By Rai Chowdhary
The scare of harm from COVID-19 has the world nearly paralyzed. So many numbers are thrown around and opinions voiced – it is deafening. I am offering a few pointers we need to take into account as we try to digest all the information and separate signals amidst all this noise.
- Since testing the whole population is very hard to do, and could be infeasible – it is not known how many carry this virus
- Of those carrying this virus – how many have symptoms, and how many of these get detected
- From the ones that exhibit symptoms – how many are able to fight off, vs. get sick, and how many get seriously sick to the point of needing medical intervention
- Of the ones who get seriously sick, how many recover vs. how many succumb
- For those that succumb – was it COVID-19 or there other factors that were present and were the real cause? COVID-19 just happened to be there.
Many factors determine who will be affected and to what extent
(a) the viral load
(b) the immune system of the individual
(c) latency between exposure and development of illness / symptoms
(d) kinetics of illness progression vs that of immunity development
(e) …more
What is the truth behind the explosion of fear based on this virus? I wish it was that easy to fish out. My thinking it it will be years before we will know it – if at all.
Meanwhile – here are a few websites and videos that I found informative:
Shekhar gupta – an enlightening talk on COVID-19
US Army Engineers fighting COVID-19
Corona virus warnings came up early in 2019 – no one listened
India eradicated small pox and polio – they know how to deal with epidemics
Ten mis-conceptions about Corona virus COVID-19
Brain images may show cytokine storm from COVID-19
Rai Chowdhary's blog 