Re: The CORONAVIRUS circus
Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2020 2:53 pm
Here is a strange piece of epidemiology: an official map of a Northeast Brazilian state capital (population somewhere near 3 million), dated 31 March 2020, showing areas reportedly affected ("confirmed cases") by the pandemic (yellow, orange and red color).

The affected neighborhoods happen to be the richest in town. This is where the population density is the lowest and people can actually indulge in the luxury of staying home. The rest of the metropolis, some of which with rampant poverty and high population density, seems to be doing fine (one suspects there is a lack of celebrities or of te$ting facilities in these areas). For example, Pirambu, a community west of downtown (along the coast, just north of 'Jacarecanga' on the map), which according to official statistics (IBGE) is "the 7th largest urban cluster in Brazil", and just over 10 km away from the high-income neighborhoods in red, is not even classified as "low concentration". And that´s in the middle of the rainy season.

A back street in Pirambu. Try "staying at home" in a place like this.
Added: If we presume the pattern of the map above merely shows the availability of te$ting and if we grant that the "Covid-19 flu" started spreading in Brazil in January (as the Ministry of Health now claims), a true map of contagion would show the entire city painted in red and we would be having many thousands of people from low-income communities agonizing or dead by now. Or so dictates common sense.

The affected neighborhoods happen to be the richest in town. This is where the population density is the lowest and people can actually indulge in the luxury of staying home. The rest of the metropolis, some of which with rampant poverty and high population density, seems to be doing fine (one suspects there is a lack of celebrities or of te$ting facilities in these areas). For example, Pirambu, a community west of downtown (along the coast, just north of 'Jacarecanga' on the map), which according to official statistics (IBGE) is "the 7th largest urban cluster in Brazil", and just over 10 km away from the high-income neighborhoods in red, is not even classified as "low concentration". And that´s in the middle of the rainy season.

A back street in Pirambu. Try "staying at home" in a place like this.
Added: If we presume the pattern of the map above merely shows the availability of te$ting and if we grant that the "Covid-19 flu" started spreading in Brazil in January (as the Ministry of Health now claims), a true map of contagion would show the entire city painted in red and we would be having many thousands of people from low-income communities agonizing or dead by now. Or so dictates common sense.







