5 ms·

The ten countries: Palau, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Samoa, Vanuatu, Tonga

• sradman 6y ago
  Some of these are top scuba diving destinations. They depend on regional air hubs, all presumably closed to non-essential connecting flights. I wonder if these ten nations, all Melanesian/Polynesian with historical ties to the Anglo sphere, represent a true COVID-19 resistant pattern or are just reporting anomalies.
  • blaser-waffle 6y ago
    > represent a true COVID-19 resistant pattern or are just reporting anomalies. Probably anomalies. We're talking small, small population groups on isolated islands. I mean it's possible there is a Polynesian DNA thing that helps make them resistant, sort of a smallpox-in-reverse advantage, but my money says it's just because 1) super isolated, and 2) because of point 1 they can very effectively filter traffic and quarantine those who are questionable.
    • sradman 6y ago
      I was thinking socio-economic and transportation connectedness rather than genetic resistance. Anglo-centric Cook Islands vs. French Polynesia, for instance, and the evolved political, economic, transportation, and health systems. It could be something as simple as incoming flights mostly originating from one of Sydney, Singapore, or Hawaii and the travel restrictions implemented at each hub. We are also maybe placing to much emphasis on zero-per-hundred-thousand compared to one-per-hundred-thousand stats.