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COVID-19 Has Blown Away the Myth About 'First' and 'Third' World Competence:
One of the planet's – and Africa's – deepest prejudices is being demolished by the way countries handle COVID-19.
For as long as any of us remember, everyone "knew" that "First World" countries – in effect, Western Europe and North America – were much better at providing their citizens with a good life than the poor and incapable states of the "Third World". "First World" has become shorthand for competence, sophistication and the highest political and economic standards.
[...] So we should have expected the state-of-the-art health systems of the "First World", spurred on by their aware and empowered citizens, to handle COVID-19 with relative ease, leaving the rest of the planet to endure the horror of buckling health systems and mass graves.
We have seen precisely the opposite.
[...] [Britain and the US] have ignored the threat. When they were forced to act, they sent mixed signals to citizens which encouraged many to act in ways which spread the infection. Neither did anything like the testing needed to control the virus. Both failed to equip their hospitals and health workers with the equipment they needed, triggering many avoidable deaths.
The failure was political. The US is the only rich country with no national health system. An attempt by former president Barack Obama to extend affordable care was watered down by right-wing resistance, then further gutted by the current president and his party. Britain's much-loved National Health Service has been weakened by spending cuts. Both governments failed to fight the virus in time because they had other priorities.
And yet, in Britain, the government's popularity ratings are sky high and it is expected to win the next election comfortably. The US president is behind in the polls but the contest is close enough to make his re-election a real possibility. Can there be anything more typically "Third World" than citizens supporting a government whose actions cost thousands of lives?
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday May 19 2020, @05:24PM (2 children)
Oh, there's probably all kinds of variation on that front. But with some diseases it makes no difference (eg. rabies). And with truly novel diseases, it can't make a difference, because there IS no baseline immunity. (Or do you refer to how much generic stimulation their immune systems get? in that case, first world farmers should be equally immune.)
Native Americans mostly lived in what we'd call third-world squalor, yet they had no baseline immunity to smallpox, to them a novel virus. I'd guess most of the better European immunity was due less to historic smallpox exposure (remember many Europeans still died from it) as from living in close proximity to their cattle, and thereby frequent exposure to cowpox, which does produce some cross-immunity with smallpox.
It does occur to me to wonder if dogs, while readily infected by CV19, are generally asymptomatic because of cross-protection from the ubiquitous canine coronavirus. Nearly all dogs older than six weeks have immunity to canine CV, either through early exposure or vaccination. (Canine CV is not a serious disease, and is only a concern when there's inadequately-good parvovirus vaccination, because CV knocks down the immune system and serves as a gateway for parvo.)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 19 2020, @05:55PM (1 child)
Yes, and no. First world farmers may kick the shit, but they're also exposed to a wide spectrum of stuff that screws with immunological profiles - chlorinated water (or not), first world vaccine schedules, pesticides, heavy antibiotic doses in their food animals, etc.
So, this "novel" Coronavirus, crossed over from bats we are told, how novel is it, really? As you say, canine coronavirus... do dog owners have better immunity? Apparently cats also contract and spread COVID-19 asymptomatically... whatever that's worth.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday May 19 2020, @06:46PM
CV19: Cats get seriously ill about on par with humans, just have not had many cases yet. Dogs, far as I've heard, only very rarely become ill (again not enough samples) and do not spread it to humans. Ferrets and mink get seriously ill at much higher rates than humans do. At this point it's still mostly field observation, better'n anecdotal but not exactly solid stats, tho contagion studies with cats and ferrets were both in the above ballpark.
My observation is that getting vaccinated more often confers better immunity -- after all, vaccine is just a controlled challenge to the immune system, and when it's challenged regularly, it keeps the troops on their toes, so to speak. This is why I get the flu vaccine every year and don't worry if it's the 'right' one or not... having noticed back in the early days that after I'd had a few years of flu shots, I stopped getting the flu even when the vaccine was the wrong one for that season. Even a near miss is useful, or so it appears.
Pesticides and antibiotics are very much targeted, they're not just sprayed over everything as you imply. If I have to dose a cow, I certainly don't dose myself too. How would I get exposed? and if it's such a problem, why aren't all the livestock dying, given they're regularly injected with vaccines and parasite controls, and antibiotics at need (tho with the new restrictive regs, gonna be a lot more calves dying of spring scours for lack of immediately-available antibiotics, cuz the $50 profit margin on that calf is not worth the cost of the vet for a ranch call, and when he can't get there today, it's too late anyway).
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.