I don't think China is underestimating cases atm, seems like they have gotten on top of testing and the numbers are believable given the sledgehammer approach they've taken. One other factor I think is past experience with SARS - despite having dense urban populations and the first after China to be affected by Covid, Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore have managed to keep cases numbers down without taking the sledgehammer approach because they acted quickly. These were also the countries most affected by SARS ("perk" of being so connected to China), so the policies/measures were already thought through and it was a matter of scrambling to execute. However at the current rate of outbreak in other countries, these countries will likely see new spikes in cases (esp. spread from imported cases), and the same SARS type measures may no longer be effective.
A popular belief is that Covid would die out in hot weather and with spring and summer coming it would be a godsend, but a scary fact that was pointed out last night was that Tom Hanks contracted it in Australia, where it is currently summer time.
I think there have been various facts to look at that say summer weather might help some, but not much. Form the current spread, to how flu works (which is seasonal, but less so than we believe) to timing of last pandemics including previous coronavirus ones, some of which started in the summer. Then there's the science behind why hot temperatures work. If I recall, hot and humid is best, as it has to do with breaking up the air droplets quickly as people "spit" them out. All that said, i just looked and the temperature in the gold coast right now is 66, getting up to 80... so not as hot as it will be in Houston/Texas today.
My wife is a pathologist (MD). Not a forensic pathologist so take this for what it is worth but there is zero proof right now that warm weather impacts the disease at this point. remember, this is in a similar family to MERS, which comes from camels and which impacts the Middle East where temps are 110 degrees. I hope I/she am/are wrong but I don't know that we can bank on warm weather impacting this. We just don't know enough yet. But we can't speak to this like it is a fact
Think the idea is that it'll follow the regular flu season like SARS did. With colder temperatures, people stay indoors more effectively infecting one another. Think they're also looking at the climates in Vietnam, Singapore and Australia whose numbers cases are extremely low. But also those countries have taken extraordinary measures compared to Europe and the US thus far.
For anyone interested, here are a list of myths (currently myths, anyway) posted by WHO : https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters
Yes they were. Based on the infections per million in other countries like Italy and other places then China had to be significantly higher
Is there any truth what I'm seeing online, that more than a few people are being dicks to Asian people? I know how people can get in times of crisis but I also know how rare incidents can get overblown due to mass re-sharing as well. Since I'm not there to witness it first-hand I only get to see what others are sharing and I'm a little shook by what people are sharing.
