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Re:Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus... by saiya-jin on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @05:37AM (#22421899)
How many of these critical beds do you think average african or other south asian countries have?

I checked with my wife who is doctor at biggest Swiss hospital - currently they could host around 30 people who need respiratory assistance. Surrounding area contains 1.5-2 millions of people.

I used to be critical of China in this, and still hate how they handled the start. But to be honest, unless tremendous luck would be involved, I don't think most western countries wouldn't be able to contain the epidemics neither, it would just be a bit slower. Its too sneaky and effective.

Re:Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus... by hawkice on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @06:46AM (#22422170)
There is reason to think the fatality rate in other Chinese cities is ten times lower than Wuhan. This is not an issue of generically being poor, it's that the authoritarian government knows where their bread gets buttered, and it's on the coast. We don't know what's already happened in the concentration camps in Xinjiang. But I think we share the prediction of what will, as containment of the virus has failed. And it isn't "China being well known for caring about all Chinese equally".

(Also worth noting the single hospital you mentioned has a 50% improvement in capacity (actually much more, because your number is more specific than 'critical care', but I don't know how much more specific) over the city where people are using gutter oil. Capacity can be less when there aren't public defecation concerns, but your example is emphatically not that.)