Someone suggested this the other day. That ethnic Chinese are less likely to get Covid and less likely to die from it. At first I though, nah… not likely. Though we’ve had claims that Covid is worse for ethnic minorities in the west. So the disparate effect of Covid on disparate minorities is a live issue. Just not with Chinese, AFAIW. So I had a look at it.
I’m using Worldometer figures, which are taken from official government figures. This counts on those government figures being accurate, which we can’t really assume. But they’re the best we have.
Above is a screenshot of the latest figures, with what I’m calling “ChinaWorld” made up of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, in descending population order. Compared with the World, with Europe and the US.
The only relevant figures are per million population.
Looking just at deaths/million “ChinaWorld” has an average of only 3% of the deaths for the whole World and even smaller % compared with Europe and the US. Can we believe the ChinaWorld figures? I say yes to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. China’s figures I doubt. But: you’d have to multiply them by a hundred to be at World average by three hundred to approach US figures and there’s no way such figures could be hidden. Overall I’d say the figures are close to the actual. Next question: are ethnic Chinese are less susceptible to Covid? I don’t know and I don’t know that anyone is looking into that. My guess: maybe, but probably not.
Someone has asked: does China have a secret cure? That is unlikely. Again it would be hard to hide, no matter what western media thinks about China censorship. China has a lively social media and it could not hide any miracle cure. In any case what about the others in ChinaWorld? They would not amd could not hide a miracle cure. And note that Taiwan is doing even better than the mainland. Of there were a magic site and it had been shared with ChinaWorld, I highly doubt they would — or could — hide it.
My best guess as to why China has done so well is in the post I did a while back: how did China do so well fighting Covid? There’s a number of reasons, some good management, some measures only an authoritarian regime could take. Nothing magic.
