Re:Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?
by Scipio_Afri on Thursday February 27, 2020 @12:13AM
(#22430713)
Regarding the bonds, that doesn’t seem true. The conditions for payout are:
“ On the face of it, the class B bond should have incurred losses during the 2018 ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the recent coronavirus from Wuhan, China, as both have resulted in deaths north of 250 people, the primary condition for a payout.”
“ But an important secondary condition states that there must be at least 20 deaths in a second country for the bond to release any funds, a requirement that has not been met by the coronavirus or the ebola outbreak.”
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-world-bank-has-an-insu...
Re:Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?
by ragazzina on Thursday February 27, 2020 @03:38AM
(#22431666)
Iran is at 19, South Korea and Italy 13 and 12.
Re:Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?
by droithomme on Thursday February 27, 2020 @10:22AM
(#22434013)
As of this hour, Iran's now at 26 deaths.
Re:Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?
by JoeAltmaier on Thursday February 27, 2020 @10:25AM
(#22434048)
Curiously Iran's smoking rate is low - 1/3 of America's. I had thought that lung-compromised smokers were responsible for high mortality in some countries. Hm.
Re:Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?
by mercer on Thursday February 27, 2020 @11:53AM
(#22434998)
That could still be true. I imagine there are a huge number of variables that influence mortality rates, to the point where finding correlations is difficult.
If I understand correctly, even the effect of weather/heat on various strains of viruses is extremely difficult to predict because of how many other factors play a role (air-conditioning, for example).
China has been overwhelmed. They ran out of testing kits weeks ago. They have been turning people away from hospitals for months. Major infection areas have been under lockdown, where people are not allowed to leave their homes or drive, even for emergency trips to the hospital. Their official reported diagnosed cases are nowhere the true numbers. They've also punished doctors for reporting new cases. It's all a giant sham.
This pandemic is revealing just how incompetent global organizations and news media are.
Edit: I just read that the WHO also has some incentive to downplay the virus - $425 million in catastrophe bonds were issued that may default if the virus is officially labeled a pandemic...can't seem to find the actual default conditions but there's a clear conflict of interest here. https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/pandemic-bon...