With the coronavirus pandemic raging – bringing illness, death, and unprecedented economic decline in its wake, the pressure is on scientists, doctors and statisticians to pick key patterns out of the flood of coronavirus-related data.
In fact, rewind a few weeks and you may recall that South Korea was once the worst-hit nation on earth besides Mainland China in terms of all things coronavirus-related. It still ranks as one of the most badly affected nations, with 8,413 infections at the time of writing.
But one statistic stands out. The country’s death toll is relatively small, with 75 fatalities (less than 1%). In the European countries, where the outbreak intensified later, the rate is already higher - 2% in France, 4.5% in Spain, 2.7% in the UK. (But it's 0.27% in Germany). In the USA, it stands at 1.8%, China - 4%.
Why is that?
It is a question that has observers all over the world scratching their heads.
Anyone know why the numbers out of South Korea are being ignored?
— JW Weatherman | YetiCold.com (@JWWeatherman_)
Could convincing citizens to wear face masks be playing a part?
Few people are mentioning that South Korean public authorities are also telling people to wear masks whenever in th… https://t.co/tTaxAnzcn6
— Peter Todd (@peterktodd)
One Italian junior doctor living in Napoli who asked not to be named told Cryptonews.com that she thought the reason why the fatality rate in Italy was so high, as opposed to South Korea, was due to the fact that Italy’s population is so old, whereas the virus had mostly infected younger South Koreans.
