Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion Thread

[Pemalite]

JRPGfan said:

US worries me too, its still seeing 20,000+ daily cases and its now reopening even if Rt is still above 1 in some places there.
Seems like Trump is willing to take economy over lives.

Trumps personal wealth is heavily reliant on the economy, could argue it's a conflict of interest.

SvennoJ said:

Population density has a big influence. If you compare Sweden to Norway, Norway beat the virus with 234 deaths and is down to 10 new cases a day or less. Australia beat the virus with only 100 deaths. Sweden is still over 500 new cases daily (average from last week since their reporting is so irregular) and 63 deaths daily, on top of the 3,831 deaths so far.

But yep, compared to who is (or was) doing the worst in Europe, Sweden looks pretty good...

Now it all depends on whether the countries that got it down get a second big wave or if they can prevent / keep a second wave down.

There are also social habits we need to be mindful of, some nations have social practices that require more frequent personal interaction with others.

New Zealand has a population density of 15 people per square kilometer.
Australia has a population density of 3.1 people per square kilometer.

New Zealand has a population of 4.88 Million people with 1,452 total COVID cases and 20 deaths.
Australia has a population of 24.99 Million people with 7,077 total COVID cases and 100 deaths.

New Zealand is 5x as dense as Australia, so arguably should statistically see higher trends, but that doesn't seem to play out in the real world.

The issue with Australia is that, density statistics can't ever be accurate... Because the majority of the entire continent isn't really populated, we are all focused in a few key coastal areas.