So a few days ago I posted about Vietnam and the huge pitfalls of making grand predictions and proclamations. I also posted recently that masks are not as effective as is being reported and that there is a likely alternative explanation to the low rates of Wuhan cases in south and east Asian countries.
One of the known co-morbid factors for Wuhan is obesity. This is because fat has a high ACE-2 receptor that the virus uses to attach and enter cells. Secondly, obese people are usually inflamed, which is also a co-morbid factor. Also obese people have a far lower max aerobic capacity than fit people. So when the virus hits and they are sent home (to see what happens) their aerobic capacity becomes maxed out and their blood O2 capacity drops and they end up in the hospital and on a vent (with a 50% or less chance of recovery).
Which brings us to Vietnam. I was watching Ivor Cummings rebuttal video
And at time index 32:22 he shows the curves for Vietnam. You see that Vietnam has very low cases and deaths. Ivor points out something: The have low obesity. So I went and looked it up
Only 1 percent of Vietnamese adults are obese.
A study unveiled on Monday has found that more than one in 10 people worldwide are now obese and 2.2 billion are believed to be overweight, fueling a global health crisis that claims millions of lives every year.
The lowest rates of adult obesity were in Bangladesh and Vietnam, both at 1 percent.
Vietnam had a total of 8.1 million overweight or obese adults, of which 46 percent were male, according to the data collected by the study...
The rate of Vietnamese children aged 2 to 19 with obesity stood at 6.8 percent, while the figure was 28.5 percent in the U.S. and 25 percent in Australia.
Well isn't that interesting. So in terms of one of the leading factors in Wuhan case severity is 4X more prevalent in the US than in Vietnam.
A chart available on Wikipedia (!) we find Vietnam at the bottom of the list a 2%. Also we find South Korea, another country pointed to as "proof" that masks work down at 4.7%. The US is near the top at 36%
So just wanted to show that you have to look at many factors in why some populations do "worse" or "better" with this virus. And remember this isn't a competition. No one is "winning" or "losing" at fighting the virus.