'Everyone is dying': Myanmar on the brink of decimation

[Klaralven]

Two days ago, I spent six hours on encrypted apps with contacts inside the country trying to locate one – just one – oxygen concentrator for the mother of my friend, whom I will call “Ma Moon.”

Her mother’s oxygen saturation rate had dropped precipitously in one day from 95 to 70.

I do not know this for sure – in these circumstances, we know we cannot ask this question – but I think the family is being treated on a daily basis by doctors who have “gone underground” in a civil disobedience campaign.

Medical professionals are among the most respected individuals in the country, and so their decision to oppose the February 1 military coup d’etat that took down the elected civilian government carried immense weight among the population.

One estimate provided by public health experts in Myanmar predicts that 50% of Myanmar’s 55 million people will be infected within three weeks by either the Alpha or Delta variant of Covid-19.

One very reputable public health specialist expects that the population will be decimated by at least 10-15 million by the time Covid is done with Myanmar.

https://asiatimes.com/2021/07/everyone-is-dying-myanmar-on-the-brink-of-decimation/

[tanyev]

1. Oh, gosh. How awful.

[GoCubsGo]

2. Meanwhile, the vaccine is free and widely available here, and yet

so many fucking idiots refuse to take it. Horrific in so many ways.

[underpants]

3. Oh god.

How horrible.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

4. That would be super freaky ...

10-15M dead out of 27.M would be a staggeringly higher rate of death of infected people than has been seen anywhere else.

Why would that happen?

[Ace Rothstein]

8. I suppose if you have that many infected quickly, a higher fatality rate is possible.

It will quickly strain the medical system but I think that high is just doomerism.

[Sgent]

9. No medical care

Oxygen and breathing support (even without respirators), no steroids, etc. I don't know that it would get that high, but it would be orders of magnitude worse than anywhere else.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

10. Plenty of countries out there with very sub-par medical care and nobody is seeing

50% of people who test positive ... dying. Not even anywhere close to that.

Even with 0 medical care it should not be 'orders of magnitude worse' in a given country.

Isn't the worldwide death total around 4M?

[Crunchy Frog]

12. That's the number of confirmed fatalities.

Real numbers almost certainly many times higher. We know the numbers have been grossly under reported in many countries, including Russia, India, and almost certainly China. Likely many other smaller countries as well.

Official numbers are the tip of the iceberg, especially in closed societies, or ones with little public health infrastructure.

[stopdiggin]

22. all true. but mortality rates exceeding 50% still seems a real stretch -(nt)-

[Crunchy Frog]

25. I agree. 50% is way too high. 5%wouldn't surprise me in the absence of medical facilities.

[Pobeka]

29. Yep, 10-15 million dead is a bogus number.

Unless there is some genetic disposition of that population that makes them far more vulnerable.

Even if the entire population was infected, you'd be about 20% mortality with 10-15 million dead.

It's horrible, it's awful that they are going to be hit, and there will be long haulers, and there will be a lot of deaths, but no more than 2 million dead.

[TheRickles]

15. Fear porn, IMO.

[Vdizzle]

18. Porn doesn't scare me....

Lol.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

27. Lol ... there are people though who prefer fear porn to actual porn though

They get a real thrill from scary-sounding things involving a lot of human death. And plenty of purveyors of the same, who are happy to 'sell' it to them either figuratively or literally.

Carlin had a bit about it back in the day ...

[onecaliberal]

5. :

[KentuckyWoman]

6. Thank you for posting this.

I've shared elsewhere.

[FakeNoose]

7. The former British colony of Burma is now called Myanmar

(link) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar

... and their challenges are stupefying. In February of this year the democratically elected National League for Democracy party was overthrown by military coup. News stories about Myanmar in many cases haven't been forthcoming since the coup. It's sad to think they have no vaccines and little in the way of PCP supplies, and the Covid virus is ravaging the country.

[herding cats]

11. This rips my heart into a million pieces.

So many here are refusing the vaccine... yet I see stories like this form places where there's a shortage of vaccine globally, which is killing people who'd love to have one.

[Demovictory9]

13. Hopefully western countries will reach out with assistance

[SergeStorms]

14. With a military coup replacing....

a democratically elected government? With COVID raging through the country? Not likely. Meanwhile, millions are dying. Apparently that's what the installed military government wants. Fewer people to control, and much easier to do so.

[renate]

16. This breaks my heart

I was phenomenally lucky and got to visit Myanmar about ten years ago. The people there were *lovely*. Not making excuses for what has happened with the Rohingya, and Aung Sang Suu Kyi has let us all down (although she couldn’t actually have stopped it, she could have spoken out), but the regular people were just so friendly. Just like all Americans aren’t MAGAs, most of them are genuine Buddhists. They have suffered so much and now this. Just a brief taste of freedom... it must make the coup even more painful than if they’d never known freedom at all. Back to square one.

And now they’re dying of COVID while we watch powerlessly.

[ck4829]

17. "I want to know why what happened in Myanmar can't happen here?" - Q people

Just remember that.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

19. As serious as Covid-19 is, the death rate just isn't that huge.

Yes, I know there's a lot of underreporting, but this does come across as fear-mongering.

Meanwhile, we should definitely be shipping a whole lot more vaccine to many more countries.

[Celerity]

26. it is the Asia Times, hardly an A-lister outlet

and those insane death figures are unsourced

that is a massive red flag

to get to 15 million dead you would need a lethality rate around 100 to 120 times greater than what has been seen so far globally

15 million dead in Myanmar is the population-adjusted equivalent of over 90 million dead in the USA

it is ludicrous

[TheRickles]

28. Agreed. Thank you for putting it so succinctly.

[iluvtennis]

20. Very sad. Sent up a prayer. n/t

[YoshidaYui]

21. I have a sweet friend who lives there

Praying she is ok, this is horrible! Yabai!!

[Yavin4]

23. Myanmar has a strict mask mandate. Surely, there are no Covid cases, right?

Myanmar authorities charge fine those caught not wearing masks while outside:

https://www.mmtimes.com/news/myanmar-authorities-charge-fine-those-caught-not-wearing-masks-while-outside.html

[orleans]

24. what a tragedy. k&r & tweeted nt