We need to be paying more attention to India.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

Right now they are third in the world with number of deaths, but are getting pretty close to 100,000 new cases every day. Assuming their numbers are accurate.

More to the point, there are 1.3 billion people in that country, and right now their deaths per 1million are a paltry 54. We are at 589, although 10 other countries have more deaths per million than we do.

Even if the overall death rate of 1percent holds, 1 percent of India's population is 13 million.

On one hand, one percent of a population is a small, almost trivial figure. On the other hand, the absolute numbers can be quite large. One percent of our population is some 3.3 million people.

On the up side, grave digging will be a job with a real future.

Hope I don't need the sarcasm thingy for that last sentence.

[dchill]

1. Sorry to say it will have to wait until January 21st.

[Sogo]

2. For the most part,

they don't dig graves in India.

But their crematoriums will be swamped!

[JCMach1]

3. A lot of people have had BCG vaccine in India and Africa

Latest I could find on BCG

https://www.houstoniamag.com/health-and-wellness/2020/09/jeffrey-cirillo-thinks-bcg-tuberculosis-vaccine-might-work-with-covid

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Right now they are reporting over 90,000 new cases per day.

And over 1,000 deaths per day.

Somehow I doubt that the tuberculous vaccine is currently protecting them. I think they were simply late in having the virus arrive, and are probably significantly under reporting both cases and deaths. If they even keep good mortality statistics, I wonder what their excess deaths have been like this year.

[moondust]

4. Low death rate

I've heard some speculate is due to young population. I think they said the average age is 27. I think they are now #2 in total cases behind U.S.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. Right. They are currently #2 in total cases.

And, as we are learning, being young isn't as much of a protection as first thought.

I keep on wondering, even as I've watched cases rise in India, how accurate is their reporting?

[moondust]

7. No doubt

everything may be grossly under-reported due to difficulty measuring such a large population. I don't know enough about Modi's and state governments to know how corrupt they are and if they would deliberately cook the numbers.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. Right. I know very little about India,

but I do know that early on in this pandemic I was hearing things that indicated they might be deliberately and inadvertently under reporting cases and deaths. Again, I don't know enough about how things work there to offer an informed comment.

[Volaris]

9. India's kinda weird.

It's the largest democracy on earth. It's also one of the most institutionally corrupt. The caste system is officially banned, but their social hierarchy still maintains it (kinda like jim crow was here, but without the actual laws).

It's one if the fastest growing economies on the planet, with a massive labor base, of which nearly half would fall into our definition of 'abject poverty'.

They've put a lot of stock into tech educations and computer science degrees, but what they've managed to do with a lot of that education is run call centers for less than our own people would work for.

What India is as a capitalist democracy, is Wall Streets wet dream for america.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. Interesting.

Not too long ago I read a book about human genetics. By and large almost all of us are essentially mongrels. In India, the caste system, looked at genetically, has been locked in for a very long time.

[Volaris]

12. Oh for mellienna in India you did NOT 'marry down'..ohh hell no.

And the caste system (since it's at least partially based on hindu religious text and custom) is one of the oldest still-in-existance social structures on earth. Its not going away just cause democracy gets to exist and now we can make it 'illegal'.

[JI7]

11. India is a mess and they have a shitty PM who is leading the country to Ruin

But we can't pay attention to them too much right now. We have to make sure we can do something to save ourselves first .