Why did it take so long for COVID to spread in the developing world?

Lockdowns. Limited movement once the outbreak spread from Wuhan and people started taking it seriously.

Maybe your average kid in the developing world doesnt normally take school ski trips to Northern Italy?

It most likely spread ar a faster rate, but with limited testing and surveillance the reported case/death rates were well below what they were in reality by comparison to western countries

The vast majority of people who get COVID get no symptoms, and very few people die.

If the virus wasn't being pushed hard by the media, you'd barely know it exists.

So in poor countries where they have bad medical care, lack of reporting, and a lack of testing, it seemed like business as usual.

Are you fully vaccinated? If you are and also generally healthy, what is the big worry about the delta variant?

[quote]The Chinese province of Guangdong has faced a sudden uptick in Covid-19 cases. Authorities have moved to shut down districts and businesses to prevent the virus from spreading rapidly.

That’s causing massive shipping delays in major Chinese ports, and jacking up already-high shipping costs as waiting times at berth “skyrocketed,” according to analysts and those in the shipping industry. 

“The disruptions in Shenzhen and Guangzhou are absolutely massive. Alone, they would have an unprecedented supply chain impact,” said Brian Glick, founder and CEO at supply chain integration platform Chain.io, told CNBC.

However, combined with the challenges that the global supply chain has faced since this year, shipping is in “absolutely uncharted waters,” said Glick. [/quote]

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/15/china-covid-cases-causing-higher-shipping-costs-delayed-goods.html

Personally, I always assume China are lying outrageously whenever they make a statement about anything. This pre-dates Covid10 by several decades.

I would imagine mass testing is an issue. No tests, no Covid.

It was widely regarded that Covid was floating around Europe well before January-February last year but nobody was testing for it.

Less testing in some developing countries as Hillman pointed out no doubt contributes. Think obesity as you mentioned plays a huge part, particularly the diet that causes it. Changing, but most of the "developing" world does not eat anyway near the amount of processed crap that's considered normal in the so called developed world, so their immune systems not compromised nearly as much.

Think one other is, because of limited access to medical care, basic hygiene, soap and water, is much better then the "developed" world. (My teenage daughter's comment 16 months ago at the start of this, "What the F***, people need to be told to wash their hands?") Over the years, a conversation in various African bush bars. Our amazement at, how much work it must take, particularly for the woman, spotless long flowing robes almost touching the mud/dust, mud brick houses, often without running water maintain everything so immaculately clean.

Sure but from an individual point of view, if you are healthy and fully vaccinated your chances are very much reduced that you will catch the virus and secondly and more importantly that you will have a serious illness from it. It basically becomes like a cold or flu and that's if you catch it the chances of which, as you point out, are greatly reduced. Cases themselves in the environment should no longer be a rational worry.

So many of these countries don't have adequate health systems and certainly test and trace would not be high up on their list of priorities.

Thinking ....war,famine , poverty,not to mention lack of funding for public health measures and corruption in public office .

I don't think it is reliable to say that case numbers in this country are x , deaths are y when it is not relatable to measurement in countries in western Europe .

It was what the media didn't report on that concerned me most.

There are many ways to spin a narrative and one of the most artful is to cloak the context.

Census data for Italy at the outset of 2020 showed it to have a demographic context most unlike or own, or indeed most other countries. At that point in time 1 in every 4 of their citizens were over the age of 65. Yes, you read that correctly, 1 in every 4. Of course this profile didn't pop up overnight. However, at some stage there will be a tipping point. And what better tipping point than a heavy flu-like virus. When the camel's back breaks, what attention is due to that last piece of straw?

In New York City you have to understand the context that mass burials didn’t begin during 2020. The city has used a place called Hart Island as a public cemetery for over 150 years, burying unclaimed people and those whose loved ones can’t afford private burials (yeah Friends wasn't a documentary). The site is still designated for deceased people with no known next of kin. Despite the hazmat suits in the photos, not every body being buried was a Covid victim.

The UK field hospitals certainly got the headlines when they opened. After that? Limerick University converted their gym here. Was anybody put in there - I don't know - the Irish media never revisited the topic.

The western media's hyperfocus on Covid's impact in India was for me particularly odious in the wider context. Why not do a story instead on the 5000 kids under 5 that die down there every day? Bodies in the Ganges - already addressed by Wibbs. The true context of India is that it does not even make the top 100 of nations affected by Covid. You hear protests about 'not recorded' but why engage with that when anything outside outside official figures is not kosher when measuring things such as deaths from vaccines. Were doctors hiding deaths from their own government but emailing them directly to the WHO? Is it only a 'conspiracy theory' if it challenges your prior take? Can you cherry pick official figures? The media certainly does.

Yeah, without them I think I could indeed 'get on with my life grand'. So serves me right really.