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Contemporary pandemic death rates are primarily provoked by social geography
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Selected thesis
Contemporary pandemic death rates are primarily provoked by social geography
Pros
Cons
Pro claim 1, children below
In the US, as poorer communities are known for having a higher concentration of people, due to the difference in incomes, we see a large part of the Latino, African American and Arabic communities are affected compared to ‘white’ communities in large cities.
Pro claim 2
Germany has a low death rate due to an aggressive testing protocol increasing the denominator of the equation which calculates death rates. Germany also has the 2nd highest number of ICU beds per capita in the world
Pro claim 3
Culture, such as widespread use of masks does not have an impact on death rates as it simply affects the scale of infection which occurs and not the ratio between those who recover and those who die. This is represented by the equal death rates between Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan who use masks expeditiously compared to Germany and Singapore who ration masks
Pro claim 4, children below
Italy has a high death rate due to social factors such as the elderly interacting with their family much more than other countries.
Pro claim 5
Germany's healthcare system is 77% funded by the government which allowed for 56.000 ICU beds.
Pro claim 6
There is an alliance between Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany with sharing ICU beds to ensure the healthcare system isn't overworked. over 200 patients have been transported to Germany.
Pro claim 7, children below
Countries who are considered more democratic and Libertarian will suffer longer from the pandemic due to the fact that they are not able to implement laws strict enough to completely shut off the pandemic. Example: China saw an effective decline due to highly strict measures taken in areas like Wuhan, policies that are probably impossible to implement in countries like the U.S
Pro claim 8
Less developed areas or countries such as areas in New York City (predominantly Hispanic and black people) are twice as likely to die of coronavirus symptoms. This is because of the higher population density and health care development and insurance policies within that are.
Pro claim 9
Recently, Malaysia and in particular, Singapore has seen a rise in cases due to the foreign worker population living in said countries. Foreign workers are often employed in many essential services and it is known that they barely earn minimum wage. You will frequently find that due to their financial situation, they all live in one building or area together with multiple people in a small flat. This ultimately contributes to the spread of the virus.
Pro claim 10
African Americans make up a large amount of cases and deaths in the US as most of them do not have the privilege to work at home. Many of them work in what's considered as essential services due to their low income and face many issues to do with healthcare, education, and racism. Not only that, but more than one generation could be living in one house in an overcrowded urban area.
Pro claim 11
Social geography and demographics play a really big role of how countries are being affected by Covid - 19. For example, South Asian Countries such as Malaysia are reopening some parts of their economy and making the MCO(Movement Control Order) less restricted; to ensure competitiveness and economic stability. The daily cases and the death rates have decreased too in Malaysia. It could be catastrophic for the Malaysian economy if some sectors didn't reopen because there many day labours.
Pro claim 12
Around mid-March, China sent a group of medical experts with respirators, masks and other supplies to support Italy when the number of cases were increasing rapidly.
News
Around the end of March, there were signs of decrease in the number of positive cases.
Graph
From the graphs in the website, the number of confirmed and death cases have been decreasing since the end of March. It could be Italy's own policy that has helped the number, but I still think that China should also take the credit.
Pro claim 13
Countries that are densely populated and aren't as economically developed are more likely to have higher death rates. For example, Bangladesh would be expected to have a high number of COVID 19 cases.
Pro claim 14
Places such as Detroit have been struggling with the virus. They have the third-highest number of infections and the nurses claim that they require more help. Because of this, they are far from reaching their peak. Another reason Detroit is struggling with the pandemic is due to Trump downplaying the severity of the virus. Additionally, 1/3 of its population is poor which can be due to the majority of the population being in a position where they cannot work from home.
youtu.be
Pro claim 15
In New York, minorities (Hispanics and Blacks) are more likely to die from the Covid-19 Virus. One reason for this is due the financial stability of those people and are more likely to have untreated chronic health problems. The reason for these health problems being more common in this social group is because they may be discouraged from seeking medical help due to the anti-immigrant mindset that has been dominant in the country for years.
nytimes.com
Con claim 1, children below
Hong Kong/China has controlled the spread better than the USA/western countries as the government has implemented stricter and more extreme policies.
Con claim 2, children below
As seen in Cuba, having a State-Controlled Economy allows it to mobilise and allocate resources in order to combat the epidemic effectively.
Con claim 3
Death tolls are being recorded with a variety of data collections. For example, the deaths which only took place in the hospitals were being recorded by England until the end of April which means that it is not fully accurate and all the deaths at other places were not being taken in count. On the contrary, European countries like France included deaths of all places (hospitals, care homes, etc.) Covid - 19 cases are being recorded differently in each country, hence the death rate fluctuation.
Con claim 4
China is the most populated country and where the pandemic essentially came from. Logically speaking, the number of cases would be very high (factors taken into account: population density). However, many other countries have surpassed China in COVID 19 cases.
Con claim 5
It seems that the number of Covid-19 cases outside of China and other Asian countries has
worldmapper.org
decreased dramatically throughout the year. This is likely due to these countries having stricter regulations in order to prevent the spread of the virus. As a result, these countries were able to reach the peak and the number of cases began to decrease.
Con claim 6
Since the Malaysian government have introduced the CMCO, the number of cases have fluctuated however, the number of deaths have been less frequent.