No North Korean is immunised
author of these words really believes that there was no COVID in North Korea before?
I think they mean vaccines.
If a country like New Zealand can manage to be largely covid-free for extended periods of time, then I find it not that unlikely that a completely isolated country like North Korea would somehow escape the pandemic as well.
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On one hand yes, on the other different kinds of borders.
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Okay, then take Vietnam. Or China.
It’s hard to believe that one of the earlier variants has already done its thing in North Korea, and that they decide that the Omikron variant is the point where foreign aid has to be called for. The previous variants were way more deadly, to start with.
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Yeah I was thinking that in terms of completely isolated 
vs 
(wikipedia images)
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Huh?
Most provinces in China were covid-free for most of the pandemic. Or at least, that’s what I gathered, also because most of China wasn’t in a complete lockdown during most of the pandemic (in contrast with what’s happening now: it’s quite clear what China’s strategy is regarding covid).
In any case, all I meant to say, is that if there’s one easy way to keep a pandemic out of your country, it’s to have your borders completely closed and imprison your citizens in their homes. Both are things that North Korea is kind of notorious for, so I don’t see why it would be inconceivable that North Korea hasn’t had trouble with the pandemic until now.
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I agree that most of N. Koreans have been isolated until now and so probably not in contact with covid.
But there’s always ways for certain things to go in and out (it’s easier for a country with well-documented borders and stuff to guard them, imho).
However, once in, they’re a population that most probably will have a pile of reasons to be hit really hard and nobody will accurately report it.
China was ground zero (Wuhan) and a vast area comparing, so the clarification was really needed. Maybe certain provinces of China could be a better comparison.
Speaking of China, 100 cases in Sichuan province yesterday seems like it must be some kind of record:
https://weekly.chinacdc.cn/news/TrackingtheEpidemic.htm#NHC22May13
Is something going on there or is it just random?
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Nice, a new toy to keep us excited…
What is worrying me is that measures like washing hands or not coughing in your colleagues’ face tend to fade into inexistence. What’s wrong with washing hands, people?
No wonder a new illness came to visit and no doubt we’ll sc. do such a bad job in prevention that we will end up with martial laws, again.
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Washing hands cannot hurt, but it’s pretty inefficient against covid. People were told two years ago to wash hands because masks and vaccines were not available and people don’t want to hear “there is nothing you can do against the virus”.
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https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2022-DON381
(Nigeria)
From 1 January to 30 April 2022, 46 suspected cases have been reported of which 15 were confirmed
On 7 May 2022, WHO was informed of a confirmed case of monkeypox in an individual who travelled from the United Kingdom to Nigeria and subsequently returned to the United Kingdom.
…
The Massachusetts Health Department reported on Wednesday the case of an adult male who had recently traveled to Canada
On May 19, Italy confirmed its first case in a traveller who had arrived from the Canary Islands.
On May 20, Australia reported its first suspected case, in a man who fell ill after returning from travel in Europe.
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True, but it’s a good habit in general. So, if we are so ready to ditch the simplest, less tiresome habit, I don’t dare to think how fast we ditch the more serious protective measures.
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Note: I didn’t say that washing hands is useless with regard to other diseases (like gasteroenteritis), I just said that it’s almost useless against covid. So yes, I agree that washing hands was a good habit that most people lost.
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I remember that 2020 was reported to have barely any case of gastroenteritis at all. Apparently, the measures we took against covid that year completely stopped the usual seasonal epidemic of gastroenteritis from happening…
…and then in 2021 it was business as usual. Gastroenteritis was back, apparently we had already stopped washing hands.
This is one of many examples where I was really surprised by how quickly things went “back to normal” after the first wave of covid, with apparently no lessons learned.
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monkeypox
cumulative number of cases:
United Kingdom
Portugal
Spain
United States
Belgium
Canada
Italy
Sweden
Australia
France
Germany
Netherlands
Israel
Switzerland
Austria
Argentina
Denmark
Czech Republic
Slovenia
United Arab Emirates
Morocco
(from Wikipedia version history, some African countries not included in the list)
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I have to say that monkeypox doesn’t worry me at all. It’s not transmitted that easily and it’s not really dangerous.
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Less than 10 000 covid deaths / week in the World
https://github.com/owid/covid-19-data/tree/master/public/data
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