
Bangladesh Govt. denies CORVID-19 spread, arresting those who disagree - dumbstein
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/31/bangladesh-end-wave-covid-19-rumor-arrests
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squarefoot

      1. "There is no such thing as Covid-19"
      2. "Covid-19 is foreign flu that won't affect any of us. Anyone spreading panic will be punished"
      3. "Covid-19 just got here, but it's just a flu. Anyone spreading panic will still be punished"
      4. "Covid-19 is a bad flu, be damned those foreign agents who brought it here. Still a flu, though"
      5. "Things are under control, don't panic and keep up with normal life"
      6. "Everyone stay home, let's close everything. Anyone breaking these rules will be punished"
      7. "People is still gathering; we're forced to turn off civil liberties in the name of security (blame again other countries to direct public anger to the outside)"
      8. Profit.
    

Looks like they're at point 2.

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dumbstein
People have been worried sick since the end of January, after infectious
disease experts briefed the health ministry. The ruling party prohibited
everyone to talk about it prior to March 17th. Because they thought if social
distancing would be in effect, no one will gather in their celebration that
has been in preparation for months. Yes! you heard that right. They they
censored all media/news platforms in the country, so more people would show up
in a birthday celebration.

There are only 300 ICU units (in the government hospitals which are permitted
to treat infectious diseases) in the country of 165.6 million, roughly 1 for
every 600k on a good day. alarming number of people are dying from pneumonia
of "unknown cause" everyday, while the government is insisting that there is
nothing going on in the country, against 900k phone calls to the helplines,
approximately 1100 CORVID19 tests were conducted in total. I am not sure how
this will lead to profit when people can't get treatment even with all the
money they have.

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newyankee
I mean they could've taken inspiration from India's 21 day lockdown. Indian PM
was very clear, despite the almost impossible nature of the task he clearly
mentioned in his first speech that 'Jaan hai to Jahaan hai' roughly translates
to you can only enjoy the world if you live first, so first save yourself.

Bangladesh is even more densely populated than India but hopefully the summer
heat reduces the spread. Although i do empathize with how difficult and nearly
impossible it is for them to make people stay inside. Also difficult to
convince religious people who feel it is a rumor or something else. Unless
someone they know dies.

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dumbstein
To summarize the article - Bangladesh government initially denied the
outbreak, now denying the seriousness of the spread; silencing (mostly
arrests) those who express concern over the government’s handling of the
epidemic.

Meanwhile, a leaked interagency United Nations memo on Bangladesh’s Country
Preparedness and Response Plan for COVID-19 estimates that up to two million
people could die from the disease in Bangladesh if immediate steps are not
taken to contain the spread of the virus.

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noodlesUK
Pretty sure crows don’t cause worldwide chaos. Anyone able to fix the typo in
the title?

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m0zg
Many people don't know this but Bangladesh is a rather large country by
population: 160 million people. 2x the size of Germany or France, with nowhere
near the level of medical infrastructure. If they don't get smart about this
very, very quickly, they're completely screwed.

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newyankee
Not only that it is an Islamic country which means thousands of people do
gather for Friday prayers at every mosque which adherents take seriously. Not
trying to criticize the practice just saying that it is not easy to stop
people from attending, this has been happening across India too.

The biggest super spreaders in India was an international religious gathering
of Tableeghi Jamaat which took place despite a ban.

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MR4D
Right now it seems like the entire world is competing for a Darwin Award.

Scary how common this approach is right now. I’m starting to lose faith in
humanity’s ability to evolve beyond the ape.

~~~
m0zg
Actually, no, not for a Darwin award, seeing that the vast majority of those
dying are well past reproductive age. Some other kind of award, I just don't
know which.

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kyuudou
Maybe they confused it with some crow pathogen

