Message for DG of Health : 1,228 New Cases and 221 Deaths Already

 I have received a couple of comments both of which are relevant to this post. Please see at the very bottom.

I have stopped looking closely at the numbers for a while. There were 1,228 cases yesterday with 7 new deaths in Malaysia.

Here are snapshots of some numbers worldwide :

Malaysia is now ranked 89th in the world in the total number of cases (25,742). We had 7 new deaths yesterday.  Our total deaths per million population stands at 7 as well. This number is still in single digits. Australia has 35 deaths per million population whereas Norway has 51 deaths per million population. 

The number of positives detected depends on the level of testing. The more people get tested the more certain the numbers of infected. An infected person does not necessarily get sick. But an infected person certainly spreads the virus.

Below here are the Top 10 countries afflicted by the corona virus. The USA is still leading with over 8.8 million cases and 230,000 deaths. India is at No. 2 with 7.8 million cases and 118,000 deaths.

The Americans have done 398,000 tests per million population while India has done 73,000 tests per million population. 

So the more tests you do per million population the higher should be the number of infected people detected.  Saying it twice, obviously the number of detected positive infections depends on the number of tests.

But the death rate fully captures the mortality from the virus especially the deaths per million population. The USA suffered 694 deaths per million population whereas India suffered 86 deaths per million. 

The other thing we must bear in mind is that these are "total figures" over the period of the Corona Virus. I believe (from the graphs) these figures were compiled beginning January 22nd 2020.  So that is NINE months ago.  

Politically and socially how do these countries react as a whole to the deaths caused by the Corona Virus? 

In the USA in the early stages there was a high concentration of cases in New York City (for example). TV stations were constantly streaming videos of the dead being taken out, rows of graves being dug, nurses and doctors collapsing under fatigue and hospitals being simply overwhelmed.

But the rest of the USA was not as badly hit at that time. The virus then spread and there were more places which saw a spike in cases and medical facilities being stressed.  The good news is that since early August the death rate in the USA has sort of leveled out, despite infections increasing.

The same applies for India.  Despite number of infections still rising the mortality rate has sort of stabilised.

From the graph above the mortality in India has peaked in mid September. 

There are many interpretations of these figures. Some experts even say that the pandemic is actually over. 

You may want to read this very contrarian view of what is actually going on by this scientist here :

https://hubpages.com/politics/Pfizer-Chief-Science-Officer-Second-Wave-Based-on-Fake-Data-of-False-Positives-for-New-Cases-Pandemic-is-Over. 

The thing that caught my interest is that Dr. Mike Yeadon, was a former Vice President and Chief Science Officer for Pfizer for 16 years !! He should know what he is saying.

Back to Malaysia here are our latest Daily New Cases on a graph :

From June 2020 our new cases were at single digit minimal levels. Until three months later from September 10 onwards a new spike has started (when the campaigning for the Sabah State elections also began.) 

And you can see a bigger spike after September 23, 2020 (the Sabah election was on Sept 26th 2020).  Without a doubt there is a correlation between the increasing cases in Sabah and the State elections.

If there were to be any general elections in the country at around this time, it is likely that we may see a spike in cases again (despite what that ex Pfizer scientist fellow says).

Unless we ban open air rallies and public speeches.  Unless we stick to the SOPs and do not allow more than 5 people to gather anywhere at any time. 

Can we have a general election without open air rallies and public speeches? Yes we can.  In the UK there are hardly any public rallies at all during general elections. I was in London around their general elections in December 2019. I was hoping to see some Malaysian style campaigning and public rallies. There were none. I saw just a very few tiny Labour Party placards  in front of some houses in Kew. People were already informed through the media, especially social media.  So there is no need to stand on a stage and make racist and ultra religious speeches.   

So will there be an "emergency" in the country? And if there is what form will it take? Right now it is all so much speculation. There could be red flags and disinformation along the way.

There are more important things to do. Its time for breakfast.  

UPDATED COMMENTS :

1. Message for DG of Health :

• Please be more responsible with your reporting. If you take out Sabah which has almost 900 cases, you only have almost 300 cases out of which almost 80 are from Selangor. 
• Your method of reporting is causing widespread panic and giving a reason for the government to impose Emergency. 
• KL has consistently fewer than 20 cases yet get lumped in with Selangor’s number. KL should not even be in the CMCO at all. You are killing the lifeblood of the economy!!! 
• You should start with 300 cases excluding Sabah. Then later say Sabah has almost 900 cases. 
• There are still many green zones in Msia but you make it sound like it’s out of control. What’s the basis for extending the CMCO when Selangor only has almost 80 cases ???? 
• Impose EMCO on active clusters instead of putting a blanket CMCO on the entire Klang Valley. An economic collapse is not inconceivable if the government keeps extending the CMCO on the most crucial states in Malaysia. 

2. Reader's comment : 

Your post today is spot on. I have always said the number of positives is just a reflection of the extent of our testing. The more we test the more we will find. More importantly how many are truly sick and truly died of covid. 

If a person has co-morbidities and gets a cold they die too. So death is very dependant on the methodology used in reporting. This issue of hospitals reporting cause of deaths has been debated in some circles. 

Over the past 10 yrs second highest cause of death in Malaysia are lung infections. 2nd to heart attacks. On average 50 deaths a day.

End updates.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.