CoronaVirus

ZCanadian · 04-20-2020, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bunk

Closing the border to China could or could not have been a move to put pressure on China with regards to the trade war (doubt it though, because commerce was not blocked... but Chinas manufacturing had been halted from their shutdown). Regrdless, it was the right move. Then a few weeks later, he closed the border to Europe when Italy's cases began to go up. And again was called a xenophobe.

The European ban could have been criticized but only for a day, mainly by EU leaders as I recall. The WHO followed up with the same advice within 24 hours. I suspect that was an intentionally coordinated response. And yes, the right thing to do.

But it was 2 weeks before that when Italy's cases actually started to skyrocket. I don't think he ever shut down flights from South Korea (which had more cases earlier on than Italy did) until borders were locked down completely. By March 12 when the European ban was announced, the virus was present in most countries including the USA (which still had no working testing regime).

Funny (well, not funny, but strange) thing is, Canada did not institute the same travel bans (China, Europe) until later in March when all inbound traffic was halted. Yet (touch wood, not gloating by any means) our infection and death rates seem much lower. Infection rates per capita one could attribute to a smaller percentage of the population being tested as yet here. But deaths and hospitalizations are reasonably accurate numbers on both sides. We did instigate fairly rigorous closures / distancing measures, though not the lockdowns that China had by any means.

What's the right answer? Damned if I know. We can discuss that in about 18 months. I'd sure hate to be in charge right now, though!

FL 4Motion · 04-20-2020, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZCanadian

The European ban could have been criticized but only for a day, mainly by EU leaders as I recall. The WHO followed up with the same advice within 24 hours. I suspect that was an intentionally coordinated response. And yes, the right thing to do.

But it was 2 weeks before that when Italy's cases actually started to skyrocket. I don't think he ever shut down flights from South Korea (which had more cases earlier on than Italy did) until borders were locked down completely. By March 12 when the European ban was announced, the virus was present in most countries including the USA (which still had no working testing regime).

Funny (well, not funny, but strange) thing is, Canada did not institute the same travel bans (China, Europe) until later in March when all inbound traffic was halted. Yet (touch wood, not gloating by any means) our infection and death rates seem much lower. Infection rates per capita one could attribute to a smaller percentage of the population being tested as yet here. But deaths and hospitalizations are reasonably accurate numbers on both sides. We did instigate fairly rigorous closures / distancing measures, though not the lockdowns that China had by any means.

What's the right answer? Damned if I know. We can discuss that in about 18 months. I'd sure hate to be in charge right now, though!

Are Canucks healthier overall than us Americans? Ie, fewer preexisting conditions per capita. Less chronic stress, heart disease, obesity etc? Better access to healthcare (just stepped on a land mine with that one

).

Maybe I should just start ending my sentences with eh, and increase my daily dose of maple syrup.

ZCanadian · 04-20-2020, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FL 4Motion

Are Canucks healthier overall than us Americans? Ie, fewer preexisting conditions per capita. Less chronic stress, heart disease, obesity etc? Better access to healthcare (just stepped on a land mine with that one

).

Maybe I should just start ending my sentences with eh, and increase my daily dose of maple syrup.

Couldn't hurt, EH?

Health care access for sure. The rest, not as much as we'd like to believe up here, if I'm being honest. Especially not in our indigenous population.

It could be that certain ethnic groups that feature more predominantly in the US are more susceptible, or perhaps just that that their poor outcomes are related to other socio-economic factors. Really hard to say. Certainly, population density appears to be a factor with this disease, but we have a few large metropolitan areas (of a million or more, densely packed), and a large Chinese diaspora in Vancouver (and Toronto) as well as a major student population from there, many of whom travel home for things like our Christmas break or their Lunar New Year. Also, we have a large Iranian community (most of the people on that downed airliner were headed to Canada), and Iran was the second nation to be hard hit in this crisis.

And I'm not saying that we are immune or not going to feel the effects - just that our failure to stop inbound flights or screen incoming passengers did not seem to cost as many lives as one might have imagined. Merely an observation.

FL 4Motion · 04-20-2020, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZCanadian

Couldn't hurt, EH?

Health care access for sure. The rest, not as much as we'd like to believe up here, if I'm being honest. Especially not in our indigenous population.

It could be that certain ethnic groups that feature more predominantly in the US are more susceptible, or perhaps just that that their poor outcomes are related to other socio-economic factors. Really hard to say. Certainly, population density appears to be a factor with this disease, but we have a few large metropolitan areas (of a million or more, densely packed), and a large Chinese diaspora in Vancouver (and Toronto) as well as a major student population from there, many of whom travel home for things like our Christmas break or their Lunar New Year. Also, we have a large Iranian community (most of the people on that downed airliner were headed to Canada), and Iran was the second nation to be hard hit in this crisis.

And I'm not saying that we are immune or not going to feel the effects - just that our failure to stop inbound flights or screen incoming passengers did not seem to cost as many lives as one might have imagined. Merely an observation.

I don’t think at this point you can pinpoint a particular racial or ethnic group and say the virus is more deadly or serious simply based on that, it’s very hard to separate poor health outcomes based on race or ethnicity while controlling for poor socioeconomic issues which disproportionately affect certain groups. These groups also tend to be clustered in population dense areas where transmission is easier.

Eh?