might be climate and possible vitamin D deficiency among these groups in Britain.
- onetimemanytime 6y agoa lot of dirt poor countries have closed EVERYTHING, and given jack to the people. Complain to the hand. Obviously low deaths--on Covid, and so far. Not something to be proud of and definitely not long term. Virus is still around, waiting for the opportunity.
- paralelogram 6y agoI think that in some of these countries the virus doesn't exist anymore, for example in Montenegro: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/montenegro/ https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/montenegro...
- nradov 6y agoIs there a difference in obesity rates between the two populations?
- evbpcapfxy 6y agoThe vitamin d connection might partially also explain why Sweden has a higher mortality rate than its neighboring countries, because Sweden has accepted more immigrants
- TheHypnotist 6y agoYou and OP mention Vitamin D as a possible rationale for the differences. But, what about countries like Mexico? No shortage of sun there.
- vanderZwan 6y agoVitamin D supplements and fortifications in food are commonplace here though, so that would have to be compared to actual vitamin D levels to know for sure
- sadfklsjlkjwt 6y agoOr it could be because Sweden has reacted far less than us... There are plenty of dark skinned Norwegians, Finns and Danes these days.
- KingOfCoders 6y agoI guess everyone finds the explanation that suits his beliefs best.
- FredrikMeyer 6y agoIt is quite obvious that the reasons Sweden has > 3000 deaths and Norway has less than 300 is because of much less severe restrictions. Sweden has twice the population, but quite similar demographics.
- lsllc 6y agoNot sure it's that simple. Massachusetts has a population of 6.7M and 7152 deaths (average age 82) with a lockdown. Sweden has a pop. of 10M with 3K deaths. Florida has a pop. of 20M with 2566 deaths and not much of a lockdown. It seems to me that the death rate is a function of how well protected the elderly are and in particular if C19 has gotten into long term care homes as it has in MA (62% of MA C19 deaths in long term care homes) and I think Sweden, but Florida locked down its LTC homes at the beginning of March. https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2020/05/26/nursing-homes-assisted-living-facilities-0-6-of-the-u-s-population-43-of-u-s-covid-19-deaths/#754a60b474cd https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2020/05/26/nursin...
- stevoo 6y agoIt is not as clear cut as this. Massachusetts has a population of 6.7M and 7152 deaths. Sweden has a pop. of 10M with 3K deaths. Massachusetts is approximately 20,306 sq km, while Sweden is approximately 450,295 sq km, making Sweden 2,118% larger than Massachusetts. So the 10M residents of Sweden are much more spread than in MA. Also MA was late in how they have dealt with Covid and the number of cases was progressing much faster.
- nradov 6y agoIt's not that simple. Population density numbers don't tell us anything useful at the national level. Most Swedes are clustered into a few urban areas.
- anthonypasq 6y agook then look at the stats in Stockholm
- 77pt77 6y agoNorway has similar ratios for immigration and lower mortality. It's not that. Sweden tested a lax social distancing approach and it backfired.
- manojlds 6y agoMore sun in India, Bangladesh. Less in UK. Might be simple answer is that the darker skin = less vitamin D. So higher the latitude, dark skinned people might be in more trouble.
- CodeGlitch 6y agoYes I've been interested in this theory as well. Also see the number of deaths in carehomes - where a lot of people spend all days indoors. Let's just say I've been taking my Vit-Ds for the last 3 months!
- wil421 6y agoCare homes house at risk people that are susceptible to getting sick from anything. They live in close quarters and are touched by lots of workers throughout the day. I doubt Vitamin D and indoors has anything to do with it.
- oliveshell 6y agoIt certainly doesn’t help.
- scoot 6y agoIn the UK, April 2020 was the sunniest April on record (224 hours of bright sunshine), and May 2020 was the sunniest month on record (626 hours). Now, how much time UK citizens spent in the sun compared to those in other countries is a different question, but "less sun" doesn't appear to be the answer at face value. [1] https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2020/2020-april-stats https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weat... [2] https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2020/2020-spring-and-may-stats https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weat...
- yomly 6y agoThe UV responsible for vitamin D production effectively does not penetrate glass so it depends how much time people actually go outside.
- easytiger 6y agoAlso the definition of a covid 19 death in the UK is extremely, err, innacurate
- pavs 6y agoNo one in Bangladesh believes Bangladesh's low death number. I live here. Freedom of the press is non-existent (al-most all press/media is owned by government party). There are actual laws that say that you can't say anything against the government online (many have been prosecuted for this). There is literally only 1 party - all other parties are destroyed, their members arrested or banned, jailed on real or fake cases. Bangladesh's health care has been horrible even before the pandemic. Air pollution is extremely high. We don't have the infrastructure to handle so many patients - private hospitals are having a hard time handling patients. Public hospitals are even worse. Central oxygen is almost non-existent, lack of proper PPE, masks or proper testing. They only recently started ramping up tests - but the numbers are still very low. Even with all the hiding and misinformation by the government, the official number is still climbing at an alarming rate.
- ImaCake 6y agoI fear that we in the west will simply not even know that this catastrophy is occuring all over the third world. Maybe in a few years we will find out just how terrible this pandemic was.
- ithkuil 6y agoI genuinely wonder if there is any data that backs the hypothesis what countries where the current health and healthcare conditions are already very poor are showing low numbers of symptomatic covid-19 cases because most people who are susceptible to disease have already succumbed to other diseases over the years.
- mritchie712 6y agoAlso, testing. Testing is hard to get in the US. We are obviously fucking up in many ways ATM, but if you can't get testing here when you want it, imagine getting it in a poor country with inadequate healthcare.
- Jommi 6y agoIn my anecdotal experience I haven't seen it hard. Lots of counties in California are offering free testing for anyone. Not to mention commercial testing has been open for anyone for months now.
- seanmcdirmid 6y agoLower life expectancies and lack of elder group homes might also explain it. For the first one, those with pre-existing conditions that the virus usually has more of an effect on are mostly already dead. For the latter, a lot of the cases in the west have been in nursing homes that simply don’t exist in poorer countries. Or they might just not have the resources to get accurate statistics and ascertain cause of death due to the virus.