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Comment by drclau | Hacker News Reader

There’s something off about Iran. According to Wikipedia [0], Spanish Flu killed a much higher percentage in Iran too, in comparison with the rest of the world:

“The World Health Organization estimates that 2–3% of those who were infected died (case-fatality ratio).

[...]

In Iran, the mortality was very high: according to an estimate, between 902,400 and 2,431,000, or 8% to 22% of the total population died.” — source, Wikipedia, see [0].

I wonder if it’s genetics (immune system reacts differently?), or cultural (habits - kissing on cheeks, handshaking, large religious or non-religious gatherings) or climate, or a mix.

References: [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu

Edit: admittedly, it’s too early to draw conclusions. It’ll take a few weeks to have more realistic numbers.

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It's hard to find up to date records filtered by country, but they might have higher count of the ACE2 enzyme which is thought to be an entry point for coronaviruses. Asian populations have much higher count than other populations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiotensin-converting_enzyme_...

Once the beds are all occupied it doesn't matter how many a country has.

Source for Asians having more? This disagrees: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/...

Would that mean Covid-19 would progress faster once inside the body? I assume that could mean an infected person’s immune system could be overwhelmed, hence resulting in a more severe case and even death.

I have a suspicion, and it sounds obvious when you state it, that there's a correlation between smoking and severity and both China and Iran are relatively heavy smokers.

For the first time since the revolution Friday prayers have been cancelled in Tehran. They are still on in Qom.

https://twitter.com/alihashem_tv/status/1233017138119659520

The Spanish Flu was a hundred years ago, I highly doubt that what happened then in Iran has much relations to what's happening now.

What's happening now has more to do with their theocratic regime that didn't take the threat seriously and doesn't care much about their people.

Wouldn't that require two unrelated explanations for higher viral-outbreak mortality rates? Isn't the explanation that doesn't require a coincidence more plausible?

> Wouldn't that require two unrelated explanations for higher viral-outbreak mortality rates?

That doesn't sound unreasonable at all when the two outbreaks are separated by a century. A lot has changed between 1920 and 2020.

> There’s something off about Iran.

Iran is a theocratic authoritarian regime under extreme international sanctions. Might have something to do with that. Iran also only has 0.2 hospital beds per 1k people.

It's in fact 1.5 beds per 1000 capita according to World Bank data.

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.BEDS.ZS

The CIA begs to differ.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...

A bit off topic but Iran is mostly only under American and Israeli sanctions at this point after Trump unilaterally pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal. The rest of the world can trade with Iran though many companies are still unwilling due to the American pressure.

Due to how interconnected European and American finance and business is this effectively means that Europe cannot trade to Iran.

The Europeans cannot enforce the JCPOA without either some kind of American cooperation or a major decoupling their financial systems from the US. I believe Macron has made public musing about the latter as an option, but then again Macron says a lot of things that lack pan-european support.

Specifically, the US imposes/threatens to impose secondary sanctions ie anyone who does business with Iran is also supposed to be subject to sanctions by the US, even if they are not US companies/US parent companies. So those companies can't then themselves do business with US companies or in the US.

Last I checked that still is international as it involves 2+ nations.. Not sure why you had drag Orange Man bad into this. You come off as a bit deranged.

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